Raising our arms above our heads seems to be a limiting a factor for a lot of people. We can bend in the middle, move our legs wide apart, and do a number of different upper body movements. But, when it comes to shoulders, even the best athletes can seem limited. If you add rapid, repetitive pressing and jerking movements into your workouts to improve shoulder mobility, you probably feel it in ways that you shouldn’t.

Ironically, the shoulder should be your most flexible and tactile joint. However, it is also one of the more complex joints in your body, a junction with a lot of connections coming in and therefore the shouler is susceptible to injury if not treated right. So, there are a lot of parts to go wrong. It’s the same thing with your knees. You probably know someone right now who has a shoulder or knee pain. That’s why you should try and have a bag of restorative flows or exercises in your fitness toolbox that you can pull out anytime you want to help you maintain your flexibility.

It should be noted compared to the knee, the shoulder joint is unique because of the wider range of movements. This includes the ways the ball and socket, as well as the shoulder blade and scapular-clavicular articulate. Simply, the knee goes back and extends to the front, but the shoulder rotates in a number of different ways that make it totally unique. It requires special attention. Give your shoulders some love, that’s all we’re saying here.

The video above takes you through a simple 25 minute flow to help your shoulders. If you want to make it easier to stream it anywhere you are, just register for the Breaking Muscle Whiteboard, it’s free, and you’ll have easier access to it.

The post Make Your Shoulder Hum Not Squeak appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

For all intents and purposes, the separation between parts exists only in language and colorful anatomy books, not in reality. When we attempt to talk about a certain area, we find other areas intruding and getting in the way. But that’s okay, because these perceived intruders are ultimately helping us connect the dots and discover that body parts cannot be defined in isolation, but rather in their relationship to the whole.

As someone with an undergrad in philosophy who loves mind-tripping on quantum physics, this viewpoint sits well with me. But for those who gravitate more toward hard, fact-based logic, you’ll be happy to know this perspective is confirmed by others like you.

Anatomy Is Only the Beginning

Leslie Kaminoff is an internationally recognized specialist in the fields of yoga and anatomy, as well as co-author of Yoga Anatomy. Kaminoff is unique in that his background is equal parts traditional yoga and western anatomy. He is also an atheist, so you can be assured his conclusions are not coming from some ungrounded spiritual or new-agey perspective. Yet he comes to similar conclusions as some of the great spiritual texts, and has been very influential to me as a yoga teacher.

So as we dive into sizing up our psoas with all its rich, complex intricacies, let’s consider that anatomy is only the starting point, and an understanding of functionality reigns supreme. In light of this, the key points are holistic in nature, and will include anatomy within the context of one’s entire body and life circumstances.

Simply put, the psoas attaches to the T12 and five lumbar vertebrae on the left and right sides of the spine. From there, it moves down and forward across the pelvic basin on each side and back again to attach to the inner, top area of the thighbone, known as the lesser trochanter. It is the only muscle connecting the legs to the spine. T12 is also a key juncture for the trapezius muscles and the diaphragm.

Mindfulness Matters

We live in a world of ever-increasing distraction, with a multitude of things that constantly pull our attention outward, numbing our awareness and reinforcing a disconnection from our bodies. The importance of stepping up our level of presence on a daily basis cannot be overestimated in its relation to posture and physical, mental, emotional wellbeing.

Ultimately, change is an inside job. Pain in the body is usually a symptom telling us there’s an imbalance somewhere. Imbalance stems from lack of awareness. Stepping up our level of mindfulness even a little goes a long way. Here are some ways to do that:

• Notice how you stand in the Starbucks line, at the post office, while you’re talking to a friend, your boss, your wife, or while watching your kids play soccer, etc. How is your weight distributed over your feet? How does your spine feel? How are you breathing? Are your knee joints locked out or hyper extended? Does your lower back or neck feel stiff or compressed?

• Notice how you walk from your house to the car, from your car to the office door, with your dog, on the hiking trail, through the grocery store or museum, etc. Do your toes turn out or in? Do feel the impact more in your heels, or the balls of your feet? What differences do you feel in your sneakers, vs. your four-inch heels, vs. your work boots, vs. your flip-flops?

• Notice how you sit at your desk, the dining room table, in your car, at the movie, while you’re reading, on your bicycle, in the waiting room, at the baseball game, etc. Does your lower back curl under or arch up? Do your thighs turn out? Do you feel compression in your lower back? Do your shoulders round forward? Do you feel any connection with the muscles in your pelvic floor?

All of these questions are points of mindfulness. The practice is very simple. The hard part is being present enough to remember take notice and ask the questions. When you do it, however, the questions themselves will cultivate awareness and invite you into a more conscious habitation of your own body. Greater than any massage session, yoga class, or surgery, the consistent daily practice of being more present in your body moment to moment and making adjustments accordingly brings the most stark and lasting benefits over time.

Your Feet Matter

Get to know your amazing feet! Did you know they have one of the highest concentrations of nerve endings in the entire body? About 200,000 per foot, to be exact. As much as I love shoes (and I have the closet to prove it), too much shoe wearing dulls the connection between our feet and our brain, making us more susceptible to bad walking and standing habits, and to falling. Don’t worry though, you can still wear your cool shoes, just be sure to balance this with as much barefoot time as possible. 

Give your bare feet the opportunity to make contact with as much varied terrain as possible—beach sand, gravel driveways, carpet, concrete, wood floors, grass, your yoga mat, etc. This will keep the nerve centers rich and your connection with them alive. Because the way you use your feet affects everything above them, it will also help you identify what’s working and not working in how you tend to use your feet when standing and walking, and to make any adjustments needed to bring more balance.

What’s helped me is to divide the feet into four corners: big toe mound, pinky toe mound, inner heel, and outer heel. Feel for even weight distribution among those points, and then feel an energetic lift in the inner and outer arches of both feet.

Learning to keep the outer edges of the feet parallel and feel each toe mound distinctly can also impact our overall postural alignment. In addition to this, a simple, potent stretch for the psoas, which we learned earlier runs across the lower back before attaching to the femur bone, is to press down and out through the heels without physically moving your feet. This initiates a stretch and relieves compression in the lower back, creating more space and ease.

Your Breath Matters

Remember the T12 vertebrae, where the psoas meets the diaphragm, our primary breathing muscle? This creates a symbiotic relationship. One affects the other so closely that we can say if the psoas is constricted, so is the breath, and vice versa.

Breathing not only affects our muscles, but also our mental and emotional state, as well as our nervous system. The way we breathe can regulate or deregulate the body’s natural rhythmic functioning on a global scale. This is why breath can be the shortest distance between two points; the most efficient way to effect a needed change in the shortest amount of time.

A good way to experience this in relation to your psoas is to lie down on a flat, firm surface with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Visualize your psoas and take some deep belly breaths, where you allow your lower abdominal area to expand in all directions on the inhale, and soften back down on the exhale. Take note of how you feel after engaging in this practice for 1-5 minutes. This alone can be very healing to any pain or constriction in the pelvic girdle and or lower back.

The Psoas Is More Than a Muscle

As noted earlier, the psoas is the only connection between our legs and our spine. This is significant because our legs enable us to run from danger, an instinctual drive wired into the human psyche via the reptilian part of our brain. When mobility is limited, this can keep our fight or flight mechanism in a chronic state of over-activity. Conversely, chronic stress can also contribute to constricted, tight, painful psoas muscles. Like the chicken and the egg, it’s often impossible to tell which came first. Fortunately, addressing one also addresses the other.

This is why lifestyle—the body of our circumstances—can play such a vital role in finding freedom in our physical body overall, and especially in the psoas muscles. It’s key to regularly ask questions like this:

• Are my levels of input and output balanced?
• Am I getting enough rest?
• Do I spend too much time sitting?
• Is my lifestyle creating stress?
• What small adjustment can I make today to bring more balance to my life?

This matrix of connection is one thing that makes the psoas so powerful, and why it has been referred to as “the most important muscle of the body,” and “the muscle of the soul.” Our life gives us clues about our psoas, and our psoas gives us clues about our life.

In this way, we can be thankful for discomfort if it turns out to be a catalyst for change in the right direction, and equally grateful for freedom as a sign that we’re on the right track. When something goes awry in our body, we’re educated to believe that the goal is to get the problem taken care of as quickly as possible, so we can get on with our normal life.

I understand that the information I’ve shared here doesn’t fit into the quick fix model that dominates modern society. Nonetheless, I hope you’ve had the patience to explore this with me, and if you do apply these principles in your life, I think you will find them effective, empowering, and supportive of your overall health and wellbeing.

The post Get to Know Your Psoas appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

While that’s understandable, it’s also an excuse. And you know what they say about excuses.

Having been around the yoga block a few times (pardon the pun), I’ve come to understand that flexibility is as much about the mind as it is about muscle. So now, when someone tells me they are not flexible enough to do yoga, I say with a twinkle in my eye, “You’re right.” This is usually surprising enough to get their motor turning, and the conversation that follows depends on the kind of person they are. My response is akin to Henry Ford’s famous quote, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” I gently nudge them to recognize that it’s the belief that matters.

It’s important for teachers, trainers, therapists, and generous hearts from all walks of life to spot chronic excuse makers, so we don’t waste our efforts on someone who has no intention of changing. Before I understood this, I poured so much precious energy into animated dissertations on toe-touching, shoulder mobility, hip rotation and the like, trying to convince the unconvincible that they were indeed flexible enough to do yoga.

Even when I took someone through an exercise that showed them how they were indeed flexible, my efforts failed. Why? Because their mind was made up!

As it turns out, some people have learned to use excuses as a way to get attention and energy from unsuspecting, generous souls. Unfortunately, this energy is wasted, like putting gas in a car that has no engine, because the person has no real desire to change. This leaves the giver depleted and the receiver right where they were, blissfully basking in their bed of excuses.

Having made that distinction, what follows is for those of you with a willingness to change. Not your body, though that will come soon enough, but first we have to work on your mind. With few exceptions, your body can only be as willing as your mind. If you’re still reading, you must have learned somewhere along the way, as I did, that willingness is the harbinger of possibility, so here we go.

Yoga 101

Let’s start with a little overview on yoga. Along with yoga’s rise to popularity in the west, a morass of marketing, designed to sell expensive clothing and studio memberships, depicts yoga practices geared to make you sweat, give you a workout, and the body you’ve always wanted, all to the backdrop of loud music.

Yoga is a big word, and I would be doing you and me a disservice to say I knew what “it” is. For the sake of constructive conversation, I can share some helpful jumping off points that I’ve found useful.

Yoga can be thought of as a noun and a verb. As a noun, it describes the unity and essence of everything, as a verb it describes the practices that help us connect with the awareness of the essence and unity of all.

One of the main texts on yoga, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, describes yoga as “…the practice of quieting the mind.” This same text lays out an eightfold system to assist the practitioner in achieving that. One of these practices is asana, or yoga posture. While current perception has it that yoga is yoga postures, yoga posture is only an eighth of the whole yoga pie.

Since the flexibility argument is nearly always referring to yoga poses (or asana – words which I’ll use interchangeably), let’s center our focus here for a bit.

Using the Sutras as our guide, we learn that asana is about finding energetic balance between two different forces—the forces of steadiness and ease, or strength and flexibility. Knowing this is crucial! And not knowing it is often detrimental, and leads to strain, injury, and self-condemnation.

This simple principle relieves us of the pressure of trying to make the pose look a certain way, and makes yoga poses accessible to everyone. One of my master teachers always reminds us that we are looking for the best version of the pose for our body at that particular moment in time; as opposed to trying to make our body mold itself to the way we think the pose is supposed to look based on a concept.

Physics and the New Science of Stretching

Basic physics tells us that an atom is 99.99999% empty space. When people say they are not flexible, this points to a feeling of constriction or lack of space wherever their tight zone is. But if our bodies are made of atoms and atoms are mainly space, then what causes tightness or lack of space? Is it matter or mind?

This is where new research in bio-mechanics sheds light. Whereas we once envisioned our muscles like taffy that we could stretch through effort, with the goal being to make short muscles longer; we now understand that stretching is not so much about the physicality of our muscles but about the nervous system that controls them.

The brain which controls the nervous system is a survival mechanism whose sole aim it is to keep us safe. The brain interprets familiar movements or body positions as safe ones. Anything new sends a threat signal to our muscles causing constriction. The way around this is to go to the edge of your stretch enough that the nervous system starts to warm up to the movement and gradually allows more range of motion.

The approach toward stretching that I’ve observed in the past is one of strain, pulling, and effort to get past the edge. No pain, no gain.

My work involves guiding people away from strain and toward their breath, and ultimately to an awareness of how the area they are stretching is connected to and affecting the rest of the body—especially their spine. Often, it’s a completely different area of the body keeping the target zone from stretching.

For example, in a seated forward fold (paschimottanasana), the tendency is to fixate on the hamstrings, because that’s usually where most people feel the resistance most. What happens next is the individual grabs their shins or feet (barely), rolls back on their sitz bones, and rounds the upper back, completely avoiding the hamstrings and the connection between the backs of the legs and the back of the torso.

A more constructive way to do this stretch is to elevate the buttocks on a blanket or pillow if needed to allow the student to roll forward on their sitz bones and gain length through the lower back. And rather than straining to reach the feet, the student wraps a yoga strap or towel around the bottoms of their feet and holds that.

These adjustments in support already bring a calmness to the nervous system and allow the student to connect with their breathing. I’ve witnessed huge shifts in range of motion in one session from working this way. As students learn to visit their edge and relax into it. rather than try to get beyond it, the range of motion increases rapidly.

Be sure to watch the short video below to see these principles in action!

What about the other two “abilities?”

Let’s End the Mobility Versus Stability Debate

The post The Myth of Flexibility and Yoga appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The results of these exercises are immediate and sustainable if practiced daily as you go about your regular activities. The exercises I’ve given can be done in as little as five minutes, but to get the most out of it, allow 10-20 minutes whenever possible. The final pose, legs up the wall (a.k.a. viparita karani or reverse action pose) can be sustained for up to 15 minutes.

Here are a few points to remember:

1. Your feet tell you what your thighs are doing. If the toes are turning out so are the thighbones. This compresses the lower back.
2. Look to see that the outer edges of your feet are parallel.
3. Make sure your weight is even on both the inner and outer edges of your feet. In other words you’re not leaning more to one side or the other.
4. Practice these actions throughout the day whenever you think of it and they will become the new habit.

Your chair is killing your back:

Corrective Posture Exercises for Chronic Sitters

The post 5 Yoga Exercises for a Healthy Low Back appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Digestive problems can ruin a good day, but yoga can help.

Don’t Forget Your Brain

But first, consider that the most important digestive organ is your mind. I know the brain is not technically part of the digestive system, but it, via the nervous system, controls the digestion process. The number one reason things go wrong with digestions is stress. Stress is connected to the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls everything in the body that’s automatic (or involuntary) such as digestion, heart rate, and respiration.

“[W]hen stress becomes chronic, as it is for so many of us today, it can be damaging to our digestive system.”

The stress response is embedded in the involuntary nervous system as a way to mobilize us for survival in a life-threatening situation. You may have heard this called the “fight or flight” response. It releases hormones in the body that gear it to fight or flee. To do this, it pulls blood flow away from the digestive and immune systems and sends it to the large muscle groups needed for mobilization. In small doses, this is a good thing. But when stress becomes chronic, as it is for so many of us today, it can be damaging to our digestive system.

So if I want you to take away one thing from this article it’s this: the best thing for digestion is less stress. Yes, even more important than what you eat or how much you exercise. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be mindful of what you eat and keep your body active. It means that even if you do these things, if you are in a chronic state of stress, you may still end up with digestive problems.

How Do I Reduce My Stress Levels?

The answer is so simple, so accessible, and so inexpensive you won’t believe it. It’s a drug you make and always have access to. It’s your breath. Less stress is as close as your next breath – literally.

“Abdominal breathing relaxes the digestive organs and stimulates peristalsis (wave-like motions in the body that contribute to digestion).”

Remember earlier I mentioned respiration is part of the involuntary nervous system? Well it’s also the one function of the involuntary nervous system that can be consciously controlled. Even if you’re not thinking about it, you are going to breathe. But you can also harness the power of your breath to affect the automatic functions of the body, such as digestion, in a positive way.

Sukhasana and Breathing

Let’s begin by cultivating our breath:

1. Sit in easy pose (sukhasana). If your knees are higher than your hip points, then elevate your buttocks by sitting on a blanket or pillow.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Begin to feel your breath flowing in and out through the nostrils.
4. Gradually slow your breath down to a three-count inhale and exhale. Breath in and out through the nose.
5. When you inhale feel the belly expand. When you exhale feel the belly pull back toward the spine.

Sit and breathe in this way for two to ten minutes, depending on how much time you have for your practice. Abdominal breathing relaxes the digestive organs and stimulates peristalsis (wave-like motions in the body that contribute to digestion). Practice this type of breathing in all of the poses you’ll find below.

Apanasana

From a reclining position, bend the knees and draw them in toward the chest. You can place your hands on the shins or the backs of the thighs. Gently hug the knees in and focus on the abdominal breathing described earlier for thirty seconds to two minutes.

Cow Tilt, Cat Stretch

Come to all fours with wrists under shoulders and knees under hips. On an inhale, drop the belly down as the tailbone lifts up, creating a gentle arch in the lower back (keep abdominals slightly engaged to ensure you don’t overdo the arching in the lower back). The heart, throat, and gaze open upward, without over arching the back of the neck.

On exhale, round the back, drawing the tailbone under as the crown of the head releases toward the floor. You should feel the shoulder blades separate across the back. Press through the hands and the tops of the feet as you do this. Also make sure your inner feet and shins are parallel.

Repeat ten to twenty cycles on the breath.

Forward Fold and Half Forward Fold

Bring yourself to a standing forward fold with your feet hip width apart. Be sure your knees are slightly bent. Place your hands on blocks or a footstool – anything to bring the floor closer to your hands depending on your flexibility.

On an inhale, place your hands on your shins and extend the front of your spine forward from the pubic bone to the throat. Be sure not to over arch the back of your neck. The gaze is forward but not too far up. Abdominals are slightly engaged. On an exhale, fold forward, softening the knees and the neck.

Repeat this combination three to five times, and then hold your forward fold for thirty seconds to a minute. Let your neck completely relax.

Squat Variations

Next bring your feet wider than your hips. If you’re using a yoga mat, place your feet about as wide as the mat. The stance is different for everyone so experiment to find what works for you.

Squat down between the heels. As pictured above, you can use support underneath your buttocks or sit on the floor. If your heels don’t touch the floor, you can place a folded blanket or towel underneath them for support.

Bring your hands to your heart in a prayer position. Press the elbows into the inner thighs. Keep the feet active and draw the heels toward each other to create a lift. As you inhale, contract the anal sphincter muscles. As you exhale, release them. (If you don’t know what that is, then simply inhale and exhale the way you have been.)

Repeat your chosen variation for one to two minutes.

Seated Twist

Sit in a cross-legged position, following the instructions from earlier. Inhale the arms above the head. Exhale to bring the right hand to the outer left thigh and the left hand to the floor behind your back. If the left hand doesn’t easily touch the floor, you can place a yoga block or anything that would double for that underneath your hand. As you inhale, lengthen the spine. As you exhale, twist from the lower, middle, and upper spine. Be sure to stay upright. Try to avoid leaning forward or back.

Do this for thirty seconds to one minute. Switch the crossing of your legs and do on the other side.

Seated Side Stretch

From the cross-legged position, place your right hand on the floor or on a yoga block. Inhale to lift the left arm up. Feel the stretch in the left side from the hip to the armpit. Inhale to lengthen the spine. Exhale to stretch to the right. The right elbow can bend to accommodate the stretch. Keep the shoulders relaxed and firmly ground both sitting bones.

Continue for thirty seconds to one minute. Switch the crossing of your legs and repeat on the other side.

Child’s Pose

From a tabletop position, open your knees a little wider than your hips. Bring your big toes together and rest your buttocks back toward your heels. Keep your arms extended out in front and rest your forehead on the floor, a blanket, or a pillow.

Stay here for two to three minutes practicing the abdominal breathing described earlier.

Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Kirani)

Finally, place a blanket next to the wall. Sit on the blanket with one hip against the wall and gently swing both legs up the wall. You may need to scoot yourself closer so your sitting bones are against the wall. Make sure your palms are facing up. Your arms can be straight or you can have your elbows bent in a cactus shape. Relax your feet.

Remain here for two to five minutes practicing the abdominal breathing described earlier.

Seek Balance

Though you can practice this entire sequence daily, it’s probably more realistic to commit to three times a week for a thirty-day period and then reassess. You can always pick one or two postures if you’re short on time. You’re intuition will guide as to what will bring the most balance to your system. The breath awareness suggested here is the most accessible and beneficial thing to incorporate into your daily life. If you do nothing but that, you will feel the results.

“[I]f I want you to take away one thing from this article it’s this: the best thing for digestion is less stress.”

Digestion consists of ingesting, digesting, assimilating, and eliminating. Beyond food, there are many other things we digest. We digest activity, information, education, and experiences. Often when one of those areas is out of balance it affects the physical digestive function. So always keep the big picture in mind. And remember that when you engage in practices of self-care such as these everything else in your life will be blessed because you show up a better person.

More Like This:

• Want to Improve Your Gym Performance? Start With Your Gut
• 5 Tips for Better Sleep and a Healthier Mind and Body
• 4 Questions Every Yoga Newbie Asks
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post A 15-Minute Yoga Practice for Better Digestion appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When I became a yoga teacher, this situation became perplexing and kind of embarrassing, to be honest. How could I be helping others find freedom in their bodies and still be experiencing this pain in mine?

Poor posture can lead to chronic neck and shoulder pain, even if you practice yoga frequently.

This question prompted my personal inquiry into new ways of practicing. What I discovered is that I had adjusted my posture from the outside so it looked better, but there was still much inner work to be done.

There are a few specific things that contributed to my freedom from the pain I was experiencing. I’m going to share these simple (though not easy) insights in the hopes that others will find liberation, too.

Common Cues

The body conforms to what we do most. The activities of modern life have us sitting in front of steering wheels and computers, as well as bowing before other handheld gadgets for countless hours every day. These actions promote poor posture, especially in the thoracic and cervical spine. This poor posture leads to pain in those and other areas and even headaches.

“The spine is designed to help us stay upright and move through gravity with the least amount of effort and impact on our bodies.”

A few of the main alignment cues I was taught in yoga teacher training and hear perpetuated in classes are: draw your shoulder blades together, draw your shoulder blades down, and widen your collarbones. Some teachers go so far as to say, “Pretend you’re squeezing a pencil between your shoulder blades.” Yikes!

Taken out of context, following these instructions can interfere with the spine’s natural curves, which are designed to bear weight and keep the body tension free. To understand this let’s look at how the spine is shaped. The four distinct sections of the spine are:

1. Cervical (or neck) – curves in
2. Thoracic (upper/middle back) – curves out
3. Lumbar (lower back) – curves in
4. Sacrococcygeal (sacrum/pelvis) – curves out

The spine is designed to help us stay upright and move through gravity with the least amount of effort and impact on our bodies. Because the dominant pull of gravity is downward, good posture involves lengthening upward through the spine. In addition, attaining and maintaining a healthy spine involves carrying ourselves in a way that does not detract too from the natural curves of the spine.

Because the thoracic spine curves out, instructions like “shoulder blades together and down your back” tend to force the front ribs out and the thoracic spine in. This creates compression in the upper and middle back and interferes with the ability to lengthen the spine up. Most yoga practitioners and others have the misconception that moving the rib cage forward lengthens the spine. There can be no comprehension of how to actually lengthen the upper middle back areas as long as forward is being mistaken for up.

“Because the thoracic spine curves out, instructions like ‘shoulder blades together and down your back’ tend to force the front ribs out and the thoracic spine in.”

Furthermore, this creates a lot of tension in the thoracic spine and causes the lower back to over mobilize (remember, it’s all connected). And the tight muscles in the thoracic spine restrict circulation in the body. Considering that the upper and middle back house the heart and lungs, the value of this awareness goes beyond aesthetics or getting rid of shoulder pain. The ability to allow space in that area is vital for our overall health and well-being.

Some teachers go so far as to say, “Pretend you’re squeezing a pencil between your shoulder blades.” Yikes!

Effects on the Head

Pushing the thoracic spine in and down also often causes the head to move forward, putting extra pressure on the cervical spine. The average head weighs five to eleven pounds. The cervical vertebrae are small and are not meant to carry a lot of weight. The head, therefore, is meant to bobble. I actually use the image of a bobble-head doll to help students find the proper way to carry their heads.

“The jaw, neck, and throat tend to be the first place tension appears in response to any stress trigger, such as fear, anxiety, annoyance, worry, hurry, etc.”

Jutting the chin too far forward also puts the neck out of alignment. This can happen even if the upper and middle back are in good form. The jaw, neck, and throat tend to be the first place tension appears in response to any stress trigger, such as fear, anxiety, annoyance, worry, hurry, etc. So it’s important to do regular check-ins throughout the day to bring this area back into alignment.

Create New Habits

So how do we find more resourceful ways to inhabit our bodies in relation to these patterns? I’m going to share a few simple things you can start doing today. Keep in mind these actions may not be easy, especially at first. In undoing well-worn patterns, it takes repeated correction to create a new habit. So we must be consistent and persistent, but it’s worth it – I promise!

1. Bring the front ribs down and back and lift the back ribs up.

It may feel like you’re rounding your back, but you won’t be unless you overdo it. You will simultaneously feel your lower back and tailbone area lengthen downward. This is counterintuitive for most of us. It is even difficult for many long-time yoga practitioners. To explore this:

1. Lie on your back on a firm surface like the floor.
2. Stretch your arms over your head and feel which areas of your back are touching the floor. Chances are your middle back is arching away from the floor.
3. Now bring your bottom front ribs down and your navel up. Feel how that allows your middle back to connect more fully with the floor. You’ll notice if you take this action too far your upper back will begin to round so stop before that happens.
4. Once you’ve found this on the floor try it in a seated and then standing position.

2. Widen the shoulder blades.

In yoga terms, the idea of opening the chest is often communicated as “widen the collarbones.” To accomplish this, most of us squeeze the shoulder blades together. Instead, what I find helpful is to start with the shoulder blades and imagine them widening apart rather than moving together. As I do this, the chest may begin to round. It’s at that point that I start to widen the chest. These two actions done simultaneously create a balanced sense of space in the chest and upper back.

3. Chin down, ears back.

Think bobble-head doll. How to do this:

1. Stand with your back against a wall.
2. Find the actions we established above in the thoracic spine and feel the effect those have on your neck and head.
3. Bring the chin down slightly and imagine the ears moving back in space.
4. Begin to climb the back of your head up the wall. This is a subtle movement and the range of motion will be small. The important thing is that you feel a lengthening up through the back of the neck (cervical spine).

4. Breathe slower, deeper, longer breaths.

Once you’ve established the alignment in your whole spine per the exercises above, you can bring your breath into the equation. Choose the position in which you feel most supported – either lying on the floor or standing against a wall.

Try inhaling through the nose to a count of three or more. Specifically, feel the inhale in the upper body allowing the front, back, and side ribs to expand. The shoulder blades will also lift away from the back. Exhale through the nose for three counts or more with a focus on drawing the navel back as the spine lengthens and maintaining some of that space you created in the upper back and chest with the inhale.

Practice standing against a wall to bring your spine, including the neck, into alignment while incorporating the breath described above at least once a day for five minutes. You can use what you learn in this practice to bring awareness to your body throughout the day. Notice what’s happening when you’re driving, typing, or texting. Notice how this new awareness alleviates acute and chronic pain in the shoulders and neck, and even a cessation of headaches.

Be Persistent

Remember, if you’re training for a marathon or studying for a big exam, you don’t give up at the first sign of disinterest or resistance. Think of this work too as a disciplined training. You’re learning to experience all the space and freedom available to you within your body. At first this make take a lot of effort and you may encounter resistance, but if you persist, the physical, mental, and emotional benefits will be undeniable.

More Like This:

• 3 Quick and Simple Ways to Relieve Neck Pain and Stiffness
• Downward Dog at the Wall: Releasing Neck Tension
• 5 Simple Exercises to Eliminate Neck Pain
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photos 3 and 4 courtesy of Alison Bristow-Wilburn.

The post Alignment Tips to Free Your Neck and Shoulders From Chronic Pain appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

• Elongates and releases tension from your spine
• Opens the hips and shoulders
• Stretches hamstrings, calves, arches, hands
• Strengthens arms, shoulders, wrists, ankles, abdominals
• Improves digestion
• Relieves back pain, headaches, insomnia, and fatigue
• As a mild inversion it calms the nervous system and relieves stress

Because this pose is so widely practiced, it’s often assumed that people know it, and proper instruction is overlooked. This means many of the benefits are lost due to misunderstanding and misalignment.

I’m going to share with you some of the key points I’ve found helpful over the years as a student and a teacher. Once adapted to your specific needs, downward-facing dog can be the perfect all-in-one stretch after running or other athletic activities, or as a way to quickly de-stress your body and mind.

Getting Into Downward Dog

I often describe downward-facing dog as an upside-down “V.” Here’s how you begin:

1. Come down onto your hands and knees.
2. Walk your knees about three inches behind your hips.
3. Tuck your toes under and lift the knees off the floor.
4. Allow your hips to lift up toward the ceiling.
5. Allow your chest to press back toward your thighs.

Once you are here, check your hands to make sure the wrists are shoulder width apart (wider if you have tight shoulders), your fingers are spread evenly, your index fingers point straight forward, and the weight evenly distributed throughout your whole hand.

Next, lift up your heels and, with a slight bend in the knees, press your heels down toward the floor. As you do this, you should feel more weight shift into your legs. Once the weight has shifted, you can work on straightening your legs without shifting forward again. For many people, keeping the knees bent in this pose is the best option – especially in the beginning.

Once you’re in the basic shape of the pose, tune into your spine. It should be elongated. If it isn’t, one or more of these modifications will usually help:

• Move your feet and hands a few inches further away from each other.
• Open your feet wider and/or bend your knees.
• Open your hands wider and possibly even turn them out a little.

After you’ve made the adjustments to elongate the spine, you can refine the pose. This is my favorite part. It involves delving into the more subtle and sophisticated alignment points that start to rewire our muscle memory, nervous system, and brain. This type of work increases the elasticity of the mind, keeping it youthful and open to learning and growth.

I often describe downward dog as an upside-down “V.”

Refinements

First, let’s focus on the hands. The proper placement of the hands is vital as it affects everything above. One thing I find helpful is to shift the weight out of the wrists and toward the knuckle side of the hand. This will ensure you never experience wrist pain from this pose.

“Because this pose is so widely practiced, it’s often assumed that people know it, and proper instruction is overlooked. This means many of the benefits are lost due to misunderstanding and misalignment.”

Also, a little clawing action of the fingertips, emphasizing the natural arch of the palms helps to cultivate what’s known as hasta bandha (hand lock). Hasta bandha encourages the energy to draw up through the hands and arms, rather than sinking into the gravitational pull toward the floor.

A common faux pas is to allow the inner hand to lift up, so always consciously press the base of the thumbs and index fingers down. This action becomes a helpful counter-action to the external rotation needed in the arms. As you press the inner hand down, turn the upper arms out. Remember, the arms rotate in the shoulder sockets so try to work from there. If this action is performed properly, the elbow creases will turn forward slightly.

Hand positioning with inner hand lifted (left), versus actively engaged and pressed into the mat (right).

Check Your Foundation

Your feet are the other part of your foundation. We want the inner edges of the feet parallel. For most bodies, this requires a slight widening of the heels. This ensures that the lower back stays spacious.

As you press your inner and outer heels down, lengthen the inner heels back. As you press the heels down, lift the inner and outer arches up. This creates pada bandha (foot lock), whereby the energy flows up through the feet and legs rather than dumping down into the floor.

Head and Neck

Now, notice your head and neck. Though the neck (cervical spine) is part of the spine, we often forget that and act as if it’s separate. So, be sure your neck and head are in line with the rest of your spine. Often teachers will instruct the ears to be in line with the biceps, but this may not be right for everybody. The most important thing is that the spine (including the neck) is in one long line.

Avoid looking too far forward between your hands.

Or tucking the chin and looking too far toward your toes.

In addition, the neck and head should be free, not locked. Test this out by nodding your head and turning it from side to side a few times.

Things to Guard Against

• Hyperextension in the elbows and knees: If you have a tendency to hyperextend, keep a slight bend in the knees and elbows even if you think you don’t need to.
• Arching or tucking the lower back: If you have a hypermobile lower back, you’ll need to draw the navel up toward the chest to cultivate neutral alignment in the pelvis. Be sure you don’t overdo it and go into a tucking action – just find neutral.
• Ribs thrusting forward: If your front ribs are thrusting forward, soften them into the back of the body.

Avoid a slight anterior pelvic tilt (pictured at left), or posterior pelvic tuck (pictured on the right) and aim for neutral spinal alignment.

Since it’s often hard to feel this last aspect in downward-facing dog, one way to check yourself is in urdhva hastasana (upward-facing hand pose):

1. Stand with your feet parallel and hip width distance apart.
2. Raise your arms overhead with the palms facing in.

If your front ribs are thrusting forward, then chances are they do in downward dog, too. Find the action here of softening the front ribs down and lifting the back ribs up. You will feel a release in the upper back, shoulders, and chest. Now you should be able to translate the action in downward-facing dog.

In the photo on the left, the ribs are thrusting forward. On the right, they are in proper alignment.

Breathing

Once you feel balanced in the pose, begin to focus on your breath. Breathe in through the nose slowly and out through the nose slowly. Allow your body to respond to your breath. Try imagining the breath coming in through the hands and going out through the feet.

At first, take up to five breaths at a time. You can rest in child’s pose (balasana) in between. The depth and quality of the pose will begin to reflect the depth and quality of your breathing.

Here’s the complete pose with proper alignment again so you can get another good look.

Find Guidance

As important as it is to explore on your own, be sure to enlist a qualified teacher to assist you. Because of unconscious patterns, we need that expert guidance to take us beyond our blind spots.

As with all yoga poses, as the externals become second nature, our energy is freed to focus more internally on the subtleties of our breath and body. This becomes the field for bringing old and often unhelpful patterning to the surface so it can be replaced with new impressions (samskaras) that serve our highest evolution.

More Like This:

• Downward Dog at the Wall: Releasing Neck Tension
• An Asana Evolution: 3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Yoga
• Balance: The Missing Link in Your Yoga Practice
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Deconstructing Downward Dog: Make the Most of a Fundamental Pose appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This created an amazing opening in my shoulders and I let out a sound – a sound my husband later described to me as a moan. This, along with other sexual innuendos the instructor made throughout the class, made us both uncomfortable.

About a month into my marriage, my husband and I took a yoga class together with a fairly well known and respected teacher. Halfway into the class, the teacher, who was male, straddled over me in bridge pose and lifted my hips.

This created an amazing opening in my shoulders and I let out a sound – a sound my husband later described to me as a moan. This, along with other sexual innuendos the instructor made throughout the class, made us both uncomfortable.

This is just one example of how the line between appropriate and inappropriate contact can become blurred in a yoga class. But this incident became the catalyst for me to examine my responsibilities as both a student and a teacher.

It’s important for teachers and students to take action when something doesn’t feel right.

When Hands-On Adjustments Go Bad

I’ve had other experiences that were subtler. Where I felt like maybe someone’s adjustment was a little on the sexual side. But when this happens, I always brush it off and assume I’m just reading it the wrong way. Our tendency is to give the benefit of the doubt and to think, “Oh, it’s not a big deal.” But the high-profile cases of yoga celebrities such as Bikram Choudhury and John Friend serve as stark examples of where this kind of misuse of sexual energy can lead.

“Let’s face it: the sexual energy that’s at play everywhere gets magnified in most yoga classes. A room full of sweaty bodies, tight and possibly revealing clothes, bodies moving sensually, deep breathing.”

And while men are often the perpetrators and women the victims, it also happens the other way around. A close friend shared with me how a popular female teacher had blatantly and repeatedly made sexual advances toward her husband during a yoga retreat they were on together.

As a teacher, hands-on adjustments are important to me in helping my students find and transform unconscious patterns in their bodies. Sometimes a touch is the only thing that can bring the needed awareness. When used responsibly, hands-on adjustments are an important teaching tool, so I’m not saying teachers shouldn’t use them. But there needs to be an awareness on both sides in knowing when a line has been crossed.

The Power of Sexuality

Let’s face it: the sexual energy that’s at play everywhere gets magnified in most yoga classes. A room full of sweaty bodies, tight and possibly revealing clothes, bodies moving sensually, deep breathing. A yoga class can be a great place to meet like-minded people and potential love interests. That’s a beautiful thing among peers. But student-to-student interactions fall into a different category than teacher-student ones.

“When used responsibly, hands-on adjustments are an important teaching tool, so I’m not saying teachers shouldn’t use them. But there needs to be an awareness on both sides in knowing when a line has been crossed.”

Sexuality is a powerful force, and it can be used constructively or destructively. In addition to the cases mentioned earlier, many popular teachers have reputations tainted with scandal for dating their students. Yoga teachers literally hold people’s hearts in the palms of their hands, and students automatically assume they can trust someone in that role of teacher. Most of us come to yoga because we want to open up, let go, and heal. This makes us vulnerable. For an instructor to take advantage of that vulnerability may not be a legal offense in most cases, but I think it’s definitely a moral one.

Hands-on adjustments are an important teaching tool, but students and instructors need to be aware of boundaries.

Steps to Take

When it comes to misuse of sexual power, the yoga community is operating like a dysfunctional family that’s pretending the problem doesn’t exist. No one wants to talk about it. But yoga can only transform as a culture in as much as those within it transform as individuals. So it’s important for teachers and students to become aware and be willing to take action when something doesn’t feel right.

“One of the best steps you can take if you’re facing a situation like this is to talk to someone you trust. Often, just voicing your concerns will bring you clarity.”

This can be difficult when your teacher is popular and you see everyone viewing him or her in such a positive light. You may doubt yourself, as I have, and think, “Maybe I’m just making this up? Maybe I’m projecting my own stuff onto them?”

It’s true, we often do project our own stuff onto teachers and therapists – but not always. One of the best steps you can take if you’re facing a situation like this is to talk to someone you trust. Often, just voicing your concerns will bring you clarity. You might also take some classes with different teachers and compare. If you find the same feelings coming up with many different teachers, then maybe it is your issue.

But if you do determine that your concerns are grounded, then you have some choices to make:

• You can simply stop studying with that particular teacher and stay quiet.
• You can talk directly to the teacher about your concerns.
• If the teacher isn’t the studio owner, you can talk to the studio manager or owner.
• If the instructor is registered with one of the governing bodies (such as Yoga Alliance or IAYT), you could also report the misconduct to them.

Sweaty bodies, bodies moving sensually, deep breathing – sexual energy is magnified in many yoga class settings.

If This Speaks to You, Speak Up

Having the courage to bring this topic out into the open will facilitate transformation, not only for the individuals involved, but also for the yoga community as a whole. Speaking up will inspire others to do the same. You can bet if it’s happening to you, then it’s happening to others. Remember, the yoga community is 80% women and they are the primary victims of abuse.

We should also all remember that yoga teachers are human. They bring their own wounds into the practice just as their students do, so don’t put them on a pedestal. Respect is one thing, but worship is another. A good yoga teacher knows he or she is just the conduit, not the focal point.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• 8 Perspectives on Gender in the Gym
• Women and Group Exercise: Theories From a Male Instructor
• Is Your Yoga Practice Keeping You From Finding Your Soulmate?
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Take Action: Speak Out Against Sexual Misconduct in Yoga appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This was pretty cool, so I took some mental notes and began examining the details of the experience. Here’s where I discovered yoga in my running, and how you might try incorporating it, as well.

Steady, Even Breath

First of all, I’m breathing in a specific way. The breath is even. In Sanskrit this is called sama vritti, which translates as “equal breath” because the inhale and exhale match in length and intensity. This type of pranayama (conscious breathing) relieves stress, quiets the mind, and encourages deeper concentration.

“I’m mindful to control the transition between the inhale and exhale so the sound is soft. I find this calms my whole nervous system.”

When running, our tendency is to push out the exhale, which takes up excess energy. I’m mindful to control the transition between the inhale and exhale so the sound is soft. I find this calms my whole nervous system. I inhale as slowly as I can through my nose and then exhale as slowly as I can through the mouth. (This is a variation to the yogic breathing that is done in and out through the nose.)

Mountain Pose

With my breath steady, I can focus on more sophisticated actions within my body, such as how the weight is landing on my feet. I use tadasana (mountain pose) awareness to balance the weight between the base of my big toe and pinky toe on each foot. This keeps me from pronation (too much weight on the inner foot) or supination (too much weight on the outer foot).

I also track my knees over the second and third toe area of my foot so the hip, knee, and ankle stay in optimal alignment reducing stress on the joints. Any turning in or out of the knee affects the hips and pelvis, causing muscle tightening that leads to increasing strain in proportion to distance.

Tadasana, or mountain pose, fosters good alignment while running.

In addition, I find the following actions connect when I’m running to give me greater access to my lower abdominal muscles and more length through the spine:

• A slight internal rotation of the thighbones in the hip sockets (turning the thighs out compresses the sacrum and lumbar spine areas)
• Drawing the navel up, and drawing the bottom front ribs down (in essence shortening the space between the bottom front ribs and the navel)

These actions combined engage the lower abdominals and allow me to lengthen upward from the lowest point of my spine without muscular effort. It also keeps my lower back spacious.

Just be mindful when you try this that the internal rotation of the thighs doesn’t cause your knees to go out of alignment. You’ll find you can turn the thighbones in and rotate the knees slightly out to correct any over compensation.

Chest and Shoulders

Another thing I’ve struggled with over the years is over rounding the shoulders and pitching forward with the chest. The head is heavy so this can really drag you down when running. I used to correct this with musculature effort. Now, with the breathing I described earlier, I let my breath do all the work.

“When I inhale, the chest automatically lifts and the collarbone area widens. On the exhale, I keep my chest open and the shoulder blades naturally soften down.”

When I inhale, the chest automatically lifts and the collarbone area widens. On the exhale, I keep my chest open and the shoulder blades naturally soften down. It feels amazing, and all the energy that used to go into keeping my chest lifted is now available for running. I also add a little nodding down of the chin to keep the back of the neck (cervical spine) long.

Gyan Mudra

Now, to the hands. I incorporate a mudra (energy seal) called gyan mudra. It’s formed by placing the tip of the thumb and the tip of the index finger together. In the traditional gesture, the remaining three fingers are extended. But for the purpose of running I keep the fingers curled. So my hands are in a soft fist with the tip of the thumb and index fingers together. If you’re worried about looking silly, no need – it’s barely noticeable.

Use gyan mudra while running to circulate energy and help maintain focus.

This mudra, with the thumb and index fingers forming a circle, helps to keep our energy more internal. In essence, it recirculates our energy without letting it spill out. In the yoga philosophy, the thumb represents supreme reality (Brahman). The index finger represents individual identity (jiva). With this in mind, I derive additional energy and endurance by imagining I’m connected to something greater than myself. It’s exhilarating.

And if this explanation doesn’t resonate with your beliefs, then just think of this mudra as a way to induce the infamous runner’s high. I find that it really does.

Don’t Forget the Eyes

Now for the eyes, the gaze or drishti. As much as possible, I try not to waste energy by looking from side to side (unless I need to for safety reasons). I keep my gaze straight ahead. I focus on softening my eye muscles so there’s no strain. Remembering that any energy I use for extraneous things takes away from my energy reserve for the task at hand. In this case, running. This type of gaze also calms the mind and sends a signal to the nervous system that everything is okay. This alleviates any residue of anxiety, which again depletes my energy level.

Mental Energy

Finally, I watch my mind. Not just the thoughts occurring, but the energetic tone or vibration of my mind. I’ve found that mental states we would consider negative deplete my energy, while states considered positive increase my energy level. With any thoughts that cause emotions such as anger, fear, or worry, I immediately notice more fatigue and/or stiffness in my body. With thoughts that induce joy, inspiration, or gratitude, I feel a surge of energy and a spring in my step.

Perfect Partners

Several years ago, if anyone asked me if you could practice yoga while running, I probably would have laughed and said, “No way.” Back then I thought of yoga more as poses. But as my understanding of yoga expands, I realize more and more that I’m practicing yoga all the time in more subtle ways.

Yoga and running are the perfect partners. Running gives me the opportunity to refine my practice and take it off the mat. And the mindfulness and balance that yoga brings to running allows me to enjoy my running to the fullest while avoiding many of the downsides often associated with it.

With yoga at the helm, running becomes steady and easeful – the perfect asana (yoga pose), which according to the yoga sutras, is “a steady, comfortable posture.” (sutra 2.46)

Further Reading:

• 25 Yoga Poses That Will Make You a Better Runner
• Yoga Is for All Athletes: Start Your Yoga Practice Today
• Post Run Yoga Flow for Flexibility and Strength
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Practice Yoga While You’re Running appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

After years of failing miserably at love, I finally found the love of my life a few years ago. Or rather he found me and much later than he should have according to our cultural norms. Over the years I tried everything to figure out why lasting companionship was eluding me and I learned a few things along the way.

Number one, timing is individual and the less comparison you do between you and societal standards the better. Having said that, you don’t want to create unnecessary delays by getting side tracked by the wrong guys. And what I’ve learned is that attracting the right man has little to do with him and everything to do with you.

Secondly, almost everyone has an essence that’s either primarily masculine or primarily feminine. A small percentage of people have both equally but that’s very rare. Masculine and feminine aren’t gender specific either. Though most women have a feminine essence and most men have a masculine essence, there are exceptions where a man is genuinely more feminine at the core and a woman more masculine.

“If in your heart of hearts living out your human life without experiencing a deep, loving, and lasting bond with an intimate partner feels like more of a tragedy than not discovering your purpose and living it out, then chances are, like me, you have a feminine essence.”

Of course we all have both elements. The important thing is to know what’s dominant so you can attract the perfect reciprocal in a mate. By the way, even though I’m gearing this to heterosexuals because that’s what I am, this applies to other sexual orientations as well.

So how do you know whether you’re more masculine or feminine at the core? If in your heart of hearts living out your human life without experiencing a deep, loving and lasting bond with an intimate partner feels like more of a tragedy than not discovering your purpose and living it out, then chances are, like me, you have a feminine essence.

This doesn’t mean you don’t also have a purpose and a mission in life, but intimate relationship takes priority. You’re guided by emotion more than logic, you love movement, the dance of life, sparkly things, and your heart longs to be witnessed and claimed by a strong masculine presence who’s worthy of your radiance.

The problem is that most modern women have a masculine shell around their feminine essence that makes it hard if not impossible to attract the man who would really satisfy them. And guess what? Modern day yoga isn’t helping!

My Story

It all began in the 1960s. The sexual revolution gave men permission to be feminine and the women’s liberation movement gave women permission to be masculine. This was needed, but many would argue the pendulum swung too far the other way and we are still reeling from that imbalance. In combination with society at large, the overly feminine fathers and masculine mothers of the last five decades have perpetuated floundering sons who can’t find their direction and highly motivated daughters who are afraid to be soft and open for fear it means they’re not a real woman.

“…As I discovered through self-exploration and some very gifted teachers, my feminine core was being neglected. And I was repeatedly attracting feminine men who were drawn to my sense of direction because they didn’t have their own.”

Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. For me, I was an independent woman who supported myself financially, directed my own life, and pretty much did what I wanted. There’s nothing wrong with this, but as I discovered through self-exploration and some very gifted teachers, my feminine core was being neglected. And I was repeatedly attracting feminine men who were drawn to my sense of direction because they didn’t have their own.

In all of these relationships, pretty soon the resentment would set in because I had to be the “man” (more masculine) in the relationship and I didn’t want to. I went through many cycles of blaming the guys before I realized it was me who was putting out the energy that attracted them. Hello!

That was a major turning point and with some diligent work on my part in retraining and rewiring from the inside out, I ended up with my version of a knight in shining armor and you can too!

How Yoga Can Help (Or Hurt)

On this quest for the perfect mate, yoga in its ever growing popularity, can help or hurt us. According to statistics (and I can verify this as a teacher) the woman to man ratio among yoga students is 80/20. A large sector of the female population is practicing some form of yoga. And while most people if asked would probably say they think of yoga as feminine, that’s not the case in most instances.

“If I’m a woman who already due to habit and conditioning leads from the masculine even though my essence is primarily feminine, possibly the last thing I need is a pumped up, hard core power yoga workout.”

The most popular form of yoga these days, vinyasa flow (or power yoga), embodies many of the qualities of a masculine fitness routine with its focus on rigorous, strength-building movements designed to sculpt the body. Many female yoga practitioners therefore may unknowingly be reinforcing an imbalance of the masculine and feminine within them.

If I’m a woman who already due to habit and conditioning leads from the masculine even though my essence is primarily feminine, possibly the last thing I need is a pumped up, hard core power yoga workout. But don’t worry, if you love your chaturangas you can still keep them. There’s a way to bring more feminine energy into your body and mind even in more masculine classes.

Here are a few ways:

• Focus more on your breathing. Deeper breath leads to greater release. Release is a feminine quality. Breathe in as much as you can on the inhale and exhale slowly. Do this especially during the more rigorous points of the practice.

• Soften whenever and wherever you can. There’s always a way to let go and still maintain the form of the pose. Letting go will invite the feminine to the forefront. Look for ways to let go in the jaw, the shoulders, the pelvic girdle. Maybe keep your knees and elbows slight bent instead of always straight.

• Relax your eyes or close them as much as possible. The eyes can be soft while focusing on a gazing point (or drishti). Try not to strain or hold a hard gaze. Always remind your eyes to relax. You can even close your eyes at certain times in the practice to cultivate more an inward focus and get into more of a feeling mode.

• Practice for the experience, not the results. The masculine grows through challenge, the feminine grows through praise. So if you want to cultivate the feminine, forget about going to the edge and just enjoy yourself and give yourself large doses of mental praise as you practice. When you find yourself going into a linear taskmaster mode or pushing yourself, maybe just back off and tune into a specific area of your body. You could also smile in those moments to bring back a sense of contentment (santosha) with what is.

These practices will help you cultivate your feminine essence and dissolve any masculine cloaks. Doing these things on your mat, will leave impressions that show up off the mat as well. Even if you’re not looking for a soulmate, it’s still good to bring balance into your yoga practice.

After all, most of the styles we practice in the west fall under the umbrella of Hatha Yoga. Hatha is a combination of two Sanskrit words – ha (sun, masculine); tha (moon, feminine). The name tells us that hatha yoga is meant to bring these different aspects of our being into balance.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Partner Yoga: Connecting and Growing Together
• Athleticism and Femininity: Can They Co-Exist?
• Balance: The Missing Link in Your Yoga Practice
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Is Your Yoga Practice Keeping You From Finding Your Soulmate? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

How it works is surprisingly simple. States of joy and relaxation induce hormonal releases in the body that counter the hormones caused by stress. This is important in light of recent findings by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stating that 90% of doctor visits are stress related. That’s not a typo. 90%.

So, it’s vital to our health that we learn how to transcend stress and tap into our body’s natural reserves of joy and relaxation. One simple way to achieve this combination of health and happiness is the practice of yoga. Ask almost any yoga enthusiast, and he or she will probably tell you that joy and relaxation are two of the main byproducts of the practice. I like to think of it as the santosha-savasana effect.

Santosha

Santosha means contentment and it is one of five qualities that make up the second limb of the yogic path (called niyama). Santosha is the ability to find satisfaction with the way things are regardless of outer circumstances. Try on this concept for a day (even an hour) and it becomes apparent that it’s easier said than done. But it is possible through practice.

On our yoga mats, we can find the joy-inducing power of santosha by relating to our bodies and the yoga poses in a reverent way, appreciating what we can do instead of lamenting over what we cannot. When we remember to add a simple smile in a pose that we vehemently dislike, we notice it suddenly becomes easier, showing us firsthand the power of contentment. We might even use the word santosha as a verbal or mental mantra to invoke the energy of satisfaction.

As we flex our mental muscle for santosha on the mat, it invariably follows us off the mat. It becomes natural to smile during a difficult time or to look for the simple joy in less than ideal circumstances. Instead of complaining over the fact you’re stuck in traffic on a busy freeway (a regular occurrence for us southern Californians), you may find yourself appreciating a beautiful piece of music on the radio, relishing in the stillness that allows you take some deep conscious breaths, or rolling down the window to feel the breeze in your hair.

“On our yoga mats, we can find the joy-inducing power of santosha by relating to our bodies and the yoga poses in a reverent way, appreciating what we can do instead of lamenting over what we cannot.”

One translation of the Yoga Sutra verse pertaining to santosha reads, “When at peace and content with oneself and others, supreme joy is celebrated.” (Sutra 2.42) And that brings us to the science. The hormone DHEA, known as the feel-good or life force hormone, is produced in the adrenal glands. It’s the precursor to other important hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. DHEA supports the immune system, aids tissue repair, improves sleep, and counters stress hormones.

And guess what? Research shows one of the best natural ways to increase our DHEA levels is to create more joy in our hearts and lives. So the daily practice of santosha is not only good for our mental and emotional well-being, but it’s good for our physical well-being, too.

Savasana

Now let’s consider relaxation. The pose most closely associated with relaxing for the majority of yoga practitioners is savasana (corpse pose). The final posture in most yoga classes where we lie flat on our backs, legs extended, palms turned upward, eyes closed.

I’ve come to think of this position as a full-bodied mudra (seal) that imprints the energy of surrender, receptivity, and letting go into our psyche. It’s what allows us to integrate the neuromuscular changes that our yoga practice has induced. It also decreases heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and anxiety. I find I can bring about this shift in my body and mind at any point during the day simply by visualizing myself in savasana.

“I’ve come to think of this position as a full-bodied mudra (seal) that imprints the energy of surrender, receptivity, and letting go into our psyche.”

All of these same physiological responses were confirmed to be part of an overall “relaxation response” by Harvard physician Dr. Herbert Benson in the late 1960s. His findings were published in his 1975 book, The Relaxation Response. He coined the phrase because it countered the “fight or flight” term used for the stress response that had been discovered sixty years earlier by famous physiologist Walter B. Cannon.

Cannon’s work revealed that every time we’re faced with a stressful situation, our bodies release hormones (adrenaline and noradrenaline) that increase our heart rate, breathing rate, metabolic rate, blood pressure, and blood flow to the muscles gearing us up to fight or flee. But Dr. Benson’s study found that just as stress can be induced in the body, so can relaxation. Inducing this relaxation response prevents and compensates for frequent nervous reactions by decreasing heart rate, breathing rate, metabolic rate, and blood pressure.

For decades, Dr. Benson continued amassing a body of clinical proof that supported and elaborated on his initial findings. Ultimately, the way to elicit the relaxation response was narrowed to two steps:

1. Repetition of a word, sound, phrase, prayer, or muscular activity.
2. Passively disregarding everyday thoughts that inevitably come to mind and returning to your repetition.

Doing this for ten to twenty minutes has been proven to bring about what Benson called the relaxation response.

Putting Them Together

The cool thing is that these two practices of finding satisfaction and inducing relaxation can be done anywhere and at any time. You don’t have to be in savasana. If in public, you can make a quiet humming sound or repeat your chosen word or prayer mentally. When your mind starts to chatter, you simply say, “Oh well,” and go back to the object of your focus until you feel your mind and body come to a place of equilibrium.

“More and more the practice of yoga becomes internal. It’s something we can do anywhere, anytime, throughout our day.”

As Dr. Lissa Rankin, founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, put it, “The key is to remember that how our minds feel as we go about our day – how relaxed, happy, and fulfilled we are – gets translated into the physiology of the body.” So while we may not immediately feel the effects of anxiety and stress as we would a bee sting or stubbing our toe, the effects are nonetheless there.

At any point throughout our day we can check in with our emotional and mental state, knowing that even though we may not feel it physically, it is being manifested in the physiology of our body. Then if our state is not one of joy or relaxation, we can call upon things like santosha and savasana to bring us into equilibrium and balance.

You don’t need a yoga mat to turn the corners of your mouth up or to take a deep breath. Nor must you be lying on your back in a yoga class to find savasana consciousness. More and more the practice of yoga becomes internal. It’s something we can do anywhere, anytime, throughout our day.

A New Normal

Now that you know the scientific healing power of joy and relaxation, each time you find these states within yourself you can celebrate that you are cultivating health – not only mentally and emotionally, but physically, too.

As each individual takes responsibility for countering stress, the collective trend will shift, and we will see a dramatic reduction in the toll that stress is taking on our health. We can be part of bringing about a change where well-being is the new norm.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Savasana Isn’t Just for Dead People
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• How to Turn Stress Into a Strength
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References:

1. Nischala Joy Devi, The Secret Power of Yoga. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.

2. Patanjali, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Translated by Mukunda Stiles. Boston: Weiser, 2002.

3. Lissa Rankin, MD, Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, United States: Hay House, 2013.

4. Herbert Benson, MD with Miriam Z. Klipper, The Relaxation Response, New York: Harpertorch, 1975.

5. “A Hormone That Stimulates Fat Loss and Improves Mood and Energy Levels?” Eat, Heal, Love Blog. November 21, 2013.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Health-Promoting Power of Joy (And How to Obtain It) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Within those verses, a fundamental principle is imparted. It’s a principle missing from most classes today, and it’s one that when left out can cause both minor and major harm.

The sutra (sutra 2.46) reads, “Sthira sukham asanam.” This is basically translated as, “Asana is a steady, comfortable posture.” This sutra should be every yogis guiding star in the practice of postures. Let’s consider why practicing asana without this instruction is so damaging and why practicing with it is fraught with promise.

Finding Balance Through Self-Study

For the longest time, this sutra perplexed me. The yoga practice I was accustomed to doing was anything but comfortable. Steady? Sometimes, yes. But comfortable? No way.

Then I started studying with a teacher who helped me feel the balance referred by this sutra within my own body. Through that work, as well as my own svadhyaya (self-study), which included reading various translations of and commentaries on the yoga sutras and contemplating the natural world, it all came together for me.

“For the longest time, this sutra perplexed me. The yoga practice I was accustomed to doing was anything but comfortable. Steady? Sometimes, yes. But comfortable? No way.”

What’s being referred to in the sutra is a balance of energy. Keep in mind, I’m not using the word “energy” in any kind of new-age sense. I’m talking about tangible forces at work in the body.

The branch of yoga most commonly practiced today is hatha yoga. The word hatha refers to the balancing of opposites. Ha being the sun, or masculine energy, and tha being the moon, or feminine energy. The original intent of hatha yoga was to refine the balance of opposites within each individual (masculine/feminine, strength/flexibility, intuition/reason, etc.). Students experience this balance as a greater sense of wholeness and overall well-being. This balance can only be found by honoring the basic principle of asana.

Midline Energy

So with well-being as our goal, let’s look at a few ways you can begin to feel this energetic balance within yourself. Then, if you go into a class focused on poses rather than principle, you will know how to take care of yourself.

It’s really all about the core. But not the core as you may have come to think of it. It’s common in the fitness world to think of the core as the lower abdominal region. Something I learned in a workshop with anatomy expert Leslie Kaminoff changed forever the way I understand the core. He taught us that the core is that which is closest to the bone. It involves the entire body.

In my classes, I’ve come to use the term “midline energy” to instruct students on how to connect with their core or center. This term has proven accessible and the body responds to it. An awareness of the midline energy of the body is designed to keep the practitioner from holding back or going too far because they are disconnected from their center. In other words, it provides stability – the sthira aspect of the asana equation.

Here are a couple simple ways to experience what I’m referring to:

1. Stand with your feet parallel.
2. Reach your arms out to the side, level with your shoulders.
3. Make sure your hands face forward.
4. Reach out as far as you can. Even reach so far that your shoulder blades begin to separate.
5. Now, begin to pull in by drawing your arm bones back into the shoulder sockets. Don’t lessen the outward reach. Just create the inward pull to balance it.

Hopefully, you can feel how this counterbalance would keep you from overextending yourself. This same energy dynamic of balancing your outward reach with your inward reach can be applied to different parts of the body.

“An awareness of the midline energy of the body is designed to keep the practitioner from holding back or going too far because they are disconnected from their center.”

Another way many of us lose our center is by letting our bottom front ribs push forward and/or allowing the tailbone and low-back area to arch back. A simple way to keep this tendency in check is to shorten the space between your bottom front ribs and your navel.

1. Stand with your feet parallel.
2. Feel what’s happening in your rib cage and pelvic areas.
3. Bring your fingers on either sides of your navel and your thumbs on the bottom front ribs.
4. Use your hands to draw the navel up and your thumbs to draw the bottom front ribs down. This will reduce the space between the ribs and the belly button and cause your tailbone and buttocks to lengthen down.

Now you’re connected to core or midline energy. This stable foundation provides a container for your freedom. Start bringing mindfulness to these actions in class and your practice will never be the same.

Be Your Own Teacher

When you become attuned to the sophisticated energetic balance within you, you become your own teacher. Instead of unconsciously reinforcing old patterns, you set out on a constant journey of awakening externally and internally. This awakening will spill off your mat and into your whole life.

“Instead of unconsciously reinforcing old patterns, you set out on a constant journey of awakening externally and internally.”

What I’ve shared here combined with self-study of the yoga sutras, nature, and your own body/mind, will enable you to maintain your equilibrium in any yoga class. You won’t be counted among those sustaining injuries from their practice. You will sharpen your mind, heal your body, and expand your awareness. You will understand you’re not just doing yoga poses – you’re exploring a living principle within your own body/mind.

This reacquainting with the whole of yoga allows us to reap the promised benefits described in the last two sutra verses that apply to asana:

As the body yields all efforts and holdings, the infinite within is revealed.

Thereafter, we are freed from the fluctuations of the gunas [the mind or duality].

It’s hard to believe the simplicity of balance brings such an extraordinary reward.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Your Yoga Crystal Ball: Stop Injuries Before They Happen
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References:

1. Nischala Joy Devi, The Secret Power of Yoga. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.

2. Patanjali, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda. Buckingham, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1978.

3. Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews, Yoga Anatomy. United States: Human Kinetics, 2012.

4. Swami Swatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Translated by Pancham Sinh, New Delhi: Dev Publishers & Distributors, 2013.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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