2019-04-01_Australian_Yoga_Journal

PHOTO: JACOBLUND/ISTOCKPH

OTO.COM

YOGA?

FUNCTIONAL

22

april 2019

yogajournal.com.au

Functional is such a buzz word in the health and wellness industry right

now, functional training, functional movement, functional nutrition,

and yes, even functional yoga. It may seem like a passing fad but here’s why

you should consider incorporating Functional Yoga into your practice.

Functional Explained

Exercises or movements are considered

‘functional’ if they support and

strengthen the movement patterns

necessary for going about daily life.

The primal movements are bending,

squatting, lunging, twisting, pulling,

pushing and walking (gait). Right about

now you’re probably wondering what

the big deal is, a Vinyasa yoga class will

usually cover most of those movement

types. While it is true some forms of

yoga come close to functional, they are

not quite there. When was the last time

you had to stand on your head in your

work day? Was it imperative for you to

put your legs behind your head in order

to do the grocery shopping? The beyond

normal range of motion, sometimes

sub-optimal alignment and the missing

movements of pull and gait, plus the

focus on flexibility limit how functional

yoga can be.

Flexibility Vs Mobility

One key focus of functional yoga is

mobility rather than flexibility. Flexibility

is how far we can push into a stretch,

mobility is the meeting of flexibility and

control. In Padmasana (lotus pose) for

example, a large proportion of those

who practice the pose can’t just flip their

legs into it without using their hands

to drag them into it. Using the hands

to assist into the pose shows flexibility,

where you get to without that assistance

is your mobility. Improving flexibility

is not necessarily creating strength of

movement or joint stability; it’s more

passive. When we train mobility we use

the muscles involved in that movement

to make it happen, strengthening the

muscles that support the joint.

Muscle Activation

Patterns

To be fair, the flexibility versus mobility

factor does sometimes come down to

By Erin Bourne