Athletes are scattered around the room, waiting for practice to start. The coach walks in and everyone knows it’s time to begin. But instead of heading towards the exercise machines, everyone grabs a thin mat, unrolls it on the floor and begins in Downward Dog.

Many winter sports teams complete a yoga routine as part of practice. Yoga sessions help sports teams build up flexibility and strength, while also relieving stress.

Junior and boys varsity skier Aidan Nagle believes that yoga helps the team stay in shape when there is no snow.

“During the preseason, when you can’t go skiing yet, we do yoga as sort of an alternative to a workout,” Nagle said. “It’s still an exercise, but it’s also a good way to stretch. It kind of gets everyone to calm down and relax a bit.”

According to junior Jared Tow, who is on the boys varsity hockey team, yoga helps the hockey team stretch and remain agile.

“Yoga really helps to relax your muscles, especially if you’re practicing everyday for almost the whole week,” Tow said. “I think it’s really helpful.”

Sophomore and girls varsity skier Emi Tsukada considers yoga to be one approach to unwind from constant skiing.

“We just keep skiing, so yoga is a time to stretch and more of a relaxing time,” Tsukada said. “It’s less intense than on snow practices.”

Tow said that the yoga sessions were generally well-received by the rest of the hockey team.

“At first, everyone took it kind of as a joke,” Tow said. “But the more we get into it, the more we take it seriously.”

According to Tsukada, the ski team generally responds positively to doing yoga.

“Everyone likes the yoga,” Tsukada said. “It’s so much fun; it’s definitely a really good bonding time.”

According to Nagle, yoga has helped teams wind down and work out simultaneously.

“Yoga was sort of a good way to take all of that and relax, stretch it out and make sure we were in good shape for next week,” Nagle said.

Tsukada said that yoga has ultimately been advantageous for the skiers.

“We decided to do yoga to come together as a team and just have fun together,” Tsukada said. “It’s definitely had a positive impact on our team.”