Yoga for Refs
Running for twenty years, I had never pulled a muscle. Then it happened. It couldn't have been at a worse time. During a fitness test with every state grade referee in Ohio South present, one of the tires went flat. Shortly after, I began to notice that lots of referees were pulling muscles during the season.
I had heard about yoga as a method for stretching and flexibility, and decided to try it. That's when I discovered that there's much more to yoga than stretching. You not only achieve greater flexibility[~]a factor that helps prevent muscle pulls[~]but you also gain strength, balance, and mind/body coordination.
Yoga practice consists of a series of ''poses" designed to isolate a muscle or muscle group to both stretch and strengthen. For instance, a series of poses downward-facing dog to plank to crocodile to cobra and back is like an excruciatingly slow push up. After three months of these, I gained far more upper body strength and definition than from six months on Nautilus machines. An added benefit is the ability to bend over and touch the ground without bending my knees.
2:12:13 PM 
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