Yoga has so many mental, emotional and physical benefits, Today, let’s take a closer look into Yin Yoga. At my Feminine Flow Yoga class, I have a large mature population.
I think Yin Yoga
is one of the ideal styles of yoga for more mature adults. You want to be careful to be mindful of any
injuries as well gentle with our bodies.
It’s recommended to move to your
edge and stop there. It can be very easy
to believe we need to look like all the yoga pictures we see online and in the
media.
Here, I will share with you with Yin Yoga is such a healthful practice for your
joints, how yin yoga can remove blocks to energy flow and also why water and
increased hydration can help them too.
First, let’s hear from Bernie Clark about our bones and joints and what happens with them as we age.
From the book Yinsights by Bernie Clark the founder of Yin Yoga
The body continually creates bone and
absorbs bone. If this gets out of balance we can start to gain bone mass,
causing strengthening of the bone, or we can start to lose bone density and the
bone degenerates. Up until our mid-twenties to mid-thirties we generally gain
bone mass. If we exercise conscientiously, we can continue to maintain or even
add bone mass past these early years of life. However, eventually the balance
is tilted more and more in the opposite direction and we start to lose bone
density. This condition is known as osteopenia or, in more severe cases,
osteoporosis. This condition is more common in women than men, especially as
women approach menopause.
One estimate suggests that ten million Americans suffer from osteoporosis and
another thirty-four million suffer from osteopenia, or low bone mass, which
leads to osteoporosis. This weakening results in almost one and a half million
bone fractures each year, with the majority of them occurring in the lower
back. Other common sites for breakage are the wrists and hips, all areas with
higher trabecular bone compared to cortical bone. Generally, it is a continual
weakening of the trabecular bone that develops into osteoporosis.
Eventually fifty percent of all women and twenty-five percent of all men in
North America will develop osteoporosis. Starting just before menopause, and
over a four- to eight-year period thereafter, women begin to lose bone density.
Eventually twenty to thirty percent of their trabecular bone mass is gone, and
they also lose five to ten percent of their cortical bone mass.
For a variety of reasons, osteoblast (bone-creating) activity may diminish or
osteoclast (bone-absorption) activity may increase, causing osteoporosis. A
lack of vitamin D or calcium can cause bone degeneration. Certain hormonal
deficiencies such as testosterone, estrogen, or parathyroid hormones can also
contribute to bone loss. So too can immobilization or lack of use.
Fortunately physical activity can cause bones to grow stronger, and actually
change size and shape. It is well known that active people are less likely to
develop osteoporosis. Autopsies have shown that attachment sites, where muscles
join to the bone, grow bigger through continued use. One example is the lesser
trochanter. In runners this site is highly developed. Too much stress, however,
can be dangerous; marathon runners have been known to develop osteoporosis late
in life. As in everything, balance is needed.
The bones need to be stressed to remain healthy. And the stress needs to be
appropriate. Yin Yoga provides compressive stress on the bones, especially the
lumbar spine. Other forms of yoga also stress the bones; most standing postures
will do this. In Yin Yoga the stresses are held longer, allowing the bones more
time to be stressed. This generates a larger recovery response the bones having
been stressed longer will grow stronger. Very few active yoga postures will
stress the lumbar bones like Yin Yoga does.
And from Yoga Journal:
The yin practice can help the body restore range of motion.
For healthy range of motion, layers of connective tissue must allow muscles to glide over each other. But injury, habitual posture in daily life, and aging, among other factors can bind these connective tissues together, creating so-called adhesions and restricting that movement between the sliding surfaces of the muscles. Like a traffic jam, adhesions block the flow of nutrients and energy through the body, causing pain and limiting mobility. Holding poses that gently lengthen the muscles and fascia helps break up adhesions, and applying mild stress to joints and connective tissues can increase their range of motion.
Yin yoga revitalizes the tissues of the body.
Our body’s tissues can be revived by a good long soak the same way that an old, stiff sponge can. As you hold a yin pose, the subtle release that takes you deeper into the pose is the tissues lengthening, hydrating, and becoming more pliable. If you pay close attention, you can sense the tissues being stretched, squeezed, twisted, and compressed. A yin practice can leave you feeling as though you’ve had a massage.
On Removing Blocks To Energy Flow
The six lower body meridians are affected most by the yin postures. We will
work all six this evening; liver, gall bladder, kidney, urinary, spleen and
stomach in only 5 to 7 postures. Meridians are the channels that conduct energy
throughout the body. These conduits form a network. If the network is
disrupted, if blockages occur, the body will not function properly. When the
meridians are clear and open, energy flows freely and all is well.
Hydration and the Joints
I Had the pleasure of spending a week with Master Raw Food Chef India Camiel in Belize this past summer and the biggest thing I learned was how to Hydrate the Body Properly through food and water. I learned that most Americans are dehydrated. Apart of my reading was the book, Your Body’s Many Cries For Water http://amzn.to/2j1PTei, in it I learned the power of hydration and how it can cure many so called incurable diseases, one of them being Arthritis.
Well, my mom had been having a lot of trouble with arthritis in her knee, so much that she had trouble walking and was using a cane. I shared with her some strategies for increasing her hydration, and guess what…the arthritis has cleared significantly. I would encourage you to read the book and increase your water intake 3x’s. To determine how much water you must drink to remain hydrated throughout the day, take your bodyweight, divide it by two, and the end result equals the amount of ounces you must drink.
Drinking water early in the morning can help hydrate the cells. By hydrating the body, and in turn hydrating the cells, first thing in the morning, the rate in which new muscle and blood cells are produced increases.
