At the end of a private lesson, a student recently exclaimed, “That was better than massage!” Music to my ears, of course, and she was right. But why does smart yoga give more relief than a passive rub down?
Massage is great, and I enjoy it as often as I can. Massage can:
- Temporarily release tension, the nervous contraction of muscles, which can feel amazing. Temporarily, until next wave of stress, worry, dread, unexpected event, or turn of fortune hits your brain and causes you to seize up once again. Check out this simple test: Is your jaw clenched right now? If so, you are probably in constant, if unconscious, tension.
- Temporarily release tight muscles: More on this below, but the minute you roll off the massage table and come back up to sit, your habitual posture kicks in, causing overworked or overstretched muscles to contract to stabilize your body in its familiar ways. In other words, you tighten back up!
Massage at best offers short-term relief, putting a band-aid over the underlying problem: Why are your muscles chronically tight? My former teacher John Friend once opined,
“Most tight muscles result not from overuse but from misalignment.”
Think:
- running with your feet turned out, which tightens your hamstrings;
- bending over to weed your garden, which pulls on your lower back;
- raking leaves or slumping over your laptop, which tightens your chest muscles.
Muscles held repetitively or consistently out of alignment, whether contracted or stretched, will tighten. Like a rubber band pulled too hard, they will snap back, in what’s called muscle spasm. Eventually, muscles held in the same position can actually calcify—turn to stone! A chronically rounded spine can result in an irreversible hunchback. Duck-footed ballerinas were historically the first population to require hip replacements because of the chronic torquing of their hip joints.
The solution? Realignment! Simple but not easy. Like the wheels on your car, chances are some muscles in your body need realigning to keep you in forward motion. Another quote from John Friend:
“When you put the bones back in place, the muscles release.”
The muscles that keep us moving are called “skeletal muscles.” Their job is to move the bones. They can’t do so effectively, and release/relax when done, unless the bones are in the right place in the first place.
Yoga postures, informed by biomechanical (anatomical) principles, put the bones back in place. This allows the muscles to work well and rest when not recruited.
The hands-on adjustments I do to your body during yoga lessons are not massage. Instead, I put your bones back in place (to the degree possible in any given body) to:
- Allow tight muscles to release
- Give weak muscles a chance to fire up
For example, when I roll your shoulder up and back, I put the head of your arm bone back in the shoulder socket and reposition your shoulder blade onto your upper back, thus releasing your chest muscles and encouraging your upper back muscles to engage.
- Provide “muscle memory” so you can recreate the optimal position when I’m not around. Once your body has experienced what it’s like to have everything in place, what I call “coming home,” you’ll know how good that feels. You’ll aslo know that it’s possible, and seek out how to repeat that experience.
At the end of a group class, if you are attentive and internalize the verbal cues and visual demos of a knowledgeable teacher, you will feel both more relaxed and more energetic. Contracting muscles is a huge energy drain, as it takes work!
After a private lesson, where I can zoom in on your individual “problem” areas and provide abundant hands-on adjustments, you will feel great and come away with a set of personalized tools to apply to your practice—and to your actions and “postures” off the mat, in your daily life.
For example: If your knees bother you, I will show you simple exercises hugging a yoga block between your shins while you sit at your desk or dining table. Sore shoulders can be addressed with standing stretches done against a wall (in your street, office, or home office clothes)—no mats required!
Thus begins a life free of aches and pains, unnecessary limitations, and “elective” surgeries. Knee replacements may be the orthopedic surgery du jour, but the painful recovery is no walk in the park. Starting with the rehab of my own knee after a bike accident, I’ve been able to help many students postpone or avoid knee surgery. I can also address bunions, flat feet, and sprained ankles. Even problems in major joints like your hips, lower back, and shoulders yield to intelligent reorganization. Good alignment heals—not only rebalancing muscle action and mobility but facilitating blood/oxygen flow through joints to cleanse and repair tissue on the cellular level.
Yoga is remedial education, physical therapy for the body. While historically designed to optimize energy flow (prana), yoga postures informed by Western anatomy do this as well as ensuring that your body—your only home for this lifetime—is stable, strong, balanced, and flexible. Remember: The body is innately self-healing. If you are willing to put in the effort, your body will more than meet you halfway.
So while it’s not about comparisons, and I do not want to disparage any other wellness modality, in a perfect yogic world, we wouldn’t need surgeries, physical therapy, or massage! Think of what you could do with the resources (time and money, supplemented by worry and aggravation!) you now devote to these tools—not to mention a life free from pain!
Ready to re-create the best body you can? Contact loisnesbitt1@gmail.com or text (917)975-8009 for a free consult!
Lois Nesbitt, Ph.D.
loisnesbittyoga.com
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loisnesbitt1@gmail.com
(917)975-8009