Moving Into Harmony

MOVEMENT & BREATH: HEALTH - FITNESS - PERFORMANCE

Anatomy

Breathe through your nose – Your Body-Mind will love you!

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30 functions of the Nose

Promotes Relaxation & Balancing the Nervous System

Nasal breathing has a naturally greater resistance than mouth breathing to how air enters and exits the body. This promotes a slower breathing rate, a lower breath with greater recruitment of the diaphragm and brings about balancing nervous system’s response to activities of daily living. The perceived effort or demand of any activity can be met with greater internal stability.

Boosts Brain Functions

Nasal breathing helps to bring greater clarity with all functions of the human brain. This includes task prioritization, orientation, interpretation of information, recall and memory, intuitive integration, perception and so much more. The brain is one of the greatest consumers of oxygen. Proper nasal breathing stimulates and optimizes oxygen delivery for all functions. Furthermore, nasal breathing during sleep has shown to help the brain circulate all fluids for rest, recovery and restoration of brain tissues, especially the glial-lymph tissue responsible for removal of metabolites and keeping a healthy environment for all brain cells and tissues.

Expand Visual-Spatial Field

The eyes are directly linked to nasal breathing. With a greater expanse in the visual field – seeing the forest through the trees – promotes a neurological circuit of more relaxed breathing. When the eyes are looking at something specific – a big redwood in the forest – then the breath changes to slightly more rapid as the concentration, often with a greater work load to focus, and stimulates survival mechanism internally.

In 2019, researchers at the Weizmann Institute in Israel suggested that nasal inhalation could be linked to part of an evolutionary survival mechanism. We see this in nature with other mammals using their nose in environments, and can sense the state of safety. The Weizmann team theorized that nasal breathing in modern life and competitive sports might trigger the brain for visual-spatial focus. They demonstrated that nasal breathing synchronized electrical activity in the brain on a wavelength that helped to maximize visual-spatial (VS) awareness.

Mediates Smell & Behavioral Response

The nose and its functions shape our behavior, memory, and emotional responses.

The sense of smell is directly linked to the gateway of our emotional and survival systems – the limbic complex which includes the amygdala and hippocampus centers. The amygdala is responsible for the emotional processing of essences, with the smelling information providing positive and negative feedback in the associative learning process. Brain imaging studies have found that activation of the amygdala correlates with pleasant and unpleasant odors, reflecting the link between odors and emotions.

The hippocampus, which is also closely linked to the sense of smell, assists with the learning process and is associated with memory, specifically experiential episodes. This is how a specific smell can stimulate the retrieval of a specific memory.

Optimizes Vocal Effort

It is important for anyone who speaks, or sings, for a living – teachers, presenters, news and sports broadcasters, leadership roles – to maintain nasal breathing during their everyday life, including exercise, rest and sleep.

The voice relies upon many functions. Sound is a vibration of the vocal cords. This physical and physiological activity is optimized with proper nasal passage health. A plugged nose makes the pressure distribution for sound much more on the vocal folds. The vocal cords rely heavily on the health of the nasal passages for the proper pressure distribution. With a stuffy nose the vocal cords can be more susceptible to pressures and forces that can cause irritation and inflammation. In addition, nasal breathing naturally humidifies, warms and filters incoming air. This prevents contraction of the tissues inside the throat due to cold, dry and polluted air. Therefore, breathing through the nose can help reduce the vocal effort required during speech.

Harmonize Vocal Sounds

The vocal folds, or chords, rely upon the nose for proper distribution of forces and pressures when they vibrate to make sound. The rate of vibration determines the frequency, which are perceived by the ear as specific sounds, tones, and rhythms. This may often be referred to as a resonance with the nasal passages. Compare your own voice with clear nasal passages vs. a stuffy nose voice. There tends to be a hollow, monotone and shallow sound to the voice when the nasal passages are not clear. In addition, the nose provides moisture that is specific to lubricating the vocal fold tissues.

Article by Shawn M Flot, MPT. He is now a Certified Oxygen Advantage® Instructor. Combined with his 25year experience in Exercise Physiology, Physical Therapist for health and performance, and a dedicated Yoga practitioner is making for a power-house to help many people succeed in re-discovering their own health, healing and well-being.

The truth about your breathing – the diaphragm Part 2

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Breathing is based on the ability to exchange gases. This exchange is accomplished by pressure and fluid dynamics.

The vital exchange of what is in the outside air, and the process of those essential ingredients for you to survive, AND to live efficiently in all activities you do. Health doesn’t happen. Health is a uncovering to continuously reveal the powers and capacities behind how you roll in life with your body and mind. And this requires Oxygen.

Oxygen is a gas.
And so is Nitric Oxide.
These are two very important essentials for life to be energized and supported. One is from outside and one is produced inside the lining of your nose.

The other gas of importance in the exchange for life is Carbon Dioxide – a byproduct of your energy production.

So why you ask is the diaphragm important in this process called Respiratory Physiology?

Because gas moves to and from by pressure, availability and permeability.

And when the diaphragm contracts before you engage with your inhalation. I hope you picked this up! Your diaphragm begins to contract BEFORE you ride the incoming breath, or consciously engage with the incoming air. This contraction sets up a cascade of actions by other muscles, tissues, joints and vessels based on a pressure gradient.

The diaphragm creates a larger space in the rib cage where your lungs are. As the diaphragm contracts:

  • it moves down,
  • muscles in between the ribs assist in up-lifting (a bucket handle analogy is often used for the ribs).
  • neck muscles assist in anchoring/stabilizing the head on the neck, and mobilizing the neck and upper ribs.
  • the spine “elongates” or flattens its curves - the upper spine, or thoracic spine, lessens it’s backward curvature = kyphosis, and the low back, or lumbar spine lessens it’s forward curvature = lordosis.
  • the glottis contracts to generate a pressure gradient so air doesn’t escape (or go into the lungs). My friend Mary Massery’s studies into the “pop can dynamic of postural control” is brilliant in another awe of the diaphragm’s potential in human development, mobility and movement.
  • the dilator muscle of the throat, in the pharynx and laryngeal region, contract to open up the airway.
  • membranes of the small air sacs, alveoli – “grapes”, and lower smaller airways dilate (with the help of Nitric Oxide) for greater profusion across a barrier – the endothelial layer – for gas exchange.
  • the pelvic floor moves downward to accommodate for the building internal pressure of the abdomen and pelvic cavities.
  • certain parts of the blood circulation gain pressure, while other parts decrease pressure to accommodate for the powerful force of the blood; and this is influenced by the diaphragm, the connective tissues around all organs and other tissues for proper fluid dynamics.

And all of these coordinated activities like a symphony, create a maximal function for the outside air to move into all the spaces of the lungs with the greatest ease and least amount of energy required. Yes breathing is one of the energy consumers of your body.

The most important factor is the diaphragm’s contraction creates greater space. With greater space the pressure inside your lungs – which is already sub-atmospheric pressure, meaning it is less than the pressure outside. With an increase in pressure gradient, air moves easier along the gradient from higher to lower. This allows for the greatest efficiency of breathing to occur. And this is true in the opposite way to easily and efficiently release what is not needed in the system as eliminating from the lungs.

I hope you can begin to appreciate what all happens in the act of each breath you are given. All the above mentioned drive all activities in coordinated functions. And the health of each cell, and each tissue function, is dependent on this very important cascade of actions.

Did you know that they way you breathe can be affecting the health of your spine – neck, upper back and low back – too?

Contact me for a full-system approach to how your breathing impacts your health and well-being.

Why relaxing down enhances your flexibility

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If the well is distant, its water does not quench the thirst of the pilgrim – Chinese Proverb

Your health is being flexible, and your flexibility is not about how your stretch……it’s about how you descend to harness fluidity in your tissues and your mind. Just like in the desert, or in the mountains, the well-spring of nourishment is always found in the hollows of the earth – the canyon, the mountain, the well.

How do you harness your fluidity? You learn to descend within the body. My teacher, Shandor Remete, from the beginning, guided us to cultivate the ability to descend our energy by the proper use of how you move your body. So much of life triggers us to ascend upward – for example:

  • The overuse of the eyes and the brain.
  • A surprising and often frightening sensation of pain
  • Being “ready” for what’s expected or ahead of you
  • Holding yourself upright to maintain a “good” posture
  • elevate your mind for clear thoughts.

This is in contrast to the actual nourishing element of water that keeps us flexible, mobile, and agile. The higher you live, the more distant the access to the balancing mechanism that promotes dynamic fluidity. Water travels down the mountain, down the canyon, and eventually to the ocean. The physiological processes are related to natural phenomena – as in the natural wild world, so inside the wilderness of your body.

Dripping water can eat through a stone – Chinese Proverb

The “region” of the body that relates to the downward force to access the elemental nature of water, consists of approximately 70% of your total body. It represents – the back body – from the tuft of the skull to the heels; and the front body – from the navel to the front of the ankle. The gross body part, anatomical, that relates to the water element is the feet. The ankles are referred to as “the regulators of all fluids in the body” (wisdom given to me by both my Hatha Yoga teacher, Shandor Remete; and my Manual Therapy teacher, Frank Lowen).

What practices can you “exercise” to harness your fluidity? Good question.

Avoid Stretching what you think is tight.

Shocked? Consider how long you have been stretching to feel flexible? Now consider how much strain and stress you are putting on those pinpoint focused areas you feel are tight, without the aide of harnessing your fluidity. Your:

  • bottoms of your feet (plantar fascia)
  • calves (gastrocs, soleus)
  • thighs – front (quadriceps); back (hamstrings)
  • low back (quadratus lumborum, back extensors, spine)
  • hips – front (iliopsoas); back (glutes, piriformis)
  • shoulders (rotator cuff)
  • chest (pectoralis group)
  • neck and skull (trapezius, suboccipitals)

Some of you even contract one muscle group to stretch the apposing. Or you contract the muscle group you want to stretch, then relax to stretch it (cuz you think it fatigues that you can pull it apart more). Well, I am here to say…….

That is a lot of energy consumed to get a short term result. Doesn’t last. In fact the moment you return to your life that engages your up-ness. POOF! gone….you are back to being tight and probably feel more stiff than before you stretched.

Stretching, in my clinical experience is unnecessary stress and strain without the essential ingredient of dynamic fluidity. It is like a rubber band that snaps back. Consider the material – a rubber band, a piece of taffy – what happens when it is dry, frayed, or cold? It usually doesn’t have the same pliability, and if you are using a rubber band, I am certain you ignored that one or threw it away; or if it was the only one you had to use (you don’t have another hamstring) you were cautious to not overstretch because it break, and snap. Ouch, that end that snapped to my finger was painful. Ouch, I just “tore” my hamstring stretching in yoga class. And more subtly, your body is sensing undo stress and strain with it’s signals of ouch, protects by tightening (kinda like how your protecting brace when you know something potentially harmful is coming, or experienced) and tries to brunt the brute force attack by trying to stretch.

Learn how to use your feet and your ankles. And learn how to descend through squatting.

Yes squatting. It’s not what you think. Did you mind go to the power lifter in the gym squatting 300 lbs.? Admit it, you hesitated if you have read this far. You squat every day, many times a day. How many times do you sit down, and get up from a chair? How many times do you sit down to toilet? How many times do you lower yourself to get something? My suggestion is to use your every day activities to give yourself the opportunity to feel, discover, learn and integrate what you feel, or how you are guided to descend, that delivers a life benefit of the skill of descending to find your flexibility.

I will be discussing more details on this important topic in the weeks and months to come. Stay tuned.

You can also discover personalized ways

with a Telehealth Discovery Session

Find out more!

How to enhance your Balance & Coordination

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YES!!!  Our feet and our hands have vital importance for integrative vital movement.

From a neuroscience perspective, the homunculus of the somatosensory cortex, the map of the motor and sensory fields in our brains, illustrate this occupancy of high functional capacities for the feet and hands. The only other areas that get this much “attention” are the lips, tongue, eyes, ears. With this representation, you can see the capacity we have to use our feet for sensation and developing attributes for the full-body movement that the body understands – the integration of the limbs. Most important is the capacity to feel, to sense your internal and external environments.

The tantric yogis, from which hatha yoga is a part of, state consciousness comes through or senses, and the “central nerve channel” derives the sensory system. Thus the importance for everyone to find their feet and develop a connection to the most important part of our foundation. And to sense and understand how the utilization of the hands is intimately connected to the spine and the legs.

What is not seen or measured is the ability to sense the bones, their alignment, and an integral part in our “core” stability. There is no need to bind the belly for stabilization. One only needs to feel how the spine responds to the balancing arrangement and integrative use of the limbs (including the head) for static and dynamic activity. It is this sensibility with the bones, all the way to the tips of the fingers and toes, that allows all the other tissues including tendons and muscle to respond together. The body knows how to respond with an integrative balance in the limbs. It is inherent. And to override the body’s intelligence and nature of functional core engagement is acting violently to the nature of the body’s resources. Developing a sensitivity to the bones requires advanced attention because the bones whisper and often their message gets drowned out by the message from the muscle.

I often associate the muscle with the mini-me, and the bones with the deep inner wisdom, or sage, that carries the innate intelligence of harmony in the body.

Why is the Talus so important in the Foot’s Movement?

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The Talus is the keystone bony structure in the body!
All vertical support balances on it,
AND all fluids are regulated by it.

Where is the Talus bone located? The Talus is situated between the foot and the lower leg bones, considered the “top of the foot.” It’s half-dome surface articulates with the tibia and fibula, lower leg bones, to form the talocural joint. Inferiorly the talus articulates with the calcaneous, or heel bone, to form the subtalar joint.  Distally, the talus articulates with the navicular to form the talonavicular joint and a small, integral relationship to the cuboid to form the midfoot. The midfoot incorporates the transverse arch spanning side to side, with the longitudinal arch spanning the length of foot from the calcaneous to the metatarsals, or toes.

What is the role of the Talus? The Talus has an important role in the ability to translate horizontal and vertical forces. All vertical support is balanced and governed by its dome shaped surface. Can you comprehend how challenging it is to balance on a ball, and what is required to maintain this balance? This vital role requires the talus to float freely in all planes of movement (coronal-side bending, sagittal-forward and backward bending, transverse-rotating, vertical compression and distraction-closed and open qualities between two structures). This unique ability also requires that the talus not be directly influenced by our voluntary actions, as evident by no muscular attachments to it. Only ligaments!

The ligaments are the bridge between all interdependent bones in the body. Their role is mostly understood as stability in the bone-to-bone connection. However recent clinical observations by my manual therapy teacher, Frank Lowen, and others who practice Dynamic Manual Interface, have discovered the important role ligaments play in fluid dynamics (see my review on his new book). There appears to be a communication between all the ligaments (and all visceral functions) that respond to create optimal alignment of the bones for optimal adaptive function for a given activity. Frank has clarified many times, “movement occurs in the joint space first, then the peri-articular tissues (joint capsule, tendon) respond to this articular balance, followed by the tendons and muscle contraction to produce movement.”

Interestingly, in late medieval castles, the talus had an important role in the castle’s fortification, which “consists of a sloping face at the base of a fortified wall” (Wikipedia). Fascinating this “design” is in the body, as the talus is at the base of the fortified bones of the leg. My yoga teacher, Scott Blossom, refers to the shin bones (the tibia and fibula), as the “shaft which bears the weight of the body”.

What else is important about the Talus? Electromagnetically, the Talus has the second highest measured electromagnetic field, the first being the heart. Yes, second only to the heart. Any notion why? It has to do with the forces that are translated at this vital junction in the body. The activity at the Talus generates an electrical field, an effect referred to the piezoelectric affect – produced when bone, or any connective tissue, is placed under significant force, because of the internal torquing and fluid dynamics of the tissues response to stress, or forces placed upon it. This piezoelectric effect is said to generate response in tissue regeneration, adaptation and circulation. The piezoelectric effect also has an affect on the general circulation and the heart.

Furthermore, in reference to the subtle body, the Talus and the ankle joint are important for pranic circulation (your vital force). Both Frank Lowen and Zhander Remete observe the vital role of fluid regulation at the joint spaces of the ankle. The talus and ankle joint are closely associated with the functions of the heart and kidneys, and have a key relationship with the autonomic nervous system and the motor-sensory system.

  • The lateral foot relates to sympathetic nervous system and the motor system, generating more of the power side of the foot, and sets the tone for any reactive response the body may need to accomplish.
  • The medial side of the foot is more associated with the parasympathetic nervous system and the sensory system. It is the more sensitive side of the foot and is more accommodating than the lateral side of the foot. This accommodating quality is important for the foot’s adaptability to the ground with standing and walking.
  • The midfoot, or heart of the foot, is important for circulation. It is here where the interchange between the smallest vessels in the arterial and venous circulation occurs. (my 8 years of hospital experience play back in my memory banks; an A-V Impulse Pump was used on the bottoms of patients’ feet for the most effective blood clot {or DVT, deep vein thrombosis} prevention device in post-surgical and post-trauma recovery non-weightbearing rehabilitation protocals.)

A simple exercise to feel this is to place attention and notice the four corners of your foot

    • – at the front part of the foot – the soft tissue just behind the inner and outer mounds of the toes
    • – at the back part of the foot – the inner and outer surfaces of the soft tissue in front of the heel

If you were to imagine, or lucky enough to place your foot in the sand….

    • Do these four points make equal impression in the sand?
    • Do you have a tendency to “ride” on the outside of your foot, on the lateral border?
    • Do you collapse into the inner points or the medial border (or commonly referred to as “the arch”)?

This can provide you a great deal of information about your interaction with the earth, and also the state you are in……Equanimity is key!!!