Getting the word out about Yoga Physical Therapy

Day 2. I started this blog because I want to get the word out about Yoga Physical Therapy. Sometimes I come home after working with a patient with a great idea that we discovered during the day that I want to share. So this is a way to get me started writing about the work, to explain what it is that we do in Yoga Physical Therapy.

First and foremost, I look at the body with the eyes of a Physical Therapist. The training was the best I know of for understanding the components of the human body and how the body moves in space. From my background in dance, I became a PT because I was fascinated with muscles, joints, the nervous system, and how it all fits together. Then, by studying the pathology of injury and disease, I learned what happens when something goes wrong. My job as a PT is to find a way to help the injured body recover. These 17 years of working with injuries and disease have only increased my understanding and intuition.

Yet, as great as the Physical Therapy training was, it didn't give me a way to deal with the whole person. Often I would find people were tense, upset and holding tension in their bodies, especially those with back and neck pain. (I also see people hold tension in their feet, their knees, their hips.) I didn't know what to do with it. I wasn't trained in how to deal with the psychological components of disease and injury.

However, once I began incorporating Yoga and meditative breath work into the sessions, I began to be able to help people help themselves with the effects of stress being held in their bodies -- whether physical, emotional or psychological. The introduction of the breath, not only into the exercises, but as a separate activity in itself, began to transform the effectiveness of the our sessions, especially in those with chronic back pain.

By helping someone breathe into the injury and pain, it gives her the mental space, first of all, to become aware of holding and tension in that area of the body. On a physical level, getting breath into a tight or tense area literally begins to open up the area. As the muscles relax, they loosen their hold on the bones. The affected bone(s), pulled out of line by an overactive muscle, can begin to relax back into place. When the muscle, then the bone(s), release back into a relaxed state, then the affected joint can begin to realign itself. Yes, one can learn to breathe into a specific muscle or muscle group.

Secondly, blood cannot flow freely through a tense muscle. So, another result of using a mindful breath is that once a muscle relaxes, more blood can flow into and out of that muscle. With more blood flow, more oxygen gets to the area. More oxygen equals more healing. The healing molecules and chemicals can now get to get to the injured, or previously held and tense, area. At the same time, the byproducts of injury can move out of the area more quickly.

On the psychological level, meditative breathing is documented to lessen the effects of stress, including lowering blood pressure, decreasing heart rate and lessening the effects of cortisol, the stress hormone of the fight-or-flight reaction. As a person becomes more aware of the bodily tension and learns to breathe into it, often the emotions or thinking that contributes to that tension begin to loosen their hold as well. As the mind begins to relax, so too does the body. Once the body begins to relax, so do the mind and emotions. It's a dynamic, interactive process.

I've had patients thank me for helping them to identify and learn to work with the stress that is contributing to their injuries. Once they developed an awareness that they were holding tension in their backs, necks, feet or hips, they were able to begin working with, and begin lessening, that tension.

Awareness is key. With aware breathing into an injury, combined with specifically targeted positioning or stretching of the body, the healing process is supported. Using a gentle and mindful breath also gives us an effective tool to support the entire healing process, body and mind.

Click here to learn more about Yoga Physical Therapy.