Wilderness yoga & outdoor sports: stretch and breathe in the outdoor experience with Michelle Anderson.

I invite you to embark on an experiment. The next time you are preparing to practice yoga, instead of going to the studio or the living room, take a deep breath and walk outside. Head to your back yard, to a park of go into a wild area close by, maybe a national park or a wilderness area. Once there, find yourself a comfortable flat spot, removing twigs and stones, lay out your yoga mat and sit in silence for a moment attuning yourself to the Earth.

As you begin your yoga practice outside, notice how your body feels and observe your mind and your breath. As your practice continues, notice the shedding of extraneous thoughts and ideas and how the sounds, smells, and feelings of nature surround you. Become aware of the deepening of your breath. Observe your asanas (yoga postures). Notice the difference in your balancing postures as your feet are rooted into the Earth and your focus is on a still point. Attend to the feeling of Savasana, (corpse pose), lying on your back, legs apart, hands comfortably at your sides, sky unfolding before you. Experience Child's Pose, sitting on your heels, chest and forehead supported by the Earth, as you exhale tension and stress and inhale relaxation and peace. Notice how this yoga practice is fundamentally different than a yoga session done inside.

Now let us take the experiment a little farther. You are ready to go biking, rock climbing, hiking or kayaking and before heading out directly into your sport you find a beautiful spot outdoors at the base of the climb or beside the river. Here, you focus your mind, deepen your breath and practice yoga. After completing your pranayama (breathing exercises), asanas, relaxation, and meditation you retain the peaceful feeling within and begin climbing, running, or hiking. While practicing your sport, observe how your body responds. Notice the depth and type of breathing you are doing, notice the control of your mind and the feel of your muscles, tendons and bones. Notice the quality of the activity. Where is your attention?

Yoga is the unity or mind and body, the union of the inner and outer worlds. The richer and more peaceful the surroundings are while practicing yoga, the clearer and more profound the practice could be. In my experience, practicing yoga outside adds a depth of awareness, attunement, and joy to my session that continues to affect me beyond the day. Practicing yoga before climbing, backpacking, and hiking has become a natural development to stretch my body in preparation for the sport and more profoundly to focus my attention to the peaceful silence within. Yoga, pranayama, relaxation and meditation inform many aspects of outdoor sports.

Yoga postures teach us to soften those muscles that we do not need for the asana, thus helping the practioner to economize their energy and relax the body. As we settle into more difficult asanas, free of self judgment, we learn to embrace our resistance, letting our bodies adjust to the challenge. When biking swiftly down a steep single track trail, kayaking through challenging rapids, or climbing a demanding route, we physically remember the yoga practice, relaxing the muscles that are not needed for the sport and integrating the body, mind, spirit, and breath. The practice of pranayama is another remarkable tool for an athlete. Breath control is essential for endurance, focus, their breath, inhaling and exhaling thorough the nose. When the concentration is on the breath, there is no room for other thoughts; there is only the experience of the moment. Breathing exercises energize the body, oxygenate the blood, and focus the mind.

Relaxation is sometimes overlooked when engaging in active sports. Savasana (corpse pose) teaches us, in the span of one of two breaths how to completely relax the body, and release tension. By doing this often, you actually create muscle memory. When climbing, running, swimming, or participating in sports, one can access this memory and completely relax the body using breath and awareness. By practicing Savasana throughout the activity, the body integrates the benefits of the sport and decreases fatigue and lactic acid build up.

Practicing yoga in the wilderness will deepen and enrich your experience. Incorporating your practice with a sport of choice will bring a noticeable difference in your body awareness, your breath, and your relationship to nature.

Michelle Anderson is a certified Sivananda Yoga Instructor and cofounder of Life Centering Adventures (www.Lifecenteringadventures.com), combining yoga, backpacking and rock climbing for families, groups, and individuals. Michelle lives in Asheville, NC with her husband Joseph and son Jacob.