Synopses & Reviews
Athletes come to the practice of yoga with muscle tightness from hours spent training and little time in their weekly schedules for lengthy sessions. At the height of the season, they often disappear from yoga classes altogether in favor of demanding sport-specific training, yet it is then that yoga can be most beneficial.
Sage Rountree makes it easy for athletes to reap the benefits of yoga year-round. The Athletes Pocket Guide to Yoga is set up to complement a rigorous training schedule.
Athletes will find:
-5-minute warm-ups to prepare for daily workouts
-Strength sessions for the off-season and base periods
-Flexibility sessions for when training grows more demanding, including 20-minute flexibility routines designed to follow workouts
-Focus sessions incorporating breath exercises and meditation to improve recovery and sharpen mental toughness for competition
Armed with this pocket guide, athletes can incorporate yoga into their training all year long. A spiral binding makes it easy to display pages during each routine, and attractive color photographs fluidly detail the individual poses. Sage also includes tips to simplify trickier poses or vary the routine from one session to the next.
Careful consideration of the athletes needs has earned Sage Rountree a committed following, and her newest book delivers a practical approach to yoga that will make good athletes better.
Review
""Since she herself is a triathlete and runner, Rountree knows exactly where you get tight and why, what it feels like before and after certain workouts, the difficulties of combining a good yoga practice with hard training, and whats realistic or not for an athlete."" —
SNEWS
""This sweet little book is a delightful and abundant source of yoga pose sequences. The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga is a great resource for yoga teachers and an easy source of inspiration and guidance for beginner to intermediate yogis."" — YogaBasics.com
""For time-crunched yogis and jocks who dont even identify with the term yogi but want a good stretch or cross-training workout, take a look at The Athletes Pocket Guide to Yoga. With no need to attend a class or even watch a DVD, theres no excuse to not get a few poses in."" — GearJunkie.com
""Sage shares the benefits that yoga has brought to her life as an athlete and offers easy to follow yoga postures and breathing techniques to help athletes of all sports get started with a safe and effective yoga routine and to help them avoid or rehabilitate an injury."" — Beryl Bender Birch, author of Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga, Director/Founder of The Hard and The Soft Yoga Institute, and contributor to Yoga Journal
""Sages clear approach to incorporating yoga into a training season perfectly addresses all the things athletes need to hear about flexibility and balanced conditioning—and Sage delivers it in a way that athletes can relate to."" — Karen Dubs, creator of the Flexible Warrior Athletic Yoga DVD series
“If you're an athlete looking for a straightforward, informative guide to yoga, The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga is for you. The book is portable, easy to read, and informative.” — BreakingMuscle.com
Synopsis
The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery is the first comprehensive exploration of the art and science of athletic rest. Certified cycling, triathlon, and running coach and yoga instructor Sage Rountree guides athletes to full recovery and improved performance. Her book explains how much rest athletes need, how to measure fatigue, and how to make the best use of recovery tools.
Synopsis
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It is during rest that athletes become faster at their sports. During the crucial recovery period after a workout, the body repairs damage and adapts to become stronger than before. Overtired athletes gain little from workouts, risking injury, overtraining, and burn out.
The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery is the first comprehensive exploration of the art and science of athletic rest. Certified cycling, triathlon, and running coach and yoga instructor Sage Rountree guides athletes to full recovery and improved performance. Her book explains how much rest athletes need, how to measure fatigue, and how to make the best use of recovery tools.
Drawing on her own experience and extensive interviews with coaches, trainers, and elite athletes, Rountree details daily recovery practices, demystifying common aids like compression apparel, supplements, and ice baths as well as more exotic technologies. Athletes will discover which methods work and how and when they are most effective.
Rountree offers recovery plans for a variety of events, from short distance bike races to ultramarathons, to athletes can rest assured that they are ready for the next phase of training and racing.
The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery is an invaluable resource that enables athletes to maintain the perfect balance between hard training and rest so that they can feel great and compete at their highest capability.
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Synopsis
For athletes, theres no better path to flexibility and recovery than yoga.
Sage Rountree—yoga teacher, athlete, and coach—knows how to make yoga work toward your goals, address your areas of tightness, and strengthen you for the demands of your sport. The Athletes Pocket Guide to Yoga makes it easy to incorporate yoga into your everyday training all year long. Inside youll find more than 50 illustrated routines:
• Five-minute warm-ups and cool-downs for daily workouts
• Strength routines for the off-season and base periods
• Restorative routines to prepare for competition and enhance recovery
• Flexibility sessions to target core, back and shoulders, hips and legs
The Athletes Pocket Guide to Yoga is the ideal complement to your training schedule because it cultivates recovery, balance, and focus—ultimately making you a better athlete.
SAGE ROUNTREE is a registered yoga teacher and holds coaching certifications with USA Triathlon, Road Runners Club of America, and USA Cycling. She writes for Runners World and Yoga Journal Online, and is the author of The Athletes Guide to Yoga book and DVD.
About the Author
Praise for The Athlete's Guide to Yoga by Sage Rountree:
"Endurance athletes generally have poor flexibility, core strength, balance, and posture. Improving these can really change performance for the better. The Athlete's Guide to Yoga is a great resource to get you on the path to better training and racing." - Joe Friel, founder of Ultrafit and author of The Triathlete's Training Bible, The Cyclist's Training Bible, and The Mountain Biker's Training Bible
"The Athlete's Guide to Yoga is a great resource for athletes. Finally, we have an explanation of how to integrate yoga practice into daily training and within different training cycles. The Athlete's Guide to Yoga is well laid out and easy to follow, and it includes pose adjustments to help athletes overcome sport-specific tightness. I've been practicing yoga to complement to my triathlon training for the past 8 years. Now I have a great tool to take on the road when I can't make it to my usual class." - Samantha McGlone, 2nd Place 2007 Hawaii Ironman World Championships and 2006 Ironman 70.3 World Champion, 2004 Olympian
"After running and racing for nearly thirty years, competing through five Olympic trials and the 1996 Olympics, and traveling the world on U.S. track, road, and cross-country teams, I thought I knew all the tricks for success and longevity in distance running. Yoga helped me set a world age-group record in the indoor mile and an outdoor American record in the 1500m at age 45. Yoga should have been-and will be from here on out-added to the mix of ingredients for success for any serious endurance athlete. Incorporate the practice of yoga into your weekly training regimen, and it will make a difference in your life as an endurance athlete. I highly recommend The Athlete's Guide to Yoga to all athletes who want to train smarter and race faster." - from the foreword by long-distance runner Joan Nesbit Mabe
"This is a practical in-your-body guidebook for anyone wanting to take their fitness routine into new realms. Clearly written, beautifully illustrated, it's a real resource for starting and deepening a practice that stays true to yoga's depth. Postures, breathing, relaxation, meditation, training routines, it's all here." - Richard Faulds, Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
"Yoga is not only good for athletes-it is essential, for both the physical and mental benefits. On the physical side, training for sport makes the body tight. In sports like running and cycling which involve specificity of movement, which means using the same muscles over and over, some muscles get extremely tight while others do virtually nothing. Other sports, like tennis or golf, are one-sided and cause lateral imbalance which can lead to injury. Still other sports, like climbing or volleyball have a greater variety of movements involved, but the training effect still causes tightening of the muscles which leads to imbalance and, eventually, injury! Learning yoga is about learning, ultimately, to pay attention. It is about learning to mentally focus, and that is important in any sport. Sage shares the benefits that yoga has brought to her life as an athlete and offers easy to follow yoga postures and breathing techniques to help athletes of all sports get started with a safe and effective yoga routine and to help them avoid or rehabilitate an injury." - Beryl Bender Birch, author of Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga, Director/Founder of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute, and contributor to Yoga Journal
"The Athletes Guide to Yoga gives a profound outline for training one's bodymind for peak performance at the highest and most integrated level. It's a wonderful book and Sage is a gifted teacher!" - Baron Baptiste, author of Journey into Power and teacher to professional athletes, including the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team
"I refer my clients to The Athlete's Guide to Yoga all the time. Sage's clear approach to incorporating yoga into a training season perfectly addresses all the things athletes need to hear about flexibility and balanced conditioning-and Sage delivers it in a way that athletes can relate to. Cross training with different styles of yoga can be very beneficial and learning from different teachers can help athletes really integrate both the mental and physical benefits of yoga into their lives and sports. As a yoga teacher and an athlete, I think The Athletes Guide to Yoga is an awesome resource." - Karen Dubs, creator of the Flexible Warrior Athletic Yoga DVD series
"We athletes on the SNEWS(r) team just simply love The Athlete's Guide to Yoga. Somehow Sage Rountree has managed to maintain her yogic voice...while also toning it down just enough to speak directly to an athlete....The book is straightforward without all the frou-frou and implied incense-burning and ohmmm of yoga that could turn off some athletes...Since she herself is a triathlete and runner, Rountree knows exactly where you get tight and why, what it feels like before and after certain workouts, the difficulties of combining a good yoga practice with hard training, and what's realistic or not for an athlete." - SNEWS
"Whether you're a yogini or you've never heard of downward-facing dog, you'll come away with something useful from The Athlete's Guide to Yoga." - Women's Adventure Magazine
Table of Contents
PART 1: YOGA AND THE ATHLETE
Yoga and Your Training
Equipment
Alignment Principles
Breathing
How to Use This Book
PART 2: YOGA ROUTINES
Warm-ups
Spinal Warm-up, Prone
Spinal Warm-up, Supine
Spinal Warm-up, Seated
Half Salutes with Chair
Balance
Tall Mountain Flow
Chair and Tree
Standing Balance Flow
Crane and Warrior III
Standing Poses
Sun Salutations with Lunges
Moon Salutations
Standing Hip Openers
Core, Back, and Shoulders
Static Core
Dynamic Core
Table Core Sequence
Camel
Bow Sequence
Supported Back Bends
Shoulder Strap Series
Interlaced Fingers Series
Wall Shoulder Stretches
Hips and Legs
Lunge Series
Bowing Sequences
Pigeon Series
Head to Knee Sequence
IT Band Flow
Hamstring Strap Series
Symmetrical Stretches
Lower-Leg Stretches
Restorative Routines
Gentle Stretches
Wall Folds
Inversions
Reclining Twists
Supported Stretches
Corpse Pose
Breath Exercises and Meditations
Centering
The Breath in Space
The Breath in Time
Alternate-Nostril Breathing
Counting Meditation
Observation Meditation
Closing
PART 3: FOCUSED ROUTINES AND COMBINING SEQUENCES
Getting Started
Focus on Strength
Focus on Power
Focus on Flexibility
Focus on Focus
Resources
Acknowledgments
About the Models
About the Author