Bucs players readying for season by sweating in yoga studio

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Robert Ayers is listed at 6-foot-3 and 275 pounds – size he needs to tangle with offensive linemen on a week-to-week basis.

But brute strength isn’t all Ayers needs to be successful. He also needs balance and stability, so the first punch from a tackle won’t send him backwards and take him out of a play.

The 30-year old, who joined the Bucs earlier this year after totaling 14 sacks in 24 games over the 2014-15 seasons with the New York Giants, is one of a growing number of NFL players using yoga to stay flexible. Ayers and several teammates have been taking classes at a facility in Tampa staying in shape while they wait for training camp to start later this month.

“I do it every offseason to work on my flexibility, my mobility, my core, my stability,” Ayers told Tampa Bay Times writer Greg Auman. “I’m not extreme, but I like it. If you want to do things, performance-wise, it’s not just about lifting weights and running fast and bench-pressing and pushing sleds.”

Ayers and fellow defensive end Noah Spence, defensive backs Chris Conte, Keith Tandy and rookie Vernon Hargreaves, linebacker Adarius Glanton have been part of the yoga classes, and quarterback Jameis Winston (who unveiled his new beach body in a recent Instagram post) has tried it as well.

Ayers, who began yoga in college, knows the flexibility comes in handy. “When I’m trying to turn the edge, if someone’s pushing me, I don’t want to fall easy,” he said. “You turn your hips, you flip your feet and stay balanced the whole time. I need to stay strong, to fight resistance, to be flexible, and this helps with all that.”

The Buccaneers players take class with Kristy Robinson, herself a former athlete who has practiced yoga for five years and has taught the discipline for two. Robinson touts not only the physical advantages of yoga, but the mental and spiritual ones as well.

“They do a lot of strength training and conditioning, but it’s really important to have flexibility to balance the strength,” Robinson said. “Developing more mobility and flexibility is really helpful to prevent injury, and that’s huge for an athlete.”

Robinson ends each class with the savasana, a relaxation pose when players lie flat on their backs with the lights dimmed.

“It’s great for the mindfulness aspect of it,” she said. “Just five, 10 minutes for them to turn their thoughts off. They have such high expectations put on them. It can help them off the field, too.”