Physical Yoga and the Human Machine

 The practice of physical Yoga postures affects the human machine in very predictable ways. The Yoga asanas are thousands of years old. The poses have been practiced by countless individuals, over the course of five thousand years, because they work! Yoga poses use the physics of the human body to correct any misalignment, while increasing strength and flexibility.

 

The breathing exercises of Yoga (pranayama), even out the biochemistry of the brain, by balancing the endocrine system. Pranayama exercises also increase the physical capacity of the lungs. These breathing practices will ultimately help to lower blood pressure and support cardiovascular health.

 

The physical poses of Yoga (asanas) are based on the principals of physics. One aspect of physics is the use of levers and pulleys to accomplish a goal. A can opener is based on the principal of a lever. Yoga poses work on the same principle. The Yoga postures use the body's own skeletal and muscular system, as a mechanical structure, to strengthen and elongate muscles and ligaments.

 

The balancing asanas help one to maintain good bone density, because they are weight-bearing exercises. As we move more deeply into the postures, we are actually increasing the amount of force or weight on the body. With this increased force, the body adapts and gains more flexibility and strength.

 

For example, if you bend your knee more toward a ninety degree angle, instead of a forty-five degree angle, in any of the Warrior poses, you will increase your strength much more quickly, and dramatically, because you are increasing the force on the quadriceps muscles.

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