Yoga and Tennis-Release Your Full Potential

Yoga and Tennis- Release Your Full Potential
By: Deb Bobier, Registered and Certified Yoga Instructor
500 Hour Level (the highest available) & Founder of
YogaBound.com & SarongBoutique.com

In addition to soft ball, track and running, I played tennis competitively for more than 20 years. Being good at the game meant practice and this was something I always looked forward to. Staying in top condition was a daily commitment as I wanted to continue growing, and excelling at my game.

In the late 90’s, due to knee issues, I had to give up tennis and running. After years of being so physically active it was difficult to adjust to a less active lifestyle. Walking and bicycling were fine, but didn’t come close to what I was accustomed to physically. But the emotional challenge was one I had never experienced before. In 2001 I found Yoga and it has been the most amazing thing I had ever done in my life. The physical benefits are extraordinary, but it was the mental benefits that I am most grateful for.

And this is where Yoga helps your game the most, offering up a competitive edge beyond the physical. We have all lost a match to someone not at our level, and won against others that were better than us. Tennis, like life, is a head game, too. Being able to stay in the game moment to moment with focused concentration, oblivious to intimidation and other distractions is tough. And this takes continued effort, just like the routine we have for getting ourselves in physical shape.

Yoga enhances everything you do in life, on and off the court. And each day more people from all walks of life and for various reasons are turning to Yoga. I never would have believed it, but Yoga alone is an ideal form of exercise. Unlike other forms of fitness, Yoga offers the full range of fitness benefits, developing strength, stamina, flexibility, and vitality. The gentle stretching action involved in each yoga posture promotes a gradual, safe increase in the flexibility of the whole body. Yoga boosts vitality, and enables recovery. Yoga has the ability to rejuvenate.

Yoga affects the mind as much as the body. It improves concentration, increases alertness, precipitates perceptual and rational clarity, cultivates calmness, develops equanimity, instills confidence, and nourishes contentment. However, these benefits all depend on presence of mind during practice. It is essential that you approach your practice with sensitivity, and awareness. If done absentmindedly, or violently, it can reinforce this process further.

Yoga Benefitsnn-Yoga purifies, and cleanses every muscle, joint, organ, all parts of the body. The skin, and eyes are the exte
al reflections of this internal good health.
-Yoga develops muscular strength, and cardiovascular fitness.
-Yoga produces an alert, relaxed, and tranquil state of being.
-Yoga restores the body-mind to its fundamental state of well-being, ease, and vibrant alertness.
-Yoga can create a sculpted body, perfect mind control, and perfect peace with one's own Self, the world, nature and everything around us.
-Yoga is wonderfully nourishing, working beyond the superficial, to the deepest core of our being.
-Yoga has rejuvenative properties that many are claiming cure everything from diabetes to cancer. While these may seem like wild claims, there's no denying the benefits.
-Yoga reconnects you with your own Power.
-Yoga will enable you to discover the sacred link that ties body with mind, mind with soul, inner world with the outer world, and material achievement with spiritual aspiration.

How Yoga Works

Most of us have restrictive patterns of habituated tension. These inhibitors are the result of past experience. Intrusive, threatening experiences evoke resistance. Generally we react to these intrusions by tightening, and hardening our bodies, and minds. It is our way of making the intrusion less painful. Though a protective mechanism, this is not healthy in the long run.

Unfortunately, the effect of the tightening, and resistance solidifies muscles, and other cells around the energetic impetus of the intrusion. This solidification buries the energy of the intrusion, and we do not have to face its pain. But it remains inside us: locked in immobile muscle fibers, blocked veins, and capillaries, dammed nerve pathways, and dormant synapses. Our unprocessed past remains imposed upon the present. Where it serves only to restrict us, and limit our lives.

Yoga is a practical tool for untapping our hidden, and latent potential. It uses the five techniques of asana, vinyasa, bandha, pranayama, and drushti to bring about a state of profound relaxation. This relaxed state is one of vibrant and alert harmony, in which all of the different aspects of our being are integrated, and accessible. It emerges once we are completely free from any residual tension.

It becomes apparent as soon as we begin the process of releasing the residual tension we carry within us. Most of this tension is so deeply embedded that we are often unaware of its existence even though it hinders us. Generally it is because we never were, or cannot remember being without it. Hatha Yoga is more than simply relieving us from tensions that disturb us. It can release us completely from all patterns of holding, and stagnation down to the deepest, unconscious levels of our being.

To release even one of these patterns takes time, and constant, consistent repetition. Repetition of the actions of the Asana, including asana, vinyasa, bandha, pranayama, and drushti, over, and over and over again, as it takes time to replace old habits with new. If there is discontinuity in this repetition the old pattern will reassert itself. Consistent means to activate the Asana always in the same manner, involving the correct, judicious use of asana, vinyasa, bandha, pranayama, and drushti.

As tension begins to leave us, we have an epiphany. Something of great magnitude is revealed. This is that the body and mind cannot be functionally separated. What we find is that each area of physical resistance, (tension, stagnation, dullness, hardness, weakness, irritation) embodies an emotional pattern. When the habituated, physical pattern begins to be released, the emotional pattern begins to emerge. This means that Asana can, and inevitably will, bring about an emotional release.

Many styles of yoga promote 'Active' poses. Through the continuity of action, or vinyasa, cardiovascular stamina is developed. Through contraction of the muscles while holding the postures, muscular stamina is developed. Yoga is not intentionally aerobic, but at certain points can increase the heart rate until greater fitness is developed.

Yoga goes beyond muscular strength. Working deeper in the poses results in the development of muscular stamina. Muscles will lengthen, as opposed to contracting with a deep strength becoming apparent. Hatha Yoga demands muscle use which in turn increases the efficiency of the muscle fibers. The body becomes toned instead of becoming larger.

Some of the postures are quite challenging which requires focused attention in order to avoid injury, and to also feel what is going on in your own body. Working in each practice with where you are at that moment, when you are finished you will notice a feeling of deep but alert relaxation. However, if you have chronic fatigue syndrome, the feeling of tiredness may take longer to go away. But it will.

Our bodies are different, every minute of everyday. This means each yoga practice will be different than the one before, and the one after that. With this knowledge we learn to listen, to honor and respect where we are at the moment. Yoga is not a competition. What we hear is a warning, a message that tell us what changes in our personal life are necessary that will promote the benefits of your Yoga practice. Always be kind and gentle with yourself. And, set realistic goals if you plan on making lifestyle changes.

It is inevitable that increased circulation will be a byproduct of your Yoga practice. You are moving. You are generating heat. As you build muscle your body naturally tones. You are sending fresh continuous blood supply (oxygen) to every organ, tissue, muscle and joint in your body, not to mention your skin. You are being purified of toxic wastes, allowing the nutrients in. There is nothing in your body that isn't benefiting from your Yoga practice.

All of this leads to increased vitality, and improved health which translates to an enthusiasm, and appreciation of life. The cosmetic effect will be obvious. As circulation improves, so does skin tone and skin quality. This is further enhanced by the vitality of the internal organs, especially the liver, and kidneys in keeping the body healthy and vital.

Hatha Yoga then is not superficial relaxation. It is much deeper than that. It is not covering up, or avoiding uncomfortable feelings. That can best be done by having a glass of wine, a massage and/or a hot bath. Hatha Yoga challenges, reveals, and releases our embodied tension resulting in a release of our full potential.

This is done in a precise, pragmatic, and systematic manner. It is not in anyway haphazard. Repeated and accurate application of the techniques elicits specific and predictable results. You experience a deep sense of relaxation, and freedom within your own being. The manifestation of this freedom is gratitude, appreciation, compassion and enthusiasm for life, and living.

Whether it is playing a Tennis match or navigating the challenges of your everyday life, Yoga, Meditation and Pranayama will enrich, influence, benefit and enhance your physical and mental wellbeing. So find a class that resonates with you, Yoga is 99% practice and 1% philosophy, and get on your mat.

We would also like to invite you to have a trip of a lifetime by joining us one of our Week long yoga retreats. We have Yoga in Thailand coming up in July and Yoga in Bali in September. For more information visit us online at www.yogabound.com.nnAnd be sure to check out all the great products for spring and summer on our site www.sarongboutique.com. We have really unique, high quality and affordable sarongs, cover-ups and other tropical products you won’t find anywhere else.

Wishing you health, wealth and happiness,

Debnn