Posture, Alignment and Recovering from Injury

With its spiritual roots and philosophical history, yoga is more than just physical. However, that doesn’t mean that the physical aspect of yoga should be ignored or downplayed. Instead, asanas (postures) are the first step on the road to greater spiritual fulfillment. Iyengar said it

When the asana is right, there is lightness, freedom. Freedom comes when every part of the body is active.

By creating a supple yet strong body, a clear line opens for prana or energy. Energy can flow through the meridians of the body. This will not only lead to a stronger body, but also a stronger mental presence and intuition. These implications are why acknowledging postures, alignments, and injuries in yoga practice is so important.

How do you know if you have a posture, alignment or injury problem?

Posture, alignment, and injury all go hand in hand; when there is an imbalance in one area, it creates an imbalance in the others. For example, minor injuries can cause changes in alignment and posture that, if left untreated, can lead to more serious injuries. Therefore, imbalances and issues with posture, alignment or injuries should always be treated early.

The easiest way to tell if you have a posture problem, alignment problem, or injury is through pain. Severe pain is a sure sign of injury. Less well known, a dull ache can be the result of a slight misalignment or poor posture. Painless imbalances can also result from posture, alignment, or injury or imbalance due to emotional reasons. Each of these is discussed below.

manner

Posture is more than the old adage “stand up straight!”. Posture, in contrast, refers to the positioning of the body in space. It is inseparable from alignment, because the key to “good” posture is awareness of full body alignment.

What is posture?

Posture traditionally refers to the positioning of the body at a moment of rest or rest. In the context of yoga, however, dynamic poses, or poses of movement, are key. Asana should be seen as a state of movement, breath and change, not something “realized” or still present. Posture is probably most important during transitions: Posture is most often forgotten or unbalanced during transitions, leading to the most common injuries.

Improving your posture creates more space for your body’s organs to function: breathing, digestion, and more all come easier. Also, improved posture through yoga is visible. Many people think that yoga can make them “bigger”. However, this is a myth. Yoga won’t make you grow taller. Instead, it realigned their posture to make them appear taller, because the vertebrae were properly stacked together.

Habitual patterns of posture

Most postural imbalances are due to habitual patterns. People often position their bodies the same way throughout the day. There can be many reasons for this, including circumstances, work, hobbies, routines, and more. Examples of habit patterns include one hip tilt, crossing your legs or arms in the same direction every time, or (most commonly) leaning forward to look at a computer, phone, or book. In many cases, this pattern can be traced to the external environment. However, once formed, they become extremely difficult to break. This is due in large part to anatomical structures called fascia.

Fascia is the connective tissue that covers and surrounds all muscles in the body. It has a consistency that can alternate between being more liquid (a healthy state called a “sol”) and more solid (an unhealthy state called a “gel”). Over time, postural imbalances can lead to dehydrated, dense, sticky fascia clumps. Because fascia is a large interconnected sheet that runs throughout the body, an imbalance in one area is likely to cause an imbalance in another area of the body. Habitual movement patterns thus alter the fascia, keeping the body in the habit and reinforcing poor posture. Therefore, in order to improve posture, attention must be paid to habits and movement patterns and to the relaxation of the fascia that covers all muscles.

How Emotions Affect Posture

Kyphosis, or hump, is a common posture problem. In many cases, this is due to external causes, such as B. As mentioned earlier, in the phone. Postural problems can also have emotional causes. In the case of kyphosis, insecurity or the need to protect oneself often leads to a stooped posture. Emotions can affect different parts of the body and lead to habitual postural patterns and chronic pain. This is not limited to kyphosis, but includes the neck, jaw, abdomen, buttocks, and more. For this reason, in some cases, processing the environment is not enough to resolve bad posture. Internal contributions such as emotions and past trauma also need to be addressed and dealt with.

alliance

Yoga teachers often talk about “stacking joints” or maintaining “alignment” in yoga poses. However, alignment goes beyond static poses and should include all transitions between poses.

Through the alignment of my body, I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and wisdom. Iyengar

Alignment therefore goes beyond the physical and has emotional, psychological and spiritual implications as well. As Iyengar said, right alignment clears the mind, ego and intelligence, so misalignment creates blockages in the mind