The key to a successful athletic program is in developing the proper components for success: breath, speed, endurance, strength, flexibility, balance and mindfulness. By applying these simple techniques to your current curriculum, you will achieve a whole new level of fitness. These are accessible to everyone.

Did you know that nasal breathing and mouth breathing have different physiological effects on your body/mind?? Depending on how the air and energy are moving through your body has a profound effect on the sympathic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Most athletes cannot access the lower lobes of the lungs efficiently which is where the majority of the oxygen is exchanged. 75% of the relaxation nerve endings are housed in the lower lobes of the lungs which means you have yet to tap into your full potential. So, how you’re breathing is critical.

As I began to investigate the use of breath work in athletic performance, I learned that world-class athletes use similar breathing techniques in their training routines. Most use a machine (a rather costly machine) to facilitate what is referred to as Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT).

However, we created a way to facilitate IMT through specific yogic breathing techniques and sequenced them into training workouts that simulates high altitude training at ground level.

The breathing I’m describing is referred to as Pranayama in ancient yogic traditions. It’s a Sanskrit word which translates as “prana” meaning energy and “yama” meaning master or control. Together it’s a process of controlling or mastering your core energies. As an athlete, this is critical. So, in the end, no matter how strong you are, no matter how flexible you are, no matter how fast you are, without the ability to harness specific energy flows, you have yet to perform at your bodies complete ability. Instead, you are over training and experiencing burnout which creates undue stress in your mind and injury to joints, muscles and tendons. Prana is intelligent energy. When prana is activated, athletes become introverted, calm and focused.

In developing the Flexibility For Athletes program, we focused on 3 main components: 1) Breathing, 2) Yoga postures and 3) Relaxation/Meditation. All 3 components are used in either a cardio workout with running, rowing or cycling as well as a strength-training program to be used with free weights or cable machines.

Breathing. We build from the ground up learning the art of yogic breathing. We use basic, intermediate and advanced breathing techniques and sequencing. Once you learn “how” to manipulate your body’s energy levels through breath, you can learn the breathing sequences we’ve designed for your sport. The basic premise in all these techniques is that you breathe through your nostrils; not your mouth. Learning to breathe through your nostrils allows 1) the mind to access “flow states” in which we have a different relationship with time and space which is the goal of any athlete, 2) the body to train respiratory systems prior to training the neuromuscular system and 4) us to strengthen and thicken the diaphragm and intercostals and access the lower lobes of the lungs for peak power.

It doesn’t matter what type of event, whether aerobic or anaerobic, you will be at your best. You will clearly see that your nostrils were designed to breath and your mouth to eat. Simply put, the breath coming through the nostrils is a more intelligent breath. And so, you will learn to use your mouth breathing as a last resort in times of vigorous activity.

Yoga Postures. We developed a Yoga program strictly for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Normally when we hear “Yoga for athletes in the west” it means a vigorous program of Yoga postures, sweating, and moving very quickly. And, you already have a cardio routine. Our program is the exact opposite; it is a Yoga program in which we move slowly and link breath with movement and create body awareness. Yoga postures are tailored toward your sport or sports to improve your core strength and flexibility as you learn to work with gravity, not against it. Proper angles are necessary for success in sports in fitness. The angles in the postures create more balance and postural awareness. Learning to link breath with movement allows the athlete to achieve deeper degrees of flexibility, strength and range of motion.

The goal of the Yoga is to bring athletes into the present moment. To feel their ability to be completely in the moment without clinging to what they feel is pleasurable, and without pushing away what they appear to think is pain bringing advanced athletes to the point where they can experience pain and pleasure in the exact same moment. We invite them to be at the point where motion and stillness come together as one, where effort and effortlessness are woven together as one. This will only happen when we reach the deeper states of consciousness that are available through the human mind.

Meditation/Relaxation. This is a lost art form for today’s athlete and typically omitted from traditional western training. Our program teaches athletes how to process the present and prepare for the future in the micro and macro sense. The integration periods at the end of the workout sessions are the most important part of the program. Deep relaxation provides the maximum learning and healing to occur. To be at your best, we must get your mind on board. This will be easier than you think, your mind’s organic nature is to be relaxed and calm. This takes a short period of time for your mind to adjust, but your body will reap the rewards and you will excel beyond your wildest dreams! When we skillfully do nothing, everything falls into place.

We are finding that athletes who stick to this program are experiencing significant changes in their athletic performance both in their workouts and their competitions. They are extremely confident as they go into the racing season or big race day. Their mind becomes far less sidetracked by small distractions. They’re reporting natural “flow states” just about all the time by utilizing the techniques from Flexibility for Athletes. Our combined techniques allow them to strengthen the diaphragm and intercostals allowing the body to take in more energy and send more blood, oxygen and Prana throughout your body. As the muscles and bones are recruited for the movement, there is more blood and oxygen and Prana available to parts of the body for functioning and proper form. Now that they have more energy, there is less of a jump or a spike in your heart rate, and the mind remains undisturbed in vigorous activities.


To educate you on our Flexibility For Athletes programs, we offer the following training services:

• Customized training plans for crew teams or individual athletes
• Group workshops for your rowing club or fitness center
• Group camps for your rowing club or fitness center
• Instructional DVD’s
• Podcast Workouts (Coming 2008)

To learn more about our Upcoming Events, click here.

To learn more about our Instructional DVD’s, click here.

The Rower
The Tri-athlete