Anyone who has done yoga with me for a while knows how I cringe when I hear the word “stretching”. Now don’t get me wrong, the word itself is fine. It’s great, for example, to make changes to stretch your week’s earnings to go further. Or to whip up a quick pasta side-dish to stretch the amount of meat you had purchased when your kids bring a couple unexpected guests to dinner. Just don’t do it to your body!

As I discuss in my yoga group classes and private sessions, experience has taught me that when people say they stretch what they often really mean without realizing it is that they OVER-stretch.

What’s the difference??

Although some of the body positions may actually be the same whether doing stretching or yoga, the difference lies in whether they are using awareness of their internal sensations and using their breath.

Moving with and using one’s breath does several things for us. It slows us down. It helps us turn our focus inward to be more aware of our physical sensations. And the exhale portion of the breath slows the heart rate ever so slightly, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and relaxing the muscles – allowing them to be more receptive to being stretched. All of these differences help keep us safer and help us avoid triggering the stretch reflex which is a protective response that can cause muscles to tighten more rather than lengthen. In other words, they help us avoid OVER-stretching and making our muscles even more tight!

So if you want to release and lengthen tight muscles, come do yoga! Or at least incorporate these valuable yoga principles into your stretching! Namaste!