By Em Shanblatt
The Girls at Play 2010 Yoga for Kayaking DVD with Anna Levesque and Joe Taft has taken off tremendously. Hundreds of kayakers have redefined their bodies and minds through the sequences Anna and Joe take you through. With such high praise and success, we’ve decided to offer a real life yoga for kayaking series at the Town and Mountain Training Center in Asheville, NC!
The series will include six yoga sessions on from 6:30-8:00 Tuesday evenings from November 8th through December 20th (no class on 22nd for due to Thanksgiving). Each class will target a different area of the body which kayakers need to focus on. Some classes may be based on stretching and opening parts of the body like the hips, while others may be geared more towards balance and strengthening the core. With individualized approach to different aspects of yoga for kayaking, Anna will give you a comprehensive aresenal of poses, stretches, and sequences you can continue doing to improve your kayaking and personal well being.
The series is also excellent cross training during these chilly months when you’re not paddling as much. Also, if you’ve been kayaking lots during the summer and fall, yoga is a great way to heal any pain, tension, or reoccurring soreness you’ve experienced recently. Stretching and strengthening also plays a huge role in injury prevention, particularly in the back. Kayakers often suffer from injuries such as bulging discs in the spine, which can be prevented and almost solely healed through yoga!
It is commonly said that it takes 21 days of completing an activity to make it a habit. While the course spans the time of 7 weeks, by the end, you will certainly feel that incorporating yoga into your weekly or paddling routine is habitual. This will allow for you to not only have a stronger mental game on the river, but your body will feel more relaxed, open, stronger, and less ridden by pain and tension.
California Kayaker Magazine recently published a review of the Yoga for Kayaking DVD in their Summer 2011 issue. The author states that “I own a boat that has never been very comfortable for me to sit in. In just a short while of sitting in it, my legs would fall asleep. But after two weeks of doing the routines, this sleepy-leg syndrome was greatly reduced.”
Mary Ann Furda, yoga instructor and owner of High Health Studio in Palo Alto, CA said “Her precautions, such as how to safely practice if the viewer is hypermobile, are excellent. Her choice of reclining poses are a good, rich blend of hip, thorax, and flank openers, excellent for kayakers after paddling to ease post-paddling stiffness, as well as to provide the opening over time that will allow for greater freedom in range of motions that can prevent injury and allow for better, more efficient paddling. This section could easily be done by anyone who’d never had a yoga class.”
I’ve personally become addicted to my own yoga for kayaking practice which I adopted from the Girls at Play Yoga for Kayaking DVD. I complete an hour long sequence after each day of paddling, and several other times throughout my week. In my kayak, my body feels stronger and I have significantly less pain in my legs, lower back, and shoulders. I also feel more loose and fluid with my strokes, and can achieve greater extension and rotation thanks to increased flexibility. Doing yoga regularly has allowed me to maintain a schedule of kayaking 5-6 days a week and perpetually feel healthy, loose, and ready to go! There’s no way I could kayak this much and feel this good without yoga!
Anna is a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance, having had a steady practice for over ten years and having completed over 300 hours of yoga teacher training. With such knowledge and expertise in not only the field of kayaking, but yoga as well, this world class, specialized instruction cannot be beat!
Here are the details:
Dates: November 8th, 15th, 29th & December 6th, 13th, 20th (All Tuesdays)
Time: 6:30-8:00 pm
Where: Town and Mountain Training Center in Asheville, NC
Cost: $70 for entire series
Who: ANYONE! women, men, novice paddlers, advanced paddlers, non paddlers, etc.
Can’t make it to the series? Order a Yoga for Kayaking DVD from the webstore so you can learn the best poses from Anna and Joe. If you’re interested in doing yoga in warm weather, check out our Costa Rica trips!
