Once considered the preserve of new age hippies, yoga is now being incorporated by top level athletes as a core element of their training regimes. Here are 5 reasons why yoga can help you to perform better on the court…
1. Yoga (and mobility training) improves movement efficiency
Regular practice of yoga has many physical benefits that carry over into athletic and sporting endeavours - in particular increased flexibility (our ability to passively lengthen muscles) and mobility (active range of motion around a joint), as well as improved joint stability, core strength and balance.
Greg Gaultier showing the benefits of having a full range of accessible movement
In combination, these attributes help us to move with greater ease and efficiency through greater ranges, enabling us to improve our performance levels.
Indeed, one of the core benefits of yoga and mobility training is that we have an opportunity to develop strength at ‘end ranges’. Muscles tend to be strongest at mid-range length and have less ability to produce force when lengthened or shortened.
So when we move a joint towards its passive end range of motion and then contract the muscles across both sides of the joint (as we do in yoga), we begin to develop greater strength and control through our full range of movement.
This can be helpful if you’re looking to improve movement efficiency…or if you’re lunging to pick up a drop shot by allowing you to reach the ball and then recover your position as quickly and efficiently as possible (think of how well Gina Kennedy moves for example).
2. Yoga helps to mitigate against the risk of injury
Increasing flexibility, mobility and end range strength is also helpful for ‘pre-habbing’ the body and mitigating against the potential risk of injury.
Take the above example of lunging to reach a drop shot - if the lead leg happens to slip and you move towards the ‘splits’ position, you could be in trouble if you haven’t spent sufficient time working on your hamstrings flexibility and hip mobility.
So by engaging muscles as we move joints through their full ranges, we’re able to prepare the body for the ‘unexpected’ (at least to a degree!) by training it to be stronger and more resilient in all potential ranges of movement. Yoga also helps us to develop greater muscular endurance and recruit and engage our stabiliser muscles around joints - both of which will once again help to create more robust bodies.
This is partly why so many athletes now incorporate yoga into their training programmes to keep their bodies functioning as well as possible.
3. Yoga aids rest and recovery
When we train, exercise or play sport, it comes at a ‘cost’ to our nervous system and depletes our energy reserves.
In fact we’re actually weaker at the end of a training session than we were at the start - it’s when we recover that we get stronger as the nervous system ‘super compensates’ to adapt to the demands we’ve placed on the body so that we’re better able to cope with those stresses in future.
This is why smart training programs will include opportunities for the body and the nervous system to fully recover, and this is where yoga can act as the perfect counterpoint to high intensity training and sports.
It helps to downregulate the nervous system and dial up the parasympathetic rest and digest response to aid recovery, and gentle movement can also help to alleviate the effects of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).
Moreover, yoga helps to provide "symmetry relief" for asymmetric sports such as squash (ex world number 1 James Willstrop bears testament to the benefits of yoga in ‘Shot and a Ghost’), and it can also help to counter the effects of gravity associated with high impact activities.
4. Yoga helps to improve breathing biomechanics
One of the major benefits of yoga practice is that it helps us to address faulty breathing patterns and improve breathing biomechanics.
As I’ve explained in previous posts, this helps to improve the efficiency of oxygen uptake by the body’s cells, muscles and organs, significantly improving athletic performance. Moreover, many breathing techniques help to strengthen the muscles of respiration, improve lung capacity and increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the bloodstream - all of which will have carry-over benefits on the court.
Another benefit of optimising the way in which we breathe is that it helps to maintain and increase ‘intra abdominal pressure’ (IAP), a key contributing factor to ‘core stability’ which in turn has a significant bearing on both mobility and movement efficiency.
‘Superman’ Paul Coll
5. Yoga improves mental focus
Any dedicated athlete will tell you that mental focus is a critical element of performance.
This is why top level players such as Paul Coll are increasingly embracing the benefits of breathwork, meditation and mindfulness for improving mental clarity, minimising distraction, maintaining focus and managing pre game anxiety.
These practices can also help athletes to better cope with the highs and lows of sporting life as they experience the joys of success or the pain of defeat, and it can help them to maintain their mental health as they deal with the pressures of performing or the frustration, stress and isolation of injury.
And whilst you might not be performing at quite the same level as Paul, regular engagement in these practices will undoubtedly help to improve the mental aspect of your game too.
So there we have 5 reasons why I believe every squash player should be incorporating yoga, mobility practises and breathing techniques into their training routines, no matter what level they’re performing at. And if you’re looking to level up your own game please do get in touch today to set up an initial 30 minute consultation about how we can work together to improve your performance through yoga.