Estudo biomecânico das posturas de equilíbrio do Yoga

Abstract

This work investigated whether a group of Yoga practitioners shows differences in postural control and biomechanical adaptations compared to a healthy control group while practicing singleleg Yoga postures. Ten Yoga practitioners (GY) were compared with a control group (CG) of ten non-practitioners performing two single-leg support postures: Vrksasana (Tree Pose) and Natarajasana (Dancer Pose). The rambling and trembling decomposition of the COP trajectories was implemented using a frequency domain optimization by a genetic algorithm that avoids using horizontal forces. Kinematics and inverse dynamics were performed using an OpenSim full-body musculoskeletal model with 37 degrees of freedom. Additionally, the center of mass (CM) was estimated from inverse kinematics using OpenSim 3.3 software, and compared with the rambling outputs. The GY showed less rambling variability (standard deviation) in the mediolateral direction for the Vrksasana posture. In addition, the GY showed a smaller confidence interval ellipse area, anteroposterior COP standard deviation, and a greater lumbar lateral tilt angle and hip abduction. For Natarajasana, only biomechanical adaptations were observed for the GY. For Vrksasana, in addition to biomechanical adaptations, motor control effects are associated with reduced rambling variability, suggesting the emergence of supraspinal motor adaptation effects by a feedforward mechanism mediated by Yoga training.