Choose Your Own Adventure: 5 Outdoor Sports for Yogis

When the square footage of your mat starts to feel small, consider taking your practice outdoors with these 5 adventure sports perfect for yogis.
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When the square footage of your yoga mat starts to feel a little small, try taking your practice into the great outdoors with these five adventure sports perfectly suited for yogis. You're sure to have fun and learn something new about yourself and the world beyond your yoga mat. 

Why yogis should try it: To add some height—and adrenaline—to all of the strength, flexibility, and fluidity you’ve cultivated on your yoga matA quick-paced vinyasa practice essentially acts as ground training for climbing, or “vertical yoga” as the YogaSlackers call it. You are already primed to link movements fluidly on the rock wall. Pranayama and meditation increase the focus and mental ease needed for problem-solving in high stress situations (like looking for your next footing 20 feet off the ground). Yoga not only helps you prepare for but also recover from a full day of climbing. Before a climb, Yoga Journal LIVE! presenter Raquel Hernandez-Cruz suggests focusing on poses to increase core strength, balance and shoulder mobility. Once you’re back on the ground, try shoulder openers and backbends, as well as spreading your toes and opening your feet. “After a long day of climbing a recovery practice will balance the natural pulling and rounding movements of climbing,” affirms Cruz.TRY 6 Poses to Make You a Rock Climbing Star

Rock Climbing

Why yogis should try it: To add some height—and adrenaline—to all of the strength, flexibility, and fluidity you’ve cultivated on your yoga mat

A quick-paced vinyasa practice essentially acts as ground training for climbing, or “vertical yoga” as the YogaSlackers call it. You are already primed to link movements fluidly on the rock wall. Pranayama and meditation increase the focus and mental ease needed for problem-solving in high stress situations (like looking for your next footing 20 feet off the ground).

Yoga not only helps you prepare for but also recover from a full day of climbing. Before a climb, Yoga Journal LIVE! presenter Raquel Hernandez-Cruz suggests focusing on poses to increase core strength, balance and shoulder mobility. Once you’re back on the ground, try shoulder openers and backbends, as well as spreading your toes and opening your feet. “After a long day of climbing a recovery practice will balance the natural pulling and rounding movements of climbing,” affirms Cruz.

TRY 6 Poses to Make You a Rock Climbing Star

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