range of motion – Move Well with Amy Rizzotto

March 25, 2015

Yin Yoga – Why You Should and What to Do

Let’s start by defining just what this whole “Yin Yoga” thing is. Yin yoga targets the body’s connective tissues—i.e. our ligaments, tendons, fascia, bones, and even the joints—which are typically not the direct focus of more active styles of yoga. It is a slow and steady kind of practice during which fewer poses are held for longer periods of time than a more typical flow or form yoga class.

If fascia is a foreign word and anatomy isn’t your strong suit, you can think of Yin tissues as plastic versus our more elastic Yang tissues (muscles). When bent too rapidly or repetitively, a piece of plastic will snap. For this same reason, it’s important to apply gentle, constant, and patient pressure in Yin yoga poses. Otherwise, ouch.

So why is Yin yoga important?

As we age, our bodies lose mobility and increase in rigidity. It’s the natural curve of things. Yin is intended to help us reverse that bell curve and regain range of motion (ROM) in our connective tissues. Greater ROM in turn creates space for greater flexibility.

In order to get these physical benefits, however, it’s important to isolate the components of the body we want to be working. Yin yoga is most effective when the muscles are cool and therefore can’t take away from the work of our connective tissues. For this reason, it’s best to do Yin early in the morning before you’ve been moving around too much. This is most definitely not the practice to do right after a workout.

Arguably as important as the physical benefits of Yin are its mental and emotional benefits. Yin on its own forces us to be still. This is something take for granted these days. We’re always running around, focused on getting stuff done. When we pause and breath, we begin to notice what’s going on inside of us and discover what it is we truly need. If you can’t find the time to fit your Yin practice in before the school- or work-day starts, you can still reap the psychological benefits of this calming practice with a few poses before bed. It will help steady your mind, decompress your body, and lull you into most restful slumber.

Convinced it’s worth a try? Here is what you do:

Step one:

Find a small open space where you have room to stretch out. You don’t need more than that and you don’t even need a yoga mat. If you’d like, you can lay down a mat, towel, or blanket for comfort.

Step two:

Commit to following the three principles of Yin: (1) come into the pose to your first edge—where you first feel resistance and feedback from your body—without forcing yourself deeper; (2) come to complete stillness in the pose, primarily in the body but ideally in the mind as well; and (3) hold for the intended length of time. If you are just starting out, trying holding for two to three minutes. After a few sessions lengthen your holds to four to five minutes. Over time, in certain poses you can work up to eight, 10, or even 20 minute holds.

Step three:

Select five or six Yin poses to try based on the parts of your body that feel the most stiff, achy, or tight. A full list of Yin poses are available on this website. I also highly recommend Bernie Clark’s book, “The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga.”

Step four:

Close your practice with at least five minutes of savasana (dead man’s pose) or seated meditation. Basically, be still, with little to no physical effort, and breath.

Whether Yin works for you or not, take the time to take care of yourself. It is truly one of the most important and compassionate things you can do for yourself and everyone around you. Stress and tension are contagious. Don’t let yourself be a carrier!

August 15, 2013

Find Freedom with Backbends this Summer

Though it feels like spring here in DC, the summer is still upon us. Summer is the perfect time for backbending postures like full wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana) which require warm muscles and an open mind. Backbends are intended to broaden and expand the chest and rib cage to enhance the body’s ability to perform breathwork (pranayama). Backbends can be exciting and empowering. They can also, however, be intimidating and scary. If backbends are not a freeing experience for you, your approach—both mentally and physically—may need some fine tuning.

Flipped Dog — Photo Credit: Leo Matsuo / Wardrobe Provide by Endless Summer Design

When performed correctly, backbends increase your range of motion. Many of us spend hours upon hours sitting—and let’s be honest, most of us don’t have the best posture when doing so. As a result, we lose a few degrees of the normal curve in our lumbar (lower) spine. That curve is part of our natural architecture as bipeds, distinctly purposed to provide us humans with the ability to carry our own body weight without damaging our joints and overall health. When we lose that gentle arch in the lower back we increase our likelihood of lower back, hip and knee pain because we aren’t properly stacked to handle our body’s mass as it moves through space.

Backbends help counter our daily damage by increasing extension and restoring that lumbar curve. They have also been linked to arthritis prevention, increased stamina and energy, depression relief, and improved lung capacity, circulation and digestion. On a more emotional level, many practitioners believe that backbends help them let go of the past and focus on the present, and open their heart when fear has taken it hostage.

Whether you’re looking to improve your emotional or physical health—or both for that matter!—look no further than yoga backbends. From the milder baby cobra and sphinx poses to the more intense camel and king pigeon poses, there is a backbend for every level.

Check out my Favorite Eight:

Sphinx Pose
Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)
Bow (Dhanurasana)
King Pigeon (Kapotasana)
Camel (Ustrasana)
Wild Thing (Camatkarasana )
Full Wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana)
Dancer (Natarajasana)

If you fall into that “intimidated/scared” category when it comes to attempting backbends, here are a few helpful hints to do them the right way:

Warm up your body! A few Sun As and Bs should do the trick. The key is to move the body in ways that open the chest, hip flexors, quads and hips.
Focus on maintaining length in the front body. True, backbends increase extension in the lower back but people have a tendency to collapse in these poses, crunching the lumbar spine. To avoid back pain, focus on keeping a broad chest and long front body, and bending from the middle and upper back instead of hinging from your sacrum.
Don’t squeeze your booty. Squeezing the muscles of your rear end counteracts internal rotation of the hips which is essential in all backbends to avoid compression of the spine. When you activate your gluteus maximus, your hips externally rotate causing your knees to splay wide. To develop the muscle memory needed to encourage internal rotation of the hips, squeeze a block between your thighs when practicing full wheel, camel, and other belly-up backbends.
Breathe. Fear can be paralyzing in a backbend and the more you resist the more likely you are to tense the muscles that lead to compression and ultimately discomfort. When going into backbends, focus on your breath and allow your mind to calm down and enjoy all the goodness a backbend can bring.

Just a quick note of caution (safety first!): If you have any back issues, please consult with your yoga instructor and doctor before performing any backbends.

July 3, 2013

MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 2 – High Plank w/ Flipped Hands

Step-by-Step:

1. Come to tabletop position, shoulders stacked over wrists, hips over knees.

2. Flip your hands (palms down) so that your fingers are pointing toward your knees.

3. Press into plank, maintaining flipped hands.

4. Pull belly button to spine to engage the core. Keep legs strong, lifting on the kneecaps to engage the quads and pressing strongly back through the heel. Make sure your booty isn’t popping up in the air or sagging toward the ground.

5. Listen to your body. If this stretch is too intense on the wrists come back to tabletop and sit back until your wrists start talking to you.

6. Hold for 30 seconds then slowly release back to tabletop.

How it will heal you:

Shoulder Pain – Football, lacrosse, and baseball players know shoulder pain. As a yogi, I can also vouch for the frequency of shoulder injuries in yoga–a misaligned jump-back to chaturunga is one of the fastest ways to wreck your rotator cuffs. Shoulders, like hips, are a ball-in-socket joint and thus are designed to have a broad ROM (range of motion). Athletes and office bees alike experience a lot of shoulder pain because not enough attention gets paid to maintaining the flexibility of this critical joint. Increase the openness of your wrists, chest and upper back to prevent and treat discomfort. Additionally, focusing on contralateral movement (i.e. twists) will help to eliminate rigidity from the upper body.

Lower Back Pain – How many of you have experienced lower back pain? I’d venture to say that anyone who sits in a chair all day has suffered through their fair share. This is also a big one for athletes. Why is that? Most often, lower back pain in athletes stems from tight hamstrings. For my fellow anatomy nerds out there, the hamstrings originate on the sitz bone–aka those little nobs deep in the flesh of your booty that us yogis balance on when doing boat core work (my favorite!). If your hamstrings are tight they will pull down on the pelvis from the insertion point (the sitz bone) tilting it out of proper alignment and forcing your body to compensate using your lower back to remain upright. Another common reason for low back pain is underdeveloped abdominal muscles. I’m not talking just the six-pack abs (rectus abdominis) but also the deeper corset abs (transverse abdominis) that are critical for balance and stability. The simply solution to preventing and treating lower back pain is to stretch out your hammies and workout your core every day.

Wrist Problems – Football, lacrosse, baseball, tennis and basketball players are incredibly susceptible to wrist injuries. Amongst others, yogis should be added to that list–just ask two of my fellow yoga teachers who went through training with me and are still modifying their Down Dog months later. In order to avoid wrist issues, it’s critical that you build strong forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders and upper back. Like all other joints, it’s also important to maintain ROM (range of motion) and flexibility in the joint itself as well as the elbows and shoulders so that the body can maintain proper form and alignment when generating power and movement from the upper body and arms.

Foot and Ankle Issues – I can’t tell you have many times I wrenched my ankle playing soccer and field hockey as a kid, or more recently while hiking and running. Ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis are three very common foot and ankle injuries. These injuries are no fun because let’s face it, when our foundation is out of whack everything else is thrown off and dysfunctional. The answer to avoiding these frustrating beasts of burden is to strengthen the ankle, increase the flexibility of the ankle and toes and work on your balance. Not only does this require concerted effort to increase the openness in these areas but it also means more core work. Core is your key to stability, meaning you’ll be less likely to get thrown off balance and tweak something if your abdominal and back muscles are strong.

July 2, 2013

MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 1 – Hero’s Pose

Step-by-Step:

1. Come to a kneeling position. Rock your weight forward, bringing hands to floor and tuck your toes under so that your heels pop up. Sit back onto your heels, hands resting on your lap. (If this is too much on your knees, place a block or pillow underneath your booty.)

2. Keep your knees and thighs zipped together and sit up tall.

3. This is an intense stretch in the toes and arch of the foot but try to stay with it and not to back off. Focus on your breath to help you stay in the posture. If it’s really too much on the underside of the foot, ease up some of the pressure by bringing your hands to the floor or a block in front of you.

4. Take 10 deeps breaths (count to 4 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale) with toes tucked under.

5. Rock your weight forward again and untuck your toes. Let the heels splay open. Sit back in between your feet, heels hugging hips. (Again, if this is too much on the knees, place a block or pillow underneath your booty.)

6. Keep your knees as close together as possible and zip up between the thighs. Make sure you’re keeping a nice long spine, crown of head reaching toward the ceiling.

7. Take 10 deeps breaths (count to 4 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale) then slowly release.

8. Bring your legs out long in front of you in a seated position. Give them a good wiggle and shake to release the knees, ankles and feet.

How it will heal you:

Knee Injuries – We all know someone that has torn their meniscus, had a knee replacement, or had some sort of debilitating knee injury. Our knees take a serious beating from all of the physical stuff we do day in and day out—not to mention the high heels some of us ladies rock to look lovely but brutalize our bodies from the tippy toes on up. The best way to prevent pain and avoid trouble is to keep the hips, IT band and hamstrings strong and flexible. Hips, IT band and hamstring mobility keeps the work in your bigger muscle groups (hamstrings and quadriceps) rather than the body’s default of looking to the place of least resistance–which is almost always the knee joint–for speed, power and agility. If you give the body freedom to move using your large muscle groups and stabilizers it will learn not to rely upon vulnerable and complex joints.