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 Enlightenment and limb help :DModerators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 2 Now viewing page 2 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> Ashtanga Yoga | Message format |
osutuffy |
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| Nick |
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    Location: London, England | Hi Steve, You're post shows greater enlightenment than mine ,I'm afraid to say  Looking at the article, it wasn't supposed to get marks in an anatomy class, so I'm not the person to take it apart-I imagine the author's teacher would have given him top marks. The only book on breathing that tells it like it is is the book I mentioned, "multidisciplinary approaches to breathing pattern disorders." The reason it is so good is because it has three authors, all acknowledged experts in their field: osteopath, respiratory physiotherapist, and clinical psychologist with 'extensive experience in breathing regulation.' When you look at most yoga books, the expertise is at yoga, apart from Coulter's book. I think that because most forms of yoga promote a certain style of breathing, they perhaps miss out on the fact that there is no optimum breathing style. If your breathing is optimal, every breath you ever take in your life will be unique, adapting itself to your metabolic requirements and to your posture or movement. Perhaps the most illustrative rationale for breathing comes from the following by Kuchera-it is an explanation of body posture which we will use for breathing (it's also in that book): Optimal posture is a balanced configuration of the body with respect to gravity. It depends on normal arches of the feet, vertical alignment of the ankles, and horzontal orientation (in the coronal plane) of the sacral base. The presence of an optimum posture suggests that there is a perfect distribution of the body mass around the centre of gravity. The compressive force on thespinal discs is balanced by ligamentous tension: there is minimal energy expenditure from postural muscles. Structural and functional stressors on the body, however, may prevent achievement of optimal posture. In this case homeostatic mecha- nisms provide for'compensation' in an effort to provide maximum postural function within the existing structure of the individual. Compensation is the counterbalancing of any defect of structure or function. What this shows is that every yoga posture involves using your skill and ability to find the best way to counterbalance the deviations in structure that each posture demands, so that the function of each posture is changed for the better. Because brathing involves enlarging the space within the thoracic cavity, and then decreaing it to breathe out, there is no such thing as optimal breathing posture-only otpimal breathing movement. Even in such cases where abdominal breathing is used, the diaphragm will descend to draw air in to the lungs, thereby creating a moment on the joints of the rib cage-so even when we are still, in asana, there will always be a force that tends to produce movement on the ribs and spine. It is finding this otpimal movment which, if a yoga practice is to be therapeutic, outweighs all other considerations in our yoga practice. As an example, with ujjayi breathing, we are told to lift the rib cage-some people get it right, most people get it wrong. It is very easy to use our intellect to command a certain movement, but almost impossible to command the correct movement of the ribs. In some ways it all goes wrong because the elevation of the ribs is actually coming about partially from rotation of the joints of the ribs and spine (costovertebral joints). If the rib cage was actually lifting then the joints of the spine would separate a few inches-this obviously doesn't happen I understand the instruction to lift, but would argue that because it is not specific, and is actually physically impossible, that it can often do more harm than good. That's just a personal observation. Of the books you have mentioned the only one I have read is light on pranayama. At the time, twenty years ago, nearly, I found it to be the best book on the market with regard to pranayama. I'm not sure if I would find it so useful now, but still, it's good. Coulter's book, well, I'm not too keen-I beleive his anatomical learning is very different from mine, all our learning was how to make a human more functional, and what makes them dysfunctional, 'neuro-musculo-skeletally.' To me, reading his book, and looking at the diagrams, didn't convince me that he was able to apply his anatomical knowledge to the learing of therapeutic exercise. I've stated in other posts that I don't think the head should be on the floor in headstands. We were given inforamtion on the neck in our classes that gave the neck pride of place-muck about with it at your peril. Consequentially, I've put the neck on an alter-it has god status And so does breathing. I've avoided buying coulter's book up until now, because I really didn't like it, and resent spending that much money on a book which I found so wanting. There's so many fantastic books that you can buy for that kind of money. Written by people who want to improve your structure and function, not by people who want you to wrap your leg behind your head. The two are not always mutually compatible, unfortunately. Take care Nick | ||
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| Nick |
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Location: London, England | |||
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