7 Reasons Your Swim Team Should Be Doing Yoga
Before drying off with a custom team towel, even the most skilled swimmers need training. Diligent upper body training improves the power in each stroke, stronger legs allow you to kick better, and chest/back muscles help you to create momentum. Diversified training helps swimmers to achieve success in each of these categories, and develop a strong technique. Yoga is a great way for swimmers to improve their bodies in a number of ways. In this post, we’ll detail why your swim team should start doing yoga as part of a standard workout routine.
1. Improved Mobility
As with other sports, increased mobility allows people to push the boundaries of their own abilities. Improving mobility allows swimmers to move their arms and legs more gracefully–and deliberately. Heightened mobility improves overall technique without sacrificing stability.
Improving overall mobility allows swimmers to increase their range of motion, while also strengthening the joints.
2. Core Strength
3. Develop a Heightened Sense of Awareness
4. Ease of Movement
For ultimate technique, swimmers must develop their own sense of grace. Among other things, this requires a mastery of proper breathing methods.
The relaxed state that one enters when performing yoga can aid in this mastery of breathing. Developing an internal understanding of how to breathe while engaging in complex movements will help swimmers to hone their craft, aiding both performance and confidence.
5 .Recovery
Whether the arm, shoulder or leg muscles have become tense, yoga can play an integral part in the healing process. Focusing on a particular style of yoga or body part will go a long way in restoring these muscles to their former state. Some choose to use props to support the body while in different poses, which augments the body’s ability to enter and retain these poses.
For swimmers, this is one of the best motivators– aside from custom team towels, of course.
6. Preventing Injuries
In addition to healing existing injuries, yoga can also aid in preventing future injuries. It strengthens the connective tissues, which creates a layer of resistance against future injuries.
Swim coaches with an in-depth understanding of their swimmer’s individual bodies can craft yoga routines tailored to their athletes’ bodies. For example, if one swimmer has a shoulder injury, then coaches should take this into account.
7. Mental Preparation
With a positive mental outlook and custom team towels by their side, your swim team will be fully equipped to triumph in any summer activity.