Take It Further: Deepen your Flexibility Throughout
your Practice
Knowing how to develop a personal yoga practice can often seem
as difficult as the asanas themselves. Sometimes flexibility
in an asana can feel like a road block to further advancement.
The mind wants to be in a place that the body doesn’t
allow. As we move through the asanas, we are gently reminded
not to have goals for ourselves, but to listen to the body and
feel where it wants to be today, in the present moment. Being
a goal ori-ented society, it is normal to want to push beyond
the limitations of that moment. The mind/body dichotomy is often
hard to center, and we find ourselves pushing to extremes by
executing movements too quickly, or push too far, causing injuries
unnecessarily. At any stage - whether you are really advanced
or a complete beginner, knowing what is happening in the body
physiologically can help you deepen your practice. Understanding
the benefits of stretching and how muscles function can help
enhance your awareness of what is happening physiologically
when you move into an asana, so that you can deepen your postures
and improve your practice with full awareness and understanding.
How a muscle works
Muscles are made up of bundles of muscle fibers. Each fiber
contains both actin and myosin, which slide over each other
to contract, or release to stretch. Imagine your fingers interlaced
like a step ladder with the palms facing you and the fingers
placed one on top of the next with the first 2 joints overlapped.
This is a simple way to explain the actin and my-osin that make
up a muscle fiber at rest. If you do a lot of strength training,
the muscle builds up and shortens. This can be shown by sliding
the fingers together so that the tips of each finger are touching
your opposite hand so that no spaces can be seen. If you stretch
a muscle, the actin and myosin slide away from each other. This
can be shown by opening the fingers so that just the first joints
of the fingers are crossed over each other. In a healthy muscle,
the actin and myosin can slide easily across each other in either
direc-tion.
Benefits of Stretching
Stretching is the deliberate lengthening of muscles in order
to increase muscle flexi-bility or range of motion in a joint.
There are many obvious benefits to stretching. It im-proves
circulation by increasing blood flow to the muscles. It promotes
better posture by keeping muscles from getting tight and minimize
aches and pains. It relieves stress by helping to relax tense
muscles that accompany stress. It also may help prevent injury.
It can also reduce muscle soreness if you stretch after an exercise
session.
Decrease soreness through stretching
Decreasing muscle soreness through stretching is actually
an easy concept to un-derstand. Let’s pretend you have
just done a lot of strength training through intense activ-ity
or much repetition. The muscle fibers will appear bulky. (the
fingers are together with no spaces in between) This is because
the muscle has only been working in one direction, and has a
build up of lactic acid- a natural by-product of cellular respiration.
If the muscle is not stretched, it will ‘forget’
to go back to it’s natural state at rest. The lactic acid
will stay in the muscle and cause soreness. Stretching helps
to both reduce the lactic acid build up (soreness) and return
the actin and myosin to their normal ‘at rest’ positions.
(The fingers are placed one on top of the other with the first
2 joints overlapped.)
The Stretch Reflex
The stretch reflex is a mechanism of protection for the muscle.
It is a defense mechanism against being over- stretched or injured.
When a muscle begins to stretch, the muscle spindles record
the change in length and how fast the stretch is taking place.
This causes the stretch reflex to contract in equal measure
to the length and timing of the stretch. This means, the more
sudden the stretch, the quicker the contraction. The impor-tant
point to remember is that your muscles can relax to allow you
to stretch further or tighten and inhibit your progress.
One reason for holding a ‘stretch’ or ‘asana’
is that the muscle spindles gradually get used to the length
you are stretching. (Habituation). It is possible to train the
muscle spin-dles to reduce their signaling to allow for greater
length in the muscle. This allows the muscle to relax more fully
and allow for greater range of motion.
Let’s use pashchimottanasana as an example. This straight
leg forward bend is an amazing stretch on the lower back and
back of the legs (hamstrings). If you moved into the asana too
quickly by bouncing into it, your muscles would seize up due
to the stretch re-flex. However, if you slowly exhaled and relaxed
into the position, without holding tension and focusing on your
breath and letting go, you would slowly feel your muscles elongate-
allowing you to stretch further.
The
Rules
The rules for stretching are the exact same as the
‘rules’ for holding an asana. Al-ways breathe fully
and deeply. It takes time to lengthen a muscle safely. If it
hurts, you have gone to far: back off to the point where you
don’t feel any pain, then continue to hold. Don’t
bounce- this can cause small tears that leave scar tissue as
the muscle heals. This tightens the muscle further and prevents
smooth functioning of the cells within the muscle.
The magic in Yoga lies in the body’s ability to stretch
deeply and then relax fully. The stretching allows the body
to be receptive and open to change. The shavasana, or relaxa-tion,
gives the body an opportunity to realign and ingrain those changes.
The yoga stretching combined with the deep relaxation allows
the body reprogram itself back into its natural alignment.
Caron
Bosler - http://www.cor-e-nergy.com
