IS YOGA EXERCISE??

What is exercise? The dictionary defines it as an activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness. By that definition yoga IS exercise. Yoga uses breath to hold uncomfortable poses until the body submits to the stretch. The student uses their breath to find an “edge” for the muscle to be uncomfortable but NOT in pain.

Hatha yoga is defined as poses held for 3-5 breath cycles than a rest period before going into the next pose. As the instructor for Wellness Yoga my style of yoga is a Hatha hybrid in that while my students are holding their pose, I am explaining where I want them to feel the stretch as well as visualize the muscles stretching, and why that is important to maintain healthy body mechanics.

Studies have shown Visual Feedback is just as important as body position when it comes to involuntary reflexes that activate muscle movement. A key component of this feedback is the “stretch reflex” muscle which occurs milliseconds before actual voluntary muscle movement. (Science Daily 3-31-2020)

In other words, think about the muscle you want to stretch while going into a pose, while you are holding the pose while allowing your exhale to soften the uncomfortableness of the pose so that the muscle will release/relax into the deepest stretch for maximum benefits. Tension and stress can not remain when you allow your breath to release the muscles into a deep stretch. Pain will result from holding the tension or your breath in any form of exercise, from yoga to lifting weights.

Stretching is when muscle fibers and tendons are put in a position of lengthening for the benefits of:

Increased muscle joint movement

Decrease muscle tightness

Increased muscle length

Decrease pain

Improved circulation

Science says stretching does not make your muscles permanently longer rather train the nervous system to tolerate a greater degree of muscle extension without firing off pain signals.

If your muscle or tendon does not feel safe at a given length your nerves tell you “hey, you better stop, otherwise you are going to cause damage.”

Stretching or any exercise should not be done to a painful extent, but rather to an “uncomfortableness” to allow the nerves to send the message “it is safe to go this far.”

Yoga is more than just stretching your body, it stretches your mind too. Learning how to take physical or mental challenges and lean into them, rather than holding your breath and tensing up your muscles. Your muscles remember how to respond to stress, so when tension, pain, or mental exhaustion happens you can “sense” it and respond with slow deep breaths until the tension/stress passes. Teaching your brain's neuropathways to exhale and relax the “fight or flight” feeling. Each time you “push yourself” in yoga with a difficult pose, you are pushing your “edge” a little further out, so you can handle it.

I am a science geek as well as a yoga instructor. I want you to know why the stretch is important to your overall health. Any movement is good for you. Movement with some resistance and the benefits increase.

Push yourself a little each day, in movement, stretching, or balance.

Yoga Mom Kimberly

Wellness Yoga