14
PERSONAL JOURNEYS
A.J. Pollock
A.J. Pollock is a Major League Baseball player for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
After being drafted in the first round out of the University of Notre Dame, he
made his MLB debut in 2012. In 2015, A.J. was an MLB All-Star and won a
Gold Glove Award. He ended his all-star season batting .315 with 20 home
runs and 76 RBIs.T.E. How did you get into yin yoga?
A.P. I have a lot of yang in my life, a lot of go, go, go. Right now, everything is
geared toward how to maximize your recovery, especially in the sport I play.
Everyone that I’ve given the yin DVD from your set The Ultimate Yogi to try
out, the response has been just awesome. It’s never like, “Yeah, I kind of like
that.” It’s something like, “Wow! That’s something that I really need!” For
me, right away, it felt amazing. My sleep was way better. It was a meditation,
but also a stretch where I got a lot of good stuff going on in my body. I really
enjoy it and it’s probably the number one thing I do on the road yoga-wise. I
do it after games. It’s huge the way I feel the next day. It’s like a recharge for
my whole body!T.E. Have you seen an increase of yoga and meditation within
baseball?
A.P. Definitely. Players who are looking for their peak performance, they’re
seeing that you need to have balance in how you train. I definitely see a willing-
ness to go outside of what the traditional training is. Usually, it was old-school
weight room stuff: Put the weight on your back and do squats or do the bench
press. It's probably not as usable as yoga is when you get on the field. I think
there's a big demand for yoga out there in baseball.T.E. Can you describe some of the speci c physical bene ts of yin?
A.P. Well, first of all, when you’re playing baseball, your legs feel awful the
whole year! [laughter] Whenever there's a moment when you're like, "Wow!