Dwyane in dunkasana
The heat is on! And that concludes our corny puns for the Miami Heat basketball team playing in the NBA finals this year, of which there are two clear superstars, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who are apparently both yogis!
Now he may not have his own name on his yoga mat (that we know of) like LeBron “LeBrogi” James, but Dwayne Wade knows the advantages of getting in some quality mat time. He told The Wall Street Journal all about it.
“I have tight hips and I felt I needed to loosen up and be more flexible as I got older,” says Mr. Wade. He started taking private yoga lessons. “Just basic yoga—I wasn’t ready for the hot stuff,” he says. “Yoga is a totally different way of stretching and really challenging.” Mr. Wade says he persuaded his teammate, LeBron James, to join him. “He’s stiffer than me,” he jokes.
What now? Hold the phone. Was it Wade who turned James onto yoga? Sweet. And hot? Ok, we’re done.
Turns out 30-year-old Wade is also “huge on massage work,” doing Pilates, juicing his veggies and getting “sports pedicures,” which are pretty much the exact same thing as regular pedicures minus the polish finish (shhh don’t tell the guys).
What’s Wade’s least favorite pose?
“I struggle with tree pose,” he says, referring to a yoga pose in which he balances on one foot, while the other leg is bent with the foot pressed into the standing leg. “I feel so discombobulated when I do that pose,” he says. “My balance is all off. I definitely don’t feel the athleticism I normally do when I try to do that pose.”
The yogi speaks. That’s OK Dwyane, we kinda suck at dunkasana.
[WSJ via MindBodyGreen]
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Earlier…
I have been struggling with the Tree Pose until recently. 2 things have turned this pose into a great morning leg stretch. First, timing a minute on each leg as I use my electric tooth brush each morning and secondly “feeling” strings on the ends of my fingers pulling me up to the ceiling (Thanks Olav Aarts for the inspiration)