Yoga flexibility training methods

The core logic of yoga flexibility training has never been to "make progress until it hurts". Instead, it is based on nerve relaxation, matching the baseline of individual joint mobility, and gradually expanding the range of activities through a combination of active contraction + passive stretching. 90% of people have not made progress after practicing for half a year. The essence is that they have stepped on the pitfalls of "violent stretching, only practicing passive stretching, and ignoring muscle strength support".

When I first came into contact with yoga, I took classes at the Hatha studio in my hometown. The teacher always said, "It hurts, because it means the tendons are stretching." Every time I pressed the crossbar, I would step down on it. It hurt so much that I clutched the corners of the yoga mat and cried. The next day, my inner thighs were purple and I was shaking when I walked. Later, when I attended an Iyengar workshop in Shanghai, I learned that for people like me, whose natural external rotation range of hip joints is only 30 degrees, hard pressure on the crossbar is essentially using the pulling of ligaments to compensate for the hip range of motion. This may cause wear on the hip labrum, making even walking painful. To be honest, there are indeed quite a lot of differences between different schools regarding the pain threshold of stretching: many teachers of traditional Hatha will insist that "no pain, no gain." However, modern yoga systems that combine sports rehabilitation, including the Iyengar school that emphasizes alignment, clearly require that the pain of stretching can only be controlled to the level of "soreness and tolerability, and there will be no sharp stinging or numbness." Once there is pain, you must take it back immediately and don't bear it.

Many people just press their legs as soon as they get started. In fact, they have not touched the core of flexibility training - nerve relaxation. To put it bluntly, 70% of muscle stretch is determined by nerves. You have just squeezed the subway for an hour after get off work, and your mind is filled with unfinished reports. Your sympathetic nerves are stretched like a tight rubber band. At this time, when you sit down and reach for your toes, the stretch reflex of the muscles will automatically start - that is, the muscles are afraid of being stretched, and will automatically contract to compete with you. The harder you push, the tighter they will become, and even half an hour of practice will have no effect. I once took a member who was an Internet operator. When she first came, she could only sit and stand and bend forward with her fingertips reaching her ankles. I didn't ask her to press hard. I first asked her to do the cat-cow pose for 3 minutes, using Ujay's throat breathing. Every time she exhaled, she slowly arched her back to the highest point, and then slowly lowered it. After doing it, she did the forward bend. She was shocked. Her fingertips suddenly reached the ground. It wasn't because she had short tendons, but because her nerves were too tense and she didn't allow her muscles to relax.

Oh, by the way, don’t think that only passive stretching can be considered as flexibility training. Many people like to press their legs against the wall, or ask the teacher to step on their hips. In the short term, it seems that they have gone down a lot, and they return to their original shape after getting up and taking two steps. The essence is that there is no corresponding muscle strength to hold the newly expanded range of motion. Practitioners of Ashtanga and Vinyasa Yoga should have a deep understanding of this. For example, when doing Warrior 2, if you consciously tighten the quadriceps of your hind legs and turn your hips to the front, you will feel a more obvious stretch on the outside of your hips, and your range of motion will not rebound after practice. This is because when you actively exert force, your muscles are stretched within a controllable range, and your nerves will remember this safe range of motion, so you can use it naturally next time.

There is also a fact that many people are unwilling to admit: the flexibility of the ceiling is mostly determined by the natural joint structure. I used to have a member who couldn't push up after practicing Wheel Pose for a year. Her waist hurt for several days after every hard push. After I went to take an X-ray, I found out that the natural curvature of her thoracic spine was straighter than ordinary people, and she couldn't reach the thoracic spine extension required by Wheel Pose. Later, we changed the movement to a variation of camel pose, using a yoga block on the back, so that she didn't have to push up completely. Instead, after practicing for three months, her back pain from working at the desk was mostly relieved, and the mobility of her upper back also increased a lot. Nowadays, the yoga circle has been arguing about whether to pursue standard postures. Traditional schools believe that only when postures must be standardized can they have corresponding effects. However, more and more rehabilitation-oriented teachers now believe that variations that adapt to their own body structure are the most effective. There is no need to compete with others who can lower their waist harder or who can cross the ground. It is really unnecessary.

If you practice at home, you don’t need to make it too complicated. 15 to 20 minutes each time is enough. Before practicing, jump around your shoulders and hips twice to warm up your body until you sweat slightly. When stretching, it is enough to stay in each movement for 30 to 90 seconds. Don’t hold it for three to five minutes, which will cause muscle ischemia. Don't hold your breath. When you inhale, feel your muscles gently draw back a little. When you exhale, just sink 1 millimeter downwards. Don't press down as hard as you exhale. It's no different from forcing it.

I have been practicing yoga for 7 years, and now my crossbar is only two centimeters short of touching the ground. It seems embarrassing to say it, but when I had a lumbar protrusion before, I had trouble even putting on shoes. Now I squat for half an hour to mop the floor, and I can carry my 20-pound nephew while walking in the park for an afternoon without backache. I think this is enough. Flexibility training is never about taking a picture of doing the splits and posting it on WeChat. It’s about making your body move comfortably. Don’t injure yourself in pursuit of the so-called “softness.” That’s picking up sesame seeds but losing watermelons.