Athletes may not be turning in their rackets and oars for spandex and yoga mats just yet, but an increasing number of Harvard athletes are doing yoga to sharpen their physical and mental game.

The nation’s largest Division I program with 41 varsity sports, Harvard has more than 1500 student-athletes juggling athletic and academic commitments. According to the National College Health Assessment 2004, 33.7 percent of Harvard undergraduates indicate stress as an impediment to performance, both academic and otherwise.

From the varsity men and women’s squash team to the varsity men and women’s crew team, athletes on campus are finding that yoga offers a needed break from the rigor of day-to-day campus life.

Among the first to include yoga as part of their program, the Harvard men and women’s squash teams require weekly hour-long yoga sessions on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Led by Head Coach Satinder Bajwa and Assistant Coach Mohammed Ayaz, the men and women’s squash teams practice yoga together. Citing the physical benefits of stretching and injury prevention, Mohammed Ayaz also emphasizes the mental and emotional benefits of yoga. “There is a lot of stress for squash players in dealing with academics, athletics and social scenes. Yoga gives our players more balance,” he says.

“The yoga we do is a mental challenge—a simple task made difficult by the exactness we put into it,” says Verdi DiSesa ’09, a member of the Harvard squash team. “We may get more strength training and injury prevention from weight training, but yoga helps our team to internalize our breathing and to concentrate on moving more deliberately on the court.”

A college tennis player at Harvard and now the founder and director of Core Yoga, Deborah Cohen ’91 customizes her yoga sessions for the Harvard women’s tennis team.

“Depending on the sport, I emphasize different poses. Tennis players have tight hamstrings and shoulders, so we work on loosening these areas”. Yoga, she says, also helps bring the body into overall alignment by encouraging full range of motion.

Even more than the physical benefits, however, Cohen cites the mental benefits of yoga for increasing awareness, “In America, there is a misconception that yoga is just stretching, but it’s not just that. First and foremost, it is a mindfulness technique to quiet the mind through the lens of the body.”

Incorporating mental exercises into her yoga sessions, Cohen uses breathing, focus, and visualization exercises to help athletes increase awareness of the connection between mind, body, and breath.

“Visualization is something you have to practice. It’s like a muscle. With visualization techniques, we help the mind to become quiet, and our awareness opens up. We may experience different states of consciousness; we may not. But visualization helps to orient athletes toward seeing more clearly,” she says.

Citing the multi-layered benefits of yoga for his players, Gordon Graham, head coach of the Harvard women’s tennis team says, “At a high-stress place like Harvard, it is important for our athletes to learn breathing and relaxation skills. We’ve had a healthier season so far this year than last year, so yoga seems to be working. If we could, we’d do more”.

“Tennis is a very mental sport, and yoga helps with stress-reduction, relaxation, and meditation even more than stretching,” says Cindy M. Chu ’07, a member of the tennis team. “It may not be for everyone, but it certainly helps my game.”

Even Harvard men’s heavyweight crew—the 2005 National Champions—incorporates yoga into its program. Head Coach Harry Parker says, “We don’t have an official yoga class, but we do use yoga exercises as part of our stretching routine to improve flexibility and as a form of injury prevention.”

While not all Harvard teams offer yoga, many athletes attend yoga sessions elsewhere on campus. Organized by House Wellness Tutors, Adams, Mather, and Dunster have weekly yoga classes. Harvard’s Malkin Athletic Center and the Harvard Law School Hemenway Gym also offer yoga.

As Liz O’Leary, Head Coach of Harvard’s women’s crew team says, “Yoga is for everyone. It doesn’t just have sport-specific benefits. It’s a lifetime thing.”