By Justin Kiely
The increased professional and commercialization of professional sports has not only witnessed a substantial increase in player salaries, but has also resulted in player job requirements widening beyond the physical attributes of their sport (i.e., running, kicking, tackling, shooting). Professional athletes now have a wide variety of off field requirements, in addition to the demands of physical training as part of their contractual obligations. This includes dealing with the media, attending club, sponsor, and charity functions, promoting and marketing the club and making public appearances in the community (i.e., visiting sick children, schools, and local sporting communities). This has in turn increased the frequency of interpersonal interactions with the public. These boundary-spanning demands see professional athletes become the public face of their sports and countries. This places extreme stress on an athlete and more often than not a sufficient stress release mechanisms is not in place.
The introduction of Yoga therapy into professional athletes training regimes can create many positive benefits, including both physical and psychological. Benefits of Yoga therapy for professional athletes are usually associated with physical benefits such as increased flexibility (which leads to a reduction in the number of soft tissue injuries) and increased blood flow. The psychologically benefits sometimes fall “under the radar” which include the reduction of mental stress and enhancement of an athletes concentration both professionally and personally.
Stress Reduction
Professional athletes are constantly forced to suppress their true emotions (emotion labour) to the media, coaches and teammates in order to protect their own image, club brand, withdrawal of sponsorships and to avoid sanctions placed by governing sports bodies. This continued suppression of emotion causes increased stress and anxiety levels and overtime can cause some athletes, performing emotional labour on a daily basis, to suffer an emotional breakdown if no stress release structures are in place.
The cut throat nature of professional sport, in addition to the short-term tenure of being a professional athlete means that job insecurity is a very scary reality for athletes. The average life span of an Australian Football League (AFL) player is approximately 4 years, so for most players they are living on edge most of the time, but they have to suppress all these emotions. The reason this occurs is because if athletes show a sign of complaint or weakness they are seen as “mentally weak” and face media scrutiny and club sanctions, in the form of monetary fines or at worst being traded or de-listed because their seen as difficult. Therefore AFL players need to be able to suppress their emotions, which can also lead to a false existence.
The high media exposure and increased public scrutiny has resulted in professional athletes becoming particularly self-conscious of their image when interacting with a range of audiences (i.e., teammates, coaches, media, and the public). Self presentation can be critical to a player’s reputation as well as shape public perception. An athlete’s image can also directly and indirectly influence their income. As such, the performance of emotion labour is often necessary to present and maintain favourable audience perceptions.
Because of the increased daily performance of emotional labour due to stress factors such as job insecurities, increased media exposure and public scrutiny, Yoga therapy can become the release outlet for psychological stress and assist professional athletes. Though stress levels may be higher than ever in professional sports, the experience of stress is as old as humankind. In fact, it’s hard wired into our DNA in what psychologists call the “fight or flight” response. Many Yoga practices counter the fight-or-flight response and invite the body to move in the opposite direction of stress towards peace and calm. Gentle stretching lengthens athletes muscles, reducing physical tension. Yoga breathing slows their respiration. Inverted positions can help lower blood pressure (a side effect of increased stress levels), by decreasing an athlete’s heart rate, relaxing their arteries, and reducing levels of the stress hormone noradrenaline. Resting yoga postures allow athletes to let go of physical and mental tension. Meditative practices can help put fears and angers into perspective. Former Los Angeles Lakers Centre Kareem Abdul Jabbar was a devoted practitioner of yoga and meditated before every game to reduce stress. With increased calm and relaxation comes a decrease in athlete’s level of cortisol, an adrenal hormone that inhibits immune system function. This greatly benefits athletes who cannot afford illness to come between training and preparation for competition.
Improved Circulation
Good blood circulation is crucial to the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the athlete’s muscles during competition and the removal of waste and carbon dioxide. Insufficient circulation can result in the premature onset of fatigue which is associated with depleted muscle energy stores. When the circulation of blood is restricted in any way, the cells of the body may not get the oxygen and nutrients needed to function and recover effectively. As a result athlete’s energy may plummet and their mood and mental capacity may suffer, ultimately their overall health may be impaired.
Yoga therapy can benefit professional athlete’s blood circulation by improving the flow of blood to and from the heart in a number of significant ways. Standing yoga postures squeeze the veins in the legs and gently push blood back towards the heart. Yoga postures that lift the legs above the heart use the force of gravity to do much the same thing. When athletes practice a variety of yoga poses, they will systematically position their arms, legs, trunk, and head both higher and lower than the heart, draining, and then refreshing the blood supply to each area, improving the delivery of oxygen and nutrients, and removing carbon dioxide and waste products. In addition, if athletes practice twisting and bending postures, they will compress certain muscles and organs and release them. This action squeezes the blood from the area and allows fresh blood to enter. As a result, fatigue is reduced and every body part receives its proper nutrient supply.
Increased Flexibility and Strength
In almost any yoga pose, especially the standing postures that work against gravity, athletes are both stretching and strengthening their muscles. For example, when you stand and bend forward from the hip joints, the pelvis tilts on the tops of the thigh bones and lengthens the hamstring muscles. When you come up out of the standing forward bend, you lift up your body weight by contracting (and thereby strengthening) the same muscles you stretched on the way down. This combination of stretching and strengthening makes yoga therapy an especially important routine for professional athletes, who need to maximize their flexibility to avoid costly injuries. Many professional athletes have already discovered the benefits of yoga therapy in recent years, including 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2009 NBA World Champions Los Angeles Lakers, who practiced Yoga weekly on their way to the titles.
Enhanced Concentration
Professional athletes need not only high levels of concentration when competing, but as previously mentioned, athletes these days have contractual obligation away from the performance stage that require high levels of concentration. Media interviews, club, sponsor and charity functions, and interactions with the general public still require the athlete to be mentally alert away from training and competition. Every engagement the athlete attends requires their singular attention to the present moment they’re in. Yoga therapy can benefit professional athletes by training them to concentrate and clear their minds of distracting thoughts and preoccupations. Yoga teachers them to give their full attention to a physical posture, if not the risk of injury increases, this spills over to their contractual obligations. If an athlete doesn’t have their full concentration during an interview, they may slip up and say the incorrect answer, which may, tarnish their own or their clubs image and brand, which financial ramifications or sanctions on the athlete will follow because of this momentary lapse of concentration.
Yoga demands that athletes learn to listen to the voice within, their own unique body wisdom, to go to its limit without unwisely exceeding it. Even just attempting to hold a simple pose requires concentration. Paying close attention to their sensations in each pose tends to clear whatever else is on their mind. This is meditation. To the extent they are focused on their breath and body, they are not having thoughts about professional or personal matters. This part of their mind becomes quiet. By the time they get to the end of their routine, their mind is focused and calm and their body, relaxed. Therefore, yoga therapy benefits professional athletes because the concentration acquired from the physical practice of yoga spills over to these other areas of their professional lives mentioned, moreover, it spills over into their personal lives.
Conclusion
Yoga therapy and professional athletes go together like water and cement, forming an unbreakable bond which would allow athletes to regulate their emotions and stress levels throughout their professional careers and beyond. Yoga therapy can teach professional athlete’s techniques required for releasing stress and negative energy in the body before it manifests. Factors such as job insecurities, increase media exposure and public scrutiny have dramatically increased over the last 10-15 years in professional sports. This is due to the additional demands placed on athletes away from their training and competition for their sport.
Yoga therapy can offer professional athletes many positive benefits both physical and psychological. These benefits include reduction in stress, improved circulation, increased flexibility and strength, and enhanced concentration. Increased flexibility and increased blood circulation are the most common benefits associated with yoga and sport. The psychological benefits are usually forgotten but they play a pivotal role in balance of athlete’s professional and personal lives.
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