If you are using yoga to improve the way you move, whether it be for sport or just doing stuff better, you probably aren’t covering all of the bases that need covering. My whole vibe for developing the Not Really Yoga system has been to address this, but here, I outline some things you can do to tweak your yoga practice, if you’re not quite ready to come over to the dark side just yet.

What is the point?

An area that used to constantly bother me around the use of yoga poses for physical gain, was the lack of understanding of what is happening biomechanically in a pose. Obviously this isn’t across the board, and there are some great yoga teachers put there, but as the yoga teaching mills churn out a gazillion fresh eyed faces every 6 weeks, the herd is thinning.

Just like I say to the personal trainers I mentor, every exercise you prescribe is saying yes to the other 100 you could have done. You need a good reason for its inclusion. Yoga is no different. Sure...

I recall my introduction to yoga as a bright eyed 17 year old. A friend hooked me up with the practice to help with my surfing, which I was getting fairly serious about at the time. My desire then, was to be more limber and agile, and incorporate it as part of my fitness training.

Like many, I became drawn into the spiritual practice, and particularly the breathing (pranayama). It wasn’t long before I transformed from a weirded out dude at the back of the class, moving my mouth pretending to chant when the group kicked in, to busting out omms with the best of them.

As life took various turns, I soon became disillusioned with the more meaningful sides of the practice. Mainly through the abundance of try-hard hippies and fake gurus, who became more transparent to me as I became more immersed in both practicing and teaching.

It seemed yoga for the west had become laced with bullshit that it just couldn’t shake.

Whether it was detoxing organs with certain poses, or life...

New study on self massage shows what happens and why it works.

Despite being a multi-whatever-dollars industry, the myofascial release tool shop hasn’t got a great deal of conclusive evidence floating about.

Studies have shown that foam rolling increases blood flow to the muscle, and be useful in helping to warm up pre-workout, but there is limited evidence for what actually happens in terms of range of motion.

This recent study looked at using massage balls to see how range of motion was impacted, using ankle range of motion (dorsiflexion) for study effect.

The study looked at two groups. One used the massage balls prior to stretching and activity, and another did not use massage balls. The study showed increased in range of motion in the group that used the balls, with interestingly, the less flexible middle aged participants having greater benefit from using the massage balls pre-stretch than the younger participants. 

Massage your wet bits

This study...

The stupidly simple reason why your stretching exercises don't work

Working out and exercising in school was simple. If the physical education teacher told you to strap on your tiny little shorts and touch your toes and swing your arms around like a monkey, you did it. Because they knew more about stuff than you.

But now it’s not so simple.

Everyone is a health and fitness expert (especially the ones that aren’t), and a quick google has us questioning the advice of ev-ery-one, and rightfully so.

But how do we know who is right?

Stretching is one of these topics that has fallen under the dark veil of interweb confusion and opinion, which ranges from research article quotes on stretching reducing performance, to the “I don’t like stretching so you shouldn’t do it," crowd.

Then on the other hand we have yogi’s and physical therapists telling us we should stretch and improve range of motion, yet the fact that it doesn’t really seem to work to...