Transition Zone
SUPPORTED BRIDGE
By Sage Rountree
By this point in the triathlon season, your strength and speed should be pretty finely honed. Once you’ve sharpened these skills to a peak, further work can wear you down. Instead of piling on more work, use your time wisely by setting aside a few minutes of your training day to relax, release and breathe in supported bridge pose. This pose provides a stretch for the hip flexors, which work so hard in the pedal stroke and running stride, and for the chest, which can close off with high swimming yardage and time in aerobars.
Take a few pillows off the bed, or encase your foam roller in a comforter so it’s soft and stable. Resting on your back, knees bent, lift your hips into a bridge position and slide your pillows underneath the back of the pelvis. Try to set them low, crossing the glutes, instead of high against the back of the waist — this latter position only supports the natural lumbar curve, without encouraging release in the front of the hips.
Once you feel steady, walk your feet away from your hips, as in the photo. Your arms can rest off the sides of your hips, palms up, as you feel your chest expand with each breath. To move deeper still, lift your arms overhead, settling the backs of the hands on the floor. Hold for 30 or 40 breaths total, and take your time moving out.
SAGE ROUNTREE is the author of “The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga” and “The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga” and a USAT Level II Certified Coach. Find her schedule and free post-workout yoga videos at
sagerountree.com.
CHECKING UNDER THE HOOD
By Cheryl D. Hart
IT’S ALWAYS WISE to get a tune-up before logging too many miles in your racing season. A mental assessment is equivalent to cleaning the carbon out of the throttle body and getting new filters so you emerge refreshed and restored. If you want your body to perform like a smooth-running machine, it’s important to understand what clogs up the system so you won’t break down on the side of the road. The pressure of competition often causes athletes to choke. This is not a sudden behavior, but rather a process whereby performance progressively deteriorates to the point where an athlete feels helpless in turning it around.
The conditions for choking are most likely when athletes perceive a competition to be high in importance. They worry about having a bad performance and how coaches, family, friends and other competitors will consequently evaluate them. Anxiety, created by this sense of pressure, results in physical changes such as muscle tension, increased heart rate, and fast, shallow breathing, which lead to performance impairment. However, the key to the breakdown occurs at the attentional level. The word anxious literally means “to be divided” or distracted. Athletes who choke are more focused on worries about a problem or the outcome than on “the task at hand,” (what is important in the moment). Proper focus on relevant cues requires an efficient “filter system” in order to remain fully focused on the present, not on problems, whether perceived or real.
Cheryl Hart, owner of 2nd Wind Motivation, is a sport psychology consultant who works with athletes around the world on mental toughness skills. To reach Cheryl, call (502) 693-7443 or visit
www.2ndWindMotivation.com
18 USA TRIATHLON SUMMER 2013
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