Sports “performance” can garner several different definitions depending on the context of the athlete. It could be the quest for an Olympic gold medal, an injury free exercise routine or a 30 second PB at your Saturday Park Run ritual. I want to speak about performance in terms of a holistic overview of your life. Think of it as the overall feeling you’re left with when you’ve put all the pieces of your training together. If you’ve developed an efficient, balanced training load there should be lasting feeling of happiness, fulfilment and a confidence in your capacity to perform within your sport.
Efficiency is at the core of sports performance. To be efficient, the athlete needs to address imbalances whether they be muscular or within the nervous system. In the Yogic tradition we refer to balance as a play between the Yang and the Yin. Nowadays, this is a well-known concept often used to refer to opposites. The Yang is action based, high energy, and associated with external effort. Conversely, Yin is introspective, restoring and associated with a release of effort.
Let’s look at the Yin-Yang symbol for a moment. Within each section there is a small dot of the other colour representing the constant appearance of Yin within Yang and Yang within Yin. True relaxation, for example, takes a certain amount of effort. Our mind’s function (particularly in the age of tech that we live in) in such a way that we must guide ourselves towards relaxation. There’s an element of Yang that keeps us disciplined enough to begin to free the mind and relax the body.
In a rugby context, for example, controlled aggression is extremely important. There needs to be an explosive (Yang) component with a cool-headed approach to maintain discipline and technique (Yin).
The wave-like appearance of the two sides reflects their capacity to seamlessly morph from one to the other. In an ideal balance of Yin and Yang the transition between the two should be effortless.
The knowledge we now have of the intricacies of the nervous system supports this ancient concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine completely. Broadly speaking, we have two nervous system states: sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest). These two naturally correlate with Yang and Yin a concept that can be traced back to 3 B.C. Credit where credit is due.
Most sports require a high level of physical and/or mental output. You could argue, for example, that darts is less physically demanding than Nordic skiing and yet there remains a huge demand on their mental capacity to perform under pressure. Either way, sportsmen and women spend a lot of their lives in the Yang or sympathetic realm.
When you’re too Yang
Yang dominance in athletes is common and it is only a problem when it starts affecting your recovery, mood, and relationships. As the oozing semi circles in the Yin-Yang symbol suggest we should be able to transition with ease between the two. It becomes a performance inhibitor for athletes when this Yang dominance, or overworking, begins to compromise recovery, sleep, relationships, and general health.
How do athletes know if they’re stuck in Yang?
– Low mood/anxiety
– Low energy
– Short fuse with teammates/coaches/family
– Poor sleep
– Injuries
– Getting ill often (poor immune function)
– Sexual health (loss of menstrual cycle, libido)
– Performance dips
– Digestion issues
Train hard, recover harder.
The key to efficiency of training is recovery. The ability to transition from our sympathetic to parasympathetic (rest & digest) forms the basis for supporting our body to heal. An analogy I like to give is when you are laying a fire. If you take your time to set the base with a couple of different combustibles; paper, kindling, logs, and you nurture the fire with the occasional extra log always paying attention to the speed at which each side is burning and adjusting accordingly, you’ll have a stable and consistent heat source. If you rush the foundations and chuck a couple of fire lighters on top for a quick fix, it burns quickly, but for a short time and you’re more than likely going to have to start from scratch again.
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A perhaps more relevant example:
Jane (34) enters her first marathon in April 2024 having been inspired by her colleague who ran London this year. She’s active but mostly swims and runs a couple of times a month. She gets excited and downloads a marathon plan. It’s full on (because well so is a marathon she tells herself) and to fit it around work she “doesn’t have any time” to do any other forms of exercise or recovery. 6 weeks in, shin splints. Damn.
(For clarification: Jane does not exist)
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Training load is something that should be discussed with your coach, or, if you’re solo, is something you can look at yourself. I can however recommend some easy ways your can get more Yin balance into your schedule.
How to switch to parasympathetic dominance
We need to train the body to seamlessly switch back to parasympathetic dominance for recovery. Your parasympathetic nervous system is majority controlled by the Vagus nerve. Stimulating or “toning” the Vagus nerve can in real time down-regulate the nervous system. Yoga methods such as deep breathing, humming, static stretching, and meditation are all great ways for athletes to build a more harmonious relationship between their Yin and Yang.
The parasympathetic state essentially communicates to your entire system that you are not in danger, and it can direct energy sources towards processes such as digestion and muscle repair. If the body thinks it is in danger it doesn’t want to be utilising valuable energy that it might need to fight the predator (or tackle the winger). For this reason, when you are in your rest & digest you can repair the connective tissue that you just worked during your session and digest the nutrients you just fuelled yourself with.
It’s a positive feedback loop:
You transition after training into your parasympathetic ASAP -> kickstarts muscle repair -> food is digested better -> sleep quality improves -> energy levels increase -> happier interactions with friends & family -> excitement for training -> performance improves.
Yoga is not just for the extremely bendy, I promise. Give it a go.
