Boost Heart Health With Yoga

Yogis know the poses that “open” the heart, but did you know that regular practice can also help protect your ticker over the long term?


In honor of National Wear Red Day, the American Heart Association’s campaign to raise awareness of heart disease (the#1 killer of women), here are 5 ways that yoga keeps your heart going strong.

And don’t forget to wear red yoga pants on Friday to spread the word!

1. Love how you feel after class? That’s your stress melting away.

Stress may affect behaviors and factors that are proven to increase heart disease risk: high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, smoking, physical inactivity and overeating, according to the American Heart Association. Chronic stress may also cause some people to drink too much alcohol, which can increase your blood pressure and may damage the artery walls. A regular yoga practice, on the other hand, is likely to calm you down, making you less likely to lean on caffeine, sugar, fatty foods or alcohol to “numb out,” says Hazel Patterson, Urban Zen Integrative Yoga Therapist and teacher trainer at YogaWorks in Los Angeles.

“Moving with the breath, in other words linking expanding movements with the inhales, and contracting or softening movements with the exhales, starts to create a dynamic which calms the nerves and moves that stress energy out of the body,” she explains.

For your go-to bliss-out pose, Terrence Monte, a Managing Teacher at Pure Yoga in New York City, recommends the Seated Forward Bend. To make it even more delicious, place a rolled blanket or towel under your knees, and rest your forehead on a block or other prop placed on your shins.

2. It’s a feel-good workout.

Maintaining a normal BMI (body mass index) can help your heart, according to the CDC, and regular physical activity can help you maintain a healthy weight. Yoga, Monte says, is the “best resistance workout on the planet” —meaning it’s easy on the joints and uses your own body weight to build strength. Become a fat-burning machine by building long lean muscle—Monte suggests Plank Pose as all-over strengthener that does double-duty by targeting your core and shoring up your back.

3. It blasts belly fat.

Excess abdominal fat has been linked to increased risk for heart disease. By strengthening the large muscle groups in the body, such as the gluteals and quadriceps, yoga gets your body burning more calories, meaning you are less likely to store them as fat around your middle, Patterson says. “Standing poses like Warrior II held for a little longer than the mind is comfortable with is a great way to build these powerhouse muscles,” she says.

4. It “opens” the heart.

What does it mean to “open” your heart mean anyway? “Asana is the practice of putting your body in challenging shapes. Yoga, on the other hand, is the practice of integrating what you learn on the mat with what you do off of it,” Monte explains. “As you become more mindful about your body, your breath, your language in challenging poses, you become more aware about your own perceptions (read: misperceptions) of the world.”

Rather than the obvious heart-openers (Fish, Camel, Locust ), Monte suggests a pose that’s really challenging to stay vulnerable in, like Chair Pose. “Sit as low as you can with your lumbar spine as long as possible for as long as you can. Notice how your mind, your language, your perceptions change as the intensity increases,” he says.

5. It changes your diet.

A healthy diet (heavy on colorful fruits and veggies, fiber and heart-healthy fish and light on red meat, saturated fat, sodium, sugar and processed foods) is critical to heart health, and studies have linked regular yoga practice to mindful eating.

“As you connect to your body, breath and perspectives in challenging shapes on the mat, you connect more to what you do to it off the mat,” Monte says. “Suddenly, if you have to do yoga in the morning, it gets much harder to have that fourth martini, that fried whatever, that extra serving of needless sugar. You develop a sense of respect for this absurdly miraculous body that has developed over millions of years of evolution.”

Article originally appeared on The Yoga Journal. 
http://www.yogajournal.com/article/health/5-ways-yoga-opens-supports-heart/

Rolfing Therapy: A Way To Align The Body And Relieve Pain!

There are many hands-on pain relief methods, such as massage, trigger point therapy, reiki, stretching, physical therapy... Among these is Rolfing. Learn more.

Rolfing is a method of structural integration accomplished by soft tissue manipulation and movement education. Developed in the 1950s by Ida Rolf, this bodywork method has allowed people to stand straighter, move better than ever and gain height through its focus on correcting tissue fixations.

It is no secret that physical and emotional stress leaves its mark in the body via tight muscles, cramps, trigger points, aches and pains. Every time we have been in a stressful situation, our body has reacted by tightening up and holding that stress in the tissues.

What Is Rolfing?

Every physical sprain or strain we have suffered is still locked into muscle memory. Is there any doubt as to why we suffer chronic pain, especially musculo-skeletal pain?

There are many hands-on pain relief methods, such as massage, trigger point therapy, reiki, stretching, physical therapy and others. Among these is Rolfing, which specializes in soft tissue release.

Basically, by releasing the adhesions and scar tissue holding muscle, fascia and tendon locked into spasm, the body can be corrected and free motion returned. This is accomplished by direct deep pressure that a practitioner applies to the body of a client with their fist, fingers and elbows.

Rolfing may be painful for some because of the deep pressure and tearing actions used. However, the pain only remains while the treatment is in session. The pain is evoked by the pressure exerted into the adhered soft tissue areas.

Once the adhesions are worked out, the pain subsides and the body is returned to normal ranges of motion and suppleness.

The Benefits Of Rolfing

Since Rolfers differentiate between good posture and correct body structure, they strive to organize the skeletal system that has been made "Crooked" through injury and stress. By correcting the underlying structure of the body, and also removing adhesion of muscle and connective tissue, the body can realign and hold itself properly. And with proper structure and posture comes pain relief.

Through Rolfing sessions people can expect to improve flexibility, athletic performance, reduce swelling and pain, increase range of motion and correct posture. All types of performance improve and pain disappears when the muscles fire completely and rest completely. And this can only happen when the body is correctly aligned.

You might be asking yourself how Rolfing is different than regular massage. The difference is in the focus on the body treatment. Whereas massage improves circulation and helps relaxations and short term stress, Rolfing focuses on re-ordering the body to prevent the pains returning. Also, whereas massage works on muscle tissue Rolfing works on the fascia or connective tissue.

Conclusion

So if you suffer muscle or skeletal pain and have tried traditional massage, why not go one step farther and give Rolfing a try. It's a deeper therapy that may be the answer you are seeking.

Article originally appeared on BodyBuilding.com and was written by Steven Hefferon.