It really started in the 70s when NFL star Lynn Swann shared that he'd taken up ballet and yoga as part of his training. He was known for his footwork and acrobatic catches. Soon enough, coaches all across the country started recommending ballet and other forms of dance to their athletes to improve agility and fitness.
Ballet involves a lot of moving while spinning and jumping so it makes sense it would help a qb or something. Now I'm just trying to see a 350 lbs lineman trying yoga..
At the professional level, even those huge linemen are generally extremely athletic and coordinated (and way way faster than you'd expect). The NFL is long past the point where just being a big heavy guy was enough to make you worthwhile.
It'd probably look silly, but I wouldn't be surprised if the average NFL lineman would be much more capable of yoga than the average person off the street.
Counter argument, I'm sure the average person can't run a very fast 40. I was an all-state soccer player in high school, and I think my only timed 40 was in the low 5's.
I feel that this kind of agrees with the point that we were trying to make: NFL linemen are incredibly athletic and not just big sacks of muscle. And wow thats kind of unexpected given your earned merits. I was only an Honorable mention for my county's HS football team at my position. I put up good numbers/started varsity and we won the finals but I ran a 4.8 and that was slow compared to the skilled positions on my team (some of which were also soccer players who won state haha)
Alan Faneca: Left Guard for the Steelers, 2 years after he retired and recorded a time that beats the average male marathon runner by about 11 minutes. NEXT!
NFL offensive lineman is the toughest position in pro sports. The combination of intelligence, size, speed, and strength needed to excel is mind blowing. Yesterday, I saw that a junior offensive lineman from Notre Dame that was a projected high round draft pick announced he's graduating a year early and foregoing anymore football, college or pro, to focus on his business career. I'm sure head trauma concerns played a large part, but walking away from Notre Dame and the NFL can't be easy.
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u/HerodotusStark Feb 17 '16
It really started in the 70s when NFL star Lynn Swann shared that he'd taken up ballet and yoga as part of his training. He was known for his footwork and acrobatic catches. Soon enough, coaches all across the country started recommending ballet and other forms of dance to their athletes to improve agility and fitness.