 |
| Is your spine aligned? if not you may be suffering from scoliosis |
What is it about?
The basis of the experiment was to derive a relatioship between posture and body type and other biomechanical measurements of the body and test whether they may be suitable as a competitive athlete in dragon boat.
A quick read of the abstract suggest various variables that were tested including lumbar scoliosis i.e. curving of the spine from normal and uneven shoulders; common "side effects" of training intensively in dragon boat. This study was set against a similar group of women to be used as a control group and the results have been conclusive. In fact, the paddlers have shown to exhibit higher levels of lumbar scoliosis and uneven shoulders. However, it does proceed to conclude that a better interpretation of the results could be established if this experiment was conducted over a longer period of time.
How does it affect us paddlers?
So how does this affect us as dragon boaters? Should we stop dragonboating altogether? Fortunately, as most of us paddlers only do so for recreation on the weekends and participate in less competitive events, this is unlikely to happen to the everyday Joe.
However, I believe competitive paddlers who paddle more than 4 times a week face this condition more readily that their recreational counterparts. Unfortunately, many of them go unnoticed for the fact that athletes do not wish to be sidelined knowing that this may affect their paddling career. For a fact, I believe it can be avoided as well as reversible.
Paddling on your weaker side
Many paddlers become stuck with the fact that they will and only can paddle on the side they started with, which is a load of BS. No one is born to start and end off paddling on one side only. I can paddle on both and I started learning to paddle on my left. Who is to say that you can't paddle on the opposite side? Not me. Paddling on your weaker side generates much as many nerve connections to your brain just as you were learning how to walk as a baby. It will be fun to understand and go back to the days where you learnt how to paddle wouldn't it? It will also help to balance your pulling muscles and exercise your central nervous system to learn to build new connections to the brain; creating new pathways for new learning. This can help your brain grow too. Killing many birds with just one stone.
Have a Break!
Competitive paddlers simply love going through the hard part of training, constantly thinking about pitting themselves against their teammates or thinking about the competition in the next race. Most however, fall into the trap of not allowing themselves to rest and recuperate especially if the body tells them that it can't do any more or if they are at the brink of an injury. Rest is an essential component to training and it cannot be more than emphasized in a training cycle. It also allows the body to regenerate poor muscle imbalances especially after injury.
Kayaking
Participating in kayaking builds not only strength in both sides of your pulling muscles but its also a great cardio workout and creates good practice for your core rotational skill which is hardly emphasized in dragon boat. Any kayak will do and you reap the benefits of the exercise just as well.
Strength and conditioning
For elite paddlers, conditioning will form a key function in the training cycles of the athlete. Does the recreational paddler benefit from it too? Knowing how strength and conditioning can play a vital role to increasing longevity of the used muscles in dragon boat and add years to your sporting life.
Till the next post! PaddleGeek signing off!
References: Click here for the research paper!
