Why and How to Activate Your Muscles in Yoga Poses

by Nina 

Bicep Muscle

Tricep Muscle

For some time now we’ve been suggesting that you add “isometric muscle contraction” to your poses to enhance both strength building and stretching. I, myself, have been experimenting with it quite a bit in my practice, and have noticed some dramatic results. But since we’ve never really explained much about what we meant by that or how to put it into practice, I’ve decided that today I’m going to go into detail about both the benefits of this technique and the best ways to practice it so you, too, can give it a try. 

Why Do It 

Stretching. When you are stretching a particular muscle, consciously activating the agonist muscle (the opposite muscle to the one you’re stretching) will cause the muscle you are stretching to release (though reciprocal inhibition). For example, if you are stretching the your back thigh muscles (hamstrings), activating your front thigh muscles (quadriceps) will release your back thigh muscles, allowing you to increase the hamstring stretch. 

Bone Strengthening. Although a weight-bearing pose on its own will strengthen bones, if you consciously contract the muscles holding you up by firming them toward the bones, you will enhance the bone strengthening effects of the pose. For example, if you’re standing in Tree pose (Vrksasana), firming your leg muscles will enhance bone building in the standing leg. 

Muscle Strengthening. As you work in strength building poses, you can strengthen more than just the obviously active muscles by consciously contracting other muscles as you work in the pose. For example, as you hold you arms out to the sides in Warrior 2 (Virabradrasana 2), you can activate your triceps as well as your biceps to increase all-around arm strength. 

Joint Safety. For people with joint problems, such as arthritis, consciously firming the muscles that support a joint will help protect the joint from strain or wear and tear. For example, if you have knee arthritis, firming the muscles on all sides of your thighs in Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana) will help support your knees. And for people who are overly flexible and can bend easily into deep forward bends and backbends, consciously activating the muscles that are supporting you in the pose will prevent you from hanging from your joints, which can cause injury. For example, instead of passively dropping into pose where you bend backward or forward from the hips, such as Camel pose (Ustrasana) and Standing Forward Bend, (Uttanasana) you can protect your hip joints by activating your upper thigh and lower buttock muscles. 

How to Do It 

To achieve the benefits I’ve described, you should contract your muscles gently rather than strongly. Strongly contracting a muscle shortens the muscle, which seems to prevent you from moving as freely in the pose. On the other hand, gently firming a muscle toward the bone provides muscular support without interfering with movement. If you’re not used to working this way, it may take some practice. Take it in two steps (thank you, Donald!): 

1. Consciously relax the muscle, allowing it to lengthen. 
2. Gently firm the muscle toward the bone. 

Stretching. When you are stretching a particular muscle, bring your awareness to the agonist muscle (it is already contracting), which is the opposite muscle to the one you are stretching. Gently relax and then firm the agonist muscle toward the bone, and feel whether the opposite muscle stretches a bit more. For example, if you are stretching your tricep muscles (underarm muscles) with arms overhead, try gently firming your biceps toward to the bone. (I realize that which muscle is the “opposite” to the one you are stretching is not always obvious but that is an anatomy lesson for another day.)

Another technique I just learned about is that if you are targeting a particular muscle, you can contract the muscle you want to stretch BEFORE you go into the pose. For example, if you want to stretch tight hamstring muscles, you could practice Locust pose (Salabasana) to contract the muscles just before practicing Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana).

Strength Building. If you are practicing a strength-building pose, rather than contracting only the most obviously active muscle, firm all the surrounding muscles around the bone as well. For example, in Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana), firm all your arm muscles and shoulder muscles toward the bone. When you want to strengthen your hip area, in a standing pose, for example, you can slowly engage the muscles all around your hip joints, ensuring that this action does not pull you out of good alignment. 

Joint Safety. For joint safety, you want to emphasize strength and stability rather than promoting more flexibility. So practice as you would for increasing bone or muscle strength by firming the muscles that support your joints. For example, to protect your front knee in Warrior 2 pose, you might shorten the distance between your feet so you are not bending your front knee through such a deep range of motion, and then, when your knee is positioned over your ankle joint, focus on firming the muscles on all sides of the knee joint toward the bone. 

If you decide to experiment with any of these techniques, either in your home practice or in a class you're teaching, please let me know how it goes!

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Friday Q&A: Aging Muscles, Bones and Joints

Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Q: You all have been writing a lot about muscles and bones lately. I was wondering, how exactly does aging affect our musculo-skeletal system? And how can we influence the aging process with yoga and our lifestyle choices?

A: The process of aging affects our musculo-skeletal system in several particular ways. As I have written about previously, as muscles age, especially after about the age of 50, we start to lose muscle mass in a process called sarcopenia (see Strength and Aging). Sarcopenia is considered a normal part of the aging process, one that can lead to visibly smaller skeletal muscles—the ones that move our body and limbs around—which are then also going to be weaker. It is usually a slow, gradual process, but unchecked could lead to a point in a person’s life when the weakness could negatively impact his or her daily activities. According to an article Aging changes in the bones – muscles – joints from the National Institutes of Health: 

“Changes in the muscle tissue, combined with normal aging changes in the nervous system, cause muscles to have less tone and ability to contract. Muscles may become rigid with age and may lose tone, even with regular exercise.”

The body’s soft tissues tend to mostly made of water, and as we age, we also gradually experience a decrease in the amount of water in the muscles and the connective tissues (fascia and tensions) that surround the muscles and attach them to the bones, as well as the ligaments that connect bones to bones. As these changes occur, these structures become more brittle, less resilient and more likely to suffer injury, such as, strains and sprains. And because these structures don’t have a very good blood supply to start with, repair and recovery is typically slow, and slower as we get older. Other important soft tissue structures, such as the intervertebral discs between the vertebrae bones of the spine, and cushions, such as the meniscus in the knees and the labrum in the hip and shoulder joints, also suffer the same changes and the same potential for injury and degeneration. 

The skeleton, which is made up of over 200 bones, also undergoes changes as we age. Most commonly, the joint surfaces between the mobile joints can suffer wear and tear over a lifetime of use. The connective tissue barrier known as cartilage that coats the ends of each bone to make it slippery and cushioned can gradually thin out and leave the underlying bone exposed and sensitive to inflammation. This is commonly referred to as osteoarthritis (see Yoga for Osteoarthritis), an extremely common aging-related problem that can actually start at about any age, especially in those who use their bodies intensely for sports and work activities. 

Finally, the bones can begin to thin and lose density as we age, making them more vulnerable to fractures, which can then be slower to heal due to the abnormally thin bones. Thinning of the bones (osteoporosis) is extremely common in women over 65, with up to 50% developing it, and surprisingly common in men as well over 65, at 25% incidence. The bones of the thoracic spine (your mid spine) are at greatest risk for fracture, followed by the wrist bones and the femur bone (thigh bone) of the hip joint. Fractures from osteoporosis can lead to ongoing chronic pain, physical disability and, particularly with hip fractures, premature death. 

These factors and others, such the connection between the muscles and the neurologic system, can also lead to changes in posture and balance, which can also increase the chances of injury over time. An increase in general stiffness and pain can also arise with combinations of the above changes. 

On a brighter note, it has been noted in aging athletes, specifically long distance runners and cyclists, who maintain good cardio-vascular and respiratory function may see improved endurance in their sports compared to when they were younger! Here is a case where long term participation in physical activity pays off in improved function, not decline. This speaks directly to what we can do with regards to our lifestyle choices that can positively influence these changes of aging: stay active!  Regular exercise, modified to accommodate body changes such as arthritic joints or thinning bones, can help to slow, stall and even reverse many of these conditions. And for our purposes here, yoga can be an ideal standalone practice for some conditions, such as sarcopenia, and great in combination with other health practices for others, such as with osteoporosis or arthritis (which might also require medications and mineral supplements, for example). Eating a healthy diet and drinking adequate amounts of water to fuel and hydrate the body, and by extension these parts of the musculo-skeletal system, is another wise choice. 

For further information, check out these posts from our archives:

• Yoga for Strength: An Overview 
• Yoga and Flexibility: An Overview
• Healthy Bones for Men and Women Alike
• What is Osteopenia? How Can Yoga Help?
• Yoga for Osteoarthritis

—Baxter

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