Volleyball in my opinion is one of the best and most exciting sports! I grew up playing volleyball and always remember having a volleyball in my hand, I think I even took it to bed with me when I was little. My mom who played in college (and was a total beast) had a huge influence on my love for the sport. I fell in love with it at an early age and it was a big goal of mine to play in college, so I did everything volleyball from 5th grade to senior year of high school to try to make that dream come true.
I suffered from some injuries throughout but always kept pushing to continue to play until I couldn't play any longer. Insert yoga. I went to an orthopedic for my back and he suggested yoga, like all doctors do. I took him up on it and started practicing and soon found my second passion in life. The benefits of yoga allowed me to continue playing volleyball without pain, which I didn't think was possible.
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But let's go back to volleyball… While volleyball is an amazing sport and creates amazing relationships, it's very demanding on the body and mind. To become an amazing volleyball player, you have to practice every day. With practicing every day comes a lot of repetitive motion. Repetitive motion of any kind, for any sport, has a tendency to create injury, if proper rest and recovery measures are not in your training program.
Insert yoga, again. After practicing yoga for 4 years, I decided I needed to teach it. Not just teach it to anyone, but specifically teach it to athletes who play volleyball. Because yoga is a great recovery tool to have in your tool box and I wanted to put it in every volleyball players tool box.
Yoga is a series of stretches and movements that allow your body to gain flexibility, increase range of motion and calm your nervous system. The key benefit here is the ability to increase range of motion. Studies have shown that limitations in range of motion for athletes, hinders their potential to become the best they can be. Small steps like starting with a 20 minute yoga sequence once or twice a week, can show major benefits.
My favorite thing about yoga for athletes is that it allows our bodies to recover and give our bodies relief, so we can go back the next day to practice feeling great. If you incorporate small steps of adding yoga into your everyday life as an athlete, the benefits are extreme overtime.
Volleyball players suffer a lot from tight hamstrings, rounded shoulders (because well, that's our ready position) which causes a lack of mobility in our thoracic spine and low back pain. Front row hitters have a lot of shoulder issues from the repetitive motion of hitting and using torque and force with your body to hit a ball. All of the problems and issues that volleyball players face can be reduced with a proper yoga sequence. Hence, why I created these classes specifically for you!
Yoga is linking the body to the breath, so essentially, if you are just moving dynamically, stretching and breathing, you are practicing yoga. I created yoga for volleyball players to get very specific to our needs as volleyball athletes. I put my two big passions in life together and have created an outlet for athletes to move in other ways besides what their sport requires.
After volleyball ended for me, having a movement outlet that was very low impact was of utmost importance to me, because it was the only thing my body could handle at that time. Because of yoga, I have been able to get back into playing sand volleyball, HIIT workouts, pool workouts, and strength training. It is because of the breathwork in my yoga practice that I was able to overcome any hard times, surgeries, and stress.
I am so excited to invite you into my world of yoga for volleyball athletes and I encourage you to see what it can do for YOU! We will all have different experiences with this practice, but if it can calm you down once, give you any pain relief, or open your world up to a NEW way to move your body, I have done what God put me on this earth to do!
Please check it out for yourself and find classes on our online portal that are specific to your position. I'm here for you for the long haul. We are athletes for life, not just when we are playing our sport. Athletes for life.
Namaste, Y'all.
-Kalynn Evans, BS, NASM-CPT, ERYT200, FMSC, XPT
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