Yoga Flow for Hockey Players

Hey ladies, ok so I know quite a few of our followers are hockey gals, and I know for myself, I need you to balance the intensity and the turmoil your body goes through as an athlete.

I've been practicing yoga since my freshman year of high school and it has most definitely made a difference for me. I played softball my whole life, and my senior year I tore 5 muscles in my shoulder. They were unable to do surgery on it because they would have had to take off my scapula, and then reattach it to fix the muscles. So this is where yoga was he for me in building strength without putting my body through intense training.

Fast forward to a few years ago. Playing hockey, got speared in the stomach and required abdominal surgery to remove a mass of calcified cells---basically internal bleeding that did not heal properly. So what I could do in the gym was very limited for quite sometime.

Fat forward again to becoming a kickboxing instructor and playing hockey a couple of times a week. Man oh man, my hips were tight as hell, my joints were snap, crackling and popping. Kicking, punching, burpees, skating and hockey---- your body takes a beating. So once again yoga saved me.

So my hips were becoming a problem, they were getting so tight with all of the pushing, whether it be kicks or skating, so as a certified yoga instructor, I thought: why not create a flow to help with those hips, work on core strength and just get an overall good stretch?

So that's what I did. This Flow helps open up the hips and work on that flexibility to counteract the intense workouts.

Here is the video:

Here it is broken down into the simple terms I can:

mountain pose--stand tall arms extend overhead. Breath in.

exhale, fall forward at the hips, toes your toes. breath in.

halfway lift, hands on shins, flat back. Exhale back down.

Inhale, high plank exhale to low (hovering off the ground)

Inhale, upward facing dog, thighs stay off of the ground,

Exhale, downward facing dog.

Inhale, hop skip or jump to the top of your mat. exhale.

Inhale, halfway lift, exhale come back up to mountain.

repeat that 3 times.

Let's do dat hockey--take a few breaths in each pose

on the 3rd round of the sun salutations, at the end of the downward dog bring your right leg up to the sky and bring in through, keeping your breath.

You're going to go through a warrior series on each side.

Warrior 1

Crescent Pose

Warrior 2

Reverse warrior

and finish with triangle.

I didn't keep the vinyasa flow for the purposes of the video, but I want you to continue the mountain to downward dog sequence in doing each of these on each side.

At the end of that series inhale to chair pose.

Fall forward, halfway lift, high plank to low, chaturanga to upward dog.

Exhale to downward facing dog.

Take one leg and bring it up, bend at the knee and open up your hip, pushing through your hands and keeping your core engaged.

You can either stay there or flip your dog. Keep your breath here.

Repeat on the other side.

At the end of that series inhale to chair pose.

Fall forward, halfway lift, high plank to low, chaturanga to upward dog.

Exhale to downward facing dog.

Bring one leg up and swing it through into almost a runners lunge.

Inhale arms up overhead, exhale, bring hands to heart and twist over the front knee.

repeat on the other side.

**now after your halfway lift once again, you're going to go into warrior 3. Warrior 3 is far more balance and abs, so that's why it is not in the warrior series above. **

after warrior 3 on each side, take tree. on each side.

(If toe stand is in your practice, you can do it here.)

Dem Hips Doe.

Inhale mountain, exhale fall forward, halfway lift, chaturanga, up dog, down dog.

Lift one leg in down dog and swing it all the way through for pigeon on one side.

(if king pigeon is in your practice do it here)

repeat on the other side. **take your time here, this is the perfect stretch to open up the hips**

Go through one more flow of chair pose to downward facing dog and if you want to work on your splits, you can here. I find it very helpful. I am more flexible though so if you want too tart working on your splits, try some yoga blocks to prop you up.

After all that craziness take happy baby pose and any other hip stretches you like laying on your mat. (I wasn't going to lay in the sand all sweaty for the video haha)

And that's your hockey flow for opening up the hips!

#yoga #hockey #fitness #workout #theknockoutcollective #legsfeedthewolf