Yoga for swimmers (I)
January 11, 2021
Yoga is excellent cross-training for swimmers. A regular practice can increase mobility throughout the body, increase performance, and decrease the risk of injury. Incorporating backbends, twists, and poses to strengthen the core, are a great way to balan
Yoga is excellent cross-training for swimmers. A regular practice can increase mobility throughout the body, increase performance, and decrease the risk of injury. Incorporating backbends, twists, and poses to strengthen the core, are a great way to balance the body and counteract tightness.
Try this short 4 minute flow for a full-body yoga sequence designed especially for swimmers - of any experience level.
We begin this flow with a sun salutation to warm the body and coordinate our breath with our movements.
From there, we explore our hamstrings and hips, moving from downward facing dog into crescent lunge, warrior 3, and standing split. These poses help us lengthen our back body, while also strengthening our front body. You’ll feel energy in the legs and core, while you lengthen the spine.
We’ll come back to crescent lunge and then begin opening up our hips, beginning with warrior 2. From warrior 2, we’ll find reverse warrior, reverse triangle, extended side angle pose to continue to open up the hips and groin, and strengthen the lower body and core. We’ll add a simple twist, side plank, and dancer’s table (or flipped dog) to open up the front side of the body - including the chest, shoulders, abdomen, hip flexors, and quads. Finally, we’ll move to a 3-legged plank to continue strengthening the core, and finding coordination and cooperation in the body, and bring the knee into our chest before stepping it forward into a lizard lunge, before adding a twist and possible bind. Twisted lizard lunge helps open the hips, heart, and shoulders, and adding the bind allows more opening in the quadriceps and hip flexors.
We’ll perform a half sun salutation, and then add a vinyasa to transition to the next side where we’ll repeat the sequence starting in downward facing dog.
When we complete the second side, we’ll add a standing backbend to our half sun salutation to explore the space in the front body that we created throughout the practice- namely shoulders, chest, and abdomen. We complete the flow with a final vinyasa, ending in downward facing dog.