Training Tip the Benefits of Yoga for Athletes by Coach Lauren Jensen Both single sport as well as multi-sport athletes feel the crunch for time. Sometimes it gets hard to choose what gets to stay in the training program and what needs to be deleted for the sake of time efficiency. More often than not athletes skip strength training, dynamic flexibility, as well as other things that will help them better balanced, more injury resistant and ultimately better athletes in favor of additional aerobic type training. What is better? Recently many Tri Faster athletes have embraced Yoga. Through this, these athletes have experienced many gains including better flexibility and posture, improved balanced and more inner calmness to name a few things. Are you trying to determine whether or not Yoga is an activity that gets a worthy portion of your available time? Here is what two of our Tri Faster Coaches have to say regarding Yoga: Sheryl Leonard-Schneck is a Tri Faster Coach and this month's Athlete of the month in honor of all of her inspired racing. She praises yoga, “As endurance athletes we spend countless hours training-swimming, biking, running, but we often overlook the benefits of flexibility and stability/balance training. Yoga covers this missing link. Yoga can help reduce risk of injury by improving range of motion. Yoga also helps us work both the mind and the body at the same time. This kind of thoughtful training can help with your mental endurance. The yoga breath exercises help increase lung capacity and teach you how to calm your mind (which is very helpful pre-race). This type of training allows us to increase our endurance/skill levels in areas we often overlook without increasing the wear and tear on our bodies.” Correen Schuebel-Gorski is a personal trainer, an avid racer and a also Tri Faster Coach. She agreed, “Yoga makes us better athletes. Unlike many other forms of training, the practice of yoga unfolds over time to reveal many layers of physical benefits. Yoga can be used to improve athletic performance from increasing mental concentration and improving posture, flexibility and balance to preventing common injuries and honing skills in a particular sport. By simply integrating a few yoga poses each week athletes can use yoga as an effective cross-training tool to reach new levels of performance and appreciation for their sport. Yoga is amazing!” Still unsure? Then give yoga a try. We currently offer Tri Faster Yoga on Saturdays after Tri Faster Cycling. We hope to add more offerings in the future. Namaste.