Yoga & Cycling

April 23, 2008

By Alec Denes, MD Sports Orthopedic Surgeon

Last fall, I managed to recover from a painful episode of iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) in time to ramp up training for the Portland Marathon. A newfound devotion to stretching was responsible for my recovery, and I had no problems during the race. My time in that race was 3:09:17, a personal record by 13 seconds, but still a bit off of my sub-3-hour goal. The marathon gods were toying with me and this was just another one of their cruel games. But in a convoluted way, it led me to a new realization.

My stretching program involved several positions that were directly derived from yoga. I’ve come to believe that this is probably true of almost all stretching. I’m also convinced that this fact was carefully hidden from me as a teenage boy, to prevent me from categorically scorning all forms of stretching.

The practice of yoga has matured since then, and so have I. So as I learned of the connection between my remarkable healing stretches and the practice of yoga, I signed up for some yoga classes. Yoga turned out to be a great activity to occupy some time during my first winter in the Northwest, in addition to its numerous other benefits in the arenas of strength, balance, flexibility, and relaxation.

Yoga teaches you to find strength in the lines and angles of your body, and to feel the support from your firm connection to the ground. Most of the poses, with a few exceptions, can potentially be refined so that you can comfortably hold the pose and feel at rest, or at least balanced and stable. It often involves slight rotation of the arms or the hips, lowering of the shoulders, or other subtle maneuvers that enhance the lines and levers of your body to increase the strength of the position.

At times, I have felt completely at rest in a certain pose, despite contracting huge muscle groups or deeply stretching other joints. These almost feel like “net-zero” moments; the energy expended to hold the pose is cycled through from the energy created by the strong lines of the body.

After the marathon, I turned again to cycling. I’m a fair weather cyclist, so wintertime rides were somewhat few and far between. But whenever a spell of dry pavement hit, I was out there, spinning up and down the hills off of Skyline and the North Plains. I began to notice similarities between my body position on the bike, and during some yoga poses.

Climbing in the saddle, arms extended, shoulder blades drawn back, and elbows tucked in slightly; it felt just like holding downward-facing dog. Sprinting, hands in the drops, torso flexed forward; it was a standing forward fold. These similarities allowed me to come to rest in these positions, just as I had while holding the yoga poses. My body gained a sense of ease, and that seemed to free up more energy for my legs, and I felt I could climb longer, sprint past the imaginary finish line, and simply go farther overall.

So the yoga that initially helped me just by its distant influence on some knee stretches, turned out to improve not only my flexibility, strength, and balance, but also my ability to find a powerful resting position in moments of physical stress. It was a wellspring of comfort and improved performance, just in time for the upcoming season.