My personal best in the 100 is 10.53 and my stride rate is decent. But my stride length is not really that great. Also my flexibility is not that great and I have a hard time touching my toes when I bend down with my knees straight. I am thinking about taking a yoga class and I was wondering if it is a good idea to try and increase my flexibilty.
Forget yoga get hypnotized, no just kidding, I think yoga would be great for a sprinter, especially for the mental aspect of it, as for the physical aspect, proper recovery, and streching should allow you strech more effiencently, however most sprinters are built very compact. There seems to be a correlation between tightness of muscle and power. It seems most sprinters are wound tightly, doc my friend who performed sports massage at the 96 olympics claimed that michael johnsons hamstrings were like a brick? Any thoughts forum. As you probally know yoga worked successfully for Carl Lewis. He swore up and down it was a major reason why he could run so fast?
I will give larry a test drive soon…
I just do 5 mins yoga / raiki positions my sister taught me at the end of each session , and sometimes during the day / b4 bed - really relaxing - just basic stuff like standing tall and sucking the abs in really seems to help with alignment .
I want to try yoga soon -
used by many AFL teams
What about pilates? Better or worse because that’s what I am considering.
Be careful with yoga or pilates… Many proponents will recommend yoga as the be-all, end-all way to achieve flexibility. It’s also a good way to ingrain the soreness in your muscles, and strain your tendons and ligaments if you are not careful. Yoga has been marketed as a cure all for many things (i.e. get a workout and get stretched at the same time). Separate these two activities out. If you are working hard to stretch, you may be creating more problems for yourself and overstretching the soft tissues.
Good stretching can be had by everyone without plopping down your money to stretch with a yoga group. Stretching is stretching. Why invent new names for it. Listen to your body, don’t push into pain and be progressive.
In defense for yoga…the movements can use gravity to get muscle groups deeply stretched. Yes soreness can happen with anything but the active part of yoga bridges the gap from static to dynamic mobility.
Good point Number Two, but I would value the relaxation element and recovery benefits of Yoga as high as the improvements in flexibility.
I am not going to put words into Number2s mouth, but I think he is trying to say that yoga is a name, and not the path to enlightenment…I have seen great things with heated yoga and tendon healing from placing it under safe tension with the aid of heat. I would place more of the yoga in heavy training because you are in squating movements.
Perhaps Kebba can talk about the stuff we learned from Boo Shexnayder.
There is no substitute for a good knowledge of anatomy, particularly origin and insertion points of individual muscle groups, and a well developed sense of biomechanics to determine how to stretch target muscle groups. Yoga typically provides a menu, but it is incomplete and sometimes arbitrary. Good for the layperson, but not the complete answer.
A good understanding of soft-tissues will also provide you with good information on how to work these tissues and their particular tolerances. A good sense of self-awareness must also be part of the equation - through repetition and self-discovery.
I’ve seen too many screw-ups with yoga practitioners and athletes to give it my support. But that is just my experience.
Number 2 has not had great history with yoga…if the movements are light and you are going through gentle ranges of motion it should help. Same with any other means…Be specific ----what posture or instructor is bad or not skilled?
If the person instructing is an idiot, take some movements and keep them for yourself and make changes for what you need. It took be 5 years to find a studio that was good…after 20 or so and 15 dollars per class…it was worth it. Stretching on your own is tough.
(1) Motivational
(2) isolation
(3) lack of instruction…ect.
(4) burn out of the burden of self direction.
I would rather educate an athlete to adjust an exercise and share what not to do (as well as sitting down with an instuctor first to make sure no dangerous exercises are done). group exercise can prevent burnout.
Number2 hit the nail right on its head,
Yoga is more useful as a relaxation tool but not a very good means for achieving increases in flexibility (for some). Thats not to say that Yoga is bad, but as CLemson said, make sure you know the CV of the person instructing you or you WILL suffer injury from improper techniques.
Many Yoga instructors use very bad technique when stretching ligaments and muscles, especially around the knee joint area and Lumbar spine. They claim that it will not injure you, thats total BS. There are people out there that do get further injured from Yoga.
Again, I am not trying to knock it, just as with every health related training/physio technique you have to do your homework on the type of exercize and WHO is instructing you.
I (my bias) would use Yoga mainly as a Relaxation tool as opposed to a flexibilty training tool. However, I would rather have athletes use Learned Self Regulation (LSR) techniques (such as MAT, PMR, AT, PH, etc) by a Certified Relaxation & Attention Biofeedback Therapist to fully benefit from proper relaxation and best part of this is that when the athlete/patient becomes more proficient in learning these techniques, hence the term Learned Self-Regaulation, they may apply these techniques in everday life, be it for stress reduction or recovery from training, etc.
For more info on LSR techniques or finding a certified Biofeedback Therapist both in Canada and USA, click on this link http://www.bcia.org
Here is a more specific example of my experience…
National team coach tells me he is going to enroll the team in yoga classes (manditory) to help with flexibility. Does this because he has been hearing good things about ‘yoga’. I tell him to be carefull and research it better. He goes ahead with someone referred to him. End result, more back problems and hip problems than ever before. And, it is mandatory, so now people hate the experience. Not good. Also disrupts a lot of the training I’ve prescribed for the team.
In this case, yoga was something trendy and sexy, and it influenced this particular coaches thinking. I suggested that stretching could be had in a more appropriate manner, but didn’t force the issue. Maybe I should have.
I do understand where some of you are coming from, but not many coaches and athletes have time to do the research and find “good” yoga establishments. Simple stretching techniques can be implemented by the coach (through guidance) to ensure that the athletes are properly prepared.
What the hell are they doing in Canada?
I would give names but after being flamed posting Mikes use of AIS. I can count 30 olympic gold athletes that use it.Take a look at speed trap and the photo of Charlie stretching Angela. The influences are huge. Be selfish and take what you like. Coach Shexnayder uses them with great results!
I agree with number two. Yoga can be dangerous. Im my previous post I was referring to incorporate some of the yoga stretches in with the workout. Not have the athlete actually take yoga. Too time consuming and energy draining. But the number 1 reason is…that It can cause the athlete to be hypermobile. To much flexibility and not enough tightness. I perfer streching for low counts. There are many charts used by the quote… unquote gurus that sit in their offices allday…clems, and they can tell if you are to mobile or not enough. Could anyone post a diagram of different stretches with the degree of mobility you should have with each one. Pointing out what is hypermobility and not enough mobility and inbetween. (For a worldclass athlete).
Some more points against yoga.
Why pay money, and (presumably) travel out of your way to increase your flexibility? Other than possibly seeing some choice ass, whats the point? Why not save your money, and time, by stretching at home, then going to the beach to check out the girls 
On a more serious note, the money saved by not joining a yoga class could be put towards massage.
D.
I am now convinced that yoga is dangerous. After Timothy’s diagram of the triconasana posture tearing ACLS of 84 year old grandmas, we are dumping yoga. I am sure everyone’s flexiblity program that they do at home (like the abdominal/spinal work) is fantastic. I have read close to 60 books on yoga and have traveled all over the US and many parts of Canada. I have seen 20 yoga studios in Tampa I have been happy with many but I found only one that I love. You can go to the class for a month and take some of the movements back home and never go again if your on a tight budget. Butt (like druzes comments) training by yourself and in jail is not easy to do. Some fitness centers offer yoga for free and it will not make you into an olympic champion but the information I have is fantastic. What I see are fantastic postures and movement patterns that unwind facia, coordinate antagonists, release tight muscles with the aid of gravity, increases stablization of stablizers, and increase lymph flow. You can do this at home if you want or do it as a group.
I’d rather do it in jail with Bubba.