Issue 077
July 2011
No longer the sole preserve of pregnant women and vegetarians, the ancient Indian discipline of yoga is the hottest thing right now for MMA fighters looking to take their game to the next level. Check out what’s happening in the world of holistic exercise and go get your stretch on…
Step into any average yoga studio and you’ll be confronted by rows of lycra-clad women tying themselves in knots. Once the preserve of hippies, chicks and people scared of real exercise, yoga has always suffered a bad rap from those who practice ‘real’ sports. Indeed, most people believe you need rubber bones to take up the art. It’s unfortunate yoga suffers from being associated with Eastern mysticism, meditation and hippy culture, as the benefits that come from even semi-regular practice are very real.
Slowly but surely, attitudes are changing. Athletes have discovered that the ancient system of yoga – characterized by countless series of balancing acts, breathing exercises and stretches – can make you feel better and improve your performance. Everyone from tennis players to golfers are taking up yoga in order to improve their performance.
But can yoga really help in the cage? Absolutely. And the best thing is – there’s no chanting required.
What is yoga?
The word yoga refers to a Hindu discipline of training both mind and body. There are many different branches of yoga, some are more useful to athletes than others. There are styles of yoga that are deeply spiritual and require intense study, meditation and adherence to a strict lifestyle. Others are much more physical and leave out the mumbo-jumbo and are better suited to fighters who want to focus on physical development.
People think of yoga as simply being a method of stretching that comes from India, but it’s much more than this. As MMA trainer, BJJ black belt and yoga instructor Phil Migliarese explains: “I don’t believe stretching works at all, but I believe in yoga because it’s two things at the same time: breathing and muscle contraction.”
Phil trains multiple UFC and Strikeforce fighters at his Balance Studios gym in Philadelphia and has been teaching his own adapted style of ‘Yoga For Fighters’ for eight years. “Part of my training is I force the yoga on my fighters,” he laughs. “I’ve been doing BJJ and yoga almost my whole life – 20-plus years of each. When we train, they see how my hips are open and how I don’t panic in bad situations and they want to know how they can get that.”
For fighters, it makes sense to focus on the poses that matter, and this means targeting common areas of tightness, such as the shoulders and hips. Dynamic styles such as Ashtanga and Bikram (see below for an explanation of the various systems of yoga out there) are best for athletes as they incorporate more physical exercises and little-to-no meditation.
Benefits of yoga
Everyone understands that stretching off is an important part of any training session, but rarely do we do it properly. You can tag on a few token stretches at the end of a workout, but let’s be honest: the benefit is going to be negligible. There’s no two ways about it, stretching sucks and we don’t like doing it. Greater flexibility makes us better fighters. Having loose, supple muscles means we can punch faster, kick higher and shoot better takedowns. It makes our jiu-jitsu guards harder to pass and we can more easily move in and out of tough positions when grappling.
“There are obvious benefits to yoga – the flexibility of course – and the ability to breathe and not panic in bad situations, which an MMA fight is full of,” says Phil.
Yoga practice can help deal with injuries, increase your ability to recover after hard sessions and provide a mental break from the rigors of training. Veteran fighter Phil Baroni is a practitioner of Bikram yoga, which is performed in a heated room. “I do it as regularly as I can, but when you’re training twice a day for a fight it’s kind of hard to get in an hour and a half of yoga. I would like to be able to do it more – it makes me feel a lot better, when I have injuries it seems to help ease the pain.”
Baroni backs up the popular sentiment that stretching sucks, and we’ll do our best to avoid it if we can. “After training you’re beat. They say stretch off and you’re done, but you’re tired so you cut it short or don’t do it at all. [With yoga] you’re in the room for 90 minutes and you’ve got nothing else to do. It also helps clear your mind and helps you focus on your body – you’re not really thinking about your distractions, or the fight, or what’s going on in your life. It’s a good escape for your mind. It’s a total mind-body relaxation. It’s a completely different form of exercise to fight training.”
HOW TO GET STARTED
A quick search online will provide no end of short instructional videos and there are many books aimed at beginners. Starting off at home might appeal to the average fighter put off by entering a room full of super-supple ladies.
“If you’re looking for a class, look for an Ashtanga instructor who offers a super-basic introduction class,” advises Phil. “I would find an intro course – don’t be embarrassed to go to something super-simple. MMA fighters can’t be injured or overly sore all the time, so don’t overdo it. Start small and move into it.”
A qualified instructor is preferable but not essential to get started. Phil offers easy-to-follow videos on his website, www.yogaforfighters.com. “I would recommend the Sun Salutation series,” says Phil. “The fighter is often harder to teach because they’re stiff and injured. Fighters ask me how to start, I say check my videos online, and try and go to a class. I chose postures that would be a perfect base so people could try them and then jump into a class and not feel over their head.”
It isn’t too difficult to become familiar with the major positions and sequences. In the early stages yoga is designed to be accessible. You won’t come across complicated sequences or poses until much later and you’ll likely never even need to learn half the complicated shapes yoga fanatics twist into. “Yoga alone won’t win you a fight,” says Baroni, “but it’ll make you feel better.”
YOGA POSES FOR THE MMA FIGHTER
Though yoga poses should always be performed in sequence, Migliarese highlights a few examples of what you will encounter when you start to practice yoga:
Warrior one
“This is a powerful position, and it focuses on 90-degree strength in your front leg (above left). This is very important for fighters, because it’s like the penetration step on a double-leg takedown. It’s an extreme hip opener too, if you’re using it right. It’s a test of stamina and mental power as well.”
Head-to-knee pose
“This is great because it’s about hamstring flexibility, lower back, the gluteals and the piriformis, a muscle in the side of your hip. This pose (above center) should labor your breathing and you have to work through that. That’s the difference between just stretching and doing yoga. Yoga means ‘union’, the bringing together of multiple things: breathing and flexibility.”
Butterfly
“Heels together, sit up straight, knees out wide – it’s like guard, or taking the back. It’s named as the bound-ankle pose, I recommend it sitting with your back against a wall and sat on a block. It works your hip flexors and adductors, and as you move forward into it, your lower back, too.”
