Cousins: Hot yoga has me 'a lot more flexible, a lot more mobile'

Last month, DeMarcus Cousins announced that he shed 20 pounds since the end of the Sacramento Kings' season. He's apparently kept up with the same slimming regimen in the weeks that have followed, a regimen that involves doing yoga in a room "therapeutically heated for 105 degrees and 40 percent humidity."

"I feel great," Cousins told The Sacramento Bee's Jason Jones during Team USA's training camp in Las Vegas. "I feel a lot lighter on my feet. Of course I've slimmed down. I'm a lot more flexible, a lot more mobile, so it's all coming together for me."

Cousins says it was a now-former Kings teammate who put him onto hot yoga last season, but that he's taken things up a notch this spring and summer after having an "awful" experience his first few times out.

"I really became consistent this offseason," he said. "Rajon Rondo is a big fan of yoga and he would push it to me, push it to me always."

Rondo has decamped for Chicago, but Cousins is still reaping the benefits of his insistence (give or take an ill-timed, misconstrued tweet).

The All-NBA center cited the increasing speed of the game and the strain on his body (specifically his tendinitis-laden feet) as the biggest reasons for his accelerated weight loss. The world will get a chance to see the fruits of his labor at the Rio Olympics just over two weeks from now.

"He's gotten in unbelievable shape for this," said Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He wants to be here and he wants to represent his country, and I'm proud of the progress he's made."