The importance of daily stretching to keep meridian channels clean

[suninmyeyes]

Yes I will try ..forgive my English.

Hip and thigh bone dislocated , so whole of the left side sort of slided down a bit . They probably were not aligned properly at that moment .

This affected dynamics of the function of the organs quite drastically and general alighment went very wrong .

Any energy I had went into healing and I had to start cultivation new as if from begging. Only this time around begging was based in personal hell rather than a normal healthy persons state .

 

Since than I managed to find out that it is not that uncommon to have this type of seemingly unusual accident in full lotus and have actually even heard of a yogi mentioning in his talk possibility of such similar occurance .

[Songtsan]

I suspect that this attitude is what the now-deleted drunk man searching for his keys metaphor was addressing. Or at least the notion that it must be physical.

 

I think that there must be a physical correlate for everything- that matter, energy and awareness are all interdependent on some level. I never was saying it was just physical however! Even the physical isn't just physical - matter is 99% space, and all energy.

[Songtsan]

Good point RV.

Just to add here for benefit of anyone that may be reading this..

Even after a good sense of body awareness and about 10 years of regular daily practise and deeper states of meditation and sitting in full lotus -- one day my body just collapsed on the left side while in full lotus .

This is not a anti full lotus propaganda , but a caution .

It took looooooooooooong time to heal and even now 4 years later I am feeling some problems due to serious organ damage caused like a domino effect .

 

I am not personally into full lotus, due to its effects on my body...It's a nice seat, but I don't think that it will confer some great advantage over other positions besides its stability for meditation. It's like saying that someone that is an amputee is unfortunately less able to achieve meridian channel clearing or enlightenment or somesuch just because they don't have the legs to get into that pose.

[Songtsan]

Great idea! But, since it's not as easy to just rotate your leg (as your forearm), how exactly do you move/"flex" your leg around once you've grabbed it?

 

And I think laying pigeon and cowface pose are good for targeting the outer thigh areas...

 

 

I like the seated spinal twist pose, without necessarily adding the spinal twist, but just focusing on keeping the heel that is crossing the leg back near the glutes and pulling the knee back. Also the one where you cross one leg over the other and sit against a wall and slide down the wall, or the similar one where you lie on your back and cross one leg over another and reach behind the thigh of your other leg and pull the knee towards the chest.

 

As far as grabbing the IT-band and alternative frictioning, perhaps it was easier for me to do as a therapist when working with someone on the table, I could flex the knee or rotate the hip while they were prone on my table. I will see what I can figure out on my own.

 

At least though, one can grab it and try to mobilize it away from the lateral quads and abductors...make sure its free. Also, applying pressure using a tool or the bone of the forearm and slowly stripping along it, maybe with a tiny amount of lotion is good to help release stuff. Ideally you want to strip it from bottom to top - towards the heart, but its hard to do by yourself.

Edited July 21, 2013 by Songtsan

[Songtsan]

vortex, here's a 2011 post I made about incorporating somatic theory into stretching. The main point of somatics is to eliminate sensory motor amnesia. Dr. Hanna recommends a "Daily Cat Stretch" routine to keep one flexible.

 

Speaking of cats, aren't they very limber? And have great proprioception? Could you ever see a cat do yoga? They don't. They do "cat stretches." Which isn't even stretching! It's pandiculating.

 

Have fun exploring.

 

I think most animals have an easier time of it than us since they are on 4 legs. The spine was originally designed as a 'suspension bridge,' whereas we bipedalists are still encountering a relatively recent development, and so must deal with a lot of new issues.

[Songtsan]

Yes, could you explain PNF stretching, please?

 

Here is an example of CRAC stretching for the hamstrings with a partner:

 

The person getting stretched lies on their back, legs straight. For true hamstring ROM, use a rolled up towel under the lumbar spine to prevent the flexion of the lumbar spine from contributing to the stretch. Or not - you will still benefit - this is just to show you the true ROM for the hamstrings.

 

Stretcher lifts one leg, knee unbent into the air as far as they can go using their own muscle force. When they get to the limit of their AROM, the helper moves in and stabilizes their heel for them. Client relaxes their leg, and waits about 10 seconds.

 

Now, client tries to push his heel to the floor, against the resistance provided by the helper. Use maybe 30% of maximum force, or a little more if you want. Helper provides enough resistance that client cannot move his leg at all - client is simply using hamstrings to try his hardest to push helper's hands down. Do this for 6 seconds.

 

Client now reverses direction, and moves leg towards their face again, using their own muscle power (quads mainly) and will notice that they have gained AROM. They go to the new AROM end, where the helper then moves in and they relax their muscles and helper simply stabilizes for about 10-15 seconds.

 

Repeat attempt tp push helper's hands down for 6 seconds. Repeat switching muscle groups to go further towards face.

 

Keep this up for maybe 6 times, until no discernible gain in AROM is seen.

 

Do other side next.

 

So you see, the helper does not push at all, just stabilizes. The client does all the work using their own muscle power, switching between agonist and antagonist contraction (opposing muscle groups)

 

This is one way - there area other ways in which the helper actively stretches the client, to move them further into PROM. Try the first way to start with though.

 

So what happens is this:

 

When the client is trying to push the helper's hands down, the agonist is firing, which means that the golgi tendon organs in the hamstring send signals to the hamstring to release tone - it's all neuromuscular. When the client then switches to antagonist contraction (quads), the amount of stretch resistance in the hamstrings has been reduced some, and so AROM has increased.

 

This is all from memory...I didn't verify it lol (as far as the explanation why it works that is...I now for sure that the method is true).