Yoga master Bernie Clark once said: in yoga asana, the best position is not to do too much or too little
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This “no more, no less, just right” position in the stretching process of asana is called Goldilocks’ position, which refers to how deep you need to do in asana to ensure the “degree” of asana and body optimization
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Before practicing yoga, we need to clarify our practice intention: is Yoga for health or to achieve a specific goal? If you are an athlete, dancer or gymnast, your goal is to strive to be “better, faster and stronger”, but this does not mean that you can achieve the optimal performance and health of your body
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Many athletes and dancers bring their bodies to the extreme position to achieve the most perfect performance when they are young, but most of them will have physical and joint pain in the second half of their life
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Below, we can illustrate this Goldilocks’ position with a graphical method: the above figure is a normal distribution curve: if the soft tissues of the body are less stressed and stretched, they will shrink
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Therefore, the body needs a certain amount of pressure and stretching to maintain the health of joints and soft tissues
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On the contrary, if the pressure and tension are too large, it will also cause the degradation of soft tissue
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If our goal is to pursue physical health, we need to find the “right head” position in asana practice, and don’t go too deep to degrade the muscle and soft tissue; Don’t be too shallow to keep the muscle and soft tissue from shrinking
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In addition to reaching a “no more, no less, just good” degree, there is also a question of how long to stay in asana in order to maximize the health of the body
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Every point of pressure increase will reduce the tolerance of the body’s soft tissue a little
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Our internal situation in asana practice is this: put pressure on the soft tissue, make it weak, and then remove the pressure to make the soft tissue recover and become stronger
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If we put too much pressure on the body or stay for too long without restoring and resting the soft tissue, it will do harm to the body
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In the figure below, we add the time variable
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The red line indicates the degree to which the soft tissue of the body can withstand without damage
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The green line is the stress or tensile force on the soft tissue of our body, and the horizontal axis is time
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We can see that the tolerance of body soft tissue decreases with pressure level and time
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Finally, it is more dangerous to reach the intersection of the red line and the green line
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If you have a long rest, as shown in the figure below, the quality of soft tissue will be restored and the tolerance will continue to be high
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In fact, not only will the tolerance of soft tissue be restored, but it will become higher
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Therefore, the key to the safety of yoga posture is not to put too much pressure on the soft tissues of the body, or stay under pressure for too long, and give the soft tissues time to recover to make them stronger
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Therefore, we should try our best in asana, but don’t do it too much
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Because we are not performing, not competing, but for the greatest degree of health
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We often say that asanas enter the edge of physical permission, but this edge is not only physical, but also emotional and brain
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Especially in Yin Yoga practice, you may subconsciously freeze in a position, not because the body does not allow it, but to avoid some pain, so you should be vigilant in asana
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We often say “swim on the edge of the body limit”, which means that we don’t want to break through and cross this edge
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The popular Internet language is “tease”, “Tease” the boundaries of your posture like “tease sister” and “tease man”
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Go deeper, stop, maybe take it back a little, and then go deeper or stay where you are
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This is a dynamic “edge” that changes forever
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Our “edge” is different every day
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When you enter asana, it also changes in asana; Just like you “tease” it, it is also “tease” you
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With full consciousness and maximum awareness, accept the differences of every day and every moment
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Acceptance is the essence and core of yoga
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