Karen Ashby

When you see the likes of Rafael Nadal battering the ball around a tennis court, it might not be immediately clear how yoga and tennis fit together. However, yoga has been a key ingredient in improved tennis fitness, and it’s changed the way the game is played. Over the last 15 years, professional tennis has become a much more physical sport. Gone are the days of serve and volley and part time professionals; tennis is now a very demanding full-time job.  Where a normal person will have the weekend to recover from a long week at work, a professional tennis player must recover from gruelling long matches while travelling and keeping up intense hours of practice. This means pros need to find a way to effectively and efficiently look after their bodies, engage in active recovery and improve their on-court performance in a time effective manner. If only such a thing existed… Here’s where yoga has shown to be a vital tool! The Pros Turning to Yoga Many professional tennis players have

By Shanti Kaur Khalsa The COVID-19 pandemic has made the world far more uncertain. It’s impacted our work and finances, our relationships, and of course, our physical and mental health. Finding the sense of surety we all crave is almost impossible, which leads to stress, anxiety, and powerlessness that drains us emotionally. These feelings of helplessness can be traumatic, putting our body and mind in a constant “flight or fight” state. Staying in this tense state for too long not only hurts our quality of life but makes our immune systems more vulnerable.  It’s important to recognize that this stress is a natural response to what’s happening in the world. After being gentle with ourselves, we also need to find a self-care routine that treats both the body and the mind, helping us to break the cycle of endless “what-ifs” about tomorrow’s challenges.  There are plenty of ways to cope with anxiety from uncertainty. Exercise, meditation, and breathing techniques have all been proven to