Five Reasons Why Yoga is a Great Idea.

At least once a week we have a patient ask if yoga would be a good idea to help reinforce what we do with The One80 System. They always seem surprised when we would say, “you bet!“ Most people think that yoga is synonymous with stretching, and since we recommend patients avoid stretching, yoga must also be a no-no. It is important to understand that stretching is forcing a muscle to passively lengthen. On the other hand, yoga (we are talking more specifically about flow or power practices like Vinyasa, Hotha, Asthanga and Bikram) is great because it;

1. requires muscles to contract globally – in order to stabilize the upper extremities during warrior pose, the trunk and lower extremity musculature has to be facilitated. This makes yoga a great total body functional workout.
2. is a multi joint exercises done in weight-bearing – anytime you can load and unload multiple joints simultaneously, you are reinforcing functional patterns.
3. requires a-planer motion – moving through more than one plane at a time, with emphasis on the transverse plane, will help decrease future injury.
4. requires the student to get in and out of end range of motion positions – this increases range of motion, builds strength and maximizes stability (review our blog post on MoStreBility), while decreasing flexibility. That means function is increased and the risk of injury is diminished.
5. they are portable – at One80 we like prescribing home programs that can easily be done with minimal equipment, space and time involved. Yoga is great because you can do short versions of your practice while on vacation, during business trips, or on off days at home as a recovery work out.

As with any type of exercise, the effectiveness of your yoga practice will depend on your studio, instructor and motor control. With The One80 System, we can help you maximize the your stability, proprioception, strength and biomechanics. If you need advice on where to go to find a great studio and instructor, we can probably help with that too.