| When you consider yoga, at first you might think that it | | | | martial arts. |
| is the polar opposite of the martial arts. With all the | | | | Then comes the ability to remain calm. In the martial |
| peaceful breathing and slow movement into calming | | | | arts, and especially in competition, the ability to remain |
| stretches. The postures and meditative quality of yoga | | | | calm will have a dramatic impact on your ability to |
| is peaceful and relaxing but when you examine further | | | | perform when things aren't going your way. You'll need |
| the benefits that yoga imparts on it's practitioners you | | | | to keep your wits about you and the benefit of |
| quickly come to realize those benefits are perfect for | | | | controlling your stress level and remaining calm will |
| martial artists of many styles. | | | | definitely come in handy. |
| Those benefits include increased flexibility, improved | | | | Lastly is breath control. This is probably one of the |
| focus, the ability to stay calm and breath control, all | | | | best benefits that you can gain that will dramatically |
| very important and extremely beneficial to martial | | | | improve your endurance and ability to maximize your |
| artists. | | | | use of oxygen so that you don't gas out by holding |
| Let's take a look at those benefits one by one. | | | | your breath. Something that commonly occurs when |
| Increased flexibility seems like a no brainer but what | | | | you are stressed and lose focus during practice but |
| many people don't realize is that with increased | | | | even more so during competition. The importance of |
| flexibility there are no only performance benefits but | | | | maintaining breath control and being aware of your |
| also a reduced chance of injury. By developing and | | | | breath so you don't inadvertently hold your breath |
| remaining flexible you greatly reduce the chance of | | | | which tires you out a lot faster. |
| pulled muscles, sprains, injuries to ligaments, joints and | | | | Naturally there are some martial arts like Brazilian |
| tendons. Not to mention that light stretching also helps | | | | jiujitsu and Judo whose practitioners will gain the most |
| with recovery from training stress. | | | | out of practicing Yoga as well. The postural training |
| Next is improved focus, by quietly focusing on | | | | and breath control will lend itself very well to these |
| stretching and proper postural alignment you increase | | | | arts. But there are many other styles that will still |
| both your level of concentration as well as your | | | | benefit greatly as well. Even combat sports like MMA |
| awareness of proper posture. Both crucial | | | | and Muay Thai stand to gain from this practice. |
| components to performing at a higher level in the | | | | |