Rehabilitation of sports injuries using Yoga Postures

Abstract

Sports injuries result from acute trauma or repetitive stress associated with athletic activities. The most common cause of sports injuries is due to overuse of muscles and also because of faulty training methods. Nevertheless, through scientific investigations numerous strategies have been evolved to overcome sports injuries. In this context, yoga therapy appears to be best approach for sports person because yoga postures and breathing practices have shown several health benefits among varied population. However, there is lack of studies in relation to yoga therapy and sports injuries hence, the present study attempted to find out the efficacy of yoga practices on sports injuries. On the basis of survey study, twenty-six male injured senior players (n=26), age between 20 to 35 years of Hockey, Volleyball, Basketball, Football, Handball, Cricket, Tennis, Badminton, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Track and Field from Pune city, who represented at state, national or international level of competitive sports were participated in the present study. Out of 26 experimental subjects, 4 remained absent in most of the yoga training sessions (i.e., whose attendance is below 80%) and they were considered as drop out. Finally, thus, 22 subjects remained in the experiment. The present study was conducted by considering a single group experimental design because the treatment part of the subjects changed as per the structure and symptoms of the injury. All the subjects were exposed to standard Pain intensity Questionnaire for obtaining the pain intensity data and symptoms of injury to assess the type and intensity of lower back injury and its associated pain, whereas X-rays and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) reports (including films) were considered to diagnose the status of injury. The yoga training was designed on the basis the basis of principles of Sun-Jeevan yoga therapy. Treatment period for the subject was 1 self-control period of 45 days, 1 training session of 45 days and 2 follow up training sessions of 45 days each.