Does Yoga improve athletic performance?  It might, but we don't know exactly how. Jules Mitchell was researching how yoga affects athletics performance for her upcoming book and discovered a gap in the literature. There's plenty of research about the SAID principle and adaptation, but not enough about yoga's impact on sports performance. In this episode we talk about the only two studies that cover this topic as well as their many limitations. Hopefully there will be more studies about this in the future so we can have more clarity.

Y&B #51 Does Yoga improve athletic performance?

Are you trying to make sense of all the conflicting narratives about fitness? Learn how to ground your teaching practice in science-based research instead. The Yoga Research & Beyond Podcast helps yoga teachers and fitness professionals discern popular messages about the benefits and dangers of how our bodies move. Co-hosts Ariana Raven and Jules Mitchell discuss published research on yoga and exercise, challenge dominant trends about the human body, and teach research literacy in a fun and engaging way.

About The Hosts:
Ariana Raven is a yoga teacher and strength trainer who co-runs New York Stretch in NYC. For more than ten years, she’s been helping people reach their goals with a holistic approach that combines principles from yoga, exercise science, and published research. Find her at arianaraven.com.

Jules Mitchell is a disrupter, yoga teacher, and the author of Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined. She is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and leads advanced continuing education programs in biomechanics for fitness and rehab professionals worldwide. Find her at julesmitchell.com.

Health & Fitness

How often do your students ask for help with tight hamstrings? In this episode Jenn Pilotti and I discuss a study that compared 4 stretching techniques for greater hamstring flexibility. This study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared two active stretches and two passive stretches in 100 people over the course of 8 weeks. It’s clear that one resulted in the greatest gains. We discuss the results here and in our Yoga Research and Beyond review.

Y&B #63 - What's the best hamstring stretch? Comparison of four techniques

How can Buteyko breathing help with asthma? Research shows 6-30% of asthma sufferers use breathing methods to alleviate their asthma symptoms in the UK.  Catherine and I discuss a paper from the Complementary Therapies in Medicine journal about Buteyko breathing and asthma. Buteyko breathing technique (BBT) is a method that is used in some practices to help with hyperventilation, and asthma. BBT trains people to slow their breath rate, eliminate mouth breathing (using a small strip of tape on the mouth), and use controlled breath pauses to increase CO2 levels. Russian physiologist, Konstantin Buteyko, created it in the 1950’s after experimenting with a slower breathing rate on himself and his patients. He postulated that hyperventilation and mouth breathing create hypocapnia (low CO2), which causes hundreds of ailments, including bronchospasm. 

Y&B #62 - Buteyko Breathing and Asthma

What are Ground Reaction Forces (GRFs) and why are they important? In biomechanics GRF is the force exerted from the ground onto the body when they make contact. It's basically Newton's 3rd law: for every action there is a reaction. Measuring these forces helps us understand how yoga poses impact bones and possibly bone mass.

Y&B #61 - Ground Reaction Forces in 28 Yoga Poses

Can virtual reality technology affect pain perception? Well, yeah. Catherine Cowey and I discuss a fun study about this co-authored by Lorimer Moseley in 2015 in the Psychological Science Journal. The researchers used VR technology to give subjects (with a history of neck pain) the illusion that they had moved their neck more or less than they actually had. As they hypothesized, this had an effect on their perception of pain.

Y&B #60 - Can VR Technology Alter Pain Perception?

Proximal hamstring tendinopathy (PHT) is a pathology of the tendon with a combination of tissue damage, inflammation, and possibly pain at the proximal tendon where the hamstring attaches to the ischial tuberosity. PHT is very common among yoga practitioners as well as in other populations.  Jules Mitchell and I talk about our own experiences with hamstring injuries as well as a 2016 clinical commentary entitled Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy: Clinical Aspects of Assessment and Management from the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy.

Y&B #51 Does Yoga improve athletic performance?

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