Yoga: Recommended For Snowboarding
Monday, November 13th, 2006
Well, I’m no expert. In fact, I’m just about as novice as one can be without being entirely clueless. I just completed (less than 30 minutes ago) my first Yoga class. While it was mostly what I expected, I was still surprised. Some of the positions really challenged me - to the extent that I failed to complete everything the teacher took us through… and it was a light routine.
However, it wasn’t so much the strength stuff that made me think this fit well for snowboarding. It was a combination of the stretching (pretty obvious) and the balance (perhaps a little less obvious). I sorta found myself looking at myself in the mirror while balanced on one foot and my arms raised up above my head thinking, “this is probably going to be really helpful.” When we were leaning way over to one side and the teacher was saying “you’re between two walls of glass,” it was easy to imagine myself trying to keep a nice flat stance while strapped to a board.
I’ve actually heard other snowboarders talking about the benefits of Yoga and even had a friend who’d stay behind in the mornings to do some stretches while the rest of us would hurry off to the lifts. However, now that I’ve tried it first hand, I can recommend it. I’ll also likely continue to do it.
