Skateboard Fitness & Yoga

Sports Yoga has been around in professional sports for over a decade. It is really helpful for keeping your muscles moving well, improving balance and focus and generally making you feel good mentally and physically. Sports Yoga differs from classical Yoga slightly because it is tailored for those who are not very flexible, it also brings in a lot of stability exercises from Pilates and where possible functional exercises that are specific to the sport. To get an idea of how helpful Sports Yoga can be, you only need to look as far as Ryan Giggs who claims Yoga helped him get 10 years out of his professional football career.

The knocks your body takes when you skate might not leave you with anything you consider to be an injury, but over stretching on a dodgy landing, taking a slam or even just landing heavy can leave the muscles damaged. Over time this muscle damage can lead to restricted movement, preventing you from skating as well and making you more likely to injure yourself because the muscles can no longer stretch as well. Sports Yoga includes a lot of gentle gliding movements and slow breathing, which encourages the muscles to relax and heal without restricting movement - ideal after a heavy skate session to help prevent you feeling tight and stiff the next day. Sports Yoga also helps you develop an awareness of your body position and focuses the mind, which can both help for avoiding injury and hitting peak performance.

About Wil
Wil is a skater and snowboarder who took up Yoga in his late 20s when he was in constant pain after years of slamming. After a few years of practising and teaching Yoga Wil started to question the purpose of some of the more exotic Yoga positions and sought some answers from science. Wil began training in Sports Yoga with Sarah Ramsden, because Sarah’s system is based on science - he has since gone on to teach the next generation of Sports Yoga instructors with Sarah and worked with professional footballers, skateboarders and Olympic snow sports athletes. Wil set up the Fitness & Yoga studio at Graystone Action Sports and has been teaching 121 and small group sessions ever since on Tuesday & Thursday evenings. The impact of Sports Yoga on skaters has been great to see, a 121 client recently said “I had a session with Wil after I injured my back skating, I was back skating again within two days and feeling strong”.

Website: openmindedfitnessgroup.co.uk