Shane Watson reveals his fitness secret

The former Australian opener Shane Watson recently revealed his fitness secret in an interview with the cricket.com.au. Watson has been one of those players who could have had a much-elongated career had he not been plagued by frequent injuries.

During his playing days for the national team, Watson tried his hands at every remedy but in vain. Now he realizes that a simple practice of everyday yoga would have solved all his issues. Watson says the ancient art of yoga, which combines breathing techniques, exercise and meditation, has made a “huge difference” in the later stages of his career.

He said that if he had to advice someone like him on fitness issues, he would only suggest two things – meditation and yoga. “If I was helping someone coming through who has similar (injury) issues to me, there are two things I would definitely recommend,” Watson quoted.

Explaining further, he quoted, “The first is the meditation side of things – just have a bit of chill out time, because life and cricket is all very busy and you just need time for your body and mind to relax a bit.”

“But the most important thing is yoga.”

Speaking on yoga, the former Aussie all-rounder said that it is a misconception among people that yoga makes people overly flexible. “For quite a while a lot of people were saying you shouldn’t stretch, you shouldn’t be over-flexible, so I hardly stretched. ut now I’ve been doing yoga and it’s just changed things totally. I would have got a different result if I had have done yoga throughout my career, there’s no doubt,” Shane Watson added.

He regrets not doing yoga since his early days in the game. Talking about the routine, he said it only takes half a hour. “It’s only half an hour a day before training, before playing. It’s pretty simple and I think that might have made a big difference,” he said.

Watson also looked largely impressed with ancient Indian medicine practice Ayurveda and talked about it as well. “I got into the Ayurveda side of things, understanding Ayurveda medicine which is based on ancient Indian medicine. Whether it’s turmeric or ghee or warm milk, there are so many different things you can have or do depending on how you feel or the weather, quoted the Aussie.

Watson had an illustrious career of 14 years of international cricket and is currently plying his trade in the IPL for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

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