Are alignment rules RUINING your body?

neuroplasticityyogaanatomy
Written By Adell Bridges

"Brainy What-Why-How"

Your weekly nibble of science-backed goodness to help you move better and feel unstoppable.

🧠

What (the TL:DR)

Alignment rules / guidelines have a very valid place in yoga asana, such as:

- helping build body awareness,

- allowing for more balance and stability, and

- helping you engage the targeted muscles.

I cue certain alignments all the time for these reasons!

So they're definitely not ruining your body ***HOWEVER...***

... they could be detracting from your resilience...

Why (the geeky neurology)

Every time we move or hold ourselves in a certain way...

it creates a neural pathway for that to happen again more easily.

The nervous system also doesn't bother keeping UNUSED pathways clear and active...

so every time you DON'T move in a certain way, it gets harder.

Movements, muscles, neural pathways, they're all:

USE IT OR LOSE IT

So if you ONLY move within the alignment rules, you're only going to be good at moving within those alignment rules.

How (apply it to your life)

So I encourage you to break out of those alignment rules sometimes!

Build neural pathways (and thus strength + resilience) in variations of postures where your joints aren't architecturally stacked for ideal stability. -- Because GUESS WHAT: THAT'S WHERE INJURIES OCCUR!

Need an idea? Try this!

This is part of the new Balance Focused "Welcome the Wobbles" flow on Move With Adell!

Don't be like the crowd of people in "The Emperor's New Clothes"; be like the child that says "OMG that old geezer is naked!" -- i.e. stay curious always,

Adell xoxo

Want to go way deeper with me? 👀

Adell Bridges
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