Like many others I find yoga to be a powerful supplement to climbing or to life in general. First off, it let me get a deeper connection to myself and what I need to be happy. It brings my focus inward and teaches me to listen. Some days all I need is to stretch those tight shoulders out, and on other days it helps me release stress, focus or see the bigger picture. It also lets me focus a lot on my breathing, which is a key in climbing.
I find it better to do a short session every day, rather than a long session once a week. I usually do 10-20min every morning before breakfast. It makes me feel like I “wake up” in a different way than if I skip it. I get energized and focused.
If I’m stressed or feel tired, a couple of minutes on the yoga mat can be enough to reset.
Practicing yoga highlights my imbalances, and it’s easy to feel progression as I keep working on those areas.
After my accident in 2012 I lost a lot of flexibility, balance and strength. Practicing yoga has helped me to get a lot of it back. It took me almost a year to be able to do many of the standing poses again, but it’s been a great tool to measure the progression and to find acceptance.
Often after climbing my shoulders get really tight and I find specific poses to release the tension. I love the Eagle pose because it lets me get a deep stretch of latissimus dorsi, trapezius and the deltoid muscles, which are the muscles of the upper back. These tend to get tight, especially after a lot of steep climbing. By stretching them I increase the blood flow, which helps me recover faster. I also find that this pose helps strengthen my knees and ankles and improves my overall balance.
A lot of the standing poses like the warrior 1 and warrior 2 increase endurance in the legs, which helps prevent “Elvis leg.” It also prevents me from getting injured while heal hooking a lot.
Strong hip flexors enhance my ability to high-step; stronger quads and hamstrings stabilize knees for stepping up or knee dropping.
Stronger quads, hip flexors, and hamstrings also help me extend the legs for reachy, sideways foot placements.
The family of poses that are referred to as “hip openers” increase the external, or outward, rotation of the femur bone in the hip socket. Others lengthen the psoas muscle, a primary hip flexor connecting the torso and legs that gets shortened from too much sitting while driving or hours in an office chair.
Working on the pigeon pose and the bound angle pose helps me to get closer to the rock, which lets me put a bit more weight on my feet and helps me from pumping out.
Practicing on different breathing techniques teaches me to take control of my nerves and to find the right intensity level that is required on different parts of a climb.
I practice mostly by my own, but If I need inspiration or searching for poses for a particular body part or for a specific use (for example hip openers, tight shoulders, for arms, back pain etc.) I use Yogaglo. www.yogaglo.com
Here you can stream online yoga and meditation classes, and you can customize the class so it fits you. It lets you choose level, type of yoga, teacher, duration and the body part or specific use you are after. Absolutely genius!!
“I’m a woman, I bend I don’t break!” – Chozenwoman