đ¤ WHY I LOVE YIN YOGA + NOVEL TRANSITIONS IN VINYASA
For those of you who have been attending my classes over the last 6 months, youâll know very well how much I like to shake things up. The transitions ( the flow between and connection of movement to postures) have become just as important as the asanas chosen for that class. Whilst the poses can challenge us physically, the transitions bring a mentally challenging component to each session, so itâs not just your body getting a work out, your brain does too.
Itâs within these wacky transitions or your not so traditional flows, that each of us are developing better proprioception.
PROPRIO WHAT?
Proprioception is basically how your brain âthinksâ your body looks like and how it moves in space. This representation of your body is like an internal GPS that is created using a lot of data, including info the brain gets from our sensory receptors when we move. The brain uses it every time you move so that you do so as accurately as possible without necessarily having to look at your body. So basically, the more we move in different directions and positions, the better our proprioception becomes. For example, if you are right-handed, the map your brain has of your right hand is really detailed because you use it all the time in different situations. However, the map of your left hand, might be a little less fine-tuned which is why you may not have as much dexterity with it.
One of our students who attends several classes a week and I got chatting one morning after class. This student is usually at the front of the class for better acoustics, but on this particular day that normal spot had been taken. So naturally I checked in after to see how she could hear me. She said to me that âsome parts were harder to hear, but it actually didnât matter, because without even looking up or hearing your direction, itâs as if my body already new exactly where to go â this made me so damn happy! because this is exactly the internal movement maps I want you to create. Now I should state for the record too, that this wasnât transition was just your standard - upward dog to downward dog, or warrior 3 to eagle - it was 3 tricky and unusual poses that you wouldnât often see strung together. But she did this effortlessly, guided by her own intuition/ mapping thatâs occurred from all the work she does on the Mat several days a week, every week.
Vinyasa yoga really offers us this perfect opportunity to disrupt routines: how we use the mat, how me move from pose to pose, changing the pace, etc. Repetition, while good for performance, diminishes our sensing capacity because the brain knows whatâs coming next. Novelty and variety keep our inner listening skills sharp.
While itâs fun to flow effortlessly through a few rounds of sun salutations or a familiar seated sequence, it does so much more for your brain and body to navigate new ways to get into familiar poses, or even combining poses together ( ex. Thread the kneedle X 3 legged dog ) so you can work the body in many angles.
Have a little fun at home by travelling on and beyond your Mat with the following: ( you can also slow the video down below and watch, if youâre a more visual learner ).
Ashwa Sanchalanasana (RUNNERS LUNGE) toâ> Ardha Matseyndrasana 2 ( HALF SEATED TWIST 2) to â> eka pada Adho Mukha Svanasana ( 3 Legged Dog ) to â> Ardha Matsyendrasana 2 ( HALF SEATED TWIST 2) to - Ashwa Sanchalanasana ( RUNNERS LUNGE )
toâ> Vasisthasana ( SIDE PLANK )
to â>Camatkarasana ( WILD THING )
As long as you arenât applying hefty loads, you have a solid understanding of the poses and good knowledge of anatomy, itâs OK to break yoga alignment ârulesâ so that the body learns to adapt to a variety of situations.
Donât stress if vinyasa yoga isnât your Jam, practicing Yin yoga also has the ability to help increase proprioception and here is why.
Yin offers a different approach to our yoga practice, here we looking to affect the joints and the fascia rather than the muscles. For me, one of the most intriguing features of fascia is that itâs the largest and most wired sensory organ in the body. The extracellular matrix contains more nerve endings than our tongue and our eyes! So if the primary feature of a yoga practice is that it supports the mind-body connection, then fascia is the physical gateway for that connection.
As the principle facilitator of our sense of touch, fascia is the organ that cultivates proprioception and interoception, or presence manifest in the body. Sarah Powers, refers to it as âbody-based consciousness.â When we practice movement with intention and attention, we promote fascia health by increasing its sensing capabilities. Increased proprioception and interoception helps us to feel more present and connected.
So why should improving proprioception be a high priority for you?
Well firstly, you become better at moving.ďż˝The better your map, the better your brain can decide and predict how you will move. Typically, professional dancers, martial artists, gymnasts and other high performance athletes have great body maps. On the other side of the spectrum, someone with compromised proprioception (neurological accident, use of alcohol, etc) might not move with as much ease or accuracy. You may not be aspiring to be an athlete but you donât want to have poor posture and feel like our body is older than it is, so training proprioception is key. And if youâve a got poor proprioception, you might be a little clumsy, and not as quick to react and as a result be more prone to injury, and injuries suck balls!
And if youâre reading this and thinking I want to do something to improve mine, but yoga isnât your thing, then there are many other ways you can. I challenge you to give some of these a crack for the next week, check in with yourself and see how you feel.
1. Move as much as possible in novel ways all throughout your day.
2. You are how you move. Try to balance your proprioception so that your map becomes as accurate a representation of your body as possible. For example, if you are right handed, try to do things with your left hand and leg more often. If you like doing a sport that tends to have a repetitive motion, the active body parts will have better proprioception but not the rest of your body. When you move, make sure you are not just doing the same movements over and over again. Introduce spontaneity into your workouts. Change up the angles, the positions, the transitions, the load or even the environment you practice. And if you love a sport that is very ârepetitiveâ like running or spinning, try incorporating other workouts as well to further develop your body awareness. Yoga aside other fitness methods that are amazing for full body proprioception include: dance, martial arts, the Feldenkrais method, NeuroPilates, TAM, and Parkour. Also using props like a balance board, trigger point balls and yin balls can further stimulate your receptors and lead to better proprioception.
3. Focus. The saying âwhere your mind goes, energy flowsâ comes to mind. Pay attention to your movement â whether you are trying to correct your golf swing or doing a yoga pose, focus on things like where you are putting your weight, the positioning, the rhythm, how balanced you feel, etc. The more you bring attention to these details, the more your brain gets data on your bodyâs movement.
4. Use a mirror. Mirrors are a wonderful way to see how you are moving. If you struggle with a pose or learning a dance, Try it in front of a mirror, and look to see what you are doing â in most cases, you can correct your form almost immediately. If you donât have mirrors you can always video yourself too. This is also a great technique because it makes you realise what your gait and posture are like and what you need to correct. Again, this is sending your brain a lot of information that will improve your proprioception.
5. Do what it takes to heal your injuries: and I mean real injuries (not just old age, or sore knees). In my experience, past injuries are a common reason for people to shy away from exercising so please, if you get injured, invest the time and effort needed to heal. Proprioception takes a hit when you get injured because your âdangerâ signals are louder than your proprioceptive ones. This in turn makes you use your injured body parts less, which reduces the nervous signaling for that area, which further decreases your proprioceptionâŚthen comes chronic painâŚand there is soo much more you can learn about the link between chronic pain and poor proprioception, but you get the jist of it. If you have an injury, let it properly heal and rehabilitate yourself slowly but surely.
6. Disrupt your routines; drive a different route to work, try a different coffee shop, use your left hand on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, try a different diet, shower at a different time of day etc - thereâs so many ways you can shake things up, and who knows you might find you enjoy the new ways betters. If you do happen to notice a shift, an expansion in your brain - let me know!