Stretching makes me happy
Plus the usual mind–body science highlights
In a recent family trip (a rare but precious occasion where my siblings and I spent a seaside weekend together), my brother remarked that these days, he has to have physio every week. My sister agreed. My mum didn’t, but my brother pointed out that she has a massage every week, and that’s basically the same. I also agreed. We wondered whether this was an age thing or something about modern living that makes our bodies stiff and painful.
It’s true that I’ve had an injury since the end of last year that doesn’t seem to want to go way, and I’ve been having regular physio to help me recover. So that was a sort of automatic answer.
But then I realised, actually, that’s not true. I wouldn’t need to have physio if I didn’t have this injury, because I do other things that help my body stay open – yoga.
My favourite thing to do in the evening is lie on a brick or bolster pressing against my upper back (a pose called fish in Yin yoga), and just relax there. It creates exactly the same sensation as that beautiful moment in a massage, when the therapist presses strongly down your upper back, causing a huge release. That’s closely followed by lying sideways on a bolster (a pose called either mountain brook or mermaid in Yin yoga – and yes, that’s me), stretching the side body, or using my trigger point release peanut to stretch the back of my neck. Or, if I’m not looking for stillness, doing some cat-cows or some weird somatic stretches that I learned in the Somatics course I did last year.
All of these things release tension and create that necessary space and ease in the body. Or, to put it in less yoga teacher language, they help to reduce stiffness and improve flexibility, which has a ton of benefits, including reducing our risk of injuries and falls, improving circulation and reducing pain. Increasing flexibility may even help us live longer – a recent long-term study found that flexibility predicted mortality among middle-aged men and women (in Sweden, but I’m sure this isn’t something special about the Swedes).
When it comes to pain, it can sometimes be caused by inflammation in the muscles and joints, and actually, there is evidence that yoga can help to reduce inflammation (and the associated pain) through the act of stretching. This work was done in rodents, but I imagine the same findings would be seen in humans too.
Plus, as Caroline Williams points out in her excellent book Move!, stretching can make us feel happier – I challenge you to do a few rounds of cat-cow and not feel better after! So it’s a win win all round.
Now I’m not going to lie, I love a massage (in fact, I had one recently because of some neck pain that wouldn’t go away through my own stretching). And obviously physio has a place in our lives when we are working with something (and an even bigger place more likely for those who exercise hard or are living with a disability).
But I also love the fact that I can help my body stay open or release tension through my yoga practice.
Workshops etc
Yoga and the immune system
Join me and Melanie in December for the last instalment of our workshop series, where we’ll talk about everyone’s favourite topic: ageing. Come along to find out more about ageing, its links to inflammation and where yoga fits in.
Yoga nidra for wellbeing: science & practice
My first Insight Timer course is live! Join me for three lectures on the science of yoga nidra, plus three relaxing practices that may help you feel calm and more likely to fall asleep.
Mind–body science highlights
Mind–body practices could help with pain in axial spondyloarthritis
This systematic review and meta-analysis concludes that mind–body practices improved physical function, and reduced disease activity and pain among patients with axial spondyloarthritis (sometimes called AxSpa), a type of arthritis that is localised on the spine. The practices included Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga and Pilates. All practices reduced disease activity, but some might be more effective than others in the other outcomes (eg Tai Chi was better than Qi Gong at reducing pain).
Also on Axspa, a team of scientists has developed an app, called YogiTherapy, which they tested on 65 patients. The study mainly tests the app’s functionality and usability (apparently needs improvement), but interesting to see yoga and digital health marrying in this way.
Yoga reduces stress and increases mindfulness in women
Not a huge surprise or news, but this study does report that the improvements in stress and mindfulness applied to women who practiced yoga for 150 min a week, which is basically two 75 min yoga classes a week (or if you’re in London, more likely three 1 hour classes a week). So if you are a once-a-week yoga practitioner, then perhaps look at adding one more class to your regimen to see more benefits.
Yoga did not improve health-related quality of life in the elderly
This 12-week chair yoga programme didn’t report any improvements in health-related quality of life (a measure of the impact of health status on quality of life, usually evaluated with a short standardised questionnaire) among adults with many long-term conditions. This was a decent-sized study (over 400 participants), and I am rather surprised by this as yoga as an intervention does tend to improve perceived quality of life. It’s possible that having lots of chronic conditions (these included cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems etc) means that the benefit from yoga is not big enough to counter the burden of the conditions.
Yoga was not effective at reducing BMI among women with PCOS
Not a huge surprise, but moderate intensity aerobic exercise was the only found to be effective in this systematic review and meta-analysis. However, worth noting that there were only three yoga research studies (two of them in Iran, one in the USA).
Of note
I’ve signed up to go to the first Yoga Research symposium. If you are in/near London, you can join me on the 1st of November.
Closely followed by the Autumn Summit 2024 at SOAS, online or in person on the 2nd of November. More yoga science discussions (plus it includes CPD).
Until next time!