Well, fish and chips, if this video of England National Rugby guys practicing yoga doesn’t have us rightly chuffed! These days it’s not just American pro athletes taking the benefits of yoga seriously as a true way to stretch, breathe, relax, rehabilitate and pre-habilitate, preventing injuries on and off the field. Props for the blocks.
Rugby is arguably one of the most athletically demanding and dangerous sports this side of the Coliseum. It’s also a game of strategy and quick-thinking action. As it just so happens, yoga can help with both the body and the mind.
“The physical benefit is the collagen fiber and the soft tissue recovery. And also working on injury places like hamstrings, glutes, groins, shoulders and a lot of thoracic rotation,” says yoga teacher Nisha Srivastava. “The mental benefits would be the mind. I start them off with asana and then I bring them onto the mind for relaxation and focusing the mind. And they ned that on the pitch so they make the right decisions at the right time, ” says Srivastasa who’s worked with several rugby teams.
“You can get your rest on. Get your mind working properly…the relationship between body and mind. It’s especially nice after an aerobics session,” said footballer Jamie Jones Buchanan.
And that’s where our British-English translation machine conked out. But we’re pretty sure the rest of what Buchanan says has to do with the teacher keeping a special eye on a certain hooligan troublemaker in class. Something tells us it’s this guy.
Enjoy the full video below!
And a couple more lovely rugby yoga pics featuring George Burgess, Thomas Burgess, Roy Asotasi and the guys of the South Sydney Rabbitohs (Australian league) couldn’t hurt, right?
Last two photos taken during a South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL recovery session on September 23, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Getty Images)
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Earlier…
- Red Sox Foundation Launches FenwaYoga at Fenway Park
- Ryan Giggs, Dedicated Yogi, Maybe Greatest Manchester United Player of All Time Scores Record 1000th Career Appearance
- Seattle Seahawks Changing Future of Football with Yoga and Meditation
- Fox News Debates Yoga vs Sports and ‘Wussification’ of America
Wow – fantastic to see these burly guys practicing yoga, what great Ambassadors for yoga they are too. As a yoga teacher myself I am always trying to attract more males into class and encourage them to incorporate yoga into their fitness regimes. 🙂
Wow, do they ALL have those big lantern jaws? o.O
Also, yay for athletes doing yoga!!
Awesome!
Great to see these BIG GUYS getting some yoga into their workout routine! Love the playfulness and the sweat all mixed into ONE! Good Work, Fellas! Carry ON and Namaste!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzS3FG6jl6Q
For Iyengar Yoga and sports persons!
Wow. I’m sharing this with all my male clients. I hear a lot of complaints that yoga is great but the cues are too feminine and the guys feel “wimpy” in class. At least I have something with a little humor that will hopefully change their mind (I don’t think the ladies would object to seeing it either 😉 )
How funny! I bet it benefited them very well in the end though! The power of yoga:)
love love love this. I recently read the fastest growing demographic of people “coming to” yoga is males. This is why! The more we can integrate yoga into athletic programs, the more male yogis we will have and they will attract even more male yogis and more people doing yoga is always a good thing.
It should be pointed out that the subject sport is (13-a-side) Rugby LEAGUE, as opposed to (15-a-side) rugby union. The latter is best described as “the British Conservative Party at play”, which is why it (undeservedly) gets more coverage in UK newspapers.
http://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/Schism.html
It’s not only in Britain that Rugby League receives such treatment. During the Second World War, the pro-German Vichy French government banned the sport after approaches from rugby union-
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/badge-of-dishonour-french-rugbys-shameful-secret-401557.html