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General benefits of asana
-physical benefits :
Asana is very beneficial especially
today in our very sedentary way of life. Most of us use just
certain muscle groups because of the type of job we do. For
example sitting all day in front of a computer or working heavy
manual work as builder etc. Some muscles are overworked and others
are not used at all. This brings a lot of problems in the body and
the posture. Asana practise is able to restore the physical
balance.
Very often people complain of back
pain, stiff joints or muscles. When we sit all day on a chair our
feet are not in use to support the body and sometimes wearing high
heels or very impractical and most of the time uncomfortable shoes
(mainly women and their fashion obsessions)disturb our proper
posture. Through asana practise we become aware of every little
muscle and how we use it if at all.
Tadasana(Mountain pose) is a good
example to learn about our posture. It starts with the feet up
through the crown of the head. For example the four layers of the
musculature of the foot all combine to create lift, balance and
movement. As Kaminoff explains in his book the deeper muscles (to
move the toes, the foot arch,the outer edge of the foot),
inevitably weaken and the arch of the foot is not supported
properly which eventually may lead to plantar fasciitis and heel
spurs.
Asana practice develops strength
and flexibility in our body .Some people are naturally very bendy
(flexible) but not able to sustain a posture as their muscles are
not strong enough, and others are just strong and find it
difficult to go deeper into the posture. .
Asana is perfect to
balance muscle strength and flexibility.
Muscle strength is the amount of
force a single muscle can produce with a single maximum effort
.Size of muscle cells and the ability of nerves to activate them
also define the strength of the muscle.
Muscle flexibility is the ability of
the body to move through range of possible motion.
Or simply said, muscle strength is
how much weight a muscle can lift and for how long. Flexibility is
how far the body can go into a posture. Without those two aspects
of the body ability the person will not be able to enjoy their
practice and it will not benefit from it , but luckily just
through practicing the strength and flexibility can be developed
simultaneously. The more a flexible person practice, their muscle
will be able to hold and sustain the body for longer.
The muscles develop their ability to
contract and hold. A strong muscle will be able to relax, stretch
and thus allow the blood to flush through its tissues bringing
fresh oxygen into them. Allowing the muscle to work slowly and
contract and hold a position will help the development of the
strength and allowing its ability to stretch, relax and thus
maintaining good fitness levels.
When we have good fitness and well
being in our body we are less stressed and tensed. Our body and
mind are relaxed and our immune system works better. We are
healthy and generally happy and positive. When we don’t look
after ourselves we tend to make ourselves ill or we become out of
balance and so we become stressed.
According to the definition
given by Trotora and Grabovski ‘’stress is any stimulus that
tends to cause imbalance in the internal environment’’. Stress
is natural, we live everyday in some level of stress, from what we
put in our body to traffic jams, argument or learning something
new. When we are not able to deal with the inner or outer stimuli,
like heat, noise, high/low blood pressure, pain, fear etc. we
cause extreme stress to the body, leading to illness and disease.
Signs of stress can be cognitive
(poor concentration), emotional (depressed ), physical (aches and
pains) or behavioral(getting into fights and arguments). When we
experience these signs our body suffers. The breath is irregular,
the blood circulation is not smooth and the adrenalin glands are
in constant use which brings further health problems affecting the
organs.
But through simple asana practice we become ware of our
breathing patterns and allow the lungs and the ribcage to open,
the shoulders to soften and the muscle to relax. And just by doing
this we already have sent impulses to the brain and the central
nervous system to relax and break down the negative patterns in
our systems. By simply introducing breath awareness in our asana
practice we can achieve balance in our system and body which will
help us to develop our spiritual and emotional balance.
Good
example is practicing Shavasana(corpse pose). It teaches us to be
still physically but aware mentally and thus achieving deep state
of relaxation. Ultimately Shavasana brings different levels of
spiritual peace for as long as one can identify with their body.
The spiritual relaxation is to be able to disatatch yourself and
become the witness. The body uses less oxygen and less carbon
dioxide is eliminated, the muscle tension is reduced, breathing is
slower and deeper, there is decrease of the sympathetic nervous
system activity and an increase in parasympathetic activity. This
occur due to reducing the body’s energy loss, lowering the pulse
rate and resting the whole system.
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P.s just to mention the image above is taken from internet . Unfortunately i don't know the name of the photographer. ;-) Namaste !
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