Everyday balance

BALANCE FOR LIFE
Balancing is a life skill that is important to nurture all the way through life. Similar to the life skill of your ability to safely get up and down from the ground, it works on a principle of use it or lose it. Building balancing practices into your yoga routine will keep this life skill active and help prevent risk of fall at any age, particularly later in life when it becomes more serious. Adding standing balancing poses trains pathways in the brain for balance and builds confidence, good stability and quick reactivity into your everyday life. It is not just the muscles that will become stronger but also the vestibular system of the inner ears which is the sensory system that coordinates spatial awareness with balance and movement. Adding a few drills of balance training into every yoga session, regardless of whether it's in the sequence or not, will ensure you are continuing to nourish this important skill. When you have trained this skill you will build muscle memory and the brain pathways for balance and coordination that you can tap into subconsciously when you need it. Giving you quick reactive reflexes to prevent risk of fall.

BUILD FROM THE GROUND UP
Building standing balance = feet + legs + core + posture. Balance starts from a sturdy foundation from the ground up. When you press into your feet you activate the primary balancing muscles of the legs and hips. The more you press the more active this connection is. The core braces against gravity and is often where your centre of gravity is found when in an upright standing position. Good posture helps to keep the spine stacked against the pressure of gravity. The curves of the spine absorb impact and give us the ability to react and recentre as we sway from side to side when we move. Gravity is constantly pushing us down, good balance built from all these elements will help to keep you upright, steady on your feet and moving confidently in your everyday life.

EXPLORING EVERYDAY BALANCE IN YOUR PRACTICE
This sequence builds balance, starting from your foundation, focusing on the feet first. For the standing warm ups in row one press into the ground and root down into your foundation, this will help you create a strong foundation for you to feel confident in. This first row is the perfect balance mini routine to add throughout your week to train and improve your balance. If you would like to challenge your balance more, place a folded blanket under the standing foot and grow roots into the surface you are standing on. Balancing practices trains your body to respond to wobbles. If you find you wobble lots consider this good muscles and brian training for everyday balance. To help you find your balance bend your knees to bring your centre of gravity lower. Most wobbles happen during transitions in our practice. Use this practice to transition slowly and consciously with muscular control. Be ok with your wobble and observe the body busy keeping you upright.

ALIGNMENT CUES
There is no specific peak pose in this everyday balance sequence. Use the cues below to help you flow through the sequence with ease and fluidity.

Have a read of the tips below and either print out the sequence or save it onto your device:

• Use the breath guide in the sequence to help you link breath with movement in the flow. Inhale is indicated with a ‘+’, exhale is a ‘-”.

• Move slowly from pose to pose. Use the transitions as an opportunity to find strength and balance in motion.

• For a longer practice, repeat the standing flows three times.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Runners breath flow

RUNNERS BREATH
In my previous runners article, The ultimate runners flow, I discussed what a runner needs physically in terms of strength and stability. In this article I will look at how the breath affects your ability to exercise and how yoga train your lungs to optimise your breath as you run. A good runner's breath includes belly breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing, and rhythmical breathing. Breathing consciously is one of the most important elements of yoga, and breathing exercises like belly breathing and rhythmic breathing are very much part of the yoga practice too. The breath builds strong lungs that feed all the cells of your body with fuel as you inhale – oxygen, and clean up the byproduct as you exhale – carbon dioxide. Running increases your requirement for oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output. Breathing deeply into your belly, which is where you let your belly expand with your breath, gives you a much higher respiratory volume than chest breathing and increases this intake and output. Your ability to breathe rhythmically as you run helps you control your oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output. It also helps you establish a meditative flow as you run which is more relaxing for the body and helps prevent muscle spasms and injuries.

THE RESPIRATORY & CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
The respiratory system is responsible for bringing oxygen to all the cells of the body, including the muscles where it facilitates physical movement. The breath is part of the autonomic nervous system, which means it works automatically. What makes the breath unique is that we can also control it to a certain extent. We can extend, shorten and hold the breath depending on our desired outcomes. When we inhale our heart rate increases, the cells receive oxygen, and we feel energised. When we exhale the heart rate decreases, the cells release carbon dioxide, and we are more focused. Both these qualities are essential for staying the course in a run.

The circulatory system, or the cardiovascular system, pumps blood around the body with the heart through a network of blood vessels. The blood carries oxygen, nutrients, and hormones to all the cells of the body, and removes waste products created in the metabolic functions. Think of the circulatory system as housekeeping. When the body is well serviced it is able to work more efficiently. The circulatory system distributes the oxygen to the muscles as we run and clears out the carbon dioxide.

EXPLORING RUNNERS BREATH FLOW IN YOUR PRACTICE
This is a simple sequence built around the Sun Salutation. It will help you focus on the quality of your breath rather than focusing on a more complex flow. To start your practice lie on your back with your knees bent, feet hip distance apart, hands on your belly, and take three to five rounds of Viloma breath – inhale for a long breath, and then exhale pause, exhale pause, exhale pause – dividing your exhale into three sections. This breathing method helps you establish belly breathing. You will then do a few rounds of Sun Salutations to flow with the breath, taking an inhale or an exhale for each pose, to help you practise rhythmic breathing. The Sun Salutations are followed by a series of mini flows linking breath with movement. Final step is to consider your posture as you practise the sequence. You are looking for a strong spine and a broad chest to facilitate the expansion of the breath during your yoga practice and as you take it outdoors on your run.

ALIGNMENT CUES
There is no specific peak pose in this runner's breath flow sequence. Use the cues below to help you flow through the sequence with ease and fluidity.

Have a read of the tips below and either print out the sequence or save it onto your device:

• Use the breath guide in the sequence to help you link breath with movement in the flow. Inhale is indicated with a ‘+’, exhale is a ‘-”.

• Move slowly from pose to pose. Use the first few rounds of each mini flow to work out how your body wants to transition from pose to pose then focus on the breath in the movement.

• For a longer practice add more rounds of Sun Salutations at the beginning and repeat lines two and three with the two standing flows.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Functional movement

Functional movement is the cornerstone of good everyday mobility. Guest writer Sam Delahunty shares his journey from gym bro to a more well rounded approach to wellness.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT
During my years training in the gym I noticed some of the exercises were not optimal for overall body health. Yes they make you more toned and fitter looking, but do they really benefit your ability to move comfortably through life? I started to explore how our body really moves naturally and found what we call ‘functional movement’. Functional movement can be described as multi-joint, multi-planar moves which are relatable to everyday life. What is meant by multi-joint, multi-planar and every day movement? Well, multi-joint is the involvement of more than one joint during a movement, for example a squat involves your ankles, knees and hips. Functional movement often moves through multiple planes of motion as well, we’ll dive deeper into that later. Finally and most important of all, functional movement is applicable to everyday life. This is why applying functional movements to your practice is so important, as the goal of any fitness journey is to be more healthy and capable in the day to day.

WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT REALLY?
There are five ‘rules’ or factors to functional movement – core, basic body movements, multi-joint, multi-planar and full active range of motion. The first one is moving from the core out. Every movement starts with the engagement of your core. This creates a solid base from which to control your limbs, for max strength and ability. Then there are the seven basic body movements. These are squat, lunge, hinge, rotation, push, pull, and gait. These essentially are the core moves your body was built to carry out, and the theory is by practising these basic movements in your training you will be more physically capable throughout life. On top of multi joint movement which I’ve explained already you move through multiple planes while practising functional moves. There are three planes through which we are capable of moving. The sagittal, dividing the body into left and right sides (moving forward and back); the coronal, dividing the body into front and back sides (moving side to side); and the transverse, dividing the body into top and bottom halves (twisting movement). Finally functional movement often aims to move your body through a full active range of motion (AROM). In our everyday lives we have become more sedentary and less versatile in our movement than our predecessors. Your body was built to move to its full capacity and as the saying goes use it or lose it. When I am building my fitness programmes I make sure to combine both functional movements and muscle or joint specific movements. Functional movements maintain and improve my mobility, and muscle or joint specific movements help prevent injury by strengthening individual muscles. Through practising yoga you often move more than one joint, move fluidly through one plane to another and challenge your core as you move. You also explore your full range of movement and you will notice many of the basic body movements cropping up in your practice too.

EXPLORING FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT IN YOUR PRACTICE
This sequence is a little different from the usual ones you will find in our articles. It is mainly built of two pose mini flows with the main focus on the transitions from pose to pose rather than the poses themselves. Creatively adding functional movement with these mini flows challenges the full body – building your repertoire of everyday mobility and longevity of the joints, muscles and connective tissue. As you practise this sequence you might feel a bit more clumsy in our movement. That is absolutely fine, remember you are building active range of movement and everyday mobility, not perfection. Remember to initiate each movement from an engaged core to stabilise our spine and help you maintain centre of gravity as you move.

ALIGNMENT CUES
There is no specific peak pose in this functional movement sequence. Use the cues below to help you flow through the sequence with ease and fluidity.

Have a read of the tips below and either print out the sequence or save it onto your device:

• Use the breath guide in the sequence to help you link breath with movement in the flow. Inhale is indicated with a ‘+’, exhale is a ‘-”.

• Move slowly from pose to pose. Use the first few rounds of each mini flow to work out how your body wants to transition from pose to pose.

• For a longer practice repeat the warm up flow on the first line at the start of each of the three standing flows or repeat each of the standing mini flows three times.

To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.

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Sam’s keen interest in fitness started at an early age during his time spent playing rugby in St.Michael’s. He went on to complete an olympic triathlon at the age of 16 followed by a half marathon.

These achievements gave him the inspiration needed to set him down the health and fitness path. He learnt the importance of multidisciplinary training and incorporating yoga and functional training when creating programmes. His systematic approach to both performance and everyday health is all about building an overall ability to specialise and succeed.