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Stretching - Yoga and Athleticism


All athletes, no matter their skill level, can benefit from the consistent practice of basic yoga postures. Unfortunately, athletes often have misconceptions about this powerful conditioning tool. They may be misled by watching some types of yoga on television or by participating in yoga classes where the emphasis is on mild stretching, rather than on disciplined practice of the classical yoga poses.

How can yoga help athletes? In short: learning and practicing yoga can facilitate and support training and increase athletic capacity. Yoga helps athletes because they often have damaging movement patterns. By focusing on the simple movements of the basic yoga poses and building to more complex movements, athletes can correct old, damaging habits and dramatically increase athletic capacity.

Everyone comes to yoga with physical imbalances. For example, endurance athletes -- like long-distance runners or bikers -- may have relative ease of movement in one hip or shoulder and restricted movement in the other. With high repetitions of the same movement, this small difference is magnified, often causing back or knee problems.

Similarly, some sports lead to tightness in the front of the hips and shoulders, a condition which may lead to various painful back and rotator cuff problems. Because traditional yoga movements are balanced in every direction and require a full range of motion, they immediately reveal imbalances. By building a symmetrical form, yoga postures permit the intensity of repetition required by athletic activity and help prevent injuries that often occur with training.

Athletes can get into trouble while training by compensating for limitations in their range of motion by using momentum and rotation to complete a movement. In the long run, this strategy is counterproductive because the result is either injury or less than optimal performance. Yoga practice demands that one come face to face with one’s present capabilities and learn how to work effectively with those conditions.

Yoga uncovers places in the body where, despite strength, there is either instability (loose joints) or lack of suppleness. Suppleness is not flexibility, but rather strong, fluid movement through the full range of the joint. Yoga develops strength, suppleness, awareness and alignment. It is not about stretching.

Yoga can help you acknowledge your current capacity, accept it and work to improve it. A good introductory yoga class will provide instruction that enables you to practice the basic, classical poses and to observe your movement patterns with awareness. This process reveals unhealthy and inefficient habits and shows you how to correct them. As an athlete, the purpose is to move in the direction of the poses, not to do them perfectly. Even a modest, regular practice of "imperfect" basic poses will enhance your athletic performance.

References

[1] Meriter Sports Medicine http://www.meriter.com/meriter/living/library/sports/yoga.htm