Navel Gazing

Navel Gazing

Back in 1999, I was talking with a trainer named Geoff Neupert, and the issue of “pulling your navel into your spine” came up. It was a hot topic just beginning to make its way around the fitness world, based information from an Australian researcher (abstract here). It was supposedly the maneuver that would disappear back pain.

“Get down in plank position,” Geoff said, “and tell me as you alternate raising one leg and then the other off the ground; do you feel the transverse abdominus (the muscle that also draws the navel to the spine) stable and working--even though you aren’t actively drawing it in?”

And sure enough, I did.

It turns out that once you have the neurological ability to contract the transverse abdominus, it would automatically contract when required. Healthy, functioning people--those not in physical therapy, and certainly those healthy enough to walk into a flow yoga class--do not need the move. Pulling in the navel gives it no additional beneficial effect. It may even interfere with normal function. 

In fact, the maneuver of drawing the navel into the spine was only originally used in a rehabilitation department, and only for those who had lost control of that muscle through injury, as a means of restoring its natural function. (Want more discussion of this? See here and an even broader critique of “core training” here.)

I hated Geof for it. I always like to think of myself as the smartest guy in the room, and he had quickly shown me that I was giving people wrong information. There is no need to draw the navel into the spine in order to protect the back. But this was a valuable experience--a critical eye is necessary when evaluating claims from fitness experts.

Here’s a thought experiment: How did cave man manage to drag Mastadon’s back to his/her lair without this valuable navel-in-drawing information? What about Michael Jordan--should he have pulled in his navel every time he went up to dunk? Why is it only in the fitness world--in which many movement-oriented styles of yoga belong--that we seem to have this pre-occupation with interfering with our body’s normal function?

And make no mistake: consciously drawing in your navel when performing activities IS interfering in your body’s natural, organic movement. Why not tell people to squeeze their triceps in crow? Or squeeze their quadriceps in Warrior 1? They amount to essentially the same thing. Unless you are in physical therapy, there is no need to repetitively and intensely interfere with your body’s natural planning, timing, and sequencing of normal movement function.

Now, it is unlikely that drawing in the navel is actually injurious to people. And, playing around with the maneuver from time-to-time may even help people become more aware of their physical selves. That even makes some sense. But, should it be the most often used cue, heard in every class, for any and all poses? Silly indeed! 

Now, if you are a core advocate, and want to really have your beliefs messed with, read this.

Old problems, Old solutions

The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/health/02brody.html?src=recg published a story featuring Dr. Loren Fishman, a yoga enthusiast, who uses ancient moves to help treat patients with conditions such as piriformis syndrome, injured rotator cuff muscles and poor bone density.

This article brings to mind just how complex the human body is, with all of its moving and inter-related parts. The causes, and the fixes, for many of the pains and injuries that we have are numerous.

Of course a little preventative action-taking, in the form of a regular yoga practice, may be just what we need; and just what the doctor would order.

Rejection Hurts, Literally

Again from the New York Times

Food, improved?

An article from the New York Times about the food we may eat, how it's marketed and whether those claims have merit.

Old Wives Tales

How much misinformation is there about health and well-being? So much that I take great satisfaction when even lesser known myths are disproved. Here's one from the New York Times about allergies and local honey. We hear so many pieces of information that sound logical, such as: eating local honey will cure allergies. The theory is that the bees come into contact with the allergens, which make their way into honey, which will help us develop an immunity when eaten in small doses. And yet:

Dr. Stanley Fineman, president-elect of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, said he has seen a growing number of patients ask about local honey. “Seasonal allergies are usually triggered by windborne pollens, not by pollens spread by insects,” he said. So it’s unlikely that honey “collected from plants that do not cause allergy symptoms would provide any therapeutic benefit.”


Now if only I had a dollar for every anatomy and physiology misstatement I've heard in a fitness class.

Yama's, Niyama's and Candy

From the Wall St. Journal, reporting which includes a study that says:

There is research to show how irresistible the candy dish can be. A four-week study of 40 secretaries found that when candy was visible in a clear, covered dish, participants ate 2.5 pieces of chocolate on top of the 3.1 candies they would have eaten had the chocolates been in an opaque container, according to the 2006 study in the International Journal of Obesity. Moving the dish closer, so the subjects could reach the candy while seated at their desks, added another 2.1 candies a day to their intake.


Some of the things I deeply appreciate about yoga are the Yama's and the Niyama's. While yoga is an intensely internal practice, the Yama's and Niyama's direct us to change our actions in the world. They suggest to us that meditation and a realization of our spiritual nature are easier to achieve when we set up our world so that it stops knocking us down. 


Of course we can just stop choosing to eat the candy (if that's what we want); of course we can just stop seeing candy as bad...or we can simply remove it from our sight.

The physiology of Community

Here's an article that begins to explain those unique experiences where we feel bonded to others in large groups.

Researchers studied heart rates of fire walkers, and heart rates of friends and relatives who were merely watching them. The heart rates of the walkers and the non-walkers synched up.

I think about yoga classes, people moving and breathing together, and all the physiological shifts that help us to band together for a time in class; creating that anxiety reducing, tension relieving, depression lifting sensation of belonging.

Pratyahara

From the New York Times, report of a study that relates well to the practice of Pratyahara.