Stretch Baby Stretch

            As a weightlifter, I depend on my body’s mobility to perform lifts correctly, and under a certain amount of weight. Without mobility and flexibility, my lifting ability diminishes. Recently, I’ve noticed that my mobility isn’t where I want it to be, and it started to hold me back from heavy lifts. I tried to figure out what I could do to fix it – do I lift more with better technique, do I just practice until it *clicks, * what could I do? The answer is simple – yoga. 

            Mobility is defined as the ability to move body structures or parts of the body through the existing range of motion for a functional activity (functional range of motion) (Vauhnik et al. 2014), and this is also strongly associated with joint integrity (Vauhnik et al. 2014). As many may or may not know, yoga tries to target imbalances in the body, and a lot of that comes from muscle imbalances/shortness. This can occur due to a result of physical inactivity and[/or] putting irregular or excessive pressure on muscles and other soft tissues crossing or surrounding joints (Vauhnik et al. 2014). You know, us athletes know this all too well – all of us are stronger on one side than the other. This shortness Vauhnik talks about can occur in the muscles responsible for maintaining our posture (or lack of it), and other muscles may respond to this imbalance by weakness under incorrect or excessive pressure (Vauhnik et al. 2014). Here, the target of yoga is to improve flexibility enabling us to easier and better use our muscles in everyday activities. For this we need appropriate flexibility of muscles that maintain posture (tonic muscles) and adequately strengthened muscles which are responsible for the movement of the distal segments of the body (phasic muscles) (Vauhnik et al. 2014). Not only is yoga important for fluid flexibility of our muscles, it also improves joint mobility as well, since this is based on gradual stretching of muscle and connective tissue around bones and joints (Vauhnik et al. 2014). Because of this, the latter provide straight-line compression and lubrication of articular cartilage by the synovial fluid, thereby bringing fresh nutrients and oxygen to those parts of joint cartilage which are rarely used in everyday activities (Vauhnik et al. 2014). This may prove to be of particular importance when looking at people with knee osteoarthritis. A study (as well as one of their reference studies) looking at this found a few things. The reference study had set-up an integrated yoga therapy program in a non-residential camp set up for one week without any physiotherapy intervention. [It] showed a 40% reduction in resting pain after yoga (Nagarathna et al. 2012), while in Nagarathna’s study, they added yoga after the standard physiotherapy which showed a reduction in resting pain scores by 33.6 and 71.8% after 15 and 90 days respectively (Nagarathna et al. 2012), also showing reduced joint stiffness ratings as well. To be able to reduce pain in a demoralizing disease such as osteoarthritis (which, in extreme cases, can reduce quality of life), is extraordinary, through something as simple as stretching. I think that’s pretty remarkable, knowing that there’s ways around degenerative diseases as well as poor mobility issues in healthy individuals, making getting older a tad bit sweeter. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nagarathna, Raghuram, et al. “Effect of Integrated Yoga Therapy on Pain, Morning Stiffness and Anxiety in Osteoarthritis of the Knee Joint: A Randomized Control Study.” International Journal of Yoga, vol. 5, no. 1, 2012, p. 28. Crossref, doi:10.4103/0973-6131.91708.

 

 

Vauhnik, Renata, et al. “The Impact of Hatha Yoga Practice on Flexibility: A Pilot Study.” Alternative & Integrative Medicine, vol. 03, no. 02, 2014. Crossref, doi:10.4172/2327-5162.1000160.