Go Physically Deeper in Yoga Poses with Science!

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If you're looking to go deeper in your physical asana practice, learning a bit about your body's mechanics is a great way to start.

Try using the following in your next practice session and see for yourself it allows you to open up a little more and allow you to move a little deeper in your pose.

There are a variety of spinal cord reflex arcs that regulate tension and muscle length during your pose. These arcs automatically occur during movement of the body on varying degrees as a protective mechanism to ensure that the muscle does not get hurt.

The reflex arcs are similar to the one that I'm sure you have seen or experienced when a physician taps the front of your knee with a rubber mallet -- your lower leg moves forward, without you doing anything -- that is a spinal cord reflex.

Ballistic Stretching

In ballistic stretching, such as Sun Salutations, there is research that shows that this type of stretching can retain the muscle lengthening you may have achieved at an earlier yoga session and help maintain that length. You can take this the next step in any pose by adding a slight bounce/rocking motion to the muscle being stretched.

On the other hand, passive stretching would be using one's own body weight, gravity or props to create a stretch. This is similar to poses in the yin style of yoga where the poseis held for a long time with only the weight of the limb or pressure from gravity acting upon the body. This type of stretch allows the muscle spindle receptors within the muscle to acclimate and release over time gently lowering you deeper into the pose. The muscle spindle stretch receptors job is to detect changes in length and tension. When a muscle stretches the spindle sends a signal to the spinal cord which in turn signals the muscle to contract.

By forcing someone deeper in a stretch you activate this reflex and actually will cause grater tightening of the muscle and block any real ability for the person to go deeper in the stretch, but by holding your stretch for an extended period of time (greater than 30 seconds) you will feel a relaxation response from the stretched muscle which will allow you to begin to go deeper into that stretch.

Have you ever noticed in a forward fold when you bend the knees and slightly come out of the pose, wait, and then reenter it you can magically go slightly deeper? That's the muscle spindle fibers hard at work for you.

This type of stretch also effects other aspects of the muscle by way of stretching the fascia and muscle sheath.

Active Static Stretching

OK, so now let's talk about active static stretching. In active static stretching, you are contracting or flexing the muscles in opposition of the muscle you want to stretch. In the case of a forward fold, as you bend over you begin to access the hamstrings that tighten up. To achieve a deeper stretch in the hamstrings, you would begin to flex the front of the thighs. I am sure you have heard cues in class such as flex the thighs or lift the knee caps while in certain pose. What this is doing is stimulating a mechanism called reciprocal inhibition which can help you access a much deeper stretch.

If you use that flexing idea and apply it to the muscle you are trying to stretch (not like above when we flexed the opposing muscle) you will activate what is known as the Golgi tendon organ. This specialized receptor is located where muscles and tendons come together. It actually does the opposite of the muscle spindle fibers as it actually signals the muscle to relax.

To activate the stretch receptor, you merely contract the muscle you are trying to stretch.

Let's use Janu Sirsasana as an example. After positioning yourself in the pose with proper alignment and giving yourself a slight stretch, bend the extended leg slightly and press the heal into the floor and create a dragging effect of the heel toward the hip, this will provide pressure to the hamstring and activate the Golgi tendon reflex. Hold this for five to 10 seconds. As the hamstring starts to relax due to this reflex you can then straighten out the leg and notice a deeper level of stretch in that hamstring.

Another example is Cobblers Pose (Baddha Konasana). Start out by hold onto the ankles and press the elbows down into the thighs while simultaneously pressing the thighs upward to create tension in the �groin� muscles which are the muscles you are trying to stretch. Hold an isometric contraction for five to 10 seconds, then slowly release the thighs but keep pushing down with the elbows and watch how magically the knees move closer towards the floor.

The key to using all of these is being aware of not only your alignment but being aware of the amount of pressure you exert at any given point in time. Be gentle with yourself and watch in amazement as you release the body to go deeper and deeper into your poses.

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