Do you spend your time rock climbing, mountain biking, swimming, running, playing golf, caring for your babies, in the garden? I could list every and any activity -- a regular yoga practice will benefit your body, really! I love yoga but I also enjoy many other types of physical activity. When I partake in other activities I am quick to notice a tightness in body. When I come back to my mat after a day of hiking and mountain biking the simplest stretches have me bliss.
Why does it feel so good to stretch? When you stretch the same muscle group for an extended period of time you allow for a release in your fascia (one of the many types of connective tissue in the body). Fascia consist of two proteins elastin (~75%) and collagen (~25%) these two proteins envelope muscles to create one bundle of muscle.When you exercise your muscles contract (the muscle shortens) and does not fully release back to a relaxed state when you finish your workout, until you stretch. If you don't stretch after a workout your muscles stay in a shorten state. This is also true if you have an office job or are in school where are constantly hunched over books or a computer. Your muscles begin to mold to the "hunched" form, unless you counteract it with stretching in the opposite direction. Over time lack of stretching will decrease the range of motion of your joints and will pull your bones out of alignment -- causing your skeleton to deviate from its' optimal position. When your bones are not in optimal alignment it can cause pain which results in chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy bills.
To counteract the contraction and "molding" of connective tissue that surrounds your bone (fascia) in a non-optimal position, stretches need to be held for an extended period of time. This is where yoga comes in handy. Studies have shown that stretching for 30 seconds can be useful to release some tension but longer holds (greater that 60 seconds) are required to allow for a full release, maintain a healthy range of motion in your joints and keep your bones in anatomical alignment (JB. Feland et al, 2001 and SL Herman et al, 2008). This is where yin yoga really comes into play. Yin is a style of yoga that is much slower than other forms of yoga because the asana are held for 3 - 5 minutes. What is interesting about holding the asana for this amount of time is that you can see and feel your body begin to release. After 90 seconds you are able to go deeper into the posture, the science speaks for itself.
People who are very active -- take part in high endurance sports or train for multiple hours a week often experience injuries and the injuries tend to reoccur -- I am no stranger to this world. When I was a gymnast it was either my back, may shoulder, may hamstrings, my groin, my neck, my wrist...I could go on to list every part in the body! While a gymnast is very flexible the type of stretching a gymnast does is not the healing type experienced in yoga. My muscles were being built up and then torn to gain more flexibility. It wasn't until I started doing yoga that my chronic back pain went away and my physiotherapy and chiropractic bill went to nothing.
I encourage you to begin to think of yoga as a compliment to any activity you do. Once you begin a regular practice you will see how much it improves the other activities in your life. Give it a whirl!
~Liz
*photo by Carly Esplen
