Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice by White Ganga

Author:White, Ganga [White, Ganga]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781583943359
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 2011-03-14T23:00:00+00:00

Traction, Torque, and Leverage

One of the wonderful things about yoga practice is that it can be done almost anywhere. Many poses can be accomplished in only the space the body occupies. Yoga requires little or no equipment and the body itself becomes the player, the instrument, and the music. After you are able to hold an asana comfortably with good alignment, you can start experimenting with using traction, torque, and leverage. Leverage can be created against external supports, such as the floor or a wall, or generated from within internal alignments of muscle and bone. Using one part of your body to push on another part combines internal and external leverages.

Use leverage and traction to create internal torque and precise articulations of joints and muscles. These biomechanics build strength, create internal opening, and relieve compression. For example, in the Plank pose, Downward Dog, or Headstand, you can press against the floor to create more lift in the spine. You can also press your legs against each other to strengthen muscles and create an opening in the sacral area that releases back tension.

Becoming aware of and learning to use isometric and isotonic tensions is also very helpful. Isometric tension pushes against a fixed resistance so that the muscle’s length remains the same. Pushing the palms together against each other creates isometric pressure. You can also use isometric pressures to learn how to press different inner energy planes into external objects like the floor or wall. For example, you can press an energy line up the inner side of your legs by pressing down through the arches of your feet to the floor. Similarly, you can create a line of energy up the outer edges of your leg by pressing the outer edges of your feet into the floor. To experience how this works, try holding a ledge, table, or sink with your hands, and then push, pull, or lean away to experiment with some isometric levers.

In isotonic movements, resistance remains constant while muscle length changes. Push-ups, chin-ups, and pull-ups are isotonic exercises—they use one’s body weight as the resistance. Extend your arms out to the side and raise them slowly over your head while resisting with opposing muscles in the arms and side body—this is an isotonic movement flow. Graceful flowing movement often requires working with internally created resistance. Isotonic pressure generates different levels of intensity with your own internal muscular resistance. Work with and against your own muscular forces to build strength, intensity, and core stability.

When you begin using and experimenting with levers and internal forces, your body will communicate with you and guide you from within. Everyone has experienced this to some degree. When you feel tightness or blocked energy, you often instinctively start moving opposing muscles to gain leverage, responding to inner signals until the block or pinch is released. I’m sure you can remember a time when your neck or shoulders were tight or locked, and you instinctively tightened your neck and dropped your head and shoulders while creating an internal resistance to work against to create opening.

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