Introduction
This chapter draws mostly upon my previous neuromuscular therapy training in order to explain how yoga works. Although based on older and perhaps archaic physiological laws and principles, they never-the-less offer you a workable model of how to maximize your benefit and minimize your liability through yoga.1
Let's for a moment assume you are a fit yoga teacher who has never experienced the debilitating effects of significant injury, chronic illness, or aging. In order to be a really excellent teacher, you must know why many of your students struggle with their yoga and why so many of them drop out. The following Principles and Laws can explain why:
Contents:
The Law of Facilitation (Reoccurring Injuries)
"When an impulse has passed once through a certain set of neurons to the exclusion of others, it will tend to take the same course on future occasions, and each time it traverses this path the resistance will be smaller; the passage of these neural impulses become even easier for all succeeding impulses."2
Commentary:
Have you ever experienced an injury that you thought long ago was completely healed, but it has reappeared; and worse yet, you keep re-injuring it? This happens because pain that is transmitted through a specific neurological pathway becomes “facile” or “easily accessed,” and therefore is said to become "facilitated" or that a facilitated pathway has been created.
The pain then continues or re-occurs along this pathway or groove as a result of even the slightest stress. Keep in mind that it is important to remember that whenever soft tissue is stimulated, it contracts.3
Furthermore, a facilitated pathway becomes more active the older you become, because fascia contracts with age (which is discussed more in detail in the following chapter). As fascia contracts, pressure on neurological pathways increases thereby exacerbating pain. Then, a nasty cycle of pain--contraction-and increased pain ensues.
A regular appropriate yoga practice effectively rehabilitates contracted fascia; and when hyptertonic (tight) fascia relaxes, acting in accordance to the inverse of Hilton's Law, pressure is released on those nerves passing through that fascia.
This in turn effectively reduces stimuli into the joint that supplies that fascia and ultimately releases the stimuli on the muscles that attach to that joint. (You will want to re-read this chapter after you read about Hilton's Law, which is discussed in more detail below).
Davis' Law (Over Stretching)
When muscle ends are brought closer together, the pull of tonus is increased, which shortens the muscle, which may even cause hypertrophy; and if muscle ends are separated beyond normal, tonus is lessened or lost, thus muscles becomes “weak.”4
Commentary:
When you try to hold stretches for prolonged periods of time, you may enhance flexibility, but you also risk weakening muscle structures. If the object of an appropriate yoga practice is to "move toward balance and union" and also to "maximize benefit and minimize liability," then excessive stretching seems contrary to yoga. Davis' Law addresses why "doing less gets you more."
Pfluger's Laws:5
Law of Unilaterality
If a mild irritation is applied to one or more sensory nerves, the movement will take place usually on one side only, on that side which is irritated.
The Law of Symmetry
“If the stimulation is sufficiently increased, motor reaction is manifested, not only by the irritated side, but also in similar muscles on the opposite side of the body”
Law of Intensity
Reflex movements are usually more intense on the side of irritation; at times the movements of the opposite side equal them in intensity, but they are usually less pronounced.
Commentary: Have you ever noticed that when a specific muscle group on one side of your body becomes injured or chronically sore, the same muscles on the other side of your body also became sore? This is the "Law of Symmetry" and "The Law of Intensity" at work.
The Law of Radiation
If the excitation continues to increase, it is propagated upward, and reactions take place through centrifugal nerves coming from the cord segments higher up.
The Law of Generalization
When the irritation becomes very intense, it is propagated in the medulla oblongata, which becomes a focus from which stimuli radiates to all parts of the cord, causing a general contraction of all muscles of the body. The body is then said to become "generalized."
Commentary
The progressive nature of Pfluger's Laws explain why the entire body ultimately becomes so painful and "uptight" when it becomes generalized and why everything hurts. The person can't stand to be touched anywhere and the body is in a chronic state of fatigue.
Generalization can occur after considerable or sustained physical or emotional trauma. Furthermore, the pain of generalization can become worse just when going through the "ages and stages" thresholds, as described in the next section.
Understanding these mechanics is especially relevant for yoga teachers who work with people who are generalized; for the harder those who are generalized "try" to do their yoga, the more uncomfortable they become (and may even exacerbate their condition).
Arndt Schultz Law
Weak stimuli activate physiological processes; very strong stimuli inhibit them.
Commentary:
In combination with the above laws, Arndt Schultz Law clearly supports the supposition that ill, injured, and generalized people benefit by doing less in order to get more.
In technical terms, it can be said that the appropriate amount of action generated within a yoga exercise: 1) avoids excessive stimuli, 2) serves to interrupt afferent impulses, 3) decreases resistance to stimulus, and therefore 4) releases tight tissue and nerve compression that brings about improved neural integrity and balance.
An appropriate yoga practice therefore decreases hypertonic tissue (tightness), helps to restore flexibility, strength, and endurance; and increases circulation.
Hilton's Law
As one of the most important concepts that explains how yoga works, Hilton's Law essentially states that the nerve root supplying a joint supplies the muscles attaching to that joint, as well as the overlying fascia and skin.
Commentary:
Let's assume you are doing some "aggressive" yoga and you end up irritating, say the hamstrings of one of your legs. But it's not just the hamstrings that are affected. Because fascia is a non-specific broad matrix of fiber that overlays your entire body, including all your other muscle groups; fascia contracts both at the point of the irritation as well as further away from the hamstrings.
Contracted fascia tends to irritate nerves of the hamstrings as well as those of other muscle structures away from the point of irritation; even more so if you have experienced previous injuries. Then the facilitated pathway that is created has consequences to your muscles that are further away from the hamstring injury.
For example, let's say twenty years ago, you sustained a lower back injury that you thought was completely healed. However, you have now injured your hamstrings. The contracting fascia affecting your hamstrings also migrates upwards toward your back.
The nerves passing through the contracting fascia over your back then become irritated and because a facilitated pathway exists, the muscles of your back readily contract causing pain in an area you thought was completely healed.
If an irritation (physical or emotional) is substantial enough, and if enough facilitated pathways exist, fascia throughout your body will contract which then causes your body to respond in accordance with Pfluger's Law of Generalization.
It then feels like every muscle in your body has tightened and you become both physically and emotionally sensitive — almost hyper-sensitive — to being touched and even to loud noises.
Your entire body hurts and you feel really uptight. In fact, your overall "uptightness" can be felt in your skin, which also literally begins to tighten. And then to add insult to injury, your energy level begins to drop. Is it any wonder you feel "uptight?"
Another way to look at how this mechanism works is to assume you are now in or approaching middle age. When you were young, you could “go for it” whenever you wanted. Even though you could stress and abuse your body, it responded. Sometimes there was pain, but you could work through it. Your coaches or instructors told you, “No pain, no gain.” They seemed to be right. You became stronger, and your endurance grew.
But that was years ago, and you have since passed through one or more of those ten-year ages and stages thresholds that will be discussed in the next chapter.
So let's assume that it's been a quite a while since you've done regular exercise and it's time to begin again. The author of the new book you just bought, or your new exercise instructor or — worse yet — your inner voice tells you to try really hard and to "go for it" just like in the old days.
And so you do. But now for days afterwards, you are hurting everywhere, all over your body. You feel as if you overstretched and over exercised everything and you are really uncomfortable. Here's what's happened.
 As you attempt to restore your former flexibility, strength, and endurance, you become tighter. Why? Just the very nature of aging causes your fascia to contract. And because you've irritated old facilitated pathways you don't feel better — you feel worse, so you have to quit — yet again.
You went too deeply too quickly. And this is what Hilton's Law is all about. If you go too deeply too quickly, you stand to irritate your fascia. When fascia is irritated, it contracts. As it contracts, the underlying muscles become stimulated. And so on. As your fascia contracts, you experience more pain and lethargy; not the flexibility and energy you wanted.
During my study of NeuroMuscular therapy, I found that soft tissue contraction and pain can be resolved quickly by initially working at the level of the superficial fascia, near the surface; not by deeply working into muscle or deeper layers of fascia. That was one of the reasons I changed my approach to yoga exercise.
In my therapeutics practice, I learned that doing less and working superficial soft tissue first, affords quicker, safer, and longer lasting results.
When these very same concepts are applied to yoga exercise (as is presented in the yoga-exercise routines of ExTension and Recovery Yoga), superb results are likewise obtained particularly when practiced, at least initially, at the level of the superficial fascia.
Accordingly, an appropriate yoga practice is both created and enhanced not just in the doing of asana, but by avoiding over stimulation of soft tissue and waiting until it is ready to respond. An appropriate yoga practice is created when we avoid pushing, forcing and pain by not going too deeply too quickly; particularly when ill, injured, or as you are passing through the ten-year thresholds.
Conclusion
When yoga is appropriately practiced without pain or strain, the underlying mechanical causes of soft tissue contraction and its resultant pain are addressed. By releasing soft tissue contraction slowly over time, the body
gradually
moves toward neuromuscular balance. The stress upon the nerves that pass through soft tissue is reduced…and pain decreases. "Appropriate" yoga is, therefore, an effective treatment in chronic fascia dysfunction, such as fibromyalgia and chronic muscular pain.
It is imperative to differentiate between the physicality of younger people who have yet to go through their first or second "ages and stages" thresholds, with those who have. Before going through their thresholds, healthy younger people can vigorously and aggressively practice yoga, or for that matter virtually any sport, usually with minimal consequence. If and when injured, younger people can heal quickly and will soon be able to resume their activities.
But for those who have already passed through one or more "ages and stages" thresholds; or for those who have experienced enough of life's traumas to have moved them toward -- into generalization, will pay a price for vigorous or aggressive yoga.
However, it is important to clarify that anyone, from world class athletes to chronically ill or injured people, who practices yoga by adhering to ExTension and Recovery Yoga's principles and laws will almost always more readily "maximize potential and minimize liability" than those who aggressively practice.
You may think that this approach to yoga can only be a non-aerobic yoga workout. But that's not true! It can be both. With sufficient practice and understanding, the program can become extraordinarily aerobic.
Because many different vigorous approaches to yoga are currently being taught today, I need to make it absolutely clear that there is no judgment with regard to any approach to yoga.
On the other hand, there needs to be a clear yogic alternative that supports changing and aging physiology. Why? Because life's traumas never really heal and their remaining afferent pathways create a very real potential for future liability.
Does this mean that everyone who has experienced an injury, or that everyone who has passed through one or more of the ages and stages plateaus will become generalized or will experience a soft tissue "facilitated pathway" and pain? The answer is an unqualified no.
As we grow older and as we pass through the "ages and stages" thresholds, we very well might pay a price when we participate in physically demanding extrinsic activities, but participation is what life is all about. That being said, an appropriate yoga practice as we grow older allows us to "minimize liability while maximizing potential."
Finally, again in technical terms, it can be said that:
Yoga, when appropriately practiced, allows a reversal of the stress-tension-pain cycle which is accomplished when yoga exercise along with coordinated breath management interrupts afferent impulses to the spinal cord, thereby reducing the intensity of nervous activity within tissues while mechanically forcing out toxic irritants, which accumulate at nerve receptor sites.
Hypertonic tissue then relaxes; circulation is increased and the body begins movement toward normal neuromuscular integrity and balance. An appropriate yoga practice of yoga exercise and breath management addresses the progression of pain from acute, to chronic phases, in terms of the above physiological Principles and Laws.
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1 Thanks to Julio Kuperman, MD, an anatomist who correctly criticized my use of older "laws" during one of my seminars (see below commentary). Also thanks to St. John, Paul LMT and Walker, Judith LMT, and their NeuroMuscular Therapy Seminars 1988-1991. NeuroMuscular Therapy is based upon and influenced by various physiological principles adapted from Dorland's Medical Dictionary, (W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1994). Thanks also to Mitch Hackerman, PT, for his discerning evaluation of the NeuroMuscular Laws).
Thanks to Travell J, Simons D., Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual (Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 1993).
Commentary: The founders of today's NeuroMuscular therapeutic techniques may have taken "poetic license" when interpreting Pfluger's and Arndt-Schultz Laws. Both Pfluger and Arndt-Schultz were 19th-20th century physiologists and were then on the cutting edge of understanding the physical world around them. A considerable body of knowledge has been developed far and away from what they knew then, but in no way negates their original postulates. In any event, after completing a review of the literature, I feel St. John and Walker, in spite of some criticism they have received, were close enough to the mark. I therefore feel comfortable using their interpretation of the Laws developed by Pfluger and Arndt-Schultz as a way of explaining, in part, how yoga works.
The concept of Centrifugal Nerves was first postulated by Ivan Pavlov who discovered the existence of a basic pattern in the reflex regulation in nerves. The term “centrifugal nerves” was first used in Pavlov's 1883 doctoral thesis:
a. Peripheral receptors which receive the irritating action convey impulses via afferent nerves to the central system
b. Nervous centers convey the stimulus to the centrifugal nerves
c. Efferent nerve conductors (pass that stimulus to) ... tissues ....
German Physiologist E.F.W. Pflugler (1829-1910) described the course of myofascial pain: USIRG is the acronym which stands for the Laws of Unilaterality, Symmetry, Intensity, Radiation, Generalization.
Arndt-Schultz Law has even a more interesting history. Over a century ago Schultz's experiments (1888) showed that many chemical agents had the effect of stimulating the growth and respiration of yeast. The phenomenon became known as the Arndt-Schultz Law and was widely referred to in the pharmacological literature and became one of the scientific principles on which homeopathy is based. One of the well-known laws of drug reaction, the Arndt-Schultz Law, states that "Minimal doses of a drug stimulate, medium doses inhibit, and large doses destroy cellular activity." It is interesting to note that St. John was far from the first to use Arndt-Schultz to explain phenomena solely of interest to him. For example:
Bio-stimulatory effects of laser are governed by the Arndt-Schultz Law of Biology i.e. weak stimuli excite physiological activity, strong stimuli retard it. The implication of this for wound healing is that, as treatment of a wound is continuing and there appears to be a slowing down of healing, a reduction of the laser dosage may be needed. By virtue of the Arndt-Schultz Law and the changed responsiveness of the tissues, what was originally a stimulating laser dose may have become an inhibitory dose of laser.
2 Law of Facilitation:
Also see: Leon Chaitow
3 Stimulation is stimulation (contraction is contraction). Once facilitation of the neural structures of an area has occurred, any additional stress impacting on the individual leads to a marked increase in neural activity in the facilitated segments, and not to the rest of the (normal, 'unfacilitated') spinal structures. The stress can be of any type – emotional, physical, chemical, climatic, mechanical, indeed absolutely anything which imposes adaptive demands on the person as a whole and not just this particular part of their body. Korr tells us that when subjects who have had facilitated segments identified were exposed to physical, environmental and psychological stimuli similar to those encountered in daily life, the sympathetic responses in those segments were exaggerated and prolonged. The disturbed segments behaved as though they were continually in, or bordering on, a state of 'physiologic alarm.' From Korr I (ed) Sustained sympatheticotonia as a factor in disease The neurobiological Mechanisms in Manipulative Therapy Plenum Press New York 1978 (as quoted Dr. Leon Chaitow).
4, 5, 6 St. John, Walker, and Travell. ibid.
7 Hilton's Law: from Principles of Osteopathy, 4th Edition, Dain L. Tasker, D. O. 1916. See
Medical definitions from OMD, Academic Medical Publishing 1997-99
Hypertonic Tissue: Increased rigidity, tension, and spasticity of muscle that is characteristically tender to touch. Return
Hypertrophy: The enlargement or overgrowth of an organ or part due to an increase in size of its constituent cells. Return
Tonus: The normal degree of vigor and tension, in muscle, the resistance to passive elongation or stretch, tonus.
Somatic: Pertaining to or characteristic of the soma or body. Return
Afferent impulses (pathway): Nerve structures through which impulses are conducted from a peripheral part toward a nerve center. Return
Facilitated pathway: Greater effectiveness of synaptic transmission by successive presynaptic impulses, usually due to increased transmitter release. In acupuncture terminology, a facilitated pathway develops as a result of injury which allows easy recurrence of irritation and pain. Return
Fascia and Muscle illustrations from C.D. Clemente: Anatomy. A Regional Atlas of the Human Body, 3rd Ed. Philadelphia. Used with permission from the publisher.
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