Abstract
This study was aimed at exploring the biomechanical characteristics of the lower extremity amongst three typical yoga manoeuvres. A total of thirteen experienced female yoga practitioners were recruited in the current study; they were all certified with the Yoga Alliance. A three-dimensional motion capture system with 10 cameras combined with four synchronised force plates was used to collect kinematics of the lower extremity and ground reactive force whilst the participants performed the crescent lunge pose, warrior II pose, and triangle pose. One-way repeated ANOVA was used in exploring the differences amongst the three yoga movements, and the significance was set to alpha < 0.05. The triangle pose performed the largest range of motion (ROM) of the hip (90.5° ± 22.9°), knee (68.8° ± 23.1°), and ankle (46.4° ± 11.3°) in the sagittal plane and the hip (54.8° ± 6.5°), knee (42.4° ± 12.8°), and ankle (4.8° ± 1.7°) in the frontal plane amongst the three manoeuvres (P < 0.05). No significant difference was found for the hip and ankle joint moment amongst the three manoeuvres (P > 0.05). Knee joint travelled into 9.5° of extension and slight adduction of 1.94° whilst expressing the largest knee joint adduction moments (0.30 ± 0.22 Nm/kg) in the triangle pose. The distribution of the angular impulse of the lower limb joints indicated that the hip joint contributed significantly the most in the sagittal and frontal planes of the three yoga manoeuvres (P < 0.05), ranging from 51.67% to 70.56%. Results indicated that triangle pose may be superior to the other two manoeuvres, which improved hip joint ROM, strength, and dynamic stability. However, knee injuries such as osteoarthritis (OA) should be considered because of the large knee extensor angle and adductor moments.
Highlights
Yoga is a mind-body exercise developed in India, which has gained popularity worldwide [1, 2]
Kuntz et al [7] stated that yoga manoeuvres may affect the alignment of lower limb joints, which could contribute to knee injuries
The three yoga movements began in the same initial yoga posture, and all three joints in the frontal and sagittal planes began at the same joint angle (Table 1)
Summary
Yoga is a mind-body exercise developed in India, which has gained popularity worldwide [1, 2]. This exercise can be characterised by slow movements, with large body movement range when participants are standing, seated, and lying supine or prone [3]. Practising yoga has been verified to increase muscle strength, joint flexibility [4], and joint range of motion (ROM) [5]; improve balance, coordination [6], and perceived stress and depression [2]; and reduce pain amongst patients with osteoarthritis (OA) [7]. Kuntz et al [7] stated that yoga manoeuvres may affect the alignment of lower limb joints, which could contribute to knee injuries. Following to Mears et al [5], by utilising a motion capture system and force plates to explore ankle ROM and moments in different yoga manoeuvres, studies on quantifying the kinematics and kinetics of yoga manoeuvres and exploring the possible mechanism of body yoga injuries are still lacking
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