Image courtesy of Hellman Holistic Health
The ELDOA method—which encompasses the many exercise techniques taught by Dr. Guy Voyer, including his acclaimed ELDOA—is a powerful tool for athletes! It reduces the harmful effects of intense training, improves mechanics, and enhances overall performance. For the general population, ELDOA is great for tissue restoration, organ function, spine health, and more. Athletes in particular can benefit from improved balance, strength, and coordination. ELDOA exercises are excellent for the general athlete! They can also be customized for specific sports and players. Click here to learn about how pro hockey players like Kevan Miller of the Boston Bruins are incorporating ELDOA into their training!
ELDOA for All Athletes
No matter what sport you play, the goal is to be able to accurately produce force within a regulated environment. Whether you focus on golf, tennis, soccer, football, or swimming, you are expected to interact according to a set of standardized rules. As an athlete, you must play by the rules and use your body to negotiate a performance that is measured and scored along those standards. The better your performance, the better your score.
How important is the athlete’s ability to accurately coordinate force? Absolutely necessary!
By promoting an optimal balance of tension and force around the joints, ELDOA enhances your ability to accurately recruit force. Additionally, the exercises constantly require you to develop increased awareness of where your body is in space. So as you move through the classes, each time you do an exercise you are not only working on a particular joint, but also training a very important sensory system called proprioception.
Importance of Proprioception
Proprioception is the primary system for increased coordination and accuracy. It utilizes your sight, hearing, balance, and peripheral nerves (which feel and send messages regarding tension and compression in the body) to help you understand where you are in space. This system is essential to the development of athletic skill. There are few, if any, exercise classes which are so well suited to stimulate innate proprioceptive ability as the ELDOA method.
ELDOA for Specific Sports
Unique ELDOA programs can also be designed for individual sports and players. ELDOA founder Dr. Guy Voyer teaches many supplemental exercises to be used in this way. Learning all of the techniques which can be brought into the comprehensive method is done through Guy Voyer’s SomaTraining courses. The coordination of classes and programs for professional athletes has been one of the primary uses of ELDOA internationally over the past 15 years. For example, professional golf trainers Dan Hellman and Janette Alexander are bringing an exciting series of classes to Florida called Soma Golf! In this series, Guy Voyer will present how to train golfers using the ELDOA, as well as the many other techniques in the method, such as Myo-Fascial Stretching, Global Postural Stretching, Segmental Reinforcement, and Proprioception Awareness.
To sign up for the upcoming Soma Golf 1 course in Fort Lauderdale, click here!
Looking to improve your athletic performance? Join me for ELDOA group classes! Try my ELDOAfit class series for general athletes, or contact me about designing a unique program for a specific sport. Want to receive more insights on the latest topics in health and fitness? Sign up for my newsletter.
