Jocks Do Yoga

by: AndreaDow
Total views: 416
Word Count: 284

Sunday, May 18th

Who says the high school football hero can't do downward dog and get the most touchdowns during the playing season? How about receiving the 2007 Offensive Athlete of the Year award and also being the most flexible guy around? Well, if you attend Novato High School in Marin County, California, you know what I am talking about. A local yoga instructor was hired for the 2007 football season to help this top-ranked football team see that a little stretching could improve their game as much as weight lifting and calisthenics.

Yoga Journal's Jaimal Yogis writes that the guys all thought the yoga classes were a joke at first. I love that they coined their own phrases for poses- my favorite was the Chaturanga "chimichanga". I also like that the ending pose, or Savasana, became known as the "California Pose". The yoga instructor realized that she needed to challenge the guys to keep their attention and admits that her style of teaching had to become more like drill-sergent yoga. While players admit to not being "in to it" in the beginning, they realized that doing yoga made them more flexible and faster.

The football team's record definitely supports the benefits of yoga. Despite the team's young players, their varsity squad came in second in state this past season. The yoga instructor hired at Novato hopes that this catches on across the country. How great to have the most popular kids in school talking about they are into doing yoga and wanting to stay as healthy as possible. Novato's rival school heard about the yoga classes and wants to have classes for their team, too. A little Ommm goes a long way!

Rating: 5.00