Brain Health: An Interview with Ram Rao

by Nina and Ram

New Growth by Melina Meza

I’m trying to learn more about brain health so I can write a brief overview about how you can use yoga to foster brain health. And since we just happen to have a handy expert on the topic—Dr. Ram Rao—I thought I’d interview him as a way of doing my research. You lucky people get to see my interview in its complete form today. —Nina

Nina: What are the types of dementia? And what is the probability for developing one of these forms of dementia as you age?

Ram: Memory loss can be a simple age-associated phenomenon or due to a pathological condition. Age is one of the known risks for memory loss or forgetfulness. Age-associated memory loss is not the same as dementia. If a person experiences forgetfulness without having any underlying pathological condition, then the memory loss is solely due to age. Age-associated memory loss is not disabling and does not impact or interfere with daily performance.

Dementia is a pathological term to indicate loss of memory and other mental abilities including thinking and reasoning. The condition can be severe so as to interfere with daily life. Any damage to the memory centers can trigger the onset of dementia. Although many diseases trigger dementia, some forms of dementia may improve greatly when the underlying cause is treated. Dementia can arise due to:

• NeuroDegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease (a rare inherited disorder), and multiple sclerosis
• Vascular disorders that results from multiple strokes in the brain
• Traumatic brain injury due to accidents, severe injuries to the brain, hits to the brain
• Infections, including meningitis, HIV
• Chronic alcohol or drug use
• Depression
• Developmental abnormalities

Nina: Can yoga help us reduce our probabilities of developing memory loss? If so, how?

Ram: According to the Mayo Clinic, memory loss can be prevented by: 1) physical activity/exercise, 2) staying mentally active, 3) being socially active, 4) eating a healthy diet, 5) leading a stress-free life and 6) sleeping well.

There are so many scientific studies that indicate benefits of yoga (asanas, meditation and pranayama) in combating stress, keeping the individual physically and mentally stable and active, improving the digestive capacity and also helping in the sleeping process, all of which will result in combating age-associated memory loss. Yoga does this through multiple cellular mechanisms.

Nina: How can yoga help prevent strokes?

Ram: Yoga (asanas, meditation and pranayama) has been shown to improve the health of the heart and blood vessels, reduce blood pressure, reduce arrhythmia, reduce anxiety and depression, and improve metabolic parameters including blood lipid profiles all of which help in keeping stroke at bay

Nina: How can yoga help reduce chances of getting Alzheimer’s Disease?

Ram: In a recent study involving patients with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), it was shown that Yoga and Meditation increased functional connectivity in the areas involved in memory and also decreased the early degenerative changes that are typically seen in these regions, suggesting that Yoga and meditation have a positive impact on the regions of the brain related to AD. According to one Harvard researcher, yoga and meditation need to be included as part of the treatment regiment for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. All the above-mentioned risk factors for stroke including hypertension, atherosclerosis, abnormal lipid profile, and stroke can trigger (AD).  Since Yoga has been proven to improve all these conditions, in turn it can also reduce the onset and/or severity of AD.

Nina: How about general mental acuity? Can yoga help us stay mentally sharp as we age?

Ram: Yes, there are numerous studies that show that practice of yoga (asanas, meditation and pranayama) has beneficial effects on the emotional well-being and general mental acuity without any of the side effects. It’s no wonder that a recent article in Yoga Journal on yoga’s effects on mental acuity was aptly entitled Yoga-Better than Prozac. That in itself sums up the power of yoga. Yoga increases brain chemicals such as endorphins and enkephalins that contribute to a feel-good response and ward off mental stress. It is akin to stimulating the brain in a positive way, which results in optimal brain function all of which can keep an individual alert and sharp.

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9/11 Anxiety and Yoga (Rerun)

by Baxter

Some years ago, when Nina and I were working on a series of yoga classes for stress management, I read the book The Relaxation Response by Dr. Herbert Benson, and an interesting finding from the work he did has stuck with me. He noted that his blood pressure patients who meditated regularly not only saw improvements in their blood pressure readings, but they also had certain substances in the blood stream that increased or decreased. One of those substances was lactate, or lactic acid, which is a byproduct of cells using sugar or glucose for fuel. It had already been noted back in the 60s that folks with anxiety disorders often had elevated levels of lactate in their bloodstream compared to individuals without anxiety. Since meditation seemed to lower lactate levels, it seemed like a great potential treatment.

More recently, an article in Scientific American looked at lactate and other markers in the body that could account for why some folks develop panic disorders, an extreme form of anxiety. Studies done in the last two years point to the pH in the brain as a possible causative factor in the experience of fear, and by extension, anxiety. It seems a more acidic pH in the brain is associated with more active trigger of the fear centers in the brain. In fact, there are receptors at individual synapses, the spaces between two nerve cells, that respond to elevated levels of acid. In the area of the brain strongly associated with the emotion of fear, the amygdala, this increase in local pH can trigger fear responses.

They also noted that carbon dioxide levels, when increased in the blood stream and the brain, lead to greater acidity. Other studies have demonstrated that patients with panic disorders are more likely to have an event if they inhale a higher concentration of CO2, compared to non-anxious individuals. These researchers also addressed the lactic acid phenomena that Dr. Benson noted years before: patients with panic disorder tend to generate excess lactic acid in their brains. We all generate lactic acid in our brains as sugars are burned as fuel, but for people with panic attacks, even normal mental activity to lead to an accumulation of lactic acid in the brain.

So if a decrease in pH in the brain—whether due to CO2 build up or lactic acid build up in certain areas of the brain—could be a trigger for anxiety and panic attacks, how could yoga diffuse this situation? Well, way back in the 60s it was already observed that the “relaxation response” that arose from simple meditation practice could lower the pH in the blood stream. This might indicate that it could be lowered in the brain, too. So I’d give high marks to establishing a regular meditation practice, even if only for ten minutes at a time. Secondly, certain pranayama practices could theoretically lower blood CO2 levels slowly and gradually, but whether that would lower CO2 levels in the brain is uncertain. That sounds like it would be worth a trial, however. And finally, the authors of the study noted that “one of the many beneficial effects of aerobic exercise training (like running or cycling) is that metabolically active tissues (including the brain) become more efficient at consuming–removing—lactic acid.”  And although not all yoga asana practices are aerobic, some are to a certain degree. So, physiologically, your asana practice, especially if it is more vigorous, could be the third prong in your yoga tools approach to anxiety, panic attacks and fear.

Here is a link to the 2010 Scientific American article here so you can get more details on the work I’ve alluded to: scientificamerican.com. And may you and yours be safe and anxiety free this 9/11 anniversary. 

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Stuck in a Rut? (Rerun)

by Nina

Creative Front Yard in Austin by Nina Zolotow

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get stuck in a rut with my yoga practice. I have a few different sequences that I’ve developed for myself, and I tend to fall back on them again and again. Then I start to get a little bored. So lately I’ve been making a conscious effort to change things up a bit. Of course it would be a lot of work to write a completely new sequence for myself every day. So instead I’ve been focusing on spicing up my typical sequences. It’s kind of like deciding to remodel a room in your house by making just a few changes, such as buying new curtains or throw pillows, rearranging the pictures, or even just by adding a vase of fresh flowers. Sometimes a small change can make everything else look different.

 Here are a few tips for “remodeling” your home practice:

1. Add a new pose to your sequence, one that you never practiced at home before or haven’t practiced in a long time. I’m pretty good about working my way through the various standing poses on a regular basis, but I always forget about Dancer’s pose for some reason. Welcome back, Dancer's pose!

2. Replace a stretch you typically do one way with another pose that stretches the same area. For example, to stretch the fronts of my thighs of my thighs the other day, I tried replacing my Reclined Hero Pose with Frog pose. I hadn’t done that in years!

3. Subtract a pose you always do just to see what happens. Do you always practice Downward-Facing Dog or Triangle pose? What would happen if you skipped them? Would your other poses feel different?

4. Start working on a pose you think you “can’t” do. For example, maybe you think you can’t do arm balances, but even taking the shape of a pose like Crow without lifting your feet off the ground is doing a form of the pose. Maybe you can even lift one foot off for a second or two. Keep it light and playful, and you might find this adds a new element of fun to your practice. 

5. Face down a pose that you dislike. On a day when you feel up to it, try doing that pose that you really dislike (you know which one I mean) just briefly. Whew! Sometimes it can be exhilarating to take on something you’ve been avoiding (kind of like finally cleaning out your closet).

Readers, do you have any other tips for spicing up a sequence? Let us know in the comment section!

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"Transferring" and Yoga: Wisdom from Jane Fonda (Rerun)

by Baxter

Nina recently shared with me some fascinating information about Jane Fonda, who has lived many lives, from actor to fitness guru to political activist, just to name a few. Fonda reportedly used to practice a more strenuous yoga two hours a day. “But,” she says now, “those days are long gone. It got to be too hard.” All of that hard work has paid off even as Fonda approaches her golden years, though. She puts it this way:

“Every single time I go to get out of a car now, I say ‘Thank you, Lord, I have strong quads. Because if I didn’t have strong quads, I couldn’t be independent. You have to keep your back and legs strong so you can remain free and independent.”

Truer words could not be spoken! In my years as a Family MD, I cared for a lot of seniors, seeing them in my office if they were still living independently, or making trips to the nursing home if they needed special care. And one of the key skills that often allowed my aging patients to remain at home, which is were they all preferred to be, was the ability to “transfer” independently. By this I mean that they could go, typically, from a sitting or reclining position, such as their bed, to a standing position without any assistance. And they had to be able to do the reverse, that is, safely transfer from standing to sitting. Obviously, if they could do this from the floor to standing or vice versa, they would be way ahead of most of their peers! I have a 75-year-old student who does just that each week in class with me.

I found this expanded definition of “transfer” at the medical web site medicine.jrank.org:

“"Transferring" is the term used for moving from one condition to another, such as out of a bathtub, chair, or car, or getting into bed. The ability to transfer depends on many factors, including strength, balance, vision, and flexibility.”

Because of the physical benefits of a regular yoga practice, specifically maintaining flexibility, promoting muscular strength, improving balance and keeping the body agile, students who maintain a regular yoga practice are likely to remain independent much longer than their age-matched community, all other factors being equal. And even if they don’t have a vigorous practice like Jane did in her younger years, even a moderate or gentle yoga practice is likely to have the same four categorical benefits listed above.

Many of the standing poses would be likely to help with such daily activities such as getting in and out of the car.  Any standing pose that requires the knees to bend and straighten, such as entering, holding and exiting from Warrior 1 or 2, is simulating the action the knees, legs and hips perform for our car example (see Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 Mini Vinyasas). Even better would be Fierce pose (Utkatasana, also called Chair pose), especially if you added in a twist. One of the more challenging transfers for older people is using the toilet in a standard bathroom. It is usually lower than a typical chair, and so presents more potential challenge for most. Yet, if you continue to practice in an intelligent, age-adjusted yoga class, such situations may be non-issues for the aging yoga practitioner.

In classes designed for seniors with no previous yoga experience, it is quite common to utilize chairs to modify many yoga poses. So, just by virtue of getting in and out the chair in class a few times in class, with mindfulness and attention to detail, the student is again performing a similar movement to other important daily activities. The stress-reducing practices of yoga, as well as the mental sharpening skills of dharana, or concentration practice, are also likely to improve our chances of remaining independent well into our later years. So, let’s follow Jane’s example and keep our body and mind strong and agile via a regular yoga practice, so that we won’t even need an extra thought as we push away from the dinner table, stand and move onto the next activity of our full and satisfying day!

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New Tricks for Old Dogs: Working with Bunions (Rerun)

by Baxter

It was my first class with Donald Moyer in the new year, January having flown by and February upon us. I checked in with him before class began and mentioned an unusual aching in the lateral aspect of my left foot that I had been experiencing for about two months. It was not bad enough to prevent me from participating in my normal activities, but I noticed it when turning my left foot out to 90 degrees for many of my standing poses. He gave me some pointers for the day’s practice, and then class began.

About half way through the class, while we were in Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana), Donald had us slip a strap between our big and second toes, and bring the loose end over the top of the big toe and down to the floor to the inside edge of the toe. He asked us to gently pull the strap to move the big toe medially, so that it lined up more evenly with the first metatarsal, the foot bone just before you get to the toe itself (the toe bones are called phalanges, and the big toe has two, the other toes all have three).

In addition to re-aligning these two parts of the foot and toe, the bones of the toe rolled a bit medially on their axis. Donald made an offhand remark about this being beneficial for treating bunions (hallux valgus for you Latin lovers) and then we moved on. But treating bunions! Sweeter words were never spoken. I come from a family of bunion formers, my mom’s mother, my wonderful Grandma Lopresto, had an impressive one on each foot for as long as I could remember. Interestingly, I don’t remember her complaining about them much.

What, you may be asking yourself, is a bunion? Well, a bunion is a condition in which your big toe deviates toward your second toe instead of lining up with your first metatarsal. And although bunions have a genetic component and do tend to run in families, another huge factor is shoes that smash the toes together. While these shoes are often for fashion purposes only, I do teach to one group of students whose shoe wear is all about function and their passion for climbing. And while the shoes these folks wear help keep them on razor thin ledges, they do lots of harm to their impressionable toes and feet.

According to the PubMed Health website, bunions occur more commonly in women and people born with abnormal bones in their feet. Certain kinds of shoe wear, specifically narrow-toed, high-heeled shoes, may also lead to bunion formation. And although it can seem a bit unsightly, it is only when pain develops that most people seek help.

How can you tell if you are developing a bunion? You may begin to see a thickening or actual bump forming where the toe and foot meet on the inner edge of the foot. On the inner side of the big toe, a red callous may form from the big toe and second toe rubbing on one another. Pain can occur in this joint, aggravated by certain shoes.

What is the mainstream treatment for bunions? First off, they often tell you to wear different shoes, ones with a low heel and a wide area for the toes. That alone could do the trick. Sometimes special pads can be placed on the bunion or between the big and second toes, and wearing a toe spacer at night can start to influence the alignment of the toes. If that does not work, there are only a mere 100 different surgical approaches to treat bunions. One of my long time students has had both toes operated on, and says it made a huge difference for her, eliminating the pain. However, it has had an effect on her balance.

So, here was Donald offering up a really simple way to affect the toes! A few years back, my colleague and friend JJ Gormley shared her favorite method to get the big toe back on track, which you can do at your desk. With your feet parallel, place a can of your favorite organic goodies between your inner arches and put a veggie rubber band, one of those strong ones, around the big part of your big toes, so they deviate a bit towards the midline between your feet. You can do this for 10-15 minutes a few times a day, and watch for results.

Obviously, if either Donald or JJ’s techniques result in worsening symptoms, stop them right away! But if not, give it a go. And remember, since a lot of the problem stems from being in shoes, yoga itself can go a long way to help the problem, as you are barefoot and you are strengthening and stretching many of the muscles and other structures that can affect the big toes.

For more information on yoga and bunions, there is a good article by Doug Keller in Yoga + Living Magazine from 2008 that you can find online. I hope the photos of Donald and JJ’s bunion recommendations are helpful in your home practice.

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Friday Q&A: More About Yoga for Heart Health

Leveil du Coeur by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Q: Baxter, in your recent post Yoga for Heart Health and Circulation, you mentioned that you were working on an online program on yoga for heart health. When will that be available and where can I find it?

A: Thanks for asking! The online course will be available on yogauonline.com on Tuesday, April 1 and Tuesday, April 8,  2014, 5:30pm Pacific / 8:30pm Eastern. To get an early start, you can download a free interview with me on this topic that is available now via this link. Then, if you wish to sign up for the upcoming webinar, you can do so here.

I hope you find the information I'm presenting on this important topic helpful!

—Baxter

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Athlete profile. ANDREW HUDSON: NEW IFBB PRO from south africa

Athlete profile

ANDREW HUDSON: NEW IFBB PRO from south africa
By veeraj goyaram

He may look familiar to the Bollywood movie aficionados among you as the massive dude who fought John Abraham in Race 2. His name is Andrew Hudson, South Africa's top super-heavyweight and he just realised his dream of turning professional with the IFBB. He won his pro card via a superheavyweight class win at this year's Arnold Amateur bodybuilding championships in Columbus, Ohio (USA). This news was received with great delight by the close-knit bodybuilding community of the wonderful rainbow nation which always saw in the 3o-year old gentle giant a worthy ambassador of bodybuilding. Everybody loves Andrew and I think one needs to be really retarded to hate the guy. He also joins two other South African bodybuilders, namely Marius Dohne and Hennie Kotze in the pro ranks. 

Add caption

I have been an Andrew Hudson fan since I moved to South Africa and picked up the March 2010 issue of Muscle Evolution which featured an article on him. Since then I have been following his career and progress via social media. I could relate to Andrew because to fund his international competition he had to, I quote from the same magazine, "work like a madman when I was a kid, simply so that I could afford food and supplements. At one stage I was prepping for the world championships while doing supplement sales promotions, all the deliveries for a supplement company, as well as in store and traffic light promotions for a promotions and marketing company. I also used to be a waiter at a restaurant in the limited time I had left. My car got stolen while I was trying to juggle all of my jobs, so I used to walk everywhere. It's when times get really tough that you learn about yourself, and it's times like that when you decide if you'll let them make and break you". 

Having just landed in South Africa, with R6000, two bag of clothes and a boatload of ambition, at that time that's how I learned about a job called supplement sales promotions. The next week I joined a popular local company and stayed with them ever since in that capacity. Promotions work is helping me fund a PhD in (Molecular) Exercise Science research at the University of Cape Town. That's one paragraph that made a very huge impact on my life in South Africa. 

Perfectly preserved: March/ April 2010 issue!

Below are the highlights of his international bodybuilding career:

2004

Mr Universe - NABBA, Junior, 4th

World Championships - NABBA, Junior, 1st

2005

Mr Universe - NABBA, Junior, 3rd

2007

Mr Universe - NABBA, Tall, Did not place

2010

World Amateur Championships - IFBB, HeavyWeight, 12th

2011

World Amateur Championships - IFBB, Super-HeavyWeight, 11th

2012

World Amateur Championships - IFBB, Super-HeavyWeight, 8th

(Source: www.musclememory.com)

Let's all wish Andrew the best in the pro ranks 

I let you enjoy some photos of the champ!

Photoshoot with Ben Myburgh

At the 2014 Arnold Amateurs

At the 2014 Arnold Amateurs

Before going onstage in South Africa

Onstage in South Africa

Race 2 as "Typhoon"

My Bio: I am a Mauritian originally from Roche Bois, Port Louis and now based in Cape Town, South Africa where I am busy with my postgraduate studies in molecular biology of exercise. My research, supervised by Prof. Edward Ojuka and Dr. Tertius Kohn, looks at the influence of nutrition and exercise in gene expression in muscle, research which is relevant and applicable to exercising individuals, sports persons and diabetic individuals. The knowledge that I share with you stems from my 18 years of experience in bodybuilding and 8 years (and counting) of university education in the field. I have also published work in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism (2012, 2014), International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (2013) and co-authored two book chapters on exercise and diabetes. I also presented my research work at the 2012 International Sports and Exercise Nutrition Conference (UK). I am grateful to each and everyone at the UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. "Knowledge without sharing is worth nothing"

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What is Yoga?

by Nina

Is it possible that we’ve been blogging for two and a half years about yoga without ever defining what yoga is? Well, yes, because the problem is, it’s a totally daunting task! How do you distill thousands of years of yoga history into a few simple paragraphs? But it’s actually an important thing to do because there really is so much confusion about what yoga is, especially in the West, that unless we say what we mean, it can lead to a lot of confusion.

After all, yoga means a lot of different things to different people. And for many Americans—including doctors who recommend yoga to their patients—yoga is seen only as a form of “stretching.” In fact, when I started taking yoga classes, I didn’t have a clue what was. When I was in my late twenties, I was working at a small software company and my colleagues and I decided to start an on-site exercise class. One of our co-workers said that his wife could come and teach them, so we decided to give her a go—we had no idea she was a yoga teacher! So, on the first day of class, there we all were, standing around in our exercise clothes, when the teacher asked us to start by taking “Mountain pose,” with our big toes together and our heels slightly apart. This was the opposite foot position from the one I was used to doing in ballet and modern dance, my previous forms of preferred exercise. And just standing that way felt so wonderful for my body, I thought, whatever this is, this is for me! My experience of falling in love with the asana practice (the practice of the physical postures) without knowing anything about the rest of the yoga is actually very common.

In fact, yoga as an exercise system is only a very small part of a much larger tradition and a very recent development in the long history of yoga. Although yoga is arguably thousands of years old, what yogis were doing back in the early days had nothing at all to do with Tree pose or Sun Salutations. Early yogis were spiritual seekers, with the aim of understanding the ultimate truths of reality. In order to pursue these goals, they developed practices, including meditation and pranayama (breath control), which would allow them to concentrate and free their minds from distraction. An early definition of yoga from the Katha Upanisad is:

“When the control of the senses is fixed, that is Yoga, so people say. For then, a person is free from distraction. Yoga is the “becoming,” and the “ceasing.”

Although the original yogis were Hindus (see Modern Yoga and Hinduism) with religious goals of achieving “union with the divine,” the yoga techniques they developed for quieting the mind were so effective and their teachings about the nature of the mind and the causes of human suffering were so profound that yoga was adopted by other religions, including Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. (And, of course, in modern times, people of many other religions—and no religion at all—also practice yoga.) Naturally as yoga spread throughout the East and among very different peoples, it evolved in a myriad of ways. Yoga was eventually codified by Patanjali in 150-200 CE in The Yoga Sutras— which we still use as a reference to this day—however, the school of yoga summarized in this work was just one of the many schools of yoga that existed during that era.

And it wasn’t until Tantra and Hatha Yoga developed (approximately 800 or 900 CE) that various physical practices, such as working with chakras and prana, and yoga postures became an essential aspect of yoga. Even then, although the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (1200 -1300 CE) mentions the existence of 84 poses (asanas), it describes only 15 by name. And the aim of practicing these postures was to allow the practitioner to be able to remain comfortably seated in meditation for long periods of time.

“The Âsanas are a means of gaining steadiness of position and help to gain success in contemplation, without any distraction of the mind. If the position be not comfortable, the slightest inconvenience will draw the mind away from the lakśya (aim), and so no peace of mind will be possible till the posture has ceased to cause pain by regular exercise.”

It was really only in the 20th century that pivotal figures such as T.K.V. Krishnamacharya and B.K.S. Iyengar developed the modern asana practice as we now know it. These teachers consciously expanded the repertoire of traditional poses—blending British and Chinese gymnastics, European fitness techniques, and Indian wrestling with classic hatha yoga postures—developed the use of yoga props, with the aim of making yoga accessible to ordinary people, and adapted yoga for treating medical conditions. (If you’re disappointed that the modern asana practice was essentially invented in the early twentieth century, take a moment to acknowledge what geniuses those teachers were—the system they developed was so effective and powerful, it spread throughout the world.) During this period, for many practitioners in the west, “yoga” became completely disassociated from its spiritual aspects and the asana practice was adopted solely as an exercise system.

These days, yoga is all these things and more (trying to cover thousands of years of yoga history in a few paragraphs means simplifying quite a bit to put it mildly). As Edwin Bryant says, “Yoga is thus best understood as a cluster of techniques, some more or less systematized, that pervaded the landscape of ancient India.” So even though I don’t have a one-sentence definition I can use with authority to say what yoga is, we here at YFHA clearly have a very rich tradition to draw on.

Since this is a how-to blog about using yoga techniques to foster healthy aging, we’ve selected just a subset of those yoga techniques to focus on. These techniques are the ones that we believe are most valuable (and that we ourselves practice on a regular basis).

• Asana. Both postures that help keep your body strong and healthy and postures that provide deep physical relaxation.
• Meditation. Different forms of meditation that provide various ways to develop concentration, quiet the mind, and learn about your habitual thought patterns.
• Pranayama. Breath practices that are calming or energizing, and that help build concentration and focus the mind.
• Philosophy. Yoga scriptures, including the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, that contain wisdom which can guide us through all phases of life.

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Exercise focus: Back hyperextensions and cable triceps extensions. By Veeraj Goyaram

exercise focus: BACK HYPEREXTENSIONS and cable triceps extensions

By Veeraj Goyaram

This exercise can be a great addition to a hardcore back routine. Even Dorian Yates could be seen performing weighted hyperextensions in his Blood & Guts video. Hyperextensions work the spinal erectors very well, a muscle which can add more strength to "bigger" exercises movements like squats, deadlifts, standing shoulder presses etc. There is debate on whether it can help develop the "christmas tree" muscles but, however, I have seen many people with great christmas trees performing hyperextensions as this taught them "back control" which can be interpreted as an ability to contract the back better in poses.

Dorian Yates performed weighted
hyperextensions

Do not swing your body on the bench, keep the tension constant and maintain a deep peak contraction on the back at the top of the movement. Feel the lower back. Weights can be added once the technique has been mastered, in the form on a barbell plate, a dumbbell in front of your body or behind your neck. Don't take my word for anything, experiment yourself to see what's more comfortable and what works best for you.

Additional tips:

"I dont have a hyperextension machine, i use Swiss ball to do it. On swiss ball there is not swing no jerking and also no knee and neck hyper extension. Those who have knee meniscal tear , should be very careful with the hyperextension bench ,it’s important to adjust the footplate so that the knee is not hyperextended."

Omar Patel, Bodybuilding Mauritius facebook page admin and strength & conditioning trainer

Triceps kneeling cable extensions

I have received many messages asking to share some of my “secrets” for triceps. The truth is that I don’t have any secrets but in my arsenal I have a few exercises and some old-school tactics that have produced good results for me and others I have suggested these to.

The Triceps kneeling cable extensions of Vince Gironda.

1. Kneeling and keeping forearms and head on the bench ensure that you don’t move your elbows above the head to cheat (as many people tend to do). Keep elbows close to the head, near the ears. Remember, elbows should not take off from the bench. I have seen on myself that when I take a narrow grip it hits my lateral head more. I have experienced using a wider grip and seen more emphasis on the triceps long head.

2. Get a full contraction and a full stretch. I like to maintain the peak contraction for 2-3 seconds. Ensure that the range of motion is big enough. Do not pile on the weights that will allow you to only move a few inches.

3. Use both ropes and bars. Feel free to experiment and add variety.

4. When you have mastered the technique you can do these standing.

Additional tips:

"I do a similar movement without weight. I put an E-Z curl bar on a rack, midway between waist and chest level. Then take a narrow grip and lean forward until your head is below your hands. Then just push off, extending your arms. It's my favorite finishing movement for triceps.". John Zanoya, veteran bodybuilder from Wisconsin, USA

My Bio: I am a Mauritian originally from Roche Bois, Port Louis and now based in Cape Town, South Africa where I am busy with my postgraduate studies in molecular biology of exercise. My research, supervised by Prof. Edward Ojuka and Dr. Tertius Kohn, looks at the influence of nutrition and exercise in gene expression in muscle, research which is relevant and applicable to exercising individuals, sports persons and diabetic individuals. The knowledge that I share with you stems from my 18 years of experience in bodybuilding and 8 years (and counting) of university education in the field. I have also published work in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism (2012, 2014), International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (2013) and co-authored two book chapters on exercise and diabetes. I also presented my research work at the 2012 International Sports and Exercise Nutrition Conference (UK). I am grateful to each and everyone at the UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. "Knowledge without sharing is worth nothing"

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The Ill Effects of Prolonged Sitting

by Ram

Van Gough's Chair by Vincent van Gough

A quick question: are you sitting while reading my blog post? If you are, then maybe you should stand up to read it! According to a new study, sitting for long periods puts you at a risk of early death. (This sentence definitely made you stand, correct?) Most people in present day society spend the majority of their time sitting. A typical U.S. adult sits for an average of ten hours per day. Too much sitting is associated with numerous problems, including obesity, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer among others. Prolonged sitting does the following:

• decreases the activity of an enzyme which helps burn fat
• reduces bone mineral density and blocks new bone formation, raising the risk of fracture
• increases cholesterol levels and reduces the diameter of arteries putting the individual at risk for heart disease
• decreases insulin sensitivity and triggers type-2 diabetes

For many of us sitting for eight hours a day at our job is inevitable. Compounded with extra sitting outside of work is what makes it hazardous. Most importantly, the ill effects of prolonged sitting occur regardless of the individual’s physical activity. Those who exercise daily may assume that their vigorous training regimen protects them from the harmful effects of prolonged sitting. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Several independent research studies show that even an intense activity will not undo the deleterious effects that come from sitting for 8-10 hours in a day. Thus, too much sitting is harmful even if you're getting enough exercise. This means you could be meeting the recommended guidelines for a daily exercise but you will still be at higher risk of disease if you sit for long periods each day.

Recall that in my earlier posts The Power of Mental Exercise, Part 1 and Part 2, I emphasized incorporating mental exercises as a daily regimen to keep physically and mentally fit.  Now it appears that simply sitting or remaining sedentary changes certain brain cells such that it affects not just the brain but the heart as well, putting the individual at risk of heart disease. Findings from a recent study showed that individuals who sat for more than 11 hours daily were 40 percent more likely to die within the next three years than those who sat for four hours or less daily—even when their physical activity at other times of the day was accounted for. Prolonged sitting has become the norm rather than an exception. In today’s society it is very easy to end up sitting 12-15 hours a day. If you have a commute of 1-2 hours round trip, work in an office that requires you to sit for an average of 8 hours and follow it up by watching TV for a couple of hours of each night, you end up spending the vast majority of hours sitting.

This is against the evolutionary norms for humans as the human body simply is not built to sit for prolonged hours. Go back to history and notice that the cave man was always active—often quite strenuously—to get food, find shelter and simply survive. They naturally spent a lot of time outdoors, walking, hunting, gathering, and performing various other physically oriented tasks. To them this was not a physical exercise or "working out." It was just normal life.  In today’s world, activity/exercise is primarily an intervention; it is something we do to guard against the negative impacts of a sedentary lifestyle.

The question is: how can you avoid the dreaded effects that come from prolonged sitting? The only available option is to drastically change your lifestyle. Standing for long hours by no means is the answer or a panacea. Prolonged standing comes with its own baggage of ill health, especially to the legs, knees and lower back. For optimal health we need to reduce sitting time and increase "non-exercise" physical activity. Most experts recommend a 50:50 sit-stand allowance. Experts also agree that it is beneficial to interrupt sitting time as often as possible. One way to do this is to move or stretch for at least 10 minutes for each hour of sitting time.

Here are a few strategies to lessen the sitting hours and help incorporate more physical activity throughout the day:

1. Do not sit for more than two hours continuously. Take a break to do yoga or walk. Try poses from our office yoga series (see Mini Office Yoga Sequence and Office Yoga Sequence. And remember to bring supplemental yoga with you. Stand up for at least two minutes for each hour of sitting. Short breaks can make a big difference. If you have trouble remembering to take a break from sitting, use an alarm to draw your attention.

2. If your occupation involves sitting for long periods, you can work at a standing desk. The potential benefits from a standing desk are manifold, including, higher productivity, reduced absenteeism and lower health care costs among many. And if you are attending meetings that require long hours of sitting, try standing midway through the meeting. If you're worried about any impending stares from your colleagues or manager, just hand over this article to them.

3. Take every opportunity you can to walk. Use the stairs instead of the elevators to get to your location. Use the bathroom on the ground floor or the basement and take the stairs to go down. In the parking lot, try parking farthest away from the building’s entrance door. If you are in the shopping mall or grocery store, try parking farthest away, not only from the store entrance but also from the parking cart corrals. A yoga trick you can try while you are walking—as long as you’re not carrying anything—is to cross your arms behind your back and hold your elbows or forearms. This will open your chest and stretch the fronts of your shoulders, which become tight from typing, driving, and so on.

4. Walk or bicycle to work. If you live too far away to walk or ride, consider driving part of the way and walking or using the bicycle for the remainder. For people who cycle regularly, you can use your yoga practice to balance your body (see Yoga and Cycling).

5. Instead of sitting on a couch while you are watching TV, reading, listening to music and/or socializing, try sitting on the floor in different seated positions, including Seated Crossed Legs, Cobbler’s pose, Hero pose, Thunderbolt pose, Wide Angle pose (Nina likes to fold laundry in that pose), and so on. Try to change positions every 10 minutes or so. And add activity to your TV time by doing supplemental yoga during commercial breaks.

Notice that all the household furniture from lunch tables to computer desks is designed with sitting in mind. So an upright, activity-centered lifestyle will require modifications to the furniture setting.

There is no doubt that excessive time spent in sedentary behavior is not only having an impact on public health but also has effects on the life span of the individual. Those who maintain a reasonable amount of activity, particularly across the middle and later years, are twice as likely to avoid early death and serious illness. However, it appears that it is never too late to make some changes and experience these positive outcomes. The antidote for these obstacles and their consequences are awareness, focus and determination. So take my advice, get off the couch/chair and seek some enjoyable activity that involves some movement.

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Yoga and Flexibility: An Overview

by Baxter

As with the other essential skills of Yoga for Healthy Aging (strength, balance and agility), we have looked at flexibility in different ways over the course of time here at YFHA. I thought it was high time to have another look at this essential skill and give it its proper due! Now, a lot a folks on the street already consider modern yoga mostly a practice of “stretching,” so flexibility is on their mind as soon as the word “yoga” is uttered. And most of the men I meet on the street and ask if they have tried to do yoga, respond, “No, I’m too stiff and inflexible!” To which I usually reply, “then yoga is just what you need!”

In the grand scheme of things, maintaining flexibility is essential for living a full, active life. From the simplest daily activities, like bending down to put your shoes and socks on or buttoning up a shirt, to the more skillful actions of playing a musical instrument or doing detailed bead work, big and small muscles need to be able to contract and lengthen effectively, and our joints, the pivot points of all movement, need to be able to move through their full range of motion. For the joints, moving through the full range of motion goes beyond their job as movement pivot points, but extends to being able to move the synovial fluid, which lubricates and cushions the joints, all around the joint surfaces. Synovial fluid also delivers nutrition throughout the joint space and removes waste from inside the joint. In other words, movement helps maintain the health and function of the joints!

Most of us know from experience and observation that flexibility can decrease as we age. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons notes the following realities about our aging muscles:

• As muscles age, they begin to shrink and lose mass. This is a natural process, but a sedentary lifestyle can accelerate it. 
• The number and size of muscle fibers also decrease. Thus, it takes muscles longer to respond in our 50s than they did in our 20s. 
• The water content of tendons, the cord-like tissues that attach muscles to bones, decreases as we age. This makes the tissues stiffer and less able to tolerate stress.

And they note that joints are also affected:

• Joint motion becomes more restricted and flexibility decreases with age because of changes in tendons and ligaments.
• As the cushioning cartilage begins to break down from a lifetime of use, joints become inflamed and arthritic.

However, on a positive point, they note that individuals who maintain regular physical activity can slow down this process dramatically, and potentially maintain near normal function of both muscles and joints! In addition to activity and diet, a positive mental attitude can also contribute to maintaining good flexibility as we age, something we have also addressed on these pages as well.

In past posts, we’ve looked at several neurological reflexes that connect the muscles to the spinal cord and brain that are involved in how the muscles lengthen, due to their elastic ability to stretch beyond their resting length, and how they contract or shorten beyond their resting length. Shari did a thorough job of discussing the three main reflexes that affect how our muscles respond to our “stretching” poses in yoga: the stretch reflex, autogenic inhibition, and reciprocal inhibition (to get the details, see Flexibility and Aging).

Some of these reflexes have evolved to help the brain effectively monitor the amount of stretch a muscle is experiencing, so as to determine if it is safe for the muscle to be stretching, and, if not, to try to protect the muscle from potential injury. Still others have evolved to allow one muscle group to contract while its antagonist on the other side of the joint is told to remain uncontracted, so as to permit a desired action to take place. A good yoga example of this is if you are lying on your back and lift your right leg up in the air, the quadraceps muscle contracts and shortens at the front of the hip joint to create the movement, but simultaneously, the brain tells the hamstring muscle to relax, so there is little or no resistance from the back of the hip joint. We take advantage of this in yoga to actually lengthen the hamstrings more.

More in how these reflexes apply to yoga practice in a minute. First, I wanted to also share with you some newer information that gets at the molecular level of how we improve elasticity of the muscles. This is mostly for you science geeks out there, but even if science is not your thing, it is still very cool that scientist are still working on unraveling how we stretch and maintain or lose flexibility in our muscles. An article in Science Daily reports that a team of researchers at Columbia University report the discovery of a new form of mechanical memory that adjusts the elasticity of muscles to their history of stretching. It involves a complex protein molecule called titin that was thought to be inactive for a long time, and a chemical process called oxidation that occurs as the titin molecule lengthens during stretching. As one of the researchers (who is a yoga practitioner) noted:

"As a yoga aficionado, I believe that we are starting to understand the increase in flexibility induced by yoga. A pose like downward-facing dog is a highly effective way to unfold the knots in titin, enabling modifications that make the protein remember that it has to remain unfolded and soft."

So if we practice regularly, we are likely taking advantage of this mechanical memory of our titin molecules. The practical application of the muscle reflexes and new research to improve our flexibility is distilled in the following recommendations:

• Slow, dynamic movements in and out of poses can allow gradual muscle lengthening without triggering the muscles protective reflex. This could be a good way to warm up for static stretches.
• With static, held stretches, entering into the stretch slowly will again allow for elastic lengthening to take place more easily. According to Shari, if we hold a pose for more than 6 -20 seconds, we can stimulate the autogenic inhibitory reflex to trigger a relaxation in the muscle, so the timing of the hold is important.

In static poses, intentionally contracting the muscles on the opposite side of the joint will actually allow our desired muscle group to lengthen more effectively. As an example, if I am trying to lengthen my quads in Bridge pose, if I actively contact my hamstrings and gluts, I’ll take advantage of the reciprocal inhibition reflex and get more stretch and length in my quads.

If you stretch a particular muscle or muscle group regularly, probably at least every other day (we don’t want to overdo it and cause overuse injuries!), we can take advantage of the molecular changes that can lead to more sustained flexibility over time. With big gaps in practice, however, our muscles are likely to return to our pre-practice length more quickly.

So if you needed yet another reason, the importance of regular home practice has a direct impact on gaining and maintaining flexibility in your entire body. Have you had your flexibility practice today?

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