In the past few months we’ve written a lot about how Power Plate and movement are intrinsically linked. One without the other is like a cocktail without an umbrella, bacon without eggs, Cagney without Lacey! With combinations and movement in mind, bringing traditional floor based activities to Power Plate can be extremely powerful. Building vibration into your daily workout routine is simple when we apply it to familiar forms of exercise. In this post we are dipping into the wonderful world of Power Yoga.
Flowing Links
The benefits of using Power Plate align extremely well with the benefits of Yoga. The parallels of improvements in mobility, flexibility and circulation as well as relaxation and recovery are so obvious that it makes perfect sense to link vibration to the many types or strands of Yoga. To help explore current Yoga practices related to Power Plate we sought the wisdom of our friend Vesselina Zlatareva who works with our more complex customer cases such as rehabilitation and elderly care.
Vessy (for short!) uses her deep knowledge of vibration in order to aid her clients and cater to their very specific needs. Over the years she has incorporated her love of Yoga into her Power Plate sessions with great effect.
To get you started and help you to explore the possibilities, Vessy has picked out a couple of her favorite movements, which you can try with Power Plate
Power Plate – Spine awakening
By combining vibration with a position that stimulates everything in the posterior chain (soles of the feet all the way up the back of the legs, back and through the shoulders), the nervous system responds to allow more freedom of motion. Vessy uses a single leg and her head to drive the movement in order to create length through the posterior. The vibration will travel up through the foot into the hamstrings and up the back as it follows the path of tension formed by the flowing movement.
Power Plate – Powyoga Double Pigeon
In this pose Vessy is lengthening and loading the tissues in her hips then using subtle movements to increase this length. Note that she drives her body in three planes of motion. Her arms, shoulders and hips move in rotation; forwards/back and side to side to allow the muscles in the pelvis to open.
In part two of this article we’ll dig deeper into how vibration stimulates the body and assists breathing during your Yoga session. In the meantime try these introductory positions and get ready for more extensive workout progressions next time.
By Paul Edmondson & David Howatson, Performance Health Systems UK Master TrainersFacebook: david_howatson
Twitter: @howeyDPT
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