Yoga for Martial Arts

Not many martial arts practitioners would think of using Yoga as a part of their training, but in actual fact the skills and attributes that you develop through the practice of Yoga are exactly the kind of thing that any sports person needs to develop, and are particularly important and relevant for something like martial arts.

To start off with the obvious I cannot think of any other sport other than gymnastics where flexibility is as important as it is in any kind of martial arts. If you want to be able to kick high, slip out of grabs and shift position when grappling, us low stances and so on then you need to develop a high degree of flexibility. Using yoga can also be a much more efficient way to develop the kind of functional strength that you need for self defense or sports fighting than lifting weight in a gym. For a start weight lifting focusses solely on he muscles, and does not strengthen the tendons and ligaments in the same way that yoga does (which would leave you more open to injury in the kind of situation a marital artist trains for), and it also tends to work the larger more prominent muscles groups more than he smaller ones that you might use in a less controlled situation.

Clearly balance is also an important factor. Besides flexibility balance is the main physical attribute which is improved through regular practice of yoga techniques, and besides flexibility and strength balance is the most important physical attribute that is needed for martial arts - the ability to stand your ground with a solid stance and not get push around or knocked over.

And as if all that wasn’t enough there are also the psychological benefits. Greater focus and clarity are obviously important, as they are for virtually everything that we do in life, and so is the ability to control the body’s reaction to stress. Getting into a fight is one of the highest stress situations that you can find yourself in, whether it is part of a sport or if it is in the street facing a violent thug, and the ability to keep a clear and calm mind, to focus on the body and on your self-control, are absolutely vital ingredients for success.

So that is why, as a martial artist who has been training for around a decade and a half, I beleive that the best possible additional training that you can do outside of your actual martial arts classes is to learn yoga. To help anyone who want to learn more about the connections between the two disciplines, and how each one can feed into the other, I’ve included a couple of links to what I think are some of the best products available from Amazon .com and .co.uk.

Books

DVDs