The Importance of Yoga in Helping Footballers Stay Injury Free

The Importance of Yoga in Helping Footballers Stay Injury Free
The Importance of Yoga in Helping Footballers Stay Injury Free

As a Personal Trainer and Fitness enthusiast I am always delighted to share relevant, informative and beneficial health and fitness information and articles. This great article on Yoga and how it can help footballers (and thus any athlete, sportsperson and individual) to stay injury free has been provided by Joseph Knowles.

 

The Importance of Yoga in Helping Footballers Stay Injury Free

It is fair to say that yoga is not popular among many footballers. It has the reputation of being a lesser exercise compared to cardio or lifting weights and has several negative stereotypes attached to it. In recent years the importance of yoga in helping people stay injury free and playing sport for longer is finally receiving the recognition it deserves. In this article we will look at the benefits of yoga and two professional footballers who have successfully used it to lengthen their respective careers.

While yoga has a meditative aspect to it (which can be hugely beneficial for overcoming stress) most athletes concentrate on the injury prevention quality. The most common injuries in football are overuse injuries around the joints. Exercise and sport site Competitor.com lists the ways that yoga helps prevents injury as increasing strength, flexibility, agility, balance and acuity.

Yoga expert YuMee Chung from Toronto told Competitor.com: “holding a pose for more than 72 seconds has an amazing ability to restore and rebuild connective tissue and the skeleton as well.” Recovery in football is very important as a competitive footballer player needs to be ready for the next game as quickly as possible and remain injury free. Due to the intensity of the game it is no surprise that most footballers retire in their early thirties.

However, this trend is changing and two footballers that are leading the way are former Manchester United and Wales star Ryan Giggs and former Everton player Tim Cahill. Both players have spoken about the importance of yoga in extending their careers. Giggs spoke to the Manchester Evening News about Yoga. "You can feel the benefits straight way. My body feels so much better having done yoga.” Practicing yoga was a key factor in Giggs retiring at the age of forty after twenty-three years of playing Premier League football with Manchester United.

Tim Cahill has also spoken about how he incorporated yoga into his training. He told Sportluxe that he started practicing yoga and Pilates during his last two years at Everton to improve his body maintenance. Michael Lintorn a seasoned writer for Betfair Football  a site that specialises in covering the Champions League among other tournaments, stated that Cahill left Everton at the age of thirty-two after eight years at the club. For many footballers this would have been the end of their career but Cahill is still playing to this day at both domestic and international level in Australia due to dedicating part of his training to yoga.

To be the best at any sport athletes must go beyond their routine training regimes. Both Giggs and Cahill show that by having the discipline to push themselves harder in their preparation they were able to go further in their careers. Many people who play sport only look at the short-term benefits rather than how they should work to continuing exercising or playing sport when their fellow athletes have stopped. Hopefully this article has shown the importance of viewing yoga in a different light, not as an exercise that you don’t want to do, but an exercise that you must do.

"Matt has been really accommodating as I bring my baby with me each week, so he incorporates exercises using my pram. My little one loves being out and Matt is great with him! I can't recommend Matt highly enough to mums who want to get their fitness back."