Yoga for Anxiety

Workout
Written By Tracy Hayes
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When I was planning what content and yoga “stuff” to use here, one of the first things I knew I needed was some kind of moves for stress and anxiety. My husband is now retired from playing (but is currently a mentor for the Royals) and I remember during his games and even leading up to them it was pretty freaking stressful. I used to bring a nail file to the game because if I didn’t have one, I would just start picking at and then biting off all of my nails because I was just really anxious.

When he’d go on a road trip, I hated staying alone in our place. I’d booby-trap the entire house and not get any sleep until he was back in town. We got moved up in the middle of every season we played and I just remember being in a brand new city, on the final day of the team paying for a hotel…sitting on a luggage cart in the hotel lobby with all of our stuff…crying because I had no idea where we were going to live.

At the time we were playing, Our Baseball Life and the Facebook group didn’t exist so it wasn’t easy to find out the girls on the new teams. Needless to say it was stressful and overwhelming.

I’m telling you that because one thing that I discovered later on and wished I had known sooner is some of these yoga poses to help me just cope. Just breathe and realize that it was always going to be okay. It probably would have saved me a few nail files and nails bit off to my knuckles. lol. 

All of these poses are sooooo good for just bringing awareness to your body, to help calm your breath, your nerves, open yourself up to the fact that YOU ARE GOING TO BE OKAY. 

Whether you experience anxiety and stress or not, these poses are a great way to just be okay with yourself. Be okay with where you are. Be okay with where you are going. You’ve totally got this, girl.

 
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For other poses, inspiration or just to see what else I’ve got going on, find me on IG: instagram.com/yoga_tracy <3

 
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Tracy Hayes
Tracy Hayes

Meet Tracy Hayes, our Yoga, Pilates, + Mobility expert contributor!

I’m so happy to be a part of Our Baseball Life’s amazing baseball family and am grateful for the opportunity to help others feel and move stronger.

I’ve been in the fitness industry for over 20 years, working specifically with athletes for nearly 15 yrs when I stumbled into professional baseball because of my husband’s career. We were with the Royals up until 2010 (I think!) and this is where I was first to introduce yoga to the team during spring training.

Over the years, I’ve fine-tuned specialized classes aiming to improve kinematic sequencing through neuromuscular training designed to improve pro athletes' mobility.

My “signature class” combines the foundations of physical therapy-based functional yoga (LYT), classical Pilates, Functional Range Conditioning methodologies, Postural Restoration Institute teachings, positive mindset language, visualizations, and breathing techniques.

In these classes, we focus on building up from developmental sequences to improving active end-range strength, proprioception and balance, proper positioning for efficient diaphragmatic breathing, and an overall advancement in better mobility. My approach to teaching is a synergistic combination concentrating on the biomechanics of muscles working more efficiently to help players improve explosive movements, power, and swinging/pitching motions.

This is all fancy language for balancing inefficiencies and improving poor movement patterns to help someone move better, feel better and excel in performance. My classes aren’t quite the type of yoga like you’d see in a studio, in my opinion, not everything you see in a traditional yoga class is appropriate for pro-baseball players.

I’ve got a host of certifications ranging from 700 hours of specialized functional yoga training to a FRC Mobility Specialist certification, Kinstretch, Pilates (I published a Pilates manual!), functional training, and too many more to list. I love what I do and am always learning.

Oh and more about me - and most importantly, I’m a mama to 4 little kiddos! I am one of those “hot-mess” moms, totally going out un-showered, late to everything, and brain working on little to no sleep - I figure I’ll just fake it ’til I make it as a mom and hope to God everyone is alive at the end of the day. :)

If you’ve got any mobility or yoga questions or are interested in hearing about programs for athletes, shoot me a message on one of these places:

IG: https://instagram.com/yoga_tracy

http://amplifiedmovement.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amplifiedmove



Tracy Hayes

Tracy is a mama (of 4 littles!), wanderlust, seeker of truth and a lover of the beach, hilariously horrible car singing, and really small waves to surf on. She is passionate about wellness inside and out and is a Pilates and e-RYT-200 certified yoga instructor who can’t help herself and takes pictures of yoga poses in random places (airport conveyor belts, tops of tractors, etc). She is married to former MiLB pitcher, Chris Hayes, who is now a private mental performance coach for players and together they also run a web and app development shop. Tracy is also a yoga instructor to several teams during Spring Training and does private yoga sessions the rest of the year.

http://amplifiedmovement.com/
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