Hello,
I'm Vicky from Equanimity Yoga and welcome to my talk about yoga and physics.
While the study of physics may sound like it's a million miles away from yoga,
Actually they have a very close relationship.
From things like energy to forces,
Physics can play a part in all areas of our yoga practice.
Now when teaching classes,
I quite like to bring the idea that our actions aren't happening in a vacuum.
There are invisible forces,
Waves and vibrations all around us.
A lovely example of this is Newton's third law of motion.
It states that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.
You may be aware of it.
While this may at first glance seem to have nothing to do with yoga,
It can be applied to two very familiar yoga postures.
When we take cat cow pose and choose mindfully to push our hands,
Our shins and the tops of our feet into the ground,
The earth pushes back onto those parts of our body with the same force.
This is the opposite and equal reaction that Newton spoke of.
We can let the feeling of this force travel up our limbs and use it to maximise the flexion or forward bend cat stretch of our spine.
So we are literally drawing forces from the earth to help us in our movements.
Another area that we can bring physics into is the atmospheric pressure of the earth that we unknowingly use in yoga.
So our pranayama or breath work often involves a mindful inhale and exhale.
But if we work with shining skull breath,
Otherwise known as cap labarti,
It focuses on the exhale only.
So how can we not need to inhale during this breath?
The answer lies in the atmospheric pressure that is all around us.
When we have exhaled,
The diaphragm moves down and our intercostal muscles between the ribs move out.
That means the chest volume increases and the pressure decreases.
And subsequently,
As Boyle's law states,
The pressure of a gas tends to decrease as the volume of the container increases.
Now air likes to move from high to low pressure.
Therefore what happens is our inhale happens automatically.
The atmosphere is actually breathing for us.
Now this could be the reason that many people find breath retention,
So holding your breath,
More challenging after an exhale than an inhale,
As that air wants to find its way back in to equalize the pressure.
Staying with the idea of breath,
Have you ever noticed that kind of buzzing energy vibration during or immediately after our practice of brumari or bee breath?
Sound travels by vibrating from the source of the sound and bumping into the air molecules around.
These then bump into their neighbours and the pattern continues,
Making sound waves or sound energy.
When sound energy travels through the air and reaches our eardrum,
That vibrates too,
Allowing us to hear sound.
When this happens,
We may also feel that buzzing sense of energy vibration too.
Now let's consider gravity for a moment.
It's not something we may usually be aware of,
But when we understand the effects gravity can have on our practice,
It can transform how we experience it.
The force of gravity is everywhere.
It keeps the planets orbiting around the sun and also keeps objects and us from floating around uncontrollably by pulling objects towards one another.
Developing awareness that there's a force that holds us safely to the earth can allow tadasana or mountain pose to feel like our feet are being firmly held on the mat or the earth.
This also works for shavasana.
As we lay down,
We can purposely surrender all the weight to the force of gravity and know that we will be safely held by the earth.
This can give poses a real sense of grounding.
We can also consider our centre of gravity,
Which is thought to be the point where gravity acts on the body.
The taller we are,
The higher our centre of gravity.
When we adopt poses such as garland pose,
Malasana,
Often called yogi squat,
We lower our centre of gravity.
Our centre of gravity increases balance and stability in the body if it is lower.
Any poses where we have bent knees or take our weight lower to the ground should feel more stable.
This is another way we can make the force of gravity work with our bodies to take our practice to another level.
We can also defy gravity by taking inversions where our head is taken below our heart and hips.
In poses such as downward facing dog,
Adho mukha shavasana,
We are using our strength to push the hips and body away from the force of gravity.
This can mean that we need to work quite hard to maintain the pose for any length of time,
Which increases our strength and muscle,
Which can,
Amongst other things,
Help to reduce the risk of injury.
However,
Gravity doesn't mean all inversions have to be hard work.
In fact,
Gravity can have wonderfully beneficial effects on our heart health with no effort needed at all.
When practicing legs up the wall pose,
Vapruta karani,
A favourite in restorative classes,
Gravity helps our circulating blood return to the heart.
When we're upright standing,
The heart has to work harder to bring the blood back from our legs as it's working against gravity.
But with our legs up the wall,
Gravity works for us.
This allows the heart not to work as hard,
Which in turn decreases our blood pressure,
Lessening our risk of heart related issues.
So next time you lay on your mat,
You may want to take a moment to consider how the invisible forces,
Energy and waves all around you are silently influencing your yoga practice.
Thank you so much for listening.
