Yoga For Sport

Lesley Durke , yoga teacher and yoga sports coach. In the last few decades appreciation of the benefits of including yoga in athletes’ training programmes for sports of all types has been growing. The use of yoga is wide-ranging – from Premiership and American football, through rugby, athletics, top class cricket, boxing and martial arts, running, Iron Man triathletes, track and road cycling to gymnastics, diving and more…. Advocates include household name sporting stars such as tennis ace Andy Murray, cyclist Bradley Wiggins, footballer Ryan Giggs, heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill and diver Tom Daley. Solid Research Research into the benefits of yoga in sporting performance, injury prevention, treatment and recovery has been carried out for almost 2 decades by the Institute of Yoga Sport Science (YSS) (www.yogasportscience.com). This work is now being continued by the growing ranks of yoga sport coaches trained by YSS all over the world. Demands of sport Many sports involve repetitive movement in one direction or plane. Examples of unidirectional sports include cycling, running or rowing. Some sports require the athlete to attain and maintain a set posture for a long duration of time which requires good muscular flexibility and endurance, for example the aerodynamic posture of a cyclist or the deep squat of a skier. Other sports, for example javelin throwing and tennis, are multi-directional but predominantly use one side of the body. In all of these instances imbalances in the musculoskeletal system may arise as well as overuse injuries or the tightening of certain muscle groups. Adding yoga into an athlete’s training schedule will mobilise, strengthen and promote flexibility and so help to rebalance the athlete’s body and reduce the impact of these imbalances. It is important to note that muscles have to be strong and flexible in order to promote power. A useful analogy would be an elastic band which has to be stretchy in order to retain its strength. In a similar way, muscle power relies on elastic recoil of the muscle – and this requires the muscle to be able to stretch before it can recoil. Different sports will have different yoga requirements as in order for the athlete to achieve peak performance or best technique they will need to recruit and train different muscle groups and movements. However, there may even be differences in the training and requirements between athletes in the same sport and not just because of their individual physiology. In the game of football, for example, a goalkeeper needs far greater flexibility from side to side so that they can dive and reach to save a shot at goal than the footballer that kicked the ball. So it is not a case of one yoga class fits all. Correct alignment Yoga teaches the athlete correct postural alignment when sitting, standing and lying as well as when stretching or performing yoga postures. This not only helps them within their sport but can have a huge impact on the athlete’s general wellbeing. The feet are generally overlooked in training programmes yet the feet are the starting point for the interconnection all of the soft tissues of the body and are therefore of paramount importance. Problems in the alignment or flexibility of the feet can manifest as knee, hip, pelvic, spine, shoulder and even neck problems. Most sports require a degree of balance and also the power to drive through the ankles. Balance work, foot stretches and ankle strengthening may help to address these issues by making the feet more flexible and stable. Even in cycling this can help improve the power generated through the pedals and also on-bike balance. Body awareness Proprioception, the awareness of the body’s position in space, not only helps us identify how we are standing in a posture but also how we are moving through the air. It enables a gymnast or diver to know which is up and which is down when somersaulting or a high jumper to instinctively know how to move to clear the bar. It also helps an athlete with awareness of their nearby team mates or fellow competitors. Building body awareness and proprioception is an acknowledged benefit of yoga, while sequences of interlinked yoga postures help develop a greater efficiency and fluidity of movement that is then reflected in the athlete’s performance of their sport. Respiratory Gains Efficient breathing and respiratory endurance are essential in many sports and yet endurance training schedules may not take into account the way the athlete breaths or specifically train the muscles used for breathing – the diaphragm and intercostal muscles especially. Yoga breathing exercises provide an ideal way to build respiratory efficiency and endurance where needed; they are equally valid to help calm the mind and body when focus and concentration are required. Some athletes pant in order to reduce the urgency to breathe but this also reduces the transfer of oxygen into the blood. Instead it is important that an athlete increase their breath volume and maintain that in order to minimise the energy they use in breathing and so improve their performance. Increasing breath volume is the way in which professional cyclists are able to meet the increased demand for breath when racing in the mountains or sprinting for the line, for example. Listening to the body Athletes, apart from being very determined and committed individuals, are also highly competitive and will often continue to train through injury. Yoga has an important part to play therefore in teaching an athlete to listen to and honour their body as well as allowing them to relax in the movements and not compete with themselves. Over the last few years, the use of yoga as an adjunct to an athlete’s training programme has been shown to have many benefits and it is now an expanding area of expertise as it becomes much more widely appreciated and accepted in sport around the world. In the arena of competitive sport, the benefits achieved by an athlete through yoga may also provide those marginal gains that enable them to achieve success.