Yoga has Rangers reliever Keone Kela feeling zen as camp begins

For professional athletes, a healthy body is everything. To help achieve that during the off-season, a group of Rangers players added yoga to their conditioning programs, including reliever Keone Kela. Yoga, Kela said, has done much more than help him stretch out.

“It taught me more about my body,” said Kela who begins his third season in the majors. “I didn’t know I was tight and how to alleviate some of the tension in certain parts of my body. It taught me how to breath, meditate.”

It also has created elongation in his arms when throwing, Kela said.

“Its made everything more fluid and I don’t get as tight when I throw,” he said.

Kela, Matt Bush, Delino DeShields, Shin-Soo Choo, Elvis Andrus, Robinson Chirinos have all incorporated yoga into their routine.

The group would lift weights Monday, Wednesday and Friday and do yoga on Tuesday and Thursday.

Kela missed over two months during his sophomore season after surgery to remove a bone spur in his right elbow. It was an issue the club was aware of late in the 2015 season during Kela’s rookie year.

With the club battling for a post-season spot and Kela becoming a huge part of the bullpen, they had him pitch through it. It flared up during spring training a year ago which forced the surgery.

“I feel like my rookie year, fresh and ready to go,” Kela said. “They say you don’t really enjoy the sweet unless you taste the bitter. I got to go through that and I’m fortunate for that because it could have been worse.”

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Yoga has Rangers reliever Keone Kela feeling zen as camp begins."