YOGA FOR GOLF (and Tennis) GUYS: 90-min workshop to get you ready for the season!
Cost: $30 (6-12 participants)
Date: Monday, April 24, 6:15 – 7:45 pm, City of Falcon Heights Community Room (note: you need not be a FH resident).
Instructor: Shaila Cunningham of YogaHotDish. Shaila teaches at Midland Hills and North Oaks Golf Clubs, as well as the Cites of Arden Hills and Falcon Heights (Mondays 4:30 pm). She played #1 singles/doubles for St. Olaf and qualified for NCAA nationals her freshman year. Shaila received her Yoga teaching certificate from The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Stockbridge, MA, 2001.
Takeaway: You’ll leave with yoga techniques tailored to your body that you can do safely on your own. The instructor will have handouts so you can easily remember the material.
Description:
You know you should do yoga. You’ve heard the hype: how it can make your spine healthier, reduce swing flaws, relieve back pain, and improve the “inner game.” So what’s the problem?
A lot of yoga classes, (online and in-person) are led by hypermobile instructors, often women. They tend to have smaller builds and dance or gymnastic backgrounds — not golf or tennis. Such instructors often teach seated poses on the floor, not realizing that a lot of male golfers (and men in general), can’t sit comfortably on the floor at first.
Many adults think they can just do yoga without any personalized instruction and just “learn it off the Internet.” Question: would you have hit the links as an adult w/o a single lesson? Golf is far less dangerous than yoga–there’s a reason why gymnastics isn’t considered a lifetime sport!
So, if you’re a regular guy who wants to do some yoga to help your game without risking throwing out your back or damaging your joints, you’re in the right place! In fact, about 50% of golfers have back pain. What do you suppose the most highly researched benefit of yoga is? Yep, reduced back pain!
Instructor Shaila Cunningham is a 6-footer former tennis player who treasures her memories of “grandparent golf” in the summers. Tennis players (also welcome) and golfers have a lot in common: both need to keep their spines healthy for effective uncoiling motions, especially if they want to keep playing the game later in life, when vertebrae/joints are more vulnerable.
So, if you want to learn a safe style of “yoga for grown-ups” that doesn’t stretch the muscles at the expense of the joints, along with some focus-boosting breathing while you’re at it, this workshop is for you!
Show up w/ a mat (if you have one) and a sense of humor. Mats (no need to buy one), bolsters, blocks, blankets, chairs, and ties, are all provided. You’ll have 20+ years of teaching experience at your disposal from someone who wasn’t born flexible and knows all the tips and tricks. You won’t feel any pressure to keep up with the yoga pretzel crowd, but you will likely stretch on a deeper level you’ve never experienced before–and sleep like a baby!
Look at it this way: the less flexible your body or focused your mind, the more you have to gain!
