Whilst looking at the Willerup blog trying to locate the Aggy speed caving stuff I came upon this quote -

" Caving is like applied yoga. Imagine you are doing yoga in a classroom, learning how to extend your arms by nudging your shoulderblade a couple of degrees to the right: this is all extremely useful in caving. Rather than burling your way through a narrow squeeze you can apply your yoga body knowledge and "yoga" your way through. It's an absolutely brilliant combination of the two sports. You will discover how gracious caving then becomes. In the extreme cases knowing how you twist and turn your corpus is essential to get trough ultra tight squeezes."

At first I was tempted to laugh it off specially when I learned that caving can be " gracious ". Then I though no. This is eminently sensible . I always say to newcomers " dont fight the rock it will usually win " Perhaps this topic has been covered here before. I suppose I should have checked. Well I do feel there is an important link here as caving is all about conserving energy as usually the route out is twice as hard as the down hill route in. I practiced Yoga a bit in my diving. Here you are conserving air or gas rather than energy. For me it became a routine. Arrive early, find a good place on the boat, kit up slowly and methodically always trying to reduce stress. Just the breathing exercises help. Try it next time you are stuck in a queue in the bank.
After a long time caving your brain gets trained to "see" the easiest way through any part of a cave. Its like riding a bike. Once learned never forgotten. You are rarely aware of the process it just happens. Combine this learning with yoga just a little bit and what do you get? To be a better caver then hopefully. Not to be " burling " your way about expending valuable energy for little reward.
At nearly 70 I still think I do pretty well. I am not particularity fit. Never have been. 50 years in the hobby must have played a big part in it. No I wont be speed caving down Southern Stream any day soon but I am still here.

Absolutely right, OR. You develop your own comfortable pace and method. Try to go faster than you are comfortable with, or slower, and the trip is nothing like as enjoyable. When going too slow in a complex cave, I find route-finding more difficult, which is rather odd. Go too fast, and you feel very clumsy.

I suffered with a "corkscrew" spine (my shoulders faced left and my hips right!) following an argument with a car on a pedestrian crossing and my physiotherapist, after spending many hours getting my shoulders and hips back into something approaching the correct alignment, suggested that I try a few Yoga classes as this would help to maintain suppleness and build-up the supporting muscles.

So I joined a class and haven't looked back since....(sorry, couldn't resist.. )

Seriously though, 16 years of Yoga practice has been of immense value in allowing me to continue 5-a-side football, running, horse-riding etc. and there are times when in a tight/awkward passage/squeeze that I wish I was 4'6" rather than 6'4" but I have found that being able to apply the "mindful" techniques which enables me to rearrange my limbs, coupled with the aid of correct breathing as OR mentions, I can usually work my self out again....

I cannot recommend it enough, especially if, like myself, you fly a desk all day...

The Old Ruminator said:

... Perhaps this topic has been covered here before....

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Yup - : http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=17377.0

I took up Yoga to supplement caving a few months back and I can't get enough. I completely agree with what you're saying regarding conserving energy - you approach cave obstacles mindfully instead of taking a brute force approach and I find it ends up saving both time and energy.

I've also had a go at doing Yoga in caves. The cold air doesn't do your muscles any favours when stretching and you need a well-fitting oversuit for some poses! I've been thinking of what the best cave would be for Yoga: it would need a flat, preferably sandy or slab, floor; standing room, wide enough to get a full arm span around; a small amount of running water for white noise (absolute silence in caves is eerie), but not so much water that it gets cold or too loud.

Of course there's always "Yoga Cave" in Stoney Middleton but that's not got nearly enough room!

Somewhere along the high level traverse in Ease gill, I think the first section is flat and you can often hear the main stream in the distance. Just be careful not do it too near the holes in places.

A_Northerner said:

I took up Yoga to supplement caving a few months back and I can't get enough. I completely agree with what you're saying regarding conserving energy - you approach cave obstacles mindfully instead of taking a brute force approach and I find it ends up saving both time and energy.

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I took up digging to supplement caving a few years ago and I can't get enough. I approach obstacles mindfully, using core strength, confidence and experience, saving time and energy.

That said I probably spend a lot more money on oversuits for digging than doing I would doing yoga 

A_Northerner said:

I've also had a go at doing Yoga in caves. The cold air doesn't do your muscles any favours when stretching and you need a well-fitting oversuit for some poses!

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I think an oversuit would be somewhat restrictive, not to mention wellies.  I don't think caves are really an ideal environment for yoga although even dafter yoga-related trends are available.
Mind you, there's some great photo possibilities - a headstand in a suitable location could look good.  Remember to take off your helmet first, though

Before commercial Yoga, there was Transcendental, Transcendental taught me that caves and me where one, allow the cave to become part of you and you to become part of the cave, transition through the system then becomes a team effort between the two of you, ability to progress soon becomes obvious.

It appears to me that too many people think of caves to be a challenge, this is not the case, they are our friends, work with them and they will reveal their splendours.