Everybody’s heard of yoga. But…have you heard of goat yoga? This new trend has been sweeping the nation since it first became popular on American Ninja Warrior. It not only lets people spend time with adorably cute baby goats, but it also has other benefits, particularly for athletes. If you think it sounds crazy, think about it: people swim with dolphins, go horseback riding, even walking the dog are all exercises with the added bonus of animals. It’s scientifically proven that interacting with animals has some genuine mental, physical, and psychological benefits to humans.
What is Goat Yoga, Exactly?
Goat yoga is just like regular yoga, but with one significant difference: baby goats. Whether you’re an expert yogi or just looking to try something new and fun, goat yoga is a great way to get in touch with nature and get those endorphins flowing simultaneously. Essentially, it’s a regular yoga session with the addition of mama goats and baby goats that roam, frolic, and play throughout the entire class. Expect to have baby goats climb over the top of your back during different positions (like plank or downward dog), adding anywhere from 10 to 15 lbs of extra weight. However, it’s the inevitable feelings of joy, happiness, and being one with nature, and enjoying baby goat kisses and cuddles that attract most people to this yoga trend.
While goat yoga may be partly about fun and giggles, it also provides a more serious benefit: it can significantly improve strength, flexibility, range of motion, power, and performance. These physical benefits are perfect for athletes, so if you’re into sports, it’s worth a try. Whether you want to beef up your soccer skills, perform better at lacrosse practice, or enhance your marathon training, goat yoga can be surprisingly beneficial for athletes.
Benefits of Goat Yoga for Athletes of All Kinds
1. Increased Flexibility
The movements involved with sports are often repetitive, which concentrates tension and cramping in specific muscle groups in your body. However, goat yoga allows for stretching and flexing those overused muscles, causing them to relax. It also increases ease of movement and allows for a greater range of motion and improved flexibility.
2. Better Power and Performance
Goat yoga also helps improve power and performance for athletes. Proper alignments and learning efficiency of movement allow for improved capabilities when it comes to power and performance. Goat yoga works best to enhance and supplement workouts, allowing for better stretching and making it easier to perform better on the court, field, or wherever.
3. Excellent Strength Training
This benefit is where goat yoga really excels. When baby goats start climbing up on your back in plank position, it adds an extra 10 to 15 lbs of weight. This is the perfect way to strength train with the added benefit of bouncing and adorable baby goats cuddling next to you and climbing all around. When you practice sports, it tends to develop specific muscles used to performing sport-specific movements, leaving others underutilized. Goat yoga strengthens these muscles, allowing for improved strength and performance.
4. Mental Focus and Improved Mood
One of the best benefits of goat yoga is the improved mental clarity and the boost in mood it provides. Professional athletes push themselves to the limits and beyond every day, often pushing past mental and psychological limits as well. Goat yoga allows you to sharpen and enhance the mental clarity that’s so incredibly important to professional athletes. Not to mention, being around a cuteness overload like baby goats could make the iciest heart melt into a gooey pile of love and hugs in the face of an adorable baby goat.
Try Goat Yoga to Boost Athletic Performance and Skills
Whether you want to try goat yoga because you secretly want to spend time with cute baby goats or because you want to perform better as an athlete, it’s proven that this form of exercise provides numerous benefits. Improving flexibility, range of motion, strength, and mental clarity are incredibly important for athletes and better sports performance. Try goat yoga today to get all the cuteness of baby goat kisses combined with the excellent mental, physical, and psychological benefits of yoga class. What could be better?