Shifting stress

STRESS & THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
Stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response). In this state the brain sends signals to the body to increase heart rate and blood pressure, open our airways, inhibit digestion and reproductive organs, stimulate adrenaline production, open our sweat glands and tense the muscles ready for action. When the stress has eases the body clears out the stress hormones and resets the organs and systems. This is a natural part of our physiology and is part of life. It gets us up in the morning and drives us to be productive. But when we are unable to balance periods of stress with relaxation the body gets stuck in the sympathetic nervous system cycle and gets flooded by stress hormones it can’t flush out quick enough. In an ongoing state of stress the digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular and reproductive systems of the body are not working optimally – reducing its functionality and eventually leading to health issues.

YOGA & STRESS RELIEF
Yoga is unanimously regarded as one of the best ways to manage stress in both a therapeutic and preventative way. Yoga stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest & restore response). In this system the brain sends signals to the body to reduce heart rate and blood pressure, relax our airways, stimulate digestion and reproductive organs, inhibit adrenaline production and relax the muscles. This creates optimal conditions for the functionality of the organs of the body and relieves symptoms of stress, anxiety and tension.

When we are practising yoga we are focusing on transitioning from pose to pose, and the poses themselves. This shift in focus works as a distraction which is often the best cure to help relieve stress, tension and anxieties. The repetitive flow of yoga creates a moving meditation which is very soothing to the nervous system. Taking time to switch off, and being present on our mat, breaks the stress loop and initiates a positive mindset. Yoga also makes us more aware of our breath. The breath is one of the fastests ways to stimulate the vagus nerve, which is the main cranial nerve associated with 75% of the parasympathetic nervous system response. This wandering nerve is the longest nerve in the body and travels through many of the organs of the body including the diaphragm. When we breathe, in particular an extended exhale, the diaphragm stimulates the vagus nerve and causes a chemical reaction which initiates the parasympathetic response.

EXPLORING SHIFTING STRESS IN YOUR PRACTICE
This sequence starts with a gentle warm up and then moves into a meditative flow, linking breath with movement, to help shift the unease of stress and give you enough of a distraction to soften into the idea of allowing yourself to relax into the second half of the practice of restorative poses. Restorative yoga is considered the king of yoga when it comes to stress relief. It downregulates the sympathetic nervous system and enhances the malleability of the nervous system – which is our capacity to move easily from activity to rest, and similarly from rest to activity. In your restorative practice, hold the poses for the suggested minute on the accompanying illustrated sequence. Remember to do both sides in an asymmetrical pose. Stay warm and be completely comfortable throughout your practice. The sequence finishes with my favourite relaxation technique of MFR on the back of the skull. You will need two blankets, two bricks and a bolster for this practice. You can learn more about how the nervous system works in my recent articles The vagus nerve & The nervous system, and you can try more of my restorative sequences here.

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 - Prone twist
Place your bolster vertically along the top centre of your mat. Sit with your right hip up against the short end of the bolster. Place a folded blanket between your legs. Place your hands either side of the bolster. With an inhale lengthen through the whole spine and on your exhale gently place your front spine along the length of the bolster. Place your right cheek on the folded blanket and let your arms gently hang either side of the bolster. Repeat on the left side.

No.2 - Reclined bound angle
Place your bolster vertically along the top centre of your mat. Sit with the back of your hips against the short end of the bolster. Bring the soles of your feet together and let your knees drop out to the sides. Prop your legs with a rolled blanket under each thigh or use a yoga belt to secure your feet and support the legs. Gently lie back onto your bolster.

No.3 - Resting pose head massage
Lie on your back and place a brick on its lowest high just below the curve at the back of your skull (occipital ridge). Extend your legs out, arms slightly away from your body, palms facing up. Legs slightly apart and feet fall out to the side, soften your shoulder, back of the neck long. Gently roll your head from side to side to ease out tension in the muscles at the back of the skull. Roll your head mid way to your right, pause and make small circles, repeat on the left side. Remove the brick, soften the muscles across your forehead, your temples, the back of your skull. Let the whole body become heavy and melt into the support of the ground. 

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Ruth Delahunty Yogaru

Build better balance

TRAINING YOUR BALANCE 
Inspired by one of the guest speakers at Yoga Medicine® Innovation Conference, I have recently been incorporating plenty of balancing drills into my classes and personal practice. Already a topic that I have explored in my article Everyday balance, it is one I am particularly eager to highlight and share. Balance is one of the core components of physical health. It is trainable and should be trained at any age. Well trained balance makes you more adaptable and resilient, it gives you the confidence to move freely in your yoga practice and in your everyday life.

Balance is the ability to control equilibrium either static or dynamic. To translate this into yoga language – we train static balance when we hold pose and we train dynamic balance in our transitions from pose to pose. Dynamic balance is the version we use most often in our everyday life. You can add an extra challenge to your static balance by lifting a leg in standing poses; having the feet narrower like on a tightrope in lunges; and lifting to tip toes in standing poses; or any version of a pose where you reduce your base of support (the circumference around your foundation). You can add an extra challenge to your dynamic balance by stepping a leg back or forward; moving from the front of the mat to the side of the mat; getting up and down from the ground or a chair; going from plank to side plank or any transition where you change from one base of support to another.

POSTURAL + PROPRIOCEPTION + COGNITIVE
Balance is the interaction between postural control, proprioception and cognitive distractions:

Postural control is our ability to react to postural needs using the musculature system – particularly in the feet, ankles, gluteus medius (outer hips), adductors (inner thigh), transverse abdominis (core). In this sequence you will train your postural control with poses that strengthen the postural balancing muscles listed above.

Proprioception is our ability to work out where our body is positioned in space using the sensory systems of the eyes, vestibular (inner ear) and nerve endings in the joints. In this sequence you will challenge your proprioception by tracing your gaze in static balancing poses and moving your limbs while in the static and dynamic balancing mini flows. 

Cognitive distractions is our ability to handle distraction while balancing in both static and dynamic using the nervous system of the brain to juggle the jobs at hand. In this sequence you will introduce distraction by balancing a brick in a hand while in a static balancing mini flow. You can also try to practise some of the flows without looking at the sequence to add a cognitive list as a distraction!

EXPLORING EVERYDAY BALANCE IN YOUR PRACTICE
This sequence starts with a series of balance challenges from table top position. They will wake up your postural balancing muscles and give your outer hips plenty of opportunity to find your centre of gravity. The second row are the main standing balancing drills. You can use these drills at the start of other yoga practises to continue to build better balance. The first one is simple leg lifting drills. Try to keep the leg lifted, tapping the toe down if you need to realign yourself. The second one is the hip hikes. Keep your hips squared while you hike up and lower the hip of the dangling leg. The third one explores the effect of gaze on balance. Keep your leg lifted and gaze up and down. In the final one you balance a brick on your hand with a leg lifted, then slowly swap the brick to the opposite hand, following it with your gaze. Expect to have the wobbles, they are part and parcel of challenging your balance and making your postural control and proprioception work hard to keep you upright.

Varying your balancing drills will ensure you are continuing to challenge yourself with as much variety as possible. You can use both this sequence and Everyday balance to get variety.

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

• To give you more support, place a chair beside you as you do the balancing drills in the sequence. You can progress from hand on chair, to fingertip on chair, and then just knowing it's there if you need it.

• To give you more support in high lunge poses, have the feet at least hip width or wider. The wider the base of support the easier it is to balance.

• To add to the challenge, place a folded up blanket under the top of your yoga mat for the balancing drills. This will give you a softer surface to stand on and make your feet and ankles work harder.

• To add to the challenge, have the feet narrower than hip distance or even in line with each other like on a tightrope. The narrower the base of support the more challenging it is to balance.

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

MFR + yoga

WHAT IS MYOFASCIAL RELEASE?
Studying myofascial release (MFR) with Yoga Medicine® has been a game changer for my overall wellness. We all have areas of habitual tension or repeat injuries. I had some historical posterior hip injuries that I could never completely shift. When I started incorporating regular MFR my hips finally recovered and feel better than they have in years. I now add short MFR practises pre or post yoga and exercise, or at the end of the day to dissolve away tension and help me relax. By using MFR I have noticed a significant reduction in stiffness and feel a body wide awareness of fluid cohesion to my movement. My hope is that this simple introduction to 5 of the basic MFR regions will ignite a curiosity in you to try it and experience the change it can make to your life too.

We all strive for balance between physical strength and mobility so that we can move freely and pain free in our everyday life. To achieve this the body needs to work cohesively as a unit, rather than a collection of individual parts. This partnership needs a go-between to unite everything together. Fascia is the slimy, stringy, fluid-like substance that connects & protects the whole body. It is a flexible and strong continuous body wide web that wraps and permeates every part of the body, including our muscles. It is our internal scaffolding that gives us structure, distributes pressure to prevent wear and tear, allows glide and slide between everything inside us, communicates with the nervous system, helps the immune system fight infection, and makes fibres to repair damaged tissues. In terms of the history of anatomy the fascial system is one of the newer discoveries and the science of the fascia is constantly evolving. But it is very much a system worth taking a bit of time to consider and look after.

Fascia is made up of cells (white blood cells & fibroblasts), fibres (collagen & elastin) and a fluid ground substance (water & hyaluronic acid). The ground substance of the fascia contains a molecule called hyaluronic acid (HA). Its job is to bind to water molecules and create hydration, which is why it is the recent buzz word in the cosmetic industry. When fascia is hydrated it can carry out its ‘connect & protect’ jobs efficiently. When it becomes dehydrated there is increased friction, restricted range of movement, and increased wear and tear on the muscles and joints. The hydration of your fascia can alter with age, overuse, underuse, infection, inflammation and even something as simple as dehydration.

Myofascial release, or MFR, is a therapeutic self massage technique that allows you to optimise this hydration and the health of your muscles and fascia as part of your self care routine. MFR uses different techniques of compression, rolling and shearing using tools such as balls, yoga bricks and foam rollers to refresh and rejuvenate the tissues. Its main uses are to release tightness and relieve pain, but when you start to use it regularly you will see how versatile it is and notice lots more reasons to keep coming back to it.

THE BENEFITS OF MFR
Two of the main benefits of MFR are tissue hydration and pain management. It hydrates the tissues by stimulating HA turnover in the ground substance of the fascia, producing more HA to bind to more water molecules. HA can sometimes bind to itself instead of water, causing densification and reduced function within the fascia. MFR breaks up this densification and allows the HA to bind to the water molecules instead.

The different MRF techniques also stimulate one of the nerve receptors found under the skin in the fascia which triggers our ‘rest & restore’ nervous system response in the whole body – which is why you feel lovely and relaxed after an MFR practice. It manages pain with a combination of this whole body relaxation response and by resetting pain receptors, also found in the fascia, that can sometimes get stuck in a pain detection loop.

MFR gives you a self care tool to manage and alleviate new or chronic pain and recognise your body's physical and mental needs as they arise. It is very adaptable and can be used to relax and down regulate the nervous system during the day if you are feeling stressed or tired, and in the evening to help you relax and prepare for a good night's sleep. So whether you are feeling stiff from sitting for long periods, your muscles are achy from exercise or you are simply trying to switch off after a busy day, MFR is for you.

MFR is used for both therapeutic and preventative measures for:

• Muscle & fascia hydration.

• Increased glide & slide.

• Healthy connective tissue.

• Increased mobility.

• Increased circulation.

• Better nervous system communication.

• Rest and relaxation.

• Pain management.

• Better body awareness.

• Reduced physical & mental tension.

• Better tissue repair.

• Supports immune function.

• Pre exercise to help prepare the muscles.

• Post exercise to help recover the muscles.

WHEN TO INCORPORATE MFR
Relaxation – long or short practice + lighter: MFR down regulates the nervous system and helps you relax anytime of day. You can choose how long you'd like to practise. Use a lighter, gentle pressure to stimulate the ‘rest & restore’ nerve receptors just under the skin.
For pain management & injury recovery – shorter practice + frequently: MFR alleviates pain and speeds up injury recovery. Little and often is best, monitor your response to the treatment and adjust as needed.
Pre yoga – shorter practice + lighter: MFR before yoga increases your range of movement and can be used to warm up parts of the body you are planning on focusing on in your practice.
Post yoga – longer practice + deeper: MFR after yoga helps you relax after your practice and can be used to refresh parts of the body you have been focusing on in your practice.
Pre sports – shorter practice + lighter: MFR helps prepare the muscles for sports without compromising the strength of the muscles like an excessive pre sport stretching routine would. Roll for shorter periods with a lighter pressure.
Post sports – longer practice + deeper: MFR helps muscles recover after sports and alleviates delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Roll for longer periods and deeper.

EXPLORING MFR + YOGA IN YOUR PRACTICE
Less is more when using MFR. If you are gritting your teeth and ignoring intense discomfort you will hinder the process and it will become counterproductive. You are looking for mild discomfort with the ability to consciously relax the muscles you are working on. Use your exhale to help relax the muscles under the balls. If you hit a tender spot that triggers your muscles to tighten, work indirectly around the area before directly. Avoid bony areas where there is very little muscle to work on and can be very uncomfortable. You will notice that different areas will be more tender than others. Adjust your applied pressure to create an even sensation throughout your practice. In areas where you roll individual sides it is good to lie down between sides to notice the difference. In areas where you do both sides at the same time, take a moment to lie down and sense the effects locally and around the whole body. You might notice the massaged area is more relaxed, less tight; more fluid, less chalkie; more free, less stiff; more neurological feedback, less disconnected.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

• 30/60 seconds per area.

• 5 min a day is better than 20 min a week.

• Less is more, look for mild discomfort.

• Work indirectly before directly on trigger points.

• Should never be painful or sharp.

• Use two balls instead of one or place a blanket over the balls to reduce the intensity.

• Avoid bones, joints, nerves.

• Avoid inflammation, bruises, broken skin, varicose veins.

ALIGNMENT CUES
Below are the MFR techniques used in this sequence:

No.1 - Feet
Compression - from standing or seated, place 1 x ball at position No.1, gently press down with an inhale and release on the exhale x 5 breaths and move on to No.2. Continue to No.5. 
Roll & cross fibre - with the toes on the ground place 1 x ball at No.5, roll the ball across your heel x 5. Place 1 x ball at No.6, roll the ball across the knuckles of your toes x 5. Place 1 x ball at No.6, roll in one direction from toes to heel x 5. 
Scribble - roll and scribble across the sole of the foot. Repeat all steps on the other foot.

No.2 - Shoulders (trapezius & supraspinatus)
Compression - from supine with knees bent, place 2 x balls in the centre of each upper shoulder, gently press down with an inhale and release on the exhale x 5 breaths. 
Sheer - slowly circle arms overhead and back to the ground x 5. 

No.3 - Lower back (quadratus lumborum & erectors)
Compression - from supine with knees bent, place 2 x balls above the back of the hips either side of the spine, gently press down with an inhale and release on the exhale x 5 breaths.
Sheer - slowly lift and lower one knee at a time towards your chest x 5.
Roll & cross fibre - roll up and down the lower spine below the ribs.

No.4 - Glutes (gluteus maximus & piriformis)
Compression - from supine with knees bent, place 2 x balls in the centre of each buttock muscle, gently press down with an inhale and release on the exhale x 5 breaths.
Sheer - slowly lift and lower one knee at a time towards your chest x 5. Place your right foot on your left knee and lower and lift your right knee.
Roll & cross fibre - roll around the whole buttocks area.

No.5 - Hips (gluteus medius)
Compression - from side lying up on your forearm, stack 2 x balls behind your frontal hip bone on your outer hip, gently press down with an inhale and release on the exhale x 5 breaths.
Sheer - slowly lift and lower your leg x 5.
Roll & cross fibre - roll up and down on your outer hip.

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