YOGAJOURNAL.COM / 44 / FEBRUARY 2018
OUR PRO Writer Tom Myers is the author of Anatomy Trains and the co-author of
Fascial Release for Structural Balance. He has also produced more than 35 DVDs
and numerous webinars on visual assessment, Fascial Release Technique, and the
applications of fascial research. Myers, an integrative manual therapist with 40 years
of experience, is a member of the International Association of Structural Integrators
and the Health Advisory Board for Equinox. Learn more at anatomytrains.com.continued from page 42
both stretch and ease the fi ber webbing, as well
as hydrate the gel, making it more permeable.
New research shows that this web of proteins
runs down through the membranes of each cell
and connects both aspects of the connective-
tissue web through the cytoskeleton to the cell
nucleus. This means that when you’re doing yoga
stretches, you are actually pulling on your cells’
DNA and changing how it expresses itself. Thus,
the mechanical environment around your cells
can alter the way your genes function.
We’ve known for a while that the chemical
environment (hormones, diet, stress catechol-
amines, and more) can do this, but these new
connections explain some of the deeper changes
we see when people start practicing regularly.
More on that mechanical environment:
Cells are never more than four deep from your
capillaries, which excrete food, oxygen, messen-
ger molecules (neuropeptides like endorphins),
and more. Tension in your body—slumping your
shoulders forward, for example—prompts the
fi broblasts (the most common cells found in
connective tissue) to make more fi bers that will
arrange themselves along the line of stress. These
bulked-up fascial fi bers will form a barrier that
will slow or stop capillary-sourced food from
reaching your cells. You’ll get enough to survive,
but function will slow down. In addition to a
thicker barrier of fascial-tissue fi bers, the mucus
that completes your fl uid fascial network will also
become thicker and more turgid, which contrib-
utes to stopping the fl ow to your cells.
And because the exchange of goods from
capillaries to cells is a two-way street, with cells
delivering messenger molecules and CO2 and
other waste products back into the bloodstream,
a hardened fascial network can trap unprocessed
cell products (toxins or metabolites) like a stream
eddy traps leaves.
The fi x: deep strengthening and stretching
squeezes your fascial network the way you
would squeeze a sponge. Those metabolites that
were trapped in the mucousy bits rush in hoards
to the capillaries and your bloodstream. Many
of us may feel out of sorts after we release deeply
held tension —that’s your liver dealing with the
metabolites you squeezed from the tissues. Try
an Epsom salts bath, or go back for more move-
ment to keep the process going.
Over yoga time, fascial fi bers will slowly
thin out and unadhere over weeks, sometimes
months, but the mucus can change to a more
liquid state in as quickly as a minute, allowing
more sliding, less pain, more feeling, and less
resistance. Use your yoga—it’s a great tool to get
fl uids and information fl owing to their maximum
sensitivity and adaptability.ADHO MUKHA SVANASANA Downward-Facing Dog Pose
Move into Down Dog. It is easy to feel your back body in this pose as you
lift your hips, drop your heels from the middle of your legs, and lengthen
your spine. But take time to spread your awareness and attention throughout
your entire body in order to fi nd points that lack awareness and are unique
to your experience of this pose. Here are some points to ponder:
» Track the front of your spine in this pose, as if you were rolling a warm red
ball up the front of your spine from your tailbone, up the front of your sacrum
and the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae, then behind your guts and heart.
» Relax your voice box, then your tongue, then your jaw. Let your head dangle.
Let yourself be stupid for a moment, then re-establish the length in your cervi-
cal spine without the tension.
» Move your breath into the back of your ribs, which can be frozen in your early
work in this pose. Can you feel the ribs moving under your shoulder blades?
Are you moving your lower ribs behind your kidneys?
» Move your weight around your feet while in the pose. This can be subtle
but powerful. If your heels are off the ground, move slowly, medially then later-
ally, on the balls of your feet. Feel how that changes the way you feel the rest
of your body. If your heels are down, move slowly all around your feet like
a clock: At what position do you lock up? Work there.
» Because the deep lateral rotators are often
limiting in this pose, can you let the area between
your sits bones bloom? Try rotating your
knees inward in the pose to help fi nd
your limitation, and keep working
your hips upward. Remember, you
are whole. Someone may describe
you as a machine, but that is
not the scientifi c truth —
wholeness is.The benefi ts of thinking of the body as a whole organism, instead of in parts,
are profound. When we truly comprehend and feel this in our own bodies and
see it in our students, we can move and teach with more integrity. That said,
as yoga becomes physiotherapized, or made into a practice resembling phys-
ical therapy that helps people restore movement and function (a necessary
and positive process in general), asana are often reduced to which muscles
are stretched—think “Downward Dog is good for your hamstrings.” In reality,
while tight hamstrings may be a common experience, your edge in this pose
may be deep in your calves or butt, or along the fronts of your shoulders. It
depends on your patterns—the way you were grown and what you took on.
Try this exercise to help you feel that your anatomy is more like a plant than
a machine, and to help you move away from separating yourself into parts:Feel your fascia
ANATOMY
PRACTICE WELL
MODEL: CYNTHIA SING; STYLIST: JESSICA JEANNE^ EATON;HAIR/MAKEUP: BETHWALKER; TOP: TITIKA;BOTTOMS: KIRAGRACE