Lifestyle

Fitness for the Average Joe: Yoga and Mobility

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Looking to dramatically increase your overall quality of life? Obviously, as this column has gone, I would tell you to do something to get fit. But, there is an aspect of fitness that is often overlooked, and it may be the key to keep you from long-term injuries. What I’m talking about here is mobility.

Mobility can be simply defined as the ability to move through a proper or entire range of motion. In this definition, I’m referring to both range of motion for a particular exercise and being limber to go about your day-to-day activities. Point being, the better mobility you have, the better you will be in your everyday life. You don’t want to miss out on holiday festivities because you’re stuck on the couch with a thrown out back or a jacked-up hip.

Hill Country Yoga.

Photo: Flickr/Bar Baer

While gurus like Dr. Kelly Starrett, author of “Becoming a Supple Leopard,” and creator of MobilityWod, offer great in-home programs, the Texas Hill Country has become a hotbed for another type of mobility training: Yoga.

That’s right. Yoga is excellent for injury prevention and maintenance. Yoga is also a staple if you want to increase your mobility and manage or eliminate pain. Regular practice of yoga has also been proved to increase lung capacity and reduce residual effects from chronic stress. In a word, whether you’re a soccer-mom or power-lifter, yoga is a great practice.

Enchanted Rock yoga.

Photo: Flickr/HyunJae Park

The greater Austin and San Antonio areas offer many different options for yoga. With several different types of practices and group sizes, increasing your mobility by implementing a yoga practice can take on a variety of faces. Want to work up a good sweat? Try hot yoga. Want to have an out of body experience? Try Kundalini.

A quick search for studios in your area will yield a bevy of results. Including Wanderlust Yoga in Austin which was voted the best studio in Austin among locals and Southtown Yoga Loft in San Antonio, which was voted the top studio in San Antonio.