The Noodle Factory and the Steel Factory
"You are either born in a noodle factory or a steel factory" This is a common
Bikram yoga quote, meaning some people are naturally strong but need help with flexibility,
and some people are naturally flexible but need help to build strength.
I sometimes find that new students to yoga are surprised to learn that even a beginning yoga class can be a strenuous workout (i.e. it can kick your butt!). The truth is that when I design my Yoga for Athletes classes I really focus on Strength in addition to Flexibility. I do this because if you want to prevent injury and optimize performance, you must have both. These concepts are built into the ancient system of yoga asanas (poses).
Here we see illustrated Triangle Pose (
Utthita Trikonasana) from Ray Long's Key Poses of Yoga. In blue are the muscles that are flexing (building strength). In red are the muscles which are stretching (increasing in flexibility).
We see that the glutes, obliques, biceps, subscapularis, hamstrings and gastrocnemius being elongated, or stretched. And the quads, levator scapulae, and deltoids are activating (building strength). Note that while your obliques are being engaged on the side facing upwards, the opposite is happening on the side closest to your extended leg: a physiological Yin/Yang.
Hip Flexor Injuries
We can see the importance of this balance when we look to prevention of hip flexor injuries. Hip flexor strains most commonly occur due to a sudden contraction of
the hip flexor muscles (particularly in a position of stretch). This is why
soccer players, martial arts athletes, runners and cyclists are particularly vulnerable.
Key Contributing Factors:
- muscle weakness (particularly of the quadriceps, hip flexors or gluteals)
- muscle tightness (particularly of the hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings or gluteals)
- inadequate warm up
- joint stiffness (especially the lower back, hip or knee)
- poor biomechanics
- poor posture
- inadequate rehabilitation following a previous hip flexor injury
- decreased fitness
- fatigue
- poor pelvic and core stability
- neural tightness
- muscle imbalances
Everyone of these is
strikingly preventable with proper training. And everyone of these is addressed in a thoughtful yoga class that includes the correct proportion of... (you guessed it!) ...
Strength Building and
Flexibility Training.
Added benefit to strengthening your hips? Weakness in the hip muscles put increased stress on knees and feet while running. In other words, you may find that strengthening your hips will cure your knee pain!
