Yoga Swing Workouts for Athletes

Regardless of whether you are a CrossFit athlete, runner, boxer, swimmer, or any other type of sport that you participate in, you will need to incorporate full-body workouts into your routine, which can help to build endurance, strength and flexibility.

And this is where antigravity yoga workouts come in..

Yoga swing workouts for athletes provide a creative means of getting resistance and strength training while enhancing your range of motion as well as body balance.

Besides the physical benefits, yoga swing workouts for athletes also come with plenty of psychological and mental health benefits.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the benefits of yoga swing workouts for athletes.

We will also share some great tips for incorporating yoga swing workouts into your fitness routine, and walk you through some easy but effective yoga swing poses to get you started.

 

Benefits of Yoga Swing Workouts for Athletes

Without a doubt, adding yoga swing workouts to your fitness routine can help to enhance your sports performance considerably as well as your overall fitness.

Here are some of the key benefits of yoga swing workouts for athletes:

Improved Flexibility

Flexibility refers to the ability of a muscle or a joint to go through a pain-free and unhindered range of motion. And as much as humans have different levels of flexibility, we all need it to complete various day-to-day tasks while maintaining general wellness.

As an athlete, you will need to be more flexible than non-athletes are. Increased flexibility will help to enhance your aerobic fitness, endurance, muscle strength and overall performance. Besides, flexibility will also help to reduce the chances of getting an injury.

And, antigravity yoga swing poses can help to boost your flexibility as an athlete. Doing yoga swing workouts regularly can help to increase both your flexibility as well as your range of motion.

Also, yoga swing workouts for athletes can help to relieve muscle tension. And regardless of whether you are a golfer or a runner, the improved range of motion that you will get from regular aerial yoga workouts can help to boost your performance significantly.

Enhanced Endurance

Endurance refers to the physical capability to sustain a particular activity for an extended period. For athletes, this physical activity may be cycling, swimming, or running, among others.

And to succeed in their various sports, athletes have to have exceptionally high levels of endurance. High levels of endurance will help the athletes to stay longer in the game, regardless of how intensive it is. Also, high levels of endurance will help an athlete to outlast the competitor.

While there are various endurance-training exercises out there, aerial yoga remains one of the best. Intensive aerial yoga swing poses like the boat pose, the child pose, the camel pose and the bridge can all help to boost your endurance and stamina. As a result, you will be well equipped to preserver longer.

Prevent Injuries

Injuries are a common phenomenon in sports. And, the main causes of injuries for athletes are a lack of proper warm-up, poor training practices, lack of proper conditioning, as well as the application of more force than a particular body part can comfortably withstand.

Just as a regular yoga practice can help to prevent or reduce injuries caused by the above factors, so can aerial yoga poses, which entail stretching and strengthening all body parts. Hence, they will eliminate various issues such as the lack of proper warm-up and conditioning.

Also, yoga swing poses can help to improve your balance. As a result, you will be applying uniform force across different parts of the body, meaning no particular part will be forced to bear more weight than it can withstand. And this will again help to prevent or reduce injuries.

Furthermore, regular yoga swing workouts can help to preserve and restore flexibility, which is usually sacrificed by various strength-building workouts. By restoring the connective tissue and lengthening the muscles, the chances of suffering from injuries will reduce.

So, if you frequently find yourself sidelined from your sports due to recurring injuries and you’ve tried different treatment approaches without much success, then you should give yoga swing workouts a try.

They may end up making a considerable difference.

Faster Recovery

Besides helping to prevent injuries, yoga swing workouts for athletes can also help to promote faster recovery from injuries.

Regardless of whether you are the most talented, most prepared, strongest, or toughest athlete, you may end up suffering from an injury occasionally. Considering that you are constantly working your body so hard, getting an injury is almost inevitable.

And as an athlete, you want to recover from an injury as fast as possible. The faster you recover from injuries, the sooner you will be back to your sport. However, fast recovery has to go hand-in-hand with effective recovery. Effective and thorough recovery will ensure you don’t end up subjecting your body to more danger.

The good news is, that yoga swing workouts can help to promote faster and more effective recovery from injuries. Certain, low-impact yoga swing poses like the downward-facing dog, cobra pose, aerial butterfly pose and the tree pose will provide a gentle and effective means of recovery, for any athlete nursing an injury.

However, before you start doing these poses, you should make sure you consult a physician, who will assess your readiness for physical activity.

If the physician gives you the green light, you should then consult an aerial yoga trainer, who will create a routine that will help you to recover gradually from your injuries, without flaring them up.

Strengthen Underutilized Muscles

Some athletes have the tendency to only train the muscles they mainly rely on in their various sports. For instance, if you are a soccer player, you may fall into a routine of only strengthening your legs, chest and arms.

While there’s nothing wrong with strengthening these areas, neglecting the other muscles in the body like those in your back can lead to imbalance and weakness, leading to discomfort or even serious injuries.

However, antigravity yoga entails poses or exercises that focus on all parts of the body, including both the major and minor muscle groups.

By focusing on all muscles, you won’t have issues such as body mechanic problems or imbalance.

Enhanced Focus

Most athletes tend to focus more on physical strength.

But, if you are looking to take your performance to the next level, then you will need a certain degree of mental focus and fortitude. And having mental focus is a key aspect in almost all sports.

For instance, if you are a footballer who plays as a center-back, losing mental focus even for a minute may end up with the opponents scoring a goal, which may cost your team the game.

Hence, it’s important to find ways of refining your mental focus, if you want to be performing at the highest levels of sports.

Fortunately, aerial yoga can help with focus. If you find yourself struggling with focus frequently, incorporating yoga swing workouts into your routine can help.

Aerial yoga poses have been shown to have numerous cognitive benefits like mental clarity, improved concentration, focus as well as memory retention.

Reduced Stress

Regular athletic training sessions can place a considerable amount of stress on your body. And when you combine it with your daily stress, then you can see that your body will be dealing with a great deal of stress.

However, yoga swing workouts for athletes can help to alleviate the stress levels that your body is dealing with.

Since mindfulness and breathing are core aspects of aerial yoga practice, they will go a long way in helping you to feel better. Besides, mindfulness and focused breathing can help to reduce the production of the stress hormone, thus reducing negative thinking.

And with the reduced stress, you will find yourself more focused during training and the game itself. As a result, your performances will be top-notch. So, if stress is affecting your performance, then you should consider trying out some yoga swing poses.

Better Sleep

Regular aerial yoga practice can also help to improve your sleep. If you practice aerial yoga at least twice or thrice a week, these sessions will significantly improve your sleep quality.

And with the improved sleep quality, you will find it easier to fall asleep at the night, you won’t keep waking up in the middle of the night and you won’t lose sleep by waking up earlier than your preferred time.

By sleeping better, you will wake up with more energy and improved mental clarity, thus helping you to focus on the day ahead. Furthermore, our muscles tend to recover or rebuild whenever we are sleeping.

So, with the improved sleep quality, your muscles will recover faster. And this is good news for every athlete.

Stronger Core

The central muscles in your body form the foundation of your whole trunk. When performing strenuous exercises, these muscles will help to protect your lower back, thus reducing the instance of an injury.

And, a regular aerial yoga practice can help to build all your body’s core muscles. For instance, poses like aerial planks and aerial lunges require high levels of balance, to hold them.

Doing these exercises regularly will help to build all three layers of your core muscles. And when you have a strong core, you will not experience fatigue prematurely.

So, if you are an athlete or a swimmer, you will find yourself outlasting your competitors, who may have a weaker core.

 

How to Incorporate Aerial Yoga into Your Routine

As an athlete, you stand to benefit in numerous ways by doing aerial yoga swing workouts for athletes. So, how can you incorporate aerial yoga into your routine?

Well, there are numerous ways to go about it. They include:

Pre-workout Warm-up

Doing yoga swing poses as part of your warm-up will help to prepare yourself physically and mentally. This warm-up session will re-align your entire body, enhance your mental focus, and boost your clarity.

Also, it will help to increase blood flow to all your muscles, joints and key organs, thus preparing them for the workout ahead.

Furthermore, these poses will provide dynamic stretching. And, dynamic stretching will increase your range of motion. So, when it’s time for the actual workout session, the chances of suffering an injury will be reduced.

A short 10-minute to 15-minute pre-workout warm-up session should be enough to get the job done.

But regardless of the amount of time that you decide to dedicate to this warm-up session, make sure you start slow and end with dynamic flow. And from there, you will be ready for your workout session.

Post-workout Recovery

You can also use yoga swing workouts as part of your post-training or post-workout recovery routine. Adding yoga swing poses will help your muscles to cool down, thus promoting faster recovery. Furthermore, these yoga swing poses can also help your muscles to recover faster following the strenuous fitness session.

Also, adding yoga swing poses to your post-workout recovery routine can help to alleviate stiffness in some of your muscles, especially after doing repetitive exercises. And this will in turn help to lower the risk of injuries.

A 15-minute to 20-minute post-training aerial yoga session is just what your body needs to recover after the training session. And from there, you will be able to tackle the next task on your to-do list.

 

The Best Aerial Yoga Poses for Athletes

By now, you already have a clear idea of how yoga swing workouts for athletes can be of great benefit.

You also have tips on how you can incorporate aerial yoga swing workouts into your fitness routine. And at this point, you are now ready to give aerial yoga a shot. To this end, you can join a local aerial yoga studio to master some basics.

But, if your schedule doesn’t allow it, you can opt to set up an at-home aerial yoga studio. After setting up your home studio, you can then start with some aerial yoga poses for beginners.

Some easy yoga stretches for beginners include the downward-facing dog, mountain pose, warrior poses, aerial planks, triangle pose, tree pose, the inverted pigeon pose, inverted bow pose, cobra pose, and air crunches, just to name a few.

 

Wrapping It Up

Yoga swing workouts for athletes offer a wealth of amazing benefits for all types of sports people, regardless of their experience or activities.

And, it’s worth giving it a try, if you are looking to enhance your coordination, range of motion, flexibility, coordination and mobility – all of which will enhance your performance while reducing the risk of injury.

But, if you are new to this practice, it will be advisable to start slow and then up the ante gradually.