Subbing the above captioned yoga class next week. I am not an intense and far from being a professional athlete (and certainly not married to one like Lydia is) but more I would call a “former” athlete who dabbled – Unfortunate for yoga, not a former gymnast or a dancer but does varsity level volleyball competing from years ago count in any way? Today, I would not identify myself with any one sport – but I know there are many runners, tennis players, bikers out there. So of course doing my homework just to be sure I meet the needs and expectations… even though I’ve subbed this class before to a very receptive and positive feedback – thanks to the regular teacher who must attract the curious and the open minded “athletes” turning to yoga – I wanted to make sure my ideas fit the aim of the class.
That desire to understand this particular population’s unique needs, led me to me to discovering an online site …I normally do not care for online yoga as yoga class in flesh is so much more energetically beneficial, but … for studying classes you are still relatively new at teaching, it’s very informative. We can’t always go see the teachers’ teacher for a specific style, this may be the next best thing… for those into studying – Then you try the sequence daily yourself to more or less get a feel for it; then modify, add and mix the blueprint – sprinkle more of your own spice to make it more what you would want…
Yoga Anytime – because some of the teachers led me to this site and what do you know? There is this excellent series on yoga for athletes. Now I am in LOVE with
Lydia Zamorano. She is wonderful ! I really love the fact that she is so authentic and especially love her voice. She has this very sweet “natural” sisterly voice – sometimes, yoga teachers have a voice that’s just trying to sound too authoritative, too bossy, or too fakey, hypnotic – but here, she has a bit of little girl’s voice that sounds disarming but very instructional. Her voice is … lovely and she is so beautiful – a nature girl who can survive in the wilderness for sure.
I will be incorporating her tips along with my own ideas. I am glad I tried Lydia’s sequence as she is one who has done the research already so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Based on her research, she discovered:
(Athletes) wanted a little bit more restorative stuff. They are really active all the time and looking for recuperative, restorative kind of mobilization work, a little bit of stabilization work great for after the sports.
Thank you Lydia Zamorano – You have really done your research and I learned a lot about what their needs are – they are not coming to yoga to replace their sports with. They are coming to yoga for almost physical therapy or sports medicine – like hope for injury prevention and performance enhancements. I was misguided to think they were looking for very strong intense, heated power yoga kind of practice – actually, it’s probably the exact opposite that they seek. If in training and to prep – strengthening and stretching; if after the sport, recuperative, restorative. That sounds about right:)
Here’s a Patagonia commercial that features Lydia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHj81NjA_7w
“For the past 5 years (before yoga) I’ve been kind of in pain. I was a non-believer of yoga. The whole concept of paying someone for fancy stretching and have people tell you how to breathe and feel is kind of funny.” – Brittany, the rock climber
hahaha.
Then Brittany goes on to say –
“But the structure of it all has helped me ...a lot.”
These women are amazing athletes … such tenacity; such drive … in awe. But, it can take a toll on one’s body so … be a yoga believer:)
