Surfing is one of the most popular activities among people of all ages. Gaining expertise in the sport might be challenging for surfers, as it requires full-body strength and flexibility. Research shows doing yoga can improve your performance while surfing.
Yoga is an ancient practice that involves a mindful approach and beneficial movements. These factors can help you become a better surfer. You can appreciate a wide range of advantages by executing various yoga poses. These include enhanced endurance and increased flexibility.
Do you want to become a skillful surfer expertly playing with powerful ocean waves? Keep reading the article to know more. It will provide insight into why surfers should practice yoga daily.
Top 5 Reasons Why Yoga Is Good for Surfers
Surfing is an excellent sport for relieving stress, improving cardiovascular health, and strengthening muscles. You can reap all these benefits by surfing properly, and yoga can help you achieve this. It offers improved focus and lessens the risk of injuries. Let’s discuss the top five reasons why yoga is good for surfers:
1. Enhanced Endurance
The physical capability of sustaining an activity for a longer duration is called enhanced endurance. In surfing, you are required to fight against the crashing waves of water. To win the battle, you must paddle constantly and achieve a better position on the board. This is where you need physical endurance.
Yoga can assist you in increasing your endurance. It is one of the top five reasons why yoga is good for surfers. You can try several yoga poses that can augment your muscular power. This is because these practices require you to hold a particular position for an extended period.
You can perform poses like plank pose, boat pose, and four-limbed staff pose for this purpose. It is important to mention that these poses are challenging to execute by yourself. That is why people join hot yoga Dubai based studios to do these yoga poses effectively.
2. Increased Flexibility
In surfing, you have to cope with the changing size and shape of the waves. This dynamic nature of your immortal opponent makes flexibility the most important trait for you. You cannot expect to be a good surfer without being flexible. That is where yoga comes into play.
This ancient practice of healthful movements positively impacts your agility and pliability. Incorporating a variety of stretching poses into your routine will help you elongate and stretch your core muscles. A smooth transition between different yoga poses can significantly increase your flexibility.
Various practices like low lunges, intense side stretches, downward-facing dogs, and halfway splits are considered excellent in this regard. Learning to execute these poses properly will make your body more supple and adjustable for surfing.
3. Improved Focus
Identification and assessment of incoming waves are crucial in surfing. It can only be done with the utmost attention. For this reason, your focus has a significant role in making you a good surfer. Did you know that many established surfers do yoga to improve their focus?
One of the most common benefits of practicing yoga regularly is increased attention. Deep, mindful breathing techniques in yoga are excellent for bettering focus. Following your meditation regimen strictly can sharpen your mind and train it to stay present in the moment.
Yoga poses like balancing sticks, mountain poses, chair poses, and bee breath are perfect exercises for this purpose. This way, you will be able to gain preciseness and accurate timing, catching a wave at the right moment.
4. Mindfulness
Ocean conditions are usually unpredictable. You might have to tackle changing weather situations more often than not. This can result in increased stress and anxiety. To keep your mental health intact during such moments, you need to be mindful. It is a characteristic that only yoga can provide.
Offering mindfulness is one of the top five reasons why yoga is good for surfers. Here is a list of multiple yoga poses that assist you in gaining mindfulness:
· Cat-cow pose
· Bridge pose
· Seated forward bend
· Legs-up-the-wall pose
· Corpse pose
All the above practices involve movements that foster a sense of tranquility. If you are a beginner, it might be difficult for you to execute these yoga poses. There is a chance that you might end up injuring yourself. You can join yoga studios to learn the hot yoga and poses from experts.
5. Injury Prevention and Recovery
Although surfing is an enjoyable and healthy game, the risk of injury is still higher. This is due to many factors, including environmental hazards, unexpected collisions with surfboards, and underwater obstacles.
You might be amazed to know that yoga can help prevent injuries and increase your recovery process. All the aforementioned benefits of yoga for surfers can help you avoid injuries while you are surfing. For instance, with enhanced flexibility, you can move freely, decreasing the risk of muscle strains.
On the other hand, stress reduction and mindfulness enable you to obtain body awareness, which is important for avoiding dangerous positions. Muscle relaxation and increased blood flow resulting from yoga practices can speed up the recovery process.
Summing Up
In short, surfers can reap numerous advantages by doing yoga regularly. It is beneficial for improving flexibility, enhancing endurance, and promoting focus. Contacting a certified yoga trainer can help in this regard.
Read more: The Best Yoga Poses | HealthinPedia
