Creating Your Own Yoga

Most yoga instructors are very dogmatic about how exercises are to be performed -- even if their instructions are largely arbitrary and counterproductive -- rather than individualized for optimal performance and functioning.  In many cases, the limitations on the movement are imposed by the adamant instructions rather than achieving the maximum range of movement -- which should be the objective in all movement exercises.  It is not to make it more difficult and problematical until the novice gives up -- never to return.

Case in point is the manner of instructions for the reverse tabletop -- and how a seemingly minor deviation from the manner directed, can result in a difficult and nonproductive exercise becoming a highly productive one.  That would simply be in allowing the fingers to point in the direction away from the feet -- rather than demand that the fingers point in the direction of the feet -- no exceptions, no deviations, no explanations of why that should be so.  The rationale if given, is that it forces the shoulders to have to work harder to maintain that position -- but also makes it more restrictive on the hip and back movement because maintaining that fingers toward the feet locks the shoulders so that full range of movement is impossible for any other structure of the body.

That is particularly the case if one is doing this movement for the purpose of relieving back pain because it restricts the hips from moving upwards -- which the positioning of the fingers in the direction away from the feet unlocks and does not limit the hips from rising in achieving a back arch.  And that back arch is what is lacking in most movements and postures -- because it is the backward movement of the femur that activates the powerful muscles of the gluteus and lower back that cannot be achieved in any other manner easily and conveniently -- especially for one experiencing back pain.

For this reason, the inventor of the Nautilus Machines, Arthur Jones, created the Hip and Back machine as what he originally thought was the only other machine he needed to work out the major structures of the major girdles of the human body -- the shoulders and the hips.  At those points, most of the major (largest) muscles of the body were integrally linked -- and his original purpose was to achieve maximum efficiency for bodybuilding purposes.  He added more machines on the insistence and observation that he could sell more machines if he had more different machines to sell -- which was not his original intention -- which was to involve all the muscles in as few movements as possible.

Today, that is usually referred to as "compound movements" -- arguing for that superiority over any machine limiting a movement to largely just one axis of rotation -- at the aforementioned shoulders and hips.  However, meaningful movement is never expressed and articulated at those junctures, but are expressed at the fine movements and musculature at the extremities -- as the ultimate expression and articulation.

That accounts for one to throw or hit a baseball, play a musical instrument, and write or speak.  Those are the ultimate expressions and articulations that give meaning to all human movement -- of which the girdle provides the major support function.  In that way, it is similar to the heart in being the ultimate supportive organ.  One does not get one's heart beat as high as possible to hit a homerun, but rather, it is hitting the homerun that may raise the heart beat momentarily to a higher level.  But all that is done automatically and autonomically -- rather than deliberately, which has little bearing on one's achievement.  One's focus is entirely at the action at the axis at the extremity -- and that is what produces the homerun -- whether the batter or tennis player, can turn their wrists to result in a precise result.

Thus one is looking at the proper grip and hand position that results in that fine motor control -- and not simply overwhelming brute force using the hands and feet as clubs in every case and application.  Even in the application of force, it is likely to require some, or even a high degree of precision -- as in sharpshooting.  It is not simply a matter of who can squeeze the trigger or click the camera as hard as possible that invariably produces the best results.  A high degree of fine motor skills are required to acheive the desirable results.  Likewise, the one who pounds the keyboard as hard as possible until all the keys fly off, is not necessarily the best writer -- and in fact, is more likely to indicate a person who does not know what they are doing, and acts out that frustration.

One often sees that frustration acted out in competitive environments -- athletic or otherwise.  That is also the demeanor of a champion -- that they don't fly into a rage and off the handle when posed with any challenge.  They accept that as part of the game that they have to rise to the challenge of -- and test their inventory of responsiveness.  That is the true measure of their "fitness," and not simply doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result.

So the better their understanding of what they are doing -- as well as the awareness of what the other "players" are doing, the greater chances they have of success.  These things don't just happen despite what one is doing -- but invariably, is caused by what they are doing -- that makes a difference.  In the case of our specific example of the reverse tabletop position, with finders facing in the direction of the feet, the shoulders are locked so that the hips cannot rise and therefore assume a back arch that allows the femur to move backwards and thus engage the gluteus and back muscles -- and so has limited, or no use, as a back strengthening exercise -- as most exercises and postures also fail to do.  As such, most people experience back pain as their leading cause of weakness and discomfort.

Thus Jones created the Hip and Back machine -- unlike any movement done before -- so much so that it was difficult to get most trainees to do the movement correctly because it just was not ordinarily done -- and the yoga manner prescribed, made it prohibitive -- because it locked the shoulders so that hips could not rise in the manner that would fully contract the gluteus as well as the spinal erectors.  It is movement, and particularly range of movement that accounts for muscle contraction and relaxation -- and not resistance!  As a muscle contracts, it brings one bone as close as possible to another -- and as it relaxes (elongates), allows the bone to move as far as possible from the anchoring joint.  That contraction must occur regardless of whether there is resistance to such a movement because then, the contraction itself, is the resistance -- to further contraction.  That is, it cannot contract to zero -- but volume is inversely related to pressure, so as the volume contracts (becomes smaller), the pressure increases -- and that pressure has to go somewhere.

In the case of a muscle contraction, the pressure (fluids) have to move back towards the heart -- while the lack of movement, will cause the fluids to remain where they are -- and results in the problems of edema, lymphedema, and lipodema -- particularly as one gets older, and the valves in the veins become insufficient to this task.  The most obvious of these indications are seen as varicose veins -- but also the swelling of the ankles, feet, hands, and wrists -- that are often thought to be the natural products of aging.  Overlooked is the fact that there is this contractile insufficiency of the muscles that compound this effect.

That can be proven when one suffers an acute injury that produces swelling (inflammation), and the difference seen when one wraps that area -- or not.  That area will usually swell to monstrous proportions if not wrapped -- whereas it will actually shrink because of compression caused by the wrapping.  Muscles also act in that same manner --of forcing the swelling (fluids) out of that localized area -- back towards the purifying and recycling organs next to the heart -- by virtue of the fact that all the muscle structures are rooted next to the heart.  How clever of Nature to do so.  But that's millions of years of evolution to perfect that design and function -- and will not be overridden just because somebody wants to sell every person in the world a heart monitor to keep track of that given. 

In like manner, one can devise all kinds of movements to restrict and inhibit movement -- that allowed to give full play to their actual limitations -- would be health-sustaining rather than prohibiting that possibility -- merely because somebody thought it should be so.  Thus, many people think that developing the hip and back structures are impossible because it is difficult to design and build a machine specifically for that purpose and function -- because that movement is prohibited to them by edict of their instructors. 

Instead, one can design and build a machine with unlimited capacity to load resistance -- but not do anything productive -- which is largely the case when it is assumed that simply "using" as much weight as possible automatically equates to favorable results.  Or getting a meter to measure as high as possible -- even to the detriment or expense of what one is actually trying to accomplish.  We see such misguided thinking in many examples of daily life -- when people think that the singular object in life is to go as fast as possible, or burn as many calories as possible -- rather than being properly focused on the healthiest and safest way to achieve their objectives.

One can load up a bar to 500 lbs on the squat rack and destroy one's knees trying to resist it from falling straight down -- or articulating the movement not possible using any resistance but the insight that it is the backward movement of the femur that contracts the gluteus and spinal erectors.  That's just how the body works -- and is especially important if one wants to keep their bodies working throughout all the years of their lives.