Saturday, August 27, 2011

Knee / Hip Dominant / Unilateral / Bilateral Yoga Asanas

I have been in the profession of fitness for the past 16 years. Exercise science in these years has evolved to very specific model from a generalised model. Earlier all the Body Building exercises were considered ideal for anything and everything in fitness. Be it weight loss or sports training or just fitness or rehab. Earlier equipment were made for Body Builders for their specific needs of individual muscles. Hence lot of equipment designed then only isolated muscles, which was not functional. These kind of workouts may make muscles stronger and bigger but not functional. Exercises which isolate  the muscle do not help in improving a sport specific movement or even a normal day functional movement such as lifting a heavy object from the floor and passing it. Exercise science has moved on and has become very specific and functional.
            Selection of Exercise type is become very specific to the type of activity you do in life. If you are a sportsman what type of a sports do you play? If you are looking for weight loss then Exercise type / Combination of exercise / Heart rate in the session / Current fitness level / Exercise progression  etc is essential to know.
            Now you must be thinking why i am discussin all this in a yoga based article. Well as much as Exercise science progresses it keeps moving towards what yoga has been quietly saying for thousands of years. One of the outcomes of the modern school of thought of Exercise scientists is Knee Dominant exercises and Hip dominant exercises. Gray Cook and Michael Boyle talk about the Joint by Joint approach where your joints from bottom to top are responsible alternative for stability and mobility and hence the trainings should be based on this principle. I am a great fan of NSCA and Michael Boyle. I like the scientific detailing of NSCA and the simple way of teaching of complex exercise science by Michael Boyle.
           I am simply amazed how much is always there to learn no matter how long you are working in your profession. And this hunger for learning and learning new things has also made me learn Yoga.
           I have been teaching yoga since 2000 and now 11 years down the line i have evolved my own way of teaching yoga, which is a combination of Modern Exercise Science Methods and Yogic Science. The more i keep learning i see a lot of similarity in both, Modern School of thought on Exercise and Age old Yoga.
           Modern Science talks about Knee Dominant and Hip Dominant exercises, Unilateral and Bilateral Movement, and keeping the exercises as functional as possible for maximum results. Yoga has always been Functional and the Asanas have Knee / Hip Dominant  Asanas as well as their as Unilateral and Bilateral Asanas. Below i am going to put some pictures of Asanas which are Knee Dominant and Hip Dominant.

Knee Dominant Asanas:-

1) Parshwa Konasana (Unilateral)
2) Utkat Asana (Bilateral)
3) Veer Bhadrasana (Unilateral)
4) Garud Asana (Unilateral)

Hip Dominant Asanas:-

1) Ardha Kati Chakrasana (Bilateral)
2) Pada Hastasana (Bilateral)
3) Ardha Chakrasana (Bilateral)
4) Nataraj Asana (Unilateral)
5) Setu Bandhasana (Supine Bilateral 0r Unilateral)

We are discussing only about the Knee and Hip Dominat Postures here. Other types of asanas are which have Spinal Twists, Spinal Flexion, Spina Extention, Lateral Flexion, UniLateral and Bilateral Asanas.
Pictures below are of all the above asanas in the same sequence.


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Yoga for Office


In today's modern lifestyle we all spend a lot of time sitting in the office, in front of tv, in long meetings, long and delayed flights etc. The result of this is,  lot of people are suffering with pain in and around the upper back and lower back. People are developing slip discs, breathing problems, chronic back pain, spondylosis etc.
As a result of long hours of sitting, we end up tightening certain group of muscles and weakening other. These muscles are normally placed opposite to each in our body. Hence it is called either a upper cross syndrome or a lower cross syndrome. People today suffer various problems arising because of long hours of sitting.

The common problems associated with the uppercross syndrome are :
  • PAIN IN NECK
  • BREATHING PROBLEMS. LEADING TO SNORING AND LESS OXYGEN TO HEART AND BRAIN, DUE TO WHICH SLEEP IS OFTEN DISTURBED AND YOU END UP FEELING TIRED THE WHOLE DAY.
  • PAIN IN UPPER BACK
  • SLOUCHED SHOULDERS
The common problem associate with the lower cross syndrome are :
  • PAIN IN LOWER BACK
  • SCIATIC PAIN
  • LORDOSIS, i.e. EXCESSIVE CURVE IN THE BACK DUE TO WEAK AND BIG ABDOMINAL MUSCLES
The steps that need to be taken to solve this is to first consult a Physician, Physiotherapist and a Fitness Trainer who can understand this, do a musculo skeletal assessment , do a fitness test and advise you exercises. I am going to suggest you few simple exercises to begin with. The simple thumb rule here is "STRETCH FIRST AND THEN STRENGTHEN".

So lets first understand what we need to stretch and what we need to strengthen in the 2 sydromes that we have discussed earlier. i.e upper cross and lower cross syndrome.


Exercises for Upper Cross Syndrome :-

  • STRETCH your Pectorals (CHEST)
  • STRETCH your NECK
  • STRENGTHEN your UPPER BACK
  • STRENGTHEN your THROAT MUSCLES (Sterno Clido Mastoid)
Exercises for Lower Cross Syndrome :-

  • STRETCH your Hip Flexors (Muscle that helps you lift your knee or flex your torso)
  • STRETCH your Erectors (Muscles along the spine on your Lower Back)
  • STRETCH your Piriformis Muscle (Muscle involved when you cros your legs and sit)
  • STRENTHEN your Gluteus Grroup of Muscles (Muscles around your Buttucks)
  • STRENGTHEN your Abdominals Muscles (CORE MUSCLES)
SIMPLE YOGA FOR BEGINNERS TO HELP WITH THIS LIFESTYLE PROBLEM:-

  • SURYA NAMASKARS (SUN SALUTATIONS)
  • PADA HASTASANA
  • ARDHA CHAKRASANA
  • ARDHA KATI CHAKRASANA
  • VAKRASANA
  • JANU SHIRSANA
  • BHUJANG ASANA
  • SALBHASANA
  • DHANUR ASANA (OPTIONAL FOR BEGINNERS IF DIFFICULTY WHILE PERFORMING)
  • SETU BANDHASANA
  • MATSYASANA (BEGINNERS VARIATION ONLY)
Follow this routine of yoga asanas and hold each asana for 30 seconds , progresively increasing the holding time to 1 min and breathing throughout the asana when holding. always take help of a professional to begin these exercises. This routine will 100% help you take care of your regular back pain and many other issues.
ALL THE BEST and stay in touch at rahulkarma@gmail.com