Transcript document

Yoga for Athletes
IST Day
The Transformation of Yoga
• No longer seen as a
strange Eastern
Practice where you
ties yourself in knots
• No longer seen as an
activity only for middle
class, middle aged
women
The spread of yoga to sports
people & athletes
• Greater (balanced)
strength
• Flexibility
• Superior balance and
body control (awareness)
• More energy
• Mental focus
• De-stress, deal with
pressure, switch off
• Feeling of well-being
• Being in The Zone
Controlled Studies
• 2001 California University tested the
strength of volunteers before and after a 8
weeks of twice-weekly yoga classes.
“Isokinetic muscular strength in the elbow
joint went up 31% (extension) and 19%
(flexion). Knee strength went up 28%
(extension) and 57% (flexion)
Controlled Studies
• 2000 Ball State University measured lung
capacity of 287 college students before
and after two 50 min yoga classes for 15
weeks. Average increase in lung capacity
was 10%. “Yoga poses help increase lung
capacity by improving flexibility in the rib
area, shoulders and back, allowing the
lungs to expand more fully”
Real Men Do Yoga
• Flexibility is yoga’s main course, the dish
that brings everyone to the table. You’ll
find out, though, that there’s a lot more to
the meal. Probably the biggest surprise for
guys who try yoga is that the flexibility
entrée comes with an extra helping – a
side order of serious strength training (on
the house). And that goes for both ordinary
Joes and zillionaire athletes. John
Capouya
Ryan Giggs
• Aged 35, PFA Footballer of the
Year 2009, 10 league titles, 4
FA Cup winners medals & Two
Champions League medals
and over 700 appearances for
Manchester United
• He says yoga has helped
prolong his career for the past
5 years: “It tests parts of your
body that you just don’t use in
football. The first time I did it,
about five years ago, I was
completely knackered. I went
home from the training ground
and slept for three hours in the
afternoon”
Andy Murray
• Britain’s number one tennis
player regularly practices
Bikram (hot) yoga.
• “Being tennis players, we get
very stiff, especially changing
surfaces a lot. In the offseason, when you’re doing a
lot of training, it’s a great way
of getting used to the heat and
also improving your flexibility.
When you are just stretching
after matches, you are just
maintaining your flexibility, but
this improves it a lot.
David Duval
• “Yoga gives me
greater range of
motion in the hip and
shoulder joints, which
generate extra power
and distance”
Why might an athlete seek yoga?
• Repeated injuries
• Feelings of stiffness
• Drop in performance
or aspiration for
higher performance
• Because they have
read that it can help!
• Group experiences
General and Specific Yoga
Vinyasas
Yoga for Sports People
Session Structure
• Centering, breath, awareness from distal to
proximal
• Core strength
• Preparation of major joints for ROM
• Dynamic movements to raise blood flow,
elasticity and heat in the body
• Asanas + isometric stretches to increase ROM
• Passive stretches
• Mental work – concentration/meditation
• Relaxation
Core Strength Work
• After taking up yoga,
Diamond Dallas
Page, WWE wrestler,
says: “My core
strength in my
stomach and my
sides and obliques is
unbelievable…Now I
don’t do crunches or
sit-ups or any of that
crap”.
Preparing the body for yoga
• Doing static stretches
does not sufficiently
raise muscle
temperature, it does
not increase blood
flow through muscles,
it does not warm up
joints, or prepare you
for further effort
• How does this
challenge us?
Controlled Study
• The Australian Army monitored 2,500
recruits, giving some of them static
stretches to do before training. The
stretching had no effect on the incidence
of injuries. The physiology professor in
charge of the research said recruits should
still warm-up but static stretching is “a
waste of time”.
Stretching in Class
• For increasing range
of motion the most
effective duration of
relaxed stretches is
30 seconds, and the
most effective
frequency is once per
day (Bandy et al
1997)
Defining Flexibility
• Flexibility = ROM – Range of Motion
• It is joint specific (eg open hips, stiff spine)
• And specific to each movement within
each joint (eg internal and external
rotation)
Myths about Flexibility & Strength
• Strong contractions to
build strength in
muscles inevitably
leads to them
shortening
• Wrong: Isometric
stretches – eg biceps
in 3 positions. And
chaturanga
Running makes you less flexible
• Not necessarily. It
depends on what kind
of running
Flexibility Tests
• Dandasana – for the
hamstrings
• Bhujangasana – for
the spine
• Gomukasana – for
the shoulders
• Baddha Konasana –
for the hips
• Hip flexor test on
table
Limitations to Flexibility
• Age – 7-11
• Sex – female pelvis
• Lifestyle – eg choices: running, cycling,
sedentary
• The mind
• Genetics – eg ligament structure
• Connective Tissue – 30% of the muscle –
models. Endomysium, perimysium (fascicle),
epimysium. Collagen-elastin-age
• The nervous system – stretch band & role play –
70% & 130%. Myostatic stretch reflex (spinal
cord reflex arc) and Golgi tendon organ (GTO)
LUNCH
• Visualisation
The A&P of Stretching recap
Safe Practice
“The flexibility of an athlete is
sufficiently developed when the
maximal range of motion
somewhat exceeds the range
required in competition. This
difference between an athlete’s
flexibility and the needs of the
sport is called “the flexibility
reserve”. Thomas Kurz
Injuries
• Muscles do not have
to be stretched to
their maximum to
tear. Tears occur
when stretch and
contraction happen at
the same time. This
can be a muscle
spasm when the
muscle is weak or
tired
The 4 causes of injury
• A difference in strength
between two opposing
muscle groups
• A strength and flexibility
imbalance between the
same muscle groups on
opposite sides of the
body
• The onset of fatigue
• An imbalance in activity
of muscles
Injuries need rest!
• Stretching of sore
muscles may further
damage them. After
all, soreness is a sign
of tissue damage.
Injury Prevention
“Balancing the flexibility of all the muscles in
a joint and improving the strength and
endurance of the weaker muscles are the
easiest measures for prevention of
injuries”
“For safety’s sake, do some stretches in
directions that are not typical for your
sport”. Thomas Kurtz
“The result of inadequate compensatory
stretching for the upper back and
shoulders…can lead to a round
shouldered posture”. Bob Smith
Benefits of Yoga Stretches
“At the end of a workout….stretching
facilitates recovery. It regulates muscular
tension and relieves muscle spasms. After
stretching, blood flow in muscles is
improved”
Thomas Kurz
Finding Space
Three types of stretching practical
Three main categories of
Flexibility Training
• Dynamic Active
Flexibility – the ability
to perform dynamic
movements within a
full range of motion.
Combining relaxation
of extended muscles
with contraction of
moving muscles.
• Best done in the
morning
The Dynamic Element
• Do static stretches after dynamic exercise
Flexibility improves with an increased blood
flow in the muscles (Wazny 1981)
The goals of the warm-up are: an increased
awareness, improved coordination,
improved elasticity and contractibility of
muscles, and a greater efficiency of the
respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
2: Static Active Flexibility
• The ability to assume
and maintain
extended positions
using only the tension
of the agonists and
synergists while the
antagonists are being
stretched
Isometric Stretching/PNF/GTO
Adding to relaxed
stretches by tensing
the stretched muscles
for a short time (5
seconds) and then
releasing causes a
post-contractive
relaxation effect and
consequent increase
in flexibility. Creates
new sarcomers. Also
reciprocal inhibition.
CR & CRAC.
Stretching Scientifically –
Thomas Kurz
“Tense your muscles prior to relaxing and
stretching them, and tense them every
time when you want to increase your
range of motion during a stretch. To
simultaneously develop strength and
flexibility, tense your muscles while they
are fully stretched. As your strength in
stretched positions increases, so does
your range of motion.”
When?
• “The best time for isometric stretching is
the end of a workout – this is the time
when isometric stretches are most
effective” (Moller et al 1985)
• Do not do isometric stretches in the
morning if you plan to work on strength or
flexibility later in the day. Isometric
stretches may be too exhausting for your
muscles if you do them twice a day
3: Static Passive Flexibility
• This is the ability to
assume and maintain
extended positions
using your weight or
using strength not
coming from the
stretched limb.
Passive flexibility
usually exceeds
active (static &
dynamic)
The flexibility downside for athletes
Relaxed static stretches decrease strength
by impairing activation of the stretched
muscles for up to five minutes after the
stretch and contractile force for up to one
hour.
Running economy has been associated
with decreased flexibility. To take
advantage of a rebound, the stiffer the
muscles and tendons the better, provided
you have the require range of motion
(Kubo et al, 1999)
An effective blend for sports people
“In a complete “workout”
you would do one
dynamic, one
isometric, and one
relaxed stretch for the
hamstring”
Thomas Kurz
Hamstrings, hamstrings,
hamstrings
Sports Clinic
Test!
Rowing
• What will be the
problem?
• Short hamstrings limit
move forward to the
“catch” phase at the
start of the next
stroke. They
compensate with
spinal flexion, leading
to lower back pain
Swimming
• What might the
problem be?
• Short hamstings bring
the feet out of the
water in crawl.
• Tight chest muscles
create bobbing up
and down in
breastroke and drag
the face under-water
in back stroke
Running
• What will be the
problem?
• Short hamstrings due
to limited ROM in
joggers and long
distance runners.
High impact on joints
– knees, hips and
spine (raises risk of
osteoarthritis). Middle
distance and sprinters
are different.
Golf
• What will the problem
be?
• Loss of
torque/rotation in the
spine. Swing
becomes very arm
and shoulder
orientated in older
players
Cycling
• What might be the
problem?
• Loss of ROM,
particularly short
hamstrings and
kyphosis in the
thoracic spine. Tight
chest muscles.
How would we design an individual
programme?
• Analyse dominant patterns that may be
unbalancing the body and work in a way to
redress this
• Use postures that support or mirror the
types of movements that feature in the
sport they do
The body-mind connection
“Mental rigidity – the inability
to abandon fixed ideas
while solving problems, a
sign of low intelligence –
is usually accompanied
by a low level of physical
flexibility – perhaps due
to the connection
between flexibility and
coordination”.
Matveyev 1981
Emotions
“Flexibility, just like
coordination, is
affected by the
emotions…try
balancing or
stretching when
emotionally upset”.
Thomas Kurz
Therefore…….
•
•
•
•
Let go, surrender
De-stress, calm
Mental focus
Visualise
Being in the moment
• When you are consciously in the moment – a
time when, odds are, nothing that bad is
happening – it helps to break those negative
thought patterns and provides a huge amount of
stress relief.
• I say to myself “right here, right now”
• Yoga helps you develop intuitive anticipation.
Intuition is really heightened awareness and we
know that yoga fine-tunes your awareness
• A Danish study found that dopamine release
increased by up to 65% during meditation
Mantras for Sports People
• Go, go, go
• Loose, loose, loose
• Let it go, let it go
Real Men Do Yoga
– John Capouya
• “Yoga is viagra for the spine”
• “The road to greater health and happiness
begins with a single stretch”
• “Yoga delivers the Big Six: flexibility,
strength, balance, breathing, focus and
relaxation”
Tendons
• Extension of a tendon
more than 4% of its
length causes tearing
in the collagen fibres
• Beyond 8% the
tendon may rupture
• Collagen becomes
more rigid with age,
contributing to
stiffness
Ligaments
• Ligaments tear if
stretch more than 6%
• They contain more
elastin than tendons
• Ligaments should not
be stretched because
it destabilises joints
and leads to osteoarthritis
Bones and Joints
• The skeleton is a
dynamic, living
structure
• Bones respond to the
forces on them in
terms of density and
shape
• Joint surfaces can
also change as a
result of stresses