by Youngbear Roth

Created on: October 08, 2010

Bodybuilding specifically depends on excellent aerobic respiration for natural over-compensatory repair of muscular tissue cells broken down by repetitive weight-bearing exercise.  Here's the problem; the body may be worked out in parts, but nature demands that it responds as a whole.  Connective tissue and joint tissues are also broken down, and these tissues either respond much slower than muscle tissue, or not at all.  When these tissues, such as elbow and knee joints, break down to a certain extent, you have repetitive stress injuries.

Just because a bicep is ready and conditioned to curl X amount of pounds for reps and sets, does not mean that the elbow joint is conditioned.  Muscle strength and joint strength are rarely balanced.  I'm not pulling punches here.  At this point, medical decisions versus career goals must be weighed.

You may reach this stage in your competitive career.  If I said that through Yoga I could offer you an ironclad guarantee against having to make such a decision, I'd be lying.  However, I firmly believe that understanding how to perform an end-run around your muscles and target your connective and joint tissues in a static or non-repetitive, non-dynamic fashion to help strengthen and lubricate them "before you injure them" will stack the odds in your favor.

The solution, from where I stand as an Integral Yoga therapist, is to learn to practice Yoga 'asanas', poses, in a static long-hold, weight-bearing style.  This style has its conditioning limitations, but we are specializing here.  Our goals are specific – to build strength in the type of tissues that usually experience the most difficult injuries.

Working as a Yoga practitioner, an individual would most likely be counting their breaths in order to time their holds.  Ten to sixty complete breaths is the average – that's about thirty seconds to three minutes.

A bodybuilder going for connective tissue and joint strength will be holding a pose for six to twenty minutes.  This builds strength in our target areas using bodyweight without the risk of repetitive movements using heavy resistance. 

By the way, this technique will give you an edge during your competition posing performances.

I'm not afforded the space here to list and detail the proper performance of asanas that number almost one thousand from which to choose.  Nor do I know your joint and connective tissue challenges as intimately as you do.  I will suggest a solid starting point if you wish to seriously investigate further.

Static Yoga practice is a major element of an approach to Yoga we call 'Yin Yoga'.  It is called Yin after Yoga's sojourn through the East, and is a melding of Eastern philosophies expressed through the physicality of static Yoga.  The philosophy may or may not interest you.  However, it is where Yin Yoga is discussed and taught that you will find help in learning static Yoga asanas and establishing routines and sequences that are of value to your goals.

I suggest studying Bernie Clark's deeply researched book, 'YinSights: A Journey into the Philosophy & Practice of Yin Yoga' – ISBN 978-0-9687665-1-4.  After this, you will find updated information on where you can receive training in this style on the Internet at www.yinyoga.com .

   

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