health

by Nina It�s no secret that I�m a huge fan of supported inverted yoga poses. I starting raving about them in the early days of Yoga for Healthy Aging in my post Just In Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses , going on and on about how these poses are so beneficial for stress management (and also for circulation). Later on, I wrote in detail about why�from a scientific perspective�these posts are so effective at reducing stress in my post Why You Should Love Your Baroreceptors . But if you�re newer to yoga or can�t do the classic inverted poses, Headstand and Shoulderstand (or just can�t get comfortable in them), you might be wondering: how does all this apply to you? Well, I�m here today to assure you that with certain exceptions due to medical conditions (see Cautions for Inversions ), everyone can do at least some of the supported inverted yoga poses. That�s because in yoga an inverted pose is any pose where your heart is higher than your head. So in addition to �full� inversions suc...

by Nina When I first starting taking yoga, I was confused about why my teachers were always rushing put to a folded blanket under my head when I was lying on my back. Something about the position of my head when I was lying on the floor was driving them crazy, but what was it? And why was it such a problem? Later I learned that they were adding this support because, when my head was flat on the floor, due to tightness in my shoulders, my neck was arching up and back and my chin was tipping away from my chest. Putting the folded blanket under my head allowed me lie with my chin pointing toward my chest like this: This was considered to be the proper--and healthy�position for the head in supine poses. So I went along with it. But secretly I continued to wonder why. In case you have already noticed, I'm like that�always wanting to know the whys as well as the hows, always wanting to dig a bit deeper. Which is probably why I ended up as a yoga blogger, but I digress. Anyway, it was onl...

by Nina I found this nice little illustration of baroreceptors that I'm excited to share with you. Okay, I admit it, I'm a little obsessed with baroreceptors. But that's because ever since I found out how our baroreceptors help regulate our blood pressure and I understood how we can use this aspect of our anatomy to switch our nervous systems from fight or flight to relaxation mode, I've not only included supported inverted poses in my practice on a regular basis but I've been on a mission to spread the word. Using supported inverted poses for stress management is one of easiest ways�at least for me�to calm yourself down because all you have to do is set yourself in the pose and stay there for a while. The shape of the pose itself causes the baroreceptors to work their magic. As I wrote in my post Just in Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses , the reason that inverted poses trigger the relaxation response is due to the pressure sensors called baroreceptors that are...