Yoga Promotes A Healtheir Life-What goes on in the body when you are doing your asanas? Most of us realize that yoga increases and maintains flexibility, strengthens muscles and increases one’s stamina. All forms of yoga invite the participant to attend to their breath and notice the inward quieting.
Most individuals who
participate sense a uniqueness in this movement form. Many of us are satisfied with just sensing
this, leaving an explanation of how it affects our bodies and spirit to the realm of the mystical.
Those who seek to understand how things work ask:
What effect does yoga have on one’s physicality? When one assumes and holds a yoga posture, this act
of stretching and bending at the joints facilitates feedback to the central nervous system. This is
done by means of beds of proprioceptive nerve endings located within the joints and muscles.
Proprioceptors provide information about position, direction and rate of movement as well as the
amount of muscle tension in a locality.
Yoga causes the central nervous system to respond with appropriate self-regulatory measures by
promoting proper bio- mechanical use.
Self-regulation and self-healing are the physiological responses of the living body. The central
nervous system takes the input from the proprioceptive nerve endings and by relaxing and tightening
muscles in an organized fashion allows one to hold that posture. Changing balance of any one portion
of the spine requires compensatory adjustments throughout it. Muscles respond automatically to
stimuli from the nervous system which controls and integrates the activity of the whole body.
Flexibility is the proper and full range of motion within the joints of the body. This is brought
about by the coordination of muscle tension and muscle relaxation via the nervous ystem.
Slowly moving into a proper postural stance and holding it provides for proprioceptive feedback that
allows the nervous system to coordinate muscle action. Stretching slowly protects muscle fibers and
their tendons from strain while resistance set up by holding the posture increases muscle strength.
Improved muscle strength and stretch provides stability, flexibility and protection to the joints.
Stimulating the proprioceptive system or massaging the nervous system is but one of yoga’s benefits.
The encouragement and development of proper structural alignment reduces strain on muscles,
ligaments, and tendons. Proper alignment allows for better functioning of the organ systems.
Structure determines function. If body cavities are distorted, so too are the contents within.
Distortion caused by poor posture changes the relationship of tissues within organs, leading to the
dysfunctioning of the system. Stress, a product of the distortion, reduces circulation throughout
the area.
By improving posture, yoga supports the proper functioning of internal organs by maintaining
structural integrity of these systems. Proper position and relaxation of tension improves
circulation. Nutrition to the whole system is encouraged by the fluctuating internal pressures
generated by the different asanas. This fluctuation in pressure enhances cellular diffusion and
osmosis.
Simply, motion is life! By moving us through bio-mechanically sound postures, yoga promotes a
healthier life. To say that yoga only affects us physically would be denying the larger reality of
our existence. However, it is the profound effect that it has on our physicality which frees us to
experience the depths of our existence.
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