Yoga for Tennis: Spring forward & leave your allergies backward!

Happy Spring Courtsiders! (Though it has felt like summer lately!). Spring is an intermediate passing season as we transition from winter’s cold to summer’s heat. It is about renewal and change. We do not always cope with this change that well. Many of our juniors and adults suffer from seasonal allergies. The suffering varies from a minor inconvenience of itchy eyes and runny noses to being afraid of being outdoors – let alone being on the court! Let us focus on being allergy-free this season with Yoga so you can focus your energies on sharpening your game and play your best tennis ever indoors or outdoors!

Benefits of Yoga for Spring Allergies

Yoga is a natural remedy to prevent and cure allergies. Spring is a beautiful season but many especially in NJ dread this season due to the nasal allergies. Medication can give you temporary relief but Yoga works to get to the root of the problem and help prevent as well as cure it.

How does it work? Yoga has a cleansing and purifying effect on your nasal and respiratory passages and lungs. The entire respiratory system is cleansed with Yogic Breathing techniques (Praanyaama) as well as Yogic Postures (Asanas). Yogic breathing is very much under-estimated and taken for granted. Breath is your friend on and off the court! As you learn to breathe through the nose with various techniques of cleansing(prana-sanchalan), deep breathing(ujjayi pranayam) and focused exhalations (kapal-bhati); your lung capacity and resistance to allergens is dramatically improved. There is better oxygenation of the blood reaching all cells improving the overall health. Also, the relaxation response that is created with Yoga helps strengthen the immune system. When there is continuous stress, the immune system becomes weaker and we are susceptible to viruses and bacteria. Yoga helps reduce the stress and thus helps make our overall health better at all levels.

So, take Yoga seriously with a smile to improve your resistance to allergies this Spring and let there be more talk of your heroics on the court rather than the stories of you missing tennis blaming it on the Spring allergies! Yes, you can have the cake and eat it too – with consistent Yoga practice – even for 5-10 minutes a day! Let us Spring forward and leave the allergies backward this Spring!

Thanks for reading!

Coach P. (Prashant Joshi)
Co-Founder, Gurukul Yoga Holistic Center, Bridgewater, NJ 08807