Thoughts on Yoga for Athletes-Performance over Flexibility

Where Yoga Belongs

What working with athletes taught me about the gap in yoga education and what becomes possible when you close it

Many of us work with athletes.  It's so fun to have the energy and to see athletes be challenged in a different way. 

The more I learned about exercise science, the more certifications in strength & conditioning I got, the bigger the gap I saw between what an athlete needs vs what yoga was delivering.  

For anyone who is immediately disagreeing with me...hear me out. 

I had a meeting this week with a sports performance facility and we were discussing how yoga might support young athletes.

It was very clear from the start of the conversation that they were not looking for flexibility or stretching.  I can tell you the conversation would not have been a long one if I tried to sell the benefits of a yoga class at their facility. 

Instead, we talked about recovery.  We talked about the mindset challenges that athletes have around recovery and around injuries.  We talked about different ways to apply different breathing techniques for performance or for focus.  And then "yoga" became a recovery technique, something that could be incorporated into their training and a unique offering.

Because if you ask most yoga teachers why athletes should practice yoga, the answer is usually some version of:

"They need mobility."

"They need flexibility."

"They need to slow down or let go or release (or some variation of this)"

"Deep breaths will help them regulate" (not always..that's a different blog post)

And sometimes that's true.

But sitting in that meeting, I realized how small those answers have become.

The conversation about yoga for athletes is much bigger than flexibility.

The question isn't:

Can yoga help athletes stretch?

The question is:

Can yoga help athletes perform, recover, adapt, focus, and become more resilient?

That's a completely different conversation.

And it requires a completely different understanding of the practice.

Most yoga teachers are trained to pull three levers.

Stretch (or push flexibility)

Relax.

Let go.

They're good levers.

They're just not the only ones and if you lead with those, you may find certain conversations ending faster than you would like. 

An athlete dealing with training fatigue or muscle tightness may not need more flexibility. They may need better recovery.

An athlete struggling under pressure may not need a longer savasana. They may need breathing strategies that improve focus and regulation in high-stakes situations.

An athlete returning from injury may not need deeper stretching. They may need support rebuilding confidence and trust in their body.

Same practice. Different application.

As I was working on how to put together a program (bigger than "yoga for athletes" at their facility), I saw the ceiling again.   The ceiling that exists in yoga where so many of us are driven to increase our skill base, we get advanced trainings and work endlessly to be a better teacher.  But there is very little difference between a 200 hour and 500 hour teacher.  Very few studios offer increased pay, we really aren't given priority in class selection or scheduling workshops.  We hit a ceiling. 

Not because we stop learning. Not because we stop caring.

Because we keep getting better at teaching yoga classes without expanding the number of problems we're equipped to solve.

We learn more poses.More impactful cueing. More sequencing. Lots and lots of anatomy.

And many of us find ourselves asking:

What's next?

The opportunities don't expand at the same rate our knowledge does. The classes get better.

The career often doesn't expand at the same rate. 

I think that's because most advanced education in yoga focuses on going deeper into the same room.

A deeper understanding of poses.

A deeper understanding of philosophy.

A deeper understanding of sequencing.

But very little discussion about where yoga belongs outside the yoga room.

Sports performance.

Corporate wellness.

Preventative healthcare.

Burnout.

Recovery.

Human performance.

Behavior change.

These are some of the most important conversations happening today.

And yoga has something meaningful to contribute to every one of them. But only if we understand how to apply it and that is a very important distinction.

Not just more information.  Learning application.

Because application creates possibility.

The ability to walk into any room and discuss recovery instead of stretching.

Stress physiology instead of relaxation.

Performance instead of flexibility.

The ability to connect yoga to real-world problems people are actively trying to solve.

Those conversations create opportunities.

And opportunities create careers.

Maybe that's the ceiling so many yoga teachers feel. Not a lack of knowledge.

A lack of pathways showing us where that knowledge can go.

I don't think the future of yoga is more poses.

I think the future of yoga is better application.

And the teachers who learn how to do that will find themselves having very different conversations than the ones they were trained for.

If this resonates, please reach out to continue the conversation:

APEX Community

For teachers who want to think more deeply about yoga, human performance, stress physiology, nervous system regulation, recovery, and the real-world application of the practice.

Each month we explore the principles that change how you teach, how you practice, and how you see the people in front of you.

$97/month.

And every dollar you invest applies toward APEX Performance Institute tuition through October 2026.

APEX Performance Institute (300-Hour)

The next cohort begins October 2026.

Founding cohort tuition is $3,997 through June 30 (if you are considering it and want to lock in this price before it increases, please reach out-we can work something out)

Because the future of yoga isn't more information.

It's better application.

And application creates possibility.