Fads, fashion and flexability.

This is a shameless plug for my friends new yoga barn, which has opened recently here in North Devon.

http://www.breathingyoga.co.uk/breathing_space/

I was thinking how funny it is that yoga is considered a girlie thing to do in this country. I guess it has this perception in the roots of all these ridiculous fads that girls seem to go through in an effort to try and keep hold of their teenage bodies, anyone remember the hula hoop craze and Zumba? Nothing wrong with the individual activities of course,  it’s just the way they are marketed as the next quick fix to health and fitness that wreaks a bit of the old wild-west, snake-oil salesman, with his cure for everything. We are all susceptible to the idea of a short cut but there are no shorts cuts to fitness other than some hard work every now and then, how fit you want to be depends upon how much work you put in.

Flexibility is an important component of fitness and even more so in modern surfing with it’s dynamic manoeuvres and it is no coincidence that all the top surfers are extremely flexible! With that in mind I look back with fond memeories of the yoga class I organised for the British Team way back in 1994, just before the trip to the World Champs in Rio. I say fond because I havent “inwardly smiled” so much in ages, at the farting, the groaning and the giggling the cool elite of our sport were reduced to during the session at Hall 70 in Woolacombe. To be fair it was a bit on an eye opener to the team as to how inflexible they were and despite the initial reluctance it became a favourite fixture on the training schedule.

These days most surfers have at least tried a yoga session and carry out some form of regular stretching routine, even  if it is only as a warm up. The revelation recently that legendary footballer Ryan Giggs puts some of his longevity down to regular yoga sessions means that yoga may be momentarily boosted up the ‘Fad’ list again and give more people an impetus to try it. If you want a more flexible body, less injuries and much, much more in this stressful world, I recommend you try the dynamic and super energizing form of physical discipline known as Yoga.