Using Yoga to Reduce Chronic Stress and Improve Recovery for Athletes
Training and racing put stress on you and your body, piling on to your everyday stress from work, family, personal life, school, and more. Some stress is good and healthy, but when it gets out of control, it can derail your training and even your overall health. Once you are stuck in this pattern, it can be difficult to escape. You have surely heard that you should meditate or do yoga to improve recovery, reduce stress, reduce anxiety, help with depression, and more. But why is yoga effective for these things? And can it help you perform in your sport? The short explanation is that yoga has the ability to help us control our autonomic nervous system, which can help increase the time we spend in a rest and recovery state. Let’s take a look at how that works.
The Body’s Nervous System Response to Stress and Rest
Two primary aspects of the autonomic nervous system–which is the part of our nervous system that works automatically to control functions like heartbeat and breathing–include the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. These are also core aspects of heart rate variability, which is becoming more commonly used in endurance training.
Sympathetic nervous system (SNS): This what is widely known as our fight or flight response. It prepares the body for action by increasing heart rate, increasing blood flow to the extremities, increasing glucose in the bloodstream, and increasing muscle tension. The body produces cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine. This is all quite useful if you need to escape from physical danger, perform in a race, or be alert for an important work event.
Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS): This system returns your body to a rest and recovery state. It reduces heart rate, breathing, and muscle activity. This is your body’s recovery mode, and time here is essential to athletic performance as well as general health and wellbeing.
These two systems are meant to be balanced. However, many people get stuck in a pattern of chronic SNS overactivity, with the SNS response being triggered by work, family, training, racing, and more in everyday life. This can be felt as chronic stress and anxiety. In this state, cortisol can linger in the body. High cortisol levels can increase fat deposits, increase chronic tension, decrease immunity, inhibit thyroid activation, and break down muscle, bone, and connective tissue. It can also cause headaches, migraines, chronic anxiety, depression, digestive issues, cardiovascular problems, immune problems, and diabetes.
Using Yoga to Balance the Nervous System
Escaping a pattern of chronic stress can be challenging, and may require a conscious and deliberate effort. Like water eroding a groove into a mountainside, your nervous system likes to take the same established path it already knows. If that path is a SNS path, that is the one it will default to more easily.
This is where yoga can help, because it gives us a variety of tools to help us move from a sympathetic to parasympathetic state. The ability to shift more quickly into a parasympathetic state gives your body more time to recover from both life stress and training stress. Time spent in a relaxed parasympathetic state is going to allow you to maximize the benefit of your recovery time when compared to feeling under stress.
Putting it into Practice
So what exactly do we need to do to get these benefits? Just going through the motions of a few warriors and down dogs is not going to solve your stress or boost your recovery. The following tips describe a few basic concepts to easily make the most of your yoga practice.
Breathe
Just taking a few slow deep breaths–something that can be done at any time anywhere–can have a direct and instant nervous system response to help you shift into a parasympathetic state. You can sit down and do a purposeful breathing practice, known as pranayama, or just simply pause to take a few deep breaths at any time during your day.
Focus Your Attention
The essential definition of yoga is restraint of the mind. When we are in control of our thoughts, we are in control of our perception of reality. But this is easier said than done and takes consistent practice. You can take a few minutes to focus your attention on your breath, a part of your body, physical sensations, a glowing light within, an inspiring person, a dream, or anything you find elevating. That is a long list, and different things might work better for different people. Guided meditation can help you figure out what works best for you. Guided meditations can also be useful for overcoming pre-race nerves.
Move
The physical practice of yoga was created so practitioners could be more fit so they could sit longer in meditation. But for many people, focusing your attention on physical movement can be easier than more abstract thoughts. Also, physically activating and consciously relaxing muscles can be another way to access the nervous system and release physical tension. It can also help prepare and settle your mind for meditation. There are many different types of yoga, and all instructors are different, so don’t be afraid to try some different styles.
Be Still
Yoga classes typically end with savasana, a meditation and relaxation at the end of a physical practice. Don’t skip this! It is arguably the most important pose of your practice and a chance to really ease into a parasympathetic state. I like to end my classes with a yoga nidra guided relaxation to help students focus their attention within to enjoy a few minutes of meditation.
Maintain a Consistent Practice
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali tell us that “Without practice nothing can be achieved.” So do not be discouraged if you do not see instant results. If you are working to heal from chronic stress or anxiety, one yoga class isn’t going to change your life, but consistent deliberate practice over many weeks, months, or years can. So keep at it, even if your practice is simply taking three deep breaths once a day.
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