The Benefits of YOGA

Life is Stressful!

   Let’s face it….we Americans are workaholics!  Too much work and not enough play can stress us out and increase anxiety, causing our life to be out of balance.  In addition, sedentary work environments also can cause muscle imbalances and postural imbalances, further increasing the stress on our body.  So how does Yoga fit into this equation?  Many people think yoga is just about meditating and holding poses for long periods of time…(which it can be if that's what you like/need) but in fact it can look and feel very different depending on how it is practiced, and it can mean different things to different people as well.  Yoga is a practice that (when done properly and at your ability level) can have much more benefits than meets the eye.  Here is a list of only some of the many benefits yoga can provide for us:

Mental:  We are all creatures of habit.…if it’s preparing for the day ahead, workout, or work presentation, having a daily routine helps prepare us and direct our focus and concentration.

Emotional:  Whether we are practicing yoga for 5 minutes or 50 minutes, it allows us to leave all worries at the door, and for a brief time in the day there is peaceful ‘me’ time. 

Physical:  Even beginning yoga poses take most of the major joints in our body through full ranges of motion, while simultaneously stimulating our circulatory system.  Balance and coordination are also necessary components built into the movements, which focus on increasing the mobility and stability of our entire body.  Depending on how it is practiced, it can be as easy or as hard as you like!

Spiritual: Regardless of religious beliefs, yoga can uplift us to achieve a sense of purpose and well-being, connecting our mind, body, and breath.

Sun Salutations

   One of the most fundamental routines taught to beginning yoga practitioners is the ‘Salute to the Sun’.  This simple routine takes 2 minutes to complete, and can be done any time throughout the day:

Morning:  When getting out of bed, you can move your body through a full range of motion, getting rid of any kinks from the previous night’s sleep, and wake you up for the day.  Noon:  In the middle of the day, it can help you take a deep breath and tiny break from the stress in your life.

Night:  After a long day, taking a few moments to stretch and rejuvenate your body can relax you for a full night’s sleep.

This is the Sun Salutation in its simplest form.  It is from this routine in which endless positions and variations can be created.  For beginners, this routine is usually performed very slow and methodical, but for the more experienced yoga practitioner, there are endless combinations of poses and applications in which yoga can help us de-stress! 

If the idea of yoga has ever turned you off because you think it is not challenging enough...or too boring....check out this video to see just how fun and athletic yoga can be, and how challenging it can be for the mobility and stability of our entire body, this is 'freesyle yoga'!!!!

                    (Katie Pardi is a yoga instructor at Harbor Yoga Studio. 36 N.High Street Dublin OH 43017)

Also check out the US Men's National Soccer Team trying yoga to help them improve their performance!!!
http://www.ussoccer.com/media-library/Videos/US-Men/2012/01/120115-S90-Yoga.aspx#ooid=poaGxhMzpGXxYSffhbs0zNbipbsE16ug

 

Running Mechanics

Modern Running Shoes
   In the book, Born to Run, some interesting findings were discussed when it comes to running shoes. The modern running shoe did not appear until the 1970’s, so have you ever wondered what our ancestors did to protect their feet when running? They certainly did not have any kind of arch support, pronation control, or gel-filled pads under their heels (1). Some of the scary truths discussed in the book are some things that Nike would rather have kept a secret.  The newer the running shoe, the more expensive it is, and the more cushioning it has, statistically is more likely to cause injury! That is quite contrary to what shoe companies have been telling us for four decades! But if we think about it, humans have been accomplished endurance runners for millions of years, way before creation of the modern running shoe! How did those athletes not get all the overuse injuries experienced by so many American runners? The answer lies in how they ran!

Heel Strike Running   The modern running shoe provides thick cushioning underneath the heel, which allows for a much longer stride length when running. So if you are a ‘heel striker’, every step you take comes crashing down on your heel, sending a shock wave of force up your leg and into your spine. That initial force is referred to as a ‘transient impact’. Daniel Lieberman, professor at Harvard University, has demonstrated in his skeletal biology lab that running shoes do absolutely nothing to reduce the forces experienced when running (2-5x body-weight), and in fact modern running shoes promote landing on the heel, which is a very likely cause of the rise of overuse injuries since creation of the modern shoe.

 

Forefoot Strike Running   When running barefoot, or with thin shoes on like the popular five-fingered shoes, there is no cushion underneath the heel, so over-striding is not an option. Now instead of crashing down on the heel, your foot will land more underneath your center of gravity, with the 4th and 5th metatarsals initiating the contact, as shown in the following video. This eliminates the transient impact shock wave our body must absorb if landing on our heel.

 

Advantages of forefoot running:

• It strengthens the muscles in your feet! Many of those muscles are probably not used to that kind of training, so starting with lower mileage is extremely important in order to re-educate your muscles on how to decelerate your body-weight when landing.
• It costs less energy! Heel striking actually stops our momentum when running, so upon every step, you have to stop/start your body’s forward progress. There is a reason why our feet have 26 bones and 18 different muscles ready to absorb and store energy, then release it like a spring with each step.
• It feels great! We get a ton of sensory information from our feet, and because there is no impact transient, you should feel lighter with each step.

Don't Want to Give Up Modern Running Shoes...???
   If you are too used to your current running shoes and feel like it would be hard to make an adjustment to a thin profile shoe, or anyshoe that provides the 'barefoot' feel, do not worry.  By simply changing to a forefoot strike running style (which takes time to allow your body to adjust!) you will no longer send that shock-wave of force up your leg into your spine when landing.  The interesting thing however, even though there is no transient impact force, the overall force experienced when forefoot running in shoes vs. forefoot running barefoot is actually greater!  The book Born to Run discusses this phenomenon, and relates it to when gymnasts land on a softer surface, then tend to slam down harder with their landings, compared to when they land on stiffer surfaces.  When landing, their bodies are search for stability, and if they come down on something soft and squishy, they need to come down harder to find the feeling of the ground underneath.  Our bodies react the same way when we land in thick cushioned shoes, in search for stability of the ground. 

Feel free to comment and share your experiences with running, and for more information and tips on forefoot running, check out: http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/index.html

 

 

Reference:

McDougall, C. (2009). Born to Run: a hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen. Vintage Books

 

Running into the New Year

New Start to a New Year!    With every New Year’s celebration, many of us decide to put our fitness goals at the top of our resolutions; and for good reason! If we could wrap all the benefits exercise provides into one single ‘magic pill’, we would make Bill Gates look like a pauper! There is no doubt being physically active is the single most important thing we can do for our overall health and wellness. With $1.7 trillion annually spent on the treatment of chronic diseases (1), there is no better time to start being active. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, our minimum goal should be to attain 30 min or more of moderate physical activity for 5 days /week (2).

Running Into Injury
    Running is one of the most popular choices for exercise when we feel the urge to ‘get in shape’. The scary truth however, is that running takes a brutal toll on the body, and in order for us to successfully begin running without severely increasing our risk of injury, we need to be in great shape before we start a running program. Every year, 65-80% of all runners experience an injury (3). No matter who you are, beginner or experienced, young or old, male or female, fast or slow, and no matter how much you run, nearly 3 out of every 4 runners will get hurt! To help understand why injury rates are so high, we must understand the forces acting upon our body during running.

   Depending on how fast you are running, your body will experience anywhere between two to five times your body weight of force upon every step!  It takes an average person around 1,500 steps to run 1 mile, and if they are running several miles, do the math to figure out it equates to hundreds of pounds of force the body must absorb thousands of times to complete a run (4). It’s no wonder so many people get injured; they are not fit enough to run!

   If there is a muscle strength-imbalance, or if there are faulty biomechanics when running, injuries will be waiting around every corner.   In fact, when speaking with most distance athletes, they are always either ‘in-training’, or ‘in-rehabilitation’. There never seems to be an in-between!  This is why strength training is so important for endurance athletes.  It is necessary to keep the body strong enough to handle the forces of running, so we can enjoy the feeling of fresh air on an afternoon run, rather than the feeling of pain which may keep us from running in the first place.

Watch Yourself Run!  
    In almost any sport at a higher level of competition, video is used to compare your mechanics to the ‘picture perfect ‘ model. Whether it’s throwing a ball, shooting a jumper, or swinging off the tees, you can learn a lot about your weaknesses when you slow the movement down and actually look at still frame pictures. It also gives you hints as to what kinds of exercises you should be working on in your strength training program. For example in the following picture, it is easy to see how this young girl looks like she would be a good runner. She looks lean, seemingly fit, but with the still frame of her right foot strike on the ground…it tells a completely different story!

     Looking at her hips, it is easy to see she how her left hip drops upon right foot strike. When the hip drops, it throws the pelvis out of level as well, and because her lumbar spine rests on the pelvis, it forces a scoliosis of the spine.  If we look at her shoulders we can see they fall out of level in the opposite direction of her hips because they must counter balance the action at the hips in order to keep her head level, so her cervical spine (neck) curves back in the opposite direction forcing her spine to create a slight ‘S’ shape. So what should you do if this is you?  First of all, start at the hips, because that is the origin of this dysfunction. Start by strengthening the hip-abductors (gluteus medius & minimus) which will allow your body to maintain level hips and be able to withstand the 2-5x body weight of force upon impact. If the hips stay level, so will your pelvis, and so will your spine, and much less stress is experienced within each joint.  The following picture is a good illustration of how the hips should stay level upon foot contact, and therefore the spine and shoulders will maintain their position as well!

Next week will discuss the different kinds of running styles and which is proven to be less stressful on your body.

References:
Clark, M, Lucett, S., & Sutton, B. (2011) NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training (4ed). Lippincott Williams& Wilkins, Baltimore, MD

ACSM & AHA. (2007). Physical Activity and Public Health: Updated Recommendations for Adults.

McDougall, C. (2009). Born to Run: a hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen. Vintage Books.

Boyle, M. (2010). Advances in Functional Training. On Target Publications.