Yoga for Ruggers: Intro

That's called Kapotasana. Yes, that's me. No, I'm not going to make you do it.

I'm a yoga teacher, too. And I can't play a sport (or go anywhere in public) without thinking, "I could help that person. She needs yoga."

Ruggers are no exception. And I'm not the only one who thinks so! But since I'm a yoga teacher, I can tell you exactly why.

I've done research on flexibility, especially the kind of flexibility that most athletes do in warm ups. You know. Static stretching. Bending over and touching toes. Standing on one leg, holding on to an ankle like a flamingo. Stretching the sides of the neck. And the results (that I've found) are a mixed bag. Some studies show that it reduces injury risk, particularly muscle strains, but these studies are notoriously inconclusive. Many of the participants don't follow the study protocol. And it's impossible (or at least impractical) to test every possible combination of stretches. It seems like most of these studies just test one or two perfunctory stretches for 10-20 seconds. While that might not make much of a difference in sport performance, holding a series of progressive stretches for 2 minutes may. In my opinion, these studies are of limited use.

That said, there's little evidence that stretching before a match helps to prevent injury. Furthermore, stretching before exercise has been conclusively shown to impair strength and power production in the targeted muscle. That's not going to matter, really, for a neck stretch, but what about a pre-match quad stretch? In rugby, you need your quads to produce some power! In short, studies suggest that stretching might make you a less effective athlete.

But that's stretching. Let's talk about flexibility.

I am a firm believer that good flexibility results from overall health and fitness more than from any amount of stretching, especially static stretching. Genetics also impact relative flexibility, or your flexibility relative to mine. If my ligaments are naturally longer than yours, I'm going to have a much easier time with most stretches. That doesn't have much to do with actual muscle tension, though.

I think that flexibility is important, up to a point. I want my clients--especially my athletes--to have exactly enough muscle length to achieve optimal range of motion in any of their activities. So there's going to be a sliding scale for how much muscle length is needed and how much muscle tension is acceptable. If I'm training a ballet dancer, she's going to need way more flexibility than a runner, who will need more flexibility than an offensive lineman. In terms of sports performance, I want each of those clients to have the range of motion they need, but not much more than that. If an athlete has excessive flexibility, it may lead to increased risk of injury (because of increased laxity in the joints) and less efficient performance (because a loose muscle doesn't transfer power as well as a tight muscle).

How does yoga fit into all of this? There are plenty of coaches and trainers who believe that static stretching is useless, if not downright detrimental. But yoga is not stretching, at least not just stretching. Yoga requires active engagement of muscles to hold a targeted muscle in a lengthened position. In stretching, you're usually using the force of gravity (or the force of another person, if you're lucky enough to have someone who will stretch you out) to force a muscle into a lengthened position. That makes the muscle longer, but not necessarily in a good way. There are some who think that it just creates slack in the muscle. And a slackened muscle is going to take longer to contract, and will contract with less force.

Yoga, though, tricks the body into thinking that the muscle is supposed to be that length, and teaches the body to support it in that length. So you end up with muscles that are longer, but still strong.

Additionally, since yoga poses take actual muscular effort to properly perform, they provide a much better warm up than simple passive stretching. And if you perform yoga regularly, you'll also get stronger, in addition to longer muscles. Plus, the kind of abdominal strength that you'll develop from yoga is much more applicable to rugby (or any sport, for that matter) than any number of crunches. You're not going to get a strong core by stretching.

If you like stretching, then fine. Keep doing it. Stretching probably won't increase your risk of injury, and it will slowly (really slowly and inefficiently) warm your muscles for competition. But if you don't really like stretching, then I'll bring you some suggestions for basic yoga poses for strength, flexibility, and all-around improved rugby performance.