The ancient arts of Judo and Yoga both refer to a "way of life" or a connection of the things that give you life: your breath, your mind and spirit, and your movements. Both arts or practices require technique, precision, and repetition of movements until they are done perfectly.

When Jigoro Kano created Judo, the moral code and foundation was to emphasized the value of training with specific technique for defense and attack to be a "way of life" that all be people could practice and perfect.

Similarly, Yoga is a connection of the mind, body, and soul, or the life and breath of an individual. It is practiced through movements and techniques. Yoga's philosophy becomes a "way of life" or the passion for those who consistently practice.

As a way to enhance and complement physical performance, athletes use Yoga to connect their bodies and minds. Just as in many martial arts with ancient philosophy and deep tradition, Yoga influences the mood and mental capacity of athletes. Yoga is used as a supplemental training to improve Judo and other martial art technique. It has been said that mediation should be the natural result of Judo and for a judoka to develop to their full potential the art of mediation and Yoga should be incorporated into training.

Yoga forces the mind to engage the body: athlete gain a competitive edge through Yoga practice:
• Strength: Increasing strength through Yoga as a supplement to your typical training routine, an athlete can become stronger in all parts of body. Regularly holding one's body weight up strengthen muscles without over exerting them.
• Flexibility and Range of Motion: By increasing the muscles ability to stretch or their flexibility, many injuries can be prevented. When muscles are flexible and have better range of motion, athletes are able to strength condition their muscles for a better overall strength.
• Efficient and Effective Training: Yoga can make all training more efficient and effective because of body mechanics, awareness, balance, and stability.
• Increased Endurance: With certain postures that Yoga encourages, your respiratory capacity is increased because of the opening of your chest. The opening of the chest increases respiration and circulation leading to better endurance.
• Optimal Performance: Athletes who participate in endurance oriented sports, sports that require full concentration, and high excursion sports benefit from Yoga as a meditative practice. By being able to coordinate your mind and body, athletes are able to maximize performance while pacing themselves and conserving energy, or by using maximum effort at the appropriate moment to achieve optimal performance.
• Ambidextrous Yoga: Many athletes tend to favor one side of the body, one hand or foot over the other. Yoga promotes strength equality to both sides of the body bringing a needed sense of balance and ambidexterity.
• Resilience to Injury: With the ability to concentrate on controlled and slowed muscles movement when strengthening with Yoga, the integrity of the muscle is more resilience to over stretching, over excursion, and damage. Thus, athletes become more resilient to injury and injuries tend to occur less overall.
• Quick Recovery: Yoga also enables athletes to recover more quickly. With increased circulation, the body's metabolic composition is able to process byproducts produced from competition or training and allows the body to heal or recover more quickly.
• Breath Awareness: The ability to be aware of inhaling and exhaling breath gives an athlete control over their body and mind. Athletes face high adrenaline and high stress challenging situations constantly. By knowing how to be aware of your breath and to be able to control it, athletes can avoid panicking and developing anxiety that is natural during competition. Controlling and being aware of your breath can be the difference in winning or losing.
• Focus: Most likely the most important benefit of Yoga for an athlete is focus. This mindfulness is the factor that distinguishes a champion from a competitor. With a daily practice, athletes gain an incredible sense of awareness and are able to exceed expectation in training and performance.

Because Yoga is a diverse and complex discipline, individuals can continuous learn and practice Yoga for a lifetime and still not master every aspect of the spirituality and practice. It is known to many as a lifelong journey or quest to understand one's self.

• Yoga can be practiced anywhere by any person.
• It can be worked into almost any lifestyle or schedule.
• Yoga in its origin was meant to be for every person. It was meant to heal, to calm, to strengthen, to empower something within every person.
• Yoga, rather than discriminates, welcomes and connects people on the mat no matter their race, age, gender, shape, size, background, or fitness level.

Those with special needs require special learning techniques for the development of basic skills in a gentle, non-confrontational, and natural way. Yoga provides an avenue for learning that creates an environment of connection and awareness that is conducive to the development of skills needed for everyday life for those with special needs.

• Alternative therapy to typical doctor recommended treatments
• Increases attention, focus and ability to concentrate
• Promotes communication, language development and social skills
• Builds self-confidence and boost self-esteem
• Develops stronger muscles especially for those who have muscle development issues
• Motor skill and balance development
• Loosens tight muscles and increase flexibility
• Develops sensory function and addresses kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learning practices
• Introduces the ability to be aware of body, breath, and surroundings
• Increased cognitive, physical, and emotional growth with one-on-one instruction
• Ability to learn relaxation technique and breathing exercise for challenging moments faced every day
• Ability to communicate and express emotions without anger
• Gives opportunity for emotional expression
• Teaches coping mechanisms and skills that will help in response to stress, tension, worry, anxiety, and depression
• Promotes positive behavior and improves mood
• Improves sleep and promotes a healthy lifestyle

Yoga gives children the opportunity to participate in an activity that is not design to stimulate then but allows them to slow down and connect with themselves. This is a technique that can change the life of a child in this non-stop, fast paced world that we live in today.

Physical Benefits:

• Increases coordination, strength, balance and flexibility
• Motivating factor to keep kids moving and active with the overexposure to electronics that exist today.
• Gives sense of awareness for themselves and others
• Shows incentive for kids to set goals that are achievable for a young body and shows achievement with success in practice and perfecting poses
• Used a calming and grounding technique and can benefit sleep

• Allows a child to center themselves and focus on something. Focus is a problem for many children in society today.
• With physical movements and storytelling, a child has the opportunity to develop their imagination and ease into a meditative state without distraction that is not something that a child would typically do without the practice of Yoga. The trait for being able to mediate and imagine things develops the creativity of the child and is a natural way of reducing stress.
• With a world full of over-stimulating things, Yoga can be the positive mind body connection that will allow the child to deal with difficult situations with an ability to regulate their emotions.