A Case for Yoga: Improving Strength, Mobility and Overall Health

in , , , ,

As a yoga teacher I’ve been advocating for a proactive effort to increase flexibility in the body for more than 2 decades. Yoga is generally seen these days as a valid way of increasing flexibility, but not necessarily one that offers the complete complement of physical benefits regarded as essential for overall health and wellness. For instance, many yoga students feel they need to engage in other activities for cardiovascular exercise, such as spinning, Zumba or running, to keep themselves healthy. Yoga, it appears for these folks, is not enough.

A decade or so ago when yoga was still “the new kid on the block” in the fitness industry, it enjoyed a sort of “cure for everything” status that temporarily shielded it from the responsibility to deliver on that promise. Now that yoga has slipped from it’s peak of popularity into the ever expanding menu of fitness options, it is held to the same standards that other types of “exercise” are and its strengths are weaknesses as an exercise form, depending on the type of yoga or the skill level of the instructor, have become more commonly known and accepted.

One strength of yoga that appears to be gaining ground in the scientific community and with the public is its efficacy in reducing the effects of stress and as a contributing factor to overall health and well being. A 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) found that, among the people surveyed who practiced yoga, 94% said they did so for “wellness-related reasons – such as general wellness/disease prevention or to improve energy,” with 82% of the respondents saying that it “improved their overall health” and 86% saying yoga reduced their stress.

I should point out here that the benefits of yoga reported above, along with other benefits reported for its positive effects on back pain, sleep, menopause, diabetes and other chronic disease and weight loss are mainly anecdotal. There is limited scientific support for nearly all of the claims made in yoga magazines and websites. But for some of these claims, such as yoga’s efficacy in building strength, the benefits are clear and undeniable.

The fact is, yoga postures done correctly place mechanical loads on our muscles, ligaments and bones in controlled and specific ways, and this type of loading, as dictated by the laws of our physical universe and the biological nature of our tissue, increases the load bearing capacity (ie- strength) of these tissues quite effectively. Without a doubt, yoga makes us stronger.

So if there is at least some evidence, even though mostly anecdotal, that yoga is good for stress reduction and overall health and well being, and clear evidence that yoga can be an effective way of building strength, then I would argue that latter is closely related to the former. The fact that yoga helps build strength is the reason that it helps with stress reduction and overall health.

This is because our overall health is largely defined by the health of our tissues. What are we but a highly complex arrangement of tissues and extra-cellular fluid (leaving aside the mind and the soul which are a subject for another time). We cannot be healthy and have a significant amount of unhealthy tissue in our body. Conversely, our overall level of tissue health is directly related to our overall health in general. The healthier our tissue is, the healthier we are.

So what exactly does strength have to do with tissue health? The answer lies in understanding our tissues on both macro and microcosmic levels. If for instance I want to strengthen my legs and hips I might choose to do more standing postures. The mechanical loads these postures place on the muscles and other tissues in my legs and hips will help these tissues handle loads better, thereby making them stronger. But what happens to the individual cells in the various tissues in my legs? I would argue that these same postures also improve the strength of the individual cells in the tissues that make up my legs and hips. This is due to a phenomenon knowns as mechanotransduction.

Mechanotransduction occurs when a mechanical stimulus is converted into a set of biochemical reactions and corresponding a cellular response. This cellular response can vary depending on the type of cell and stimulus, but generally involves enhanced gene expression and positive physical changes to the cell. Scientifically, mechanotransduction is a concept still in its infancy in terms of study and understanding, but the studies that have been done suggest that mechanical loads on the microcosmic level mimic those on the macrocosmic. That is, mechanical loads that make our muscles and bones stronger also make our cells “stronger” in the sense that they improve their adaptiveness and enhance their functional role in our bodies.

Therefore I’d suggest that “weight bearing exercise”, which is basically deliberate mechanical loading of our tissues, not only has the potential to build strength and resiliency in that tissue but also, as a result of mechanotransduction, similarly loads our cells and stimulates greater responsiveness and resiliency on the cellular level, improving the health of those cells, the tissues they make up and our overall health in general.

I place “weight bearing exercise” in quotations here because it can and does mean more than it’s common interpretation suggests. Sitting for example, can be a kind of “weight bearing exercise” in the sense that it places mechanical loads on the tissues of our hips and legs and, if done in the right way, has the potential to make them stronger and more resilient. On the other hand, sitting can and often is counterproductive in this regard because it is not done in the right way, or is done for too long, and will in this case damage tissue health by limiting mechanotranscduction and impairing tissue health.

This brings me back to the importance of flexibility, or as I prefer to think of it, mobility. Having good flexibility means having functional mobility which is the ability to mobilize the body in a variety of ways. Mobility allows me to move more of my joints and tissues through their various ranges of motion and this means a wider and more varied distribution of mechanical loads to more of my tissues. A major benefit of mobility therefore is the stimulation of mechano-transduction in more of the cells in more of my tissues and an improvement in the healthful expression of those cells and those tissues. Floor sitting done properly, for example, can be and effective way of improving the mobility of the hips, knees and ankles and can therefore promote the health of the tissues in the lower half of the body.

A less obvious benefit to functional mobility is the enhancement of my cardiovascular system. Improved and varied mobility of the body generally improves the mobility and more specifically the elasticity of my arterial system, helping to normalize blood pressure and reduce the effects of various types of stress on vessel walls. This particular benefit of functional mobility, which incidentally is facilitated rather well by regular and correct practice of yoga, improves the responsiveness and resiliency of my cardiovascular system and prevents chronic diseases related to it.

I’ve tried here to make a case for yoga as having the potential to be as complete as any other form of “exercise” for promoting and maintaining health. It’s reputation for helping mainly with flexibility and stress is a very limited view that fails to tell the whole story of its full potential. This potential, to literally enhance and maintain our tissue health on the cellular level, is open to anyone willing to spend the time and energy to learn it.

Strength Training: Open vs. Closed Kinetic Chain Movement

in , ,

At Alignment Lab we always encourage our clients to move more and build strength, but it is common in our practice to see clients who have developed injuries from working out at the gym with certain machines or when doing isolated exercises with weights. Many of the exercises these clients are doing involve movements that fall under the category of open kinetic chain movement (OKCM). In the interest of maximizing the health benefits of exercise and minimizing the chances of injury, we generally try to steer our clients away from (OKCM) exercises and guide them towards exercises that feature closed kinetic chain movement (CKCM).

What is the difference? OKCM exercises involve isolating a particular muscle and then challenging it with weight and or resistance by shortening (concentrically loading) the muscle. A classic example is the biceps curl, which involves picking up a weight, say a dumbbell or kettle bell with the hand, and then bending the elbow to lift the weight toward the shoulder. This exercise can be done with one or both arms, and in either case the hands are not fixed, thus the “open” kinetic chain.

CKCM involves movement relative to a fixed point. This means that some part of the body, usually a hand or a foot, is brought in contact with a stable surface such as the floor or a wall. Typically there is some amount of weight bearing involved to keep that contact point stable. The stability provided by the fixed point and the weight bearing promotes stability in the body where needed so that the exercise can be done with greater safety an efficacy.

In the example of the biceps curl, there is no fixed point. Every part of the body has the potential to move in some way during the exercise, and thus there is a lack of stability and a greater chance of strain. This exercise not only increases the chances of straining the biceps, but also the shoulder joint. Without the added stability of a fixed point the body will have a harder time keeping the humerus stable in the shoulder socket, increasing the chances of exceeding the load bearing capacity of the joint. In the end, we may end up with bigger biceps, but likely more wear and tear on the shoulders.

One solution to this problem with the biceps curl that is often used to improve its efficacy is to stabilize body by sitting on a stable seat and then placing the elbow of the working arm on a support. These changes do serve to focus the action of the arm more effectively on the biceps, but they do not necessarily make it more safe. The reason is that even though to some degree stability has increased, it has not increased in a way that eliminates potential impact on the shoulder joint.

Because there is a greater amount of force on one isolated joint, in this case the shoulder joint, this movement can easily lead to strain in the tendon of the bicep attaching to the shoulder joint.  This is because mechanoreceptors in the shoulder are not well activated in this exercise. The mechanoreceptors help us feel joint position, and if they are not activated it will be more difficult to sense whether or not the shoulder joint maintains functional alignment. If the exercise is done without a functional alignment in the shoulder joint it may result in an injury.

It is important that we continue to challenge our muscles and their ability to bear weight, but preferably not at the expense of our joint health. Open kinetic chain movement (OKCM) exercises tend to increase this likelihood. Closed kinetic chain movement (CKCM) exercises on the other hand provide an opportunity to increase our strength with much less chance of injury.

While the primary difference between a CKCM exercises and an OKCM exercise is that CKCM exercises feature movement relative to a fixed point, another equally important difference is that CKCM typically feature some approximation of the joint due to the weight bearing on the fixed limb. This means that pressure, usually caused by the weight of the body, pushes the arm toward the shoulder joint, soliciting a stabilizing response in the joint. A great example would be a side plank. In this exercise one hand is fixed on the floor, and the shoulder on the same side gets approximated by the weight of the body. This helps stabilize the shoulder joint and facilitates healthy rotational movement (abduction) around the joint.

CKCM exercises have several features that account for their improved efficacy relative to OKCM exercises. First, the increased joint stability in CKCM allows for better eccentric loading of the involved muscles. Eccentric loading means that the muscles involved contract and lengthen at the same time. When a muscle contracts while lengthening, sliding motions are introduced into the fascial sheets that cover muscles groups and individual muscles. This sliding of the fascial sheets adds lubrication, nerve stimulation and a protective barrier against injury.

Another feature of CKCM is that it involves the motion of muscles across multiple joints. This means that these movements go beyond the isolation of one particular muscle, unlike many of the OCKM exercises commonly used in strength training (such as the biceps curl). Moving across multiple joints requires a complex synchronization of different muscle groups and therefore not only works more muscles but works them in tandem with one another, promoting strength in a functional way.

In addition, when movement occurs across multiple joints with many muscles involved it facilities co-contraction between muscles and this co-contraction, it turns out, is a more efficient way to to bear weight. When muscles co-contract with other muscles, the load is distributed across a broader area, preventing isolated muscle fatigue and decreasing shearing forces on the joints and tissues, ultimately decreasing the likelihood of strain and inflammation.

This alludes to the fact that CKCM’s are good for our tissue. These movements improve blood flow, flexibility, lymph drainage, muscle health, circulatory function and cardiovascular health in a far greater way than any open kinetic chain exercise. CKCM’s will have increased metabolic effects compared to OKCM’s, and they also promote joint health by helping to re-establish proprioception and our ability to sense joint position.

One further benefit of CKCM’s is that these movements improve function of the nervous system. This is because when more muscles and joints are moving in a complex closed-kinetic chain pattern, more nerves are firing. More nerves firing means more blood flow, better communication with the brain and thus a greater ability to dynamically move through space with intelligence.

Finally, closed kinetic chain movements are simply more functional than open kinetic chain movement in that CKCM’s are more often based on movement patterns that are innate to the human body. As babies and toddlers, each of us develops our physical function through a series of innately choreographed movements, and these movements manifest from the age of three months up to the point of walking without any instruction or mimicry taking place. This means that we don’t learn these movements from someone else, we just do them. These movements are innate in all babies, everywhere in the world, and they tell us a lot about functional motion and how the utilization of the hands and feet in a closed kinetic chain is the basis for all natural human motion.

Going back to our bicep curl exercise, let’s compare it with a closed kenetic chain movement involving the biceps and triceps using the example of a wall plank. A wall plank is basically a plank position where the head, shoulder girdle, rib cage, pelvis and legs are all in a stacked, vertical alignment with the hands on the wall standing at arm’s length. The movement involves pushing into the wall to fully extend the elbows.

In a wall plank, the triceps contract in order to extend the arm, but at the same time the biceps co-contract in conjunction with the triceps to stabilize the elbow joint. The biceps also must lengthen to increase pressure into the wall and bear the weight of the upper body. Because the hands are fixed, a whole chain of muscles from the hands into the shoulder joints on into the back and into the abdominal muscles and down into the pelvis and legs also co-contract to help support the body’s weight.

Once it becomes relatively easy to do a wall plank while maintaining good alignment, a full plank can be introduced involving the more challenging version of pushing up off the floor. In a full plank the biceps and triceps get worked but in a clearly functional way that facilitates our ability to lower ourselves down to the floor and lift ourselves up off the floor.

There’s a lot of press about strength training these days with ever growing evidence of its importance for human health and longevity. At Alignment Lab we’re big fans of strength training and we provide it daily with every one of our clients by teaching them mainly closed chain kinetic movements. We’ve found this approach to be ideal for promoting functional strength that is at once empowering, health promoting and practical.

Ojas and Agni: Essentials For Lasting Health

in ,

Ojas is a concept in Ayurveda that refers to the purest essence of each of the tissues of the body. For those not familiar with Ayurveda, ojas is perhaps most relatable as expressed by the immune system and our body’s ability to resist and illness and recover from it when it manifests. More broadly, ojas is that aspect of each tissue that supports that tissue metabolically on the cellular level, enabling each of our cells and our tissue as a whole to resist the effects of stress and to maintain integrity and resilience.

Ojas supports our health by helping to support healthy agni. Agni means “fire” and is the word we use in Ayurveda to refer to our digestive fire or our digestive power and intelligence. Having a well functioning agni means that our ability to digest and assimilate our food is sound. We all know the expression “you are what you eat,” and in a certain sense this is literally true. The food we eat becomes the tissue that forms our body, but for this to happen our agni needs to be functioning well, and for a well functioning agni we need healthy ojas.

The feeling of having good ojas is easily relatable. When our ojas is good we feel strong, we feel well, our digestion works and our sleep is good. When ojas is insufficient our sleep can suffer, our digestion will have issues and we’ll feel vulnerable. The fact is, we ARE vulnerable when ojas is low, and it is important that we take steps to increase it or risk further depletion and possibly illness.

Maintaining healthy ojas can be done in several ways. First, we must keep our digestion working well. Ojas is manufactured in our bodies through the digestive process. It is the very refined end product of tissue production and thus not only does ojas support our agni and our digestive health, but our agni and digestive health also support our ojas. This symbiotic relationship between ojas and agni points to the fact that our primary means of maintaining good ojas is by seeing to it that our digestive system works well.

Of course to maintain healthy digestion, the right diet is important. I won’t be going into detail on diet in this post, but what I will say is that with diet, we need to learn to recognize how we respond to different foods and to use this recognition to make better choices. Too many people these days try to seek health through addition rather that subtraction. “I feel depleted so I’ll take supplements or eat more meat.” My experience is that its often better to start with “what can I eliminate?” Eliminating foods we don’t digest well or don’t respond well to takes pressure off our digestive system and helps our agni ignite. This in turn helps improve our ability to break down and assimilate our food, forming healthy tissue and making healthy ojas.

A second key to keeping our ojas at a a level sufficient for good health is making lifestyle choices that don’t deplete us. Avoiding depletion requires that we recognize the activities, thoughts and habits that lower our ojas and eliminate or reduce them whenever possible. For example exercise is generally a good thing and most of us need to do more of it, but like anything, there’s enough and there’s too much. Over exercising is a sure way to deplete ojas and invite illness and even chronic disease in very serious cases.

How do I know if I’m over exercising? This is just a matter of paying attention. While it’s not always easy to pay attention to the messages our bodies send us, learning to pay attention to our bodies is an important ability to cultivate. Yoga can be a powerful tool in this case as yoga, in its essence, is training the mind to be aware. Through yoga we develop the awareness and sensitivity to notice the signs that something we are doing is depleting us. Yoga provides us with asana (postures), pranayama (breath work) and ethical principles that help us to see ourselves more clearly, understand our tendencies and make the necessary changes to address them.

This brings us to the third way we can help maintain healthy ojas – awareness of our thoughts and managing mental and/or emotional stress. Stress is a big factor in lowering ojas. Without learning effective ways of managing stress we will struggle to maintain good ojas and good health. Again, yoga can be a big help with stress management as it trains us to keep things in perspective and cultivate a healthy perspective on life. Many people use mediation practice for stress management. I tend to lump mediation in with yoga because yoga is essentially a preparation for and cultivation of a meditative state, as are the many meditation techniques that are currently popular.

Considering ojas and forming an understanding and experience of it is a powerful way of dialing in our diet and lifestyle choices to best suit our constitution so that we may maintain resilience and optimal health on an ongoing basis. Understanding agni and learning to keep it in good working order is essential for building ojas. When we maintain healthy agni we begin to experience the positive effects of ojas and sense of well being it fosters. Whether it be through yoga or some other awareness based practice, it’s a worthwhile endeavor to develop the necessary skills and sensitivity to recognize when our agni and our ojas are compromised and to take steps to restore them.

 

 

 

 

Building Resilience and What I Did on My Christmas Vacation

in ,

This past Christmas / New Years Tiffany and I traveled to New Zealand with some friends to see my mother and her husband and to do some traveling on the south island. The way that Air NZD runs their flights to and from, we basically had red eyes going in each direction. In an effort to be good citizens we declared our hiking shoes on the way into the country, only to be delayed in a long and inefficient customs line and missing our connection to Queenstown, then having to take an extra flight to Wellington to get there. When we completed the hour plus drive to Wanaka from Queenstown I was a bit tired, but overall not too much worse for wear.

Then on a warm, cloudless Christmas Day, just a couple of days after our arrival, we hiked Isthmus Peak near Wanaka. The hike took nearly 6 hours and involved climbing continuously up 4000 vertical feet on a completely exposed trail. I was physically tired from it, but again, felt pretty good the day after and going forward.

A day or so after that we splurged big and hired a plane to fly us from Wanaka to Milford Sound where we took a 2 hour cruise through the sound before hopping back on the plane and flying back to Wanaka. I am quite prone to motion sickness, and this was not a big stable commercial jet but a 6 seater prop plane that felt like flying in a yellow bucket with wings. The views were out of this world, but also dizzying. My friend seated behind me faired rather poorly, but I managed to walk away from the trip with relatively little impact.

After a 4 night stay in Wanaka we said goodbye to my mother and her husband David, and then Tiffany, our friends and I hit the road for another 10 days. In those days we spent countless hours in the car and never slept in the same strange bed for more than 2 nights. The balance of the trip included more hiking, quite a bit of sight seeing and a lot of restaurant food.

On the way home from Auckland after connecting from Nelson I watched 4 movies and semi-slept for a few hours before navigating customs and catching the airporter back to Marin. Oddly, when I got home from the near 24 hour return trip I felt almost as though I had never left and traveled 1/2 way around the globe and back again.

What I realized from this experience and the reason I’m telling you about it is that I had, without really focusing on it or explicitly trying to cultivate it, managed to build a fair bit of resilience. I can think of no other way I would have made such a big and involved trip with so little relative impact on my health and sense of wellbeing.

This got me thinking about resilience and how it manifests. Most of us can claim at least some degree of resilience in some areas of our lives. I might have good flexibility and enjoy the kind of resilience that affords by allowing me to occupy relatively small and cramped spaces for extended periods, like coach airplane seats for instance, and bounce back quickly from it. Or I might have good strength and can manage lugging heavy baggage through airports or charging up and down mountains in the hot sun without suffering an injury. Or I might have a digestive system that can handle all sorts of foods from all sorts of unfamiliar kitchens with very few digestive complaints. Or perhaps I have an immune system that can handle the stress of a lack of sound sleep and an excess of different environments and degrees of air quality without succumbing to bugs, respiratory or otherwise.

But it’s unusual, in my view, that each of us has all of the areas of our life that afford us resilience in optimal working order, and for most of us any deficiencies in resilience can be corrected with very doable changes in diet and lifestyle. This view has inspired me to write a series of posts on the subject. These posts will address several key areas where we can increase our resilience and they will offer suggestions on how to build and effective bulwark to the inevitable stresses that we all endure, voluntarily or otherwise.

I hope you’ll find these helpful.  As always, I welcome your feedback.