The nervous system

THE CONDUCTOR
The nervous system is the body's communication and control system. It is the most complex system and is responsible for all bodily functions and reactions to internal and external stimuli. It is the brilliant conductor that harmoises the symphony of the body into homeostasis. The nervous system is divided into two paths – the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PSNY). The central nervous system is made up of the brain and the spinal cord – it is the control centre of the nervous system. The peripheral nervous system is made up of 12 pairs of cranial nerves and 31 pairs of spinal nerves – it carries information to and from the brain to all the systems of the body. There are two nerve pathways – sensory and motor neurons. The sensory neurons send information from the nerve receptors to the CNS, while the motor neurons send information from the CNS to muscles and glands. The motor division is divided into the somatic nervous system (SoNS) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The somatic nervous system controls voluntary movements, like lifting your arm or walking. The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary functions that happen without us having to think about them, like breathing or digestion.

THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
The ANS manages daily activity and responds to situations. It is divided into the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), ‘fight or flight’ response, and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), ‘rest and restore’ response. Both actions start with sensory signals sending information to the brain. The brain accesses this information and, based on past experiences, decides if the SNS, the PNS or a combination of both are required. When the SNS is active, motor neurons travel to the muscles and glands and increase heart rate and blood pressure, open our airways, inhibit digestion and reproductive organs, stimulate adrenaline production, open our sweat glands and contract the muscles. When the PNS is active motor neurons travel to the muscles and glands and reduce heart rate and blood pressure, relax our airways, stimulate digestion and reproductive organs, inhibit adrenaline production and relax the muscles.

Although the SNS is connected to stress it is also responsible for muscle activation and everyday movement. The two systems do not work in isolation, they work together to keep all the systems of the body active and relaxed when optimally needed. Problems arise when we lean more into one than the other and the nervous system can’t adapt. Yoga helps us build a malleable nervous system that can move smoothly from doing to non-doing and appreciate the value of both.

EXPLORING THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN YOUR PRACTICE
This sequence is built using the framework of my Move & restore method. It starts with a movement practice with simple purposeful flows to build energy, strengthen your muscles and activate the SNS. Then brings you into a replenishing restorative practice to restore energy, relax your muscles and activate the PNS. Transitioning you from ‘doing’ to ‘non-doing’, building healthy symbiotic pathways for your nervous system and creating an optimum environment for all the functions of the body. As mentioned above, it is not as simple as switching on and off the SNS and PNS responses. Within the movement part of the practice the SNS and the PNS are both activated. The effort of standing upright against gravity stimulates the SNS which contracts the muscle, while at the same time the breath and meditative flow stimulates the PNS which relaxes and calms the mind. Alternatively, within the restorative part of the practice we are purely targeting the PNS, which is what makes restorative yoga uniquely nurturing and replenishing. You can learn more about how this works in my recent article on The vagus nerve; what makes yoga calming in Finding calm; the move & restore method in Move & restore; and restorative yoga in Restorative yoga, Restorative with home props, Restorative sleepy flow, Restorative for stress relief & Rest & renew restorative.

ALIGNMENT CUES
Below are the restorative techniques used in this sequence. The props you’ll need are:
1 x bolster - or 2 towels, wrapped around a horizontally rolled pillow and tied to secure.
2 x yoga bricks - or 2 two thick similar sized dictionaries.
2 x yoga blankets - or any wool, thick cotton or fleece blanket with density.

No.1 - Supported bridge
Lie supine on your back, lift your hips up and place a bolster horizontally under your hips. Settle your hips down onto the support of the bolster. Knees bent, feet hip distance apart. Arms extended either side of the body, palms facing up. Feel a gentle opening in the front of the hips and across the chest.

No.2 - Prone twist
Place your bolster vertically along the top centre of your mat. Sit with your right hip along the short end of the bolster. Place a folded blanket between your knees. Turn to face your bolster and place your hands on the ground either side. With an inhale lengthen through the whole spine and on an exhale gently place your front spine along the centre of the bolster. Place your right cheek on the bolster. Shift your elbows away slightly from the bolster to allow the arms to gently hang out of the shoulder sockets. Feel the gentle twist in the spine and abdominal region. Repeat on the left side.

No.3 - Reclined seated
Place two bricks horizontally at the top of your mat, One at its highest height and the other at its mid height. Lie your bolster over the bricks along the centre of your mat and place a folded blanket on the far end of your bolster where your head will rest. Sit with the back of your hips along the short end of the bolster. Roll up a folded blanket and place it under your knees. Gently lie back onto your bolster. Feel a gentle opening across the chest.

No.4 - Savasana
End your practice with at least 10 minutes of Savasana or Resting Pose. Lie supine on your back, legs stretched out, arms slightly away from your body, palms facing up. Legs slightly apart, feet fall out to the sides, soften your shoulder, back of the neck long. Gently close your eyes, let the body become heavy and melt into the support of the ground. Soften the muscles across your forehead, releasing all tension, gaze inwards. Let all the muscles and bones of your body release.

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Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

The benefits of yoga

BOUNDLESS BENEFITS
There are endless benefits to practising yoga, some are evidence based, and others are observations from the long history of yoga practitioners over the last 5,000 years. Research can answer the ‘what, why and how?’ of yoga through a scientific lens. It is an invaluable tool when we are looking at how to prescribe the yoga practice in a clinical setting, as yoga teachers, and in our own personal practice too. Research is in its infancy compared to the practice itself, which has benefited yogis for millennia. There is so much we know about the human body and mind, and even more yet to be discovered. Combining research with our human experience of yoga allows us to tailor a personal practice. 

In my experience yoga is one of the best practices for your overall physical and mental wellness. It is a prescriptive practice with many different modalities to draw from – stretching, strengthening, mobility, stability, restorative, MFR – depending on your specific needs. We are rarely the same person each time we step on our mat, so the practice needs to be adaptable to how our day, week, year is going. What do you bring with you to your mat and how can your practice support you? 

A CROSS SECTION
Over the years my practice has evolved and become my therapeutic method for meeting my ever changing physical and mental needs. Although there are many more, this is a cross section of my favourite benefits that I use personally, and as inspiration for my sequences and classes. You will notice the root is often similar for each of the benefits listed below – sometimes it is the flowing movement, sometimes it is pausing in a pose, sometimes it is the breath, sometimes it is consciously relaxing and sometimes it is a combination of all, or a few, of these components of the practice.

1. Balances nervous system
Yoga's positive effect on the nervous system is in my opinion the most important benefit of yoga. The nervous system is our communication highway and is also responsible for initiating all bodily functions. It is the conductor that brings the symphony of our systems together in harmony. Flowing movement, taking time to pause, consciously breathing and consciously relaxing all stimulate the main nerve of the parasympathetic ‘rest and restore’ nervous system response – the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body and travels from the brainstem straight to the throat, heart, diaphragm, stomach, kidneys, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, sphincter and reproductive organs. Its job is to reduce heart rate and blood pressure, relax our airways, stimulate digestion and reproductive organs, and inhibit production of adrenaline and the stress hormone cortisol. All favourable conditions for the systems of the body to perform at their best.

2. Aids relaxation & eases stress, tension & anxiety
Flowing movement releases and eases physical tension and manages pain, while at the same time a deepened breath, particularly the exhale, stimulates the vagus nerve in the throat and the diaphragm. This triggers the parasympathetic ‘rest and restore’ nervous system response with all the benefits listed above. Restorative yoga is the king of yoga when it comes to consciously relaxing. It downregulates the nervous system to the rest & restore response. In restorative, with the aid of props, we consciously relax the body and mind to bring you into complete comfort and rest. This helps you build a malleable nervous system which can be active when needed and relax when needed. 

3. Aids digestion
Flowing movement helps stimulate the whole digestion system. Pausing in twist and backbend poses are particularly beneficial. They gently squeeze the abdominal region, which stimulates the walls of the stomach to help with digestion and massages the muscles of the large intestine to help with elimination.

4. Increases circulation
Flowing movement, pausing in poses and consciously breathing help stimulate the cardiovascular and circulatory systems to pump blood around the whole body. This carries oxygen, nutrients, and hormones to all the cells, and removes waste products created in the metabolic functions. Pausing in twists, backbends and inversions are particularly beneficial. for the circulatory system. Twists and backbends press and release blood vessels which causes extra flow capacity, and inversions aid with venous return to the heart.

5. Boosts immune system
Yoga supports all the systems of the body and helps them to work together in partnership. It helps the digestive system absorb nutrition; the respiratory system to bring in oxygen; the circulatory system to transport oxygen and nutrients; and the lymphatic system to clean up and transport white blood cells. When the body is firing from all guns the immune system can do its important job of producing immune cells.

6. Builds strength
Both flowing movement and pausing in poses increases strength in many of the muscle groups of the whole body. Although light weights can also be used in a yoga practice, it mainly uses body weight against the forces of gravity to challenge and increase muscle tone and strength, along with bone & connective tissue strength. Standing poses and standing balancing poses strengthen the big muscles of the legs, improve our spatial awareness and our everyday ability to balance and manoeuvre.

7. Improves flexibility
Yoga moves the body in a wide variety of directions which helps increase flexibility more than many other movement practices and sporting endeavours. It works on our active range of movement (AROM), which is our range to move our joints without the help of an external force, and it works our passive range of motion (PROM), which is our range to be moved by with the help of an external force. Both active and passive range of motion are important for everyday mobility.  

8. Builds focus & concentration
Flowing movement, and pausing to hold poses, works our focus and concentration. It also increases circulation to the brain which improves memory and cognitive ability. Standing balancing poses, and poses you find more challenging, are particularly good at forcing you to focus. The nerves of the brain work on a system of pathways. When we build and establish a focus and concentration path the brain is more able to reproduce this pathway in your day to day life off the mat too.   

9. Increases energy
Consciously breathing a deeper breath and expanding our chest and lungs brings in more oxygen and increases circulation through the whole body – delivering oxygen and nutrients to all the cells. This initiates a metabolic reaction that creates ADP, or cell energy.

10. Improves sleep
Bringing together lots of the above benefits – balancing the nervous system, aiding relaxation and easing stress tension and anxiety – yoga helps improve our ability to fall asleep and the quality of our sleep. A strong practice earlier in the day can prepare the body for a good night's sleep, and a gentle practice, or restorative yoga, practised in the evening will help start the rest and relaxation process.

EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF YOGA IN YOUR PRACTICE
Each pose family has its own special range of benefits. Some overlap with other pose families and some are unique to that specific pose family. This sequence has a selection of poses from each of the pose families so you will capture a good selection of benefits listed above. You will flow through mini sequences, pause in poses, consciously breathe using my ‘+’ and ‘-’ cues and consciously relax at the end in savasana. You may even notice some of your own specific benefits too not listed above. If you are interested in tailoring your practice to your needs a good place to start is to explore my Yoga Benefits Wheel poster. It is divided into 10 pose categories and covers 45 different benefits. It is where yoga becomes specific to your individual requirements and helps you navigate your wellness journey. You will also find lots of inspiration in some of my previous articles about building a home practice:

ALIGNMENT CUES
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 ‘-”.

• If there are specific poses that you would like to stay longer in, give yourself three deep breaths in those poses, and pick up the next pose with the allocated inhale or exhale as indicated by the sequence.

• For a longer practice add in a Sun Salutations at the start of each mini flow or repeat each mini flow.

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

Phalakasana - Plank

FULL BODY STRENGTH
Phalakasana/Plank is a full body high return strengthening pose which doesn’t require you to hold it for very long before you start to feel the benefits and the challenge. It is often used as a benchmark pose to check core, shoulder and arm strength in a student to see if they are ready to try more challenging arm balancing poses. It quickly generates heat. It offers a mental and physical challenge and a challenge of both stamina and patience similar to our principal in yoga of effort and ease.

THE BENEFITS OF PHALAKASANA/PLANK
Phalakasana/Plank is one of the basic arm balancing poses used as a progression towards stronger arm balancing poses. It strengthens the shoulders, spine, arms, core, glutes, quads and hamstrings. As gravity presses down on your whole back body in Phalakasana/Plank your shoulders and core in particualr feel the challenge in holding the pose for any length of time. Making it a very good pose for building strength in the abdominal, the rotator cuff (SITS) and scapula stabilising muscles of the shoulders. It is an isometric pose which means the muscles are active and strengthening in a static pressing position. It also builds a strong spine, increases bone density, builds focus, heat, stamina, energy and circulation

EXPLORING PHALAKASANA/PLANK IN YOUR PRACTICE
Similar to Vasisthasana/Side Plank, when you are in Phalakasana/Plank scan from the base of your feet to the tip of your crown and remember your Tadasana/Mountain alignment cues. In Tadasana/Mountain we are pressing through the feet, hugging the hips to the midline, lengthening through all sides of the body and broadening through the collarbones. In Phalakasana/Plank we are following these exact blueprints and adding an extra level of lifting the hips against gravity with the strength of the core.

If your shoulders are not ready for Phalakasana/Plank stay with the version with the knees down and gradually build your shoulder strength. The shoulders appreciate consideration and require good stability awareness before you add a weighted challenge. If you are in the full version make sure your hips are maintaining the diagonal line from heel to tip of crown. If they are too high it will reduce your opportunity to strengthen the full body and if they are too low it will push pressure onto your lower back. Core strength is very important in this pose. If your wrists are sensitive try folding your mat over and placing your hands on the crease to lift the root of the palm up to reduce the extension in the wrists.

ALIGNMENT CUES
In this sequence you will use Cat/Cow to start the warm up process for Phalakasana/Plank. Remember to stay with the knees down version of Phalakasana/Plank if knees up is causing you any discomfort in the shoulders. You can repeat this sequence over the corse of a few months to build up towards Phalakasana/Plank.

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

• From Adho Mukha Svanasana, inhale, reach forward and stack your shoulders over your wrists, press into all five knuckles of your hands, roll your biceps forward, shoulder blades spread outwards.

• Press out through your heels to firm your legs, hips level to the ground, hug your outer hips to the midline. Exhale, draw your navel towards your spine, broaden through the collarbones.

• Lengthen from your heels all the way to the tip of your crown in a diagonal line, keep your head in line with your spine, back of the neck long, gaze to the ground.

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