The power of Yoga in endurance athletes
I am sure you have heard over and over again how yoga can benefit your endurance sports ambitions. I was myself among those who were reading and hearing about the power of yoga but never really wanted to give it a shot. I was kind of feeling a little out of the whole yoga-spiritual-relaxation kind of attitude. Up until I was suggested to try it by my doctor.
I finally have a sort of diagnosis about my chronic injury and an action plan.
I have a soft-tissue injury in the connective tissue between my psoas and my illiacus (something that apparently is not detectable with any current visualization methods: MRI, CT scans, Ultrasounds, etc). Lots of reasons may have caused that over the years: office-work lifestyle (I have been reading, writing and working at a desk for as long as I remember myself-from my elementary school years till now), trauma, accidents, etc. Over the years, the lifestyle or an accident or a trauma (which I had so many as a cyclist) had created imbalances that favored my left side (I am a lefty)! Therefore, my right part of the pelvis got rolled to the front and tilted to the right giving my right psoas a tremendous overload! Obviously, all the muscles involved in the illiopsoas group (glutes, hamstrings, illiacus, abdominals, hip muscles, back muscles, etc) got overloaded with running. My poor back was trying to absorb and compensate on the top of a swollen and over-worked psoas. Lots of micro-tears in the psoas muscle created some scar tissue there that is now interfering with bending and extending my leg or rotating and flexing my pelvis. As you can imagine, my illiopsoas and back muscles are in a mushy, perplexed, dis-aligned network that needs to get back to order.
Unfortunately, this may take as long as 12 months! Poor muscles! Active myofascial release and rolfing in the hands of Nathan Henderson have helped me progress tremendously over the past 6 months. In August 2013, I could not jog 100 yards. In November 2013, I PR and won (age-group) the Atlanta Thanksgiving 5K. Right now (March 2014), I am not 100% back in order because the pain kicks in occasionally, especially when I am overloading my running weekly mileage to 50mi/week or when I am running races 10K or longer.
What I recently came to realize, thanks to my new doc, Matt Marchal, was that the missing parts of my rehab were two components: particular pelvic and back muscle exercises and yoga. The pelvic and back muscle exercises were easy: a set of ankle weights (from 1lb up to 5lbs) and lots of google and youtube search. But the yoga part was the one that actually gave me the most obvious results. I have only had two sessions and I feel like a different person. More loose, more connected to the ground, more united as a neuro-muscular being :) I do not want to come across as a spiritual athlete (this is just another chapter on its own) but I started having a big appreciation of yoga and its power for the endurance athlete. So, I guess, I am a believer now.
Get out there and give it a try...just make sure you follow instructions and you do the best that you can to mimic the poses. So, get into yoga with faith and it will help you out!
I finally have a sort of diagnosis about my chronic injury and an action plan.
I have a soft-tissue injury in the connective tissue between my psoas and my illiacus (something that apparently is not detectable with any current visualization methods: MRI, CT scans, Ultrasounds, etc). Lots of reasons may have caused that over the years: office-work lifestyle (I have been reading, writing and working at a desk for as long as I remember myself-from my elementary school years till now), trauma, accidents, etc. Over the years, the lifestyle or an accident or a trauma (which I had so many as a cyclist) had created imbalances that favored my left side (I am a lefty)! Therefore, my right part of the pelvis got rolled to the front and tilted to the right giving my right psoas a tremendous overload! Obviously, all the muscles involved in the illiopsoas group (glutes, hamstrings, illiacus, abdominals, hip muscles, back muscles, etc) got overloaded with running. My poor back was trying to absorb and compensate on the top of a swollen and over-worked psoas. Lots of micro-tears in the psoas muscle created some scar tissue there that is now interfering with bending and extending my leg or rotating and flexing my pelvis. As you can imagine, my illiopsoas and back muscles are in a mushy, perplexed, dis-aligned network that needs to get back to order.Unfortunately, this may take as long as 12 months! Poor muscles! Active myofascial release and rolfing in the hands of Nathan Henderson have helped me progress tremendously over the past 6 months. In August 2013, I could not jog 100 yards. In November 2013, I PR and won (age-group) the Atlanta Thanksgiving 5K. Right now (March 2014), I am not 100% back in order because the pain kicks in occasionally, especially when I am overloading my running weekly mileage to 50mi/week or when I am running races 10K or longer.
What I recently came to realize, thanks to my new doc, Matt Marchal, was that the missing parts of my rehab were two components: particular pelvic and back muscle exercises and yoga. The pelvic and back muscle exercises were easy: a set of ankle weights (from 1lb up to 5lbs) and lots of google and youtube search. But the yoga part was the one that actually gave me the most obvious results. I have only had two sessions and I feel like a different person. More loose, more connected to the ground, more united as a neuro-muscular being :) I do not want to come across as a spiritual athlete (this is just another chapter on its own) but I started having a big appreciation of yoga and its power for the endurance athlete. So, I guess, I am a believer now.Get out there and give it a try...just make sure you follow instructions and you do the best that you can to mimic the poses. So, get into yoga with faith and it will help you out!
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