Yoga is the best & ancient way of healing all physical and mental ailments. Regular practice of yoga poses results, greater flexibility, strengthens muscles, improves body awareness, and many other physical benefits. There is a well-defined relation between yoga and swimming as yoga improves the swimming capacity of a swimmer.
Relation Between Yoga and Swimming
Yoga and swimming both are interlinked terms as both generally have the same qualities that enhance the overall well-being of people. Both terms need due patience and discipline. Swimming needs an extreme focus on what is breathing, balancing, and flexibility. All the essentials of swimming can be attained by the regular practice of yoga. Various poses of yoga involve backbend and get your spine engaged that is essential for proper swimming. In short, Yoga plays an important role to be a good swimmer.
Why Yoga is Good for Swimmer?
Yoga is highly recommended to swimmers as it makes you aware of your body. The regular practice of Yoga enhances the flexibility and strength and helps in reducing the stiffness of the neck, shoulders, and back. The most important feature of yoga is that it focuses on stretching which plays an important role to avoid swimming-related injuries. It develops your core stability, improves your poses, and make you able to float well. It also teaches you about how to control your breath underwater and how to use your breath to control the heart rate while floating. Yoga is no doubt improves your swimming skills.
Best Yoga Poses for Swimmer:
Yoga and swimming are basically two complementary forms of workouts. There is only one sole difference between these two powerful workout regimens, i.e. yoga is performed on land and swimming is in water. Let us have a look at various yoga poses for a swimmer:
1) Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog) :
This pose is also called a Downward Facing Dog Pose. This asana allows the movement of blood to the brain and improves your balancing ability. To perform this asana, you need to focus on your breathing pattern so it will also increase your concentration power. Regular practice of this pose improves your swimming performance.
2) Bhujangasana:
This asana is well-known as a Cobra Pose that helps in keeping you calm. This asana offers several physical benefits and considered an ideal way to awaken your kundalini. Regular practice of this pose makes you away from various diseases.
3) Salabhasana:
This pose, commonly called Locust pose provides relief in back pain or sciatica. With the regular practice of this pose, you can strengthen your back and improve breathing capacity as well as attains greater flexibility. This pose stretches your shoulders, chest, belly, and thigh.
4) Gomukhasana:
This is one of the important asana, called Cow Face Pose that a swimmer must perform regularly. It improves and strengthens your back muscle as well as the spinal cord. This is an ideal pose to tone your biceps and triceps.
5) Vajrasana (Diamond Pose) :
This pose was well known as a diamond pose. It keeps mind calm, provides strength to your knee and provides relaxation against pain. Vajrasana helps to relieve back pain and remove obesity. Keep doing this exercise and reduce unwanted cramps.
6) Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) :
Trikonasana is known as the Triangle pose. This pose is very helpful to stretches important body parts like hips, back muscles, chest, and shoulders. It keeps the shoulder in the right posture and gives relief from stiffness in the neck, shoulders & knees. There are 3 types of Trikonasana: Utthita Trikonasana, BaddhaTrikonasana, Parivrtta Trikonasana.
7) Dhanurasana (Bow Pose) :
Dhanurasana is one of the best asanas for increasing spinal flexibility. This asana is helpful for giving proper alignment to the chest and make your lungs, leg muscles, upper thighs, reduce the overweight problem. It also gives relief from stiffness in the body.
8) Savasana (Corpse Pose):
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When you are engaged in any kind of sports, concentration is the important part. Thus, this pose improves your concentration and keep you away from stress. Savasana stimulates blood circulation in the body and develops mental strength.
9) Baddha Konasana (Butterfly Pose):
Baddha konasana open up stuck hips, soothes blood flow to the lower parts of the body. It removes stiffness from the hips and improves the flexibility of the hips. This butterfly pose develops a better digestion system in the body. It strengthens inner thighs and knees.
10) Virasana (Hero Pose):
This hero poses to give relief to your tired legs and relaxes the legs. It improves body posture and removes stiffness from thighs, knees, ankles, and feet. Apart from this, It improves the digestion system in the body and soothes blood circulation in legs.
These are some essential swimming yoga Poses that a swimmer must perform regularly to be a good swimmer. Other essential poses include Setu Bandha Sarvangasana or Bridge Pose, Balasana or Child Pose, and so on.
Benefits of Yoga for Swimmer:
Yoga exercises help in several ways to Swimmers in improving their performance:
1) Increases Mobility:
Swimmers generally use yoga to become more flexible and to increase their mobility. It increases the range of motion and extends its muscle tissue.
2) Boost Strength:
Yoga can also be used to develop the strength in a wider way as it involves various dynamic as well as static poses that enhance upper and lower body strengths. Various yoga programs are designed to provide some specific movements essential for swimming.
3) Develop Body Awareness:
Yoga helps you to achieve body awareness that brings specific attention to how the body feels at certain points during the practice.
4) Easy Movement:
Yoga helps you to attain the effortless movement of your body. In many yoga practices, you would learn about how to move with ease as it teaches the proper use of breath. Learning the use of breath in a certain way helps you to perform every activity with ease.
5) Enhance Recovery:
With the regular practice of yoga, your body will become more flexible which is essential for swimmers. Several times, swimmers feel difficulty due to limited mobility and by performing yoga regularly, swimmers can get rid of body stiffness and attain higher flexibility.
6) Prevention from Injury:
Yoga enables you to prevent yourself from various injuries. Yoga develops mobility, body awareness, strength, ease of movement and recovery that all ultimately aimed at injury prevention.
Yoga and swimming both complement each other as both provide greater relaxation, deepen the breath and improve overall well-being. With the regular yoga practices, your muscles become stronger and it also increases your body stamina. Really Yoga offers great benefits to the swimmers in improving their performance. Yoga and swimming both help to attain a blissful and self-forgetful connection of the body through concentration.
