The Neuroscience of Flexibility

• Format: YTT Short Course
• Chose four Short Courses to create an Eclectic Weekend Module
• Also part of “The New Anatomy of Yoga” YTT Themed Intensive Workshop
• Instruction Time: 3 hours

The Neuroscience of Flexibility is an exploration into the anatomical freedom of true muscle intellegence, joint health, and flexibility in yoga asana. It is also the story of how asana and flexibility became the central focus in western yoga traditions, it’s myths and anti-myths, the romanticization of flexibility, and how to care for the body as it opens to physical freedom.

Flexibility comes largely from stretching muscle, and to a lesser degree from the movement of ligaments and tendons, as we try to avoid unnatural joint mobilization. Yogis ride the edge between joint mobility and joint stability. How much joint stability should be give up in order to gain greater joint mobility? Where is the line between flexibility and joint hypermobility? What happens when we stress a joint? How can I distinguish between muscle, tendon and ligament stretching? How do I manage old injuries? These and more questions will be answered in this enjoyable myth busting course that sheds light under the hood of our practice.

In The Science of Flexibility we will look at the biomechanics of neuromuscular communication, including the three primal spinal cord reflex arcs involved in muscle contraction and stretching: muscle spindle cell reflex, golgi tendon bodies, and reciprical inhibition. We’ll look at how and why muscles stretch, how yoga works to increase flexibility, and what we can do as practitioners to stretch more efficiently and without injury.

Yoga Alliance: This program satisfies Yoga Alliance requirements for anatomy and physiology, philosophy, lifestyle and ethics, and elective hours.

Course Outline

• Traditional Views on Flexibility in Yoga
• The Science and Mythology of Flexibility
• Flexibility versus Tone: Mobility versus Stability
• Muscle Tissue Structure and Function
• Contractile and Non-contractile Elements
• Three Types of Muscle Contraction
• Ligament Tissue A&P
• Tendon A&P
• Muscle, Ligament, and Tendon Flexibility
• Comparing the Hip Joint to the Shoulder Joint
• How Muscles Stretch: The Biomechanics of Stretching Muscle
• Static Stretching
• Active Static Stretching vs Passive Static Stretching
• Facilitated Stretching
• PNF: Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation
• Dynamic (Ballistic) Stretching
• Proprioception: Our Kinetic Sense
• Somatic Awareness
• Somatic Sensation: Interoception and Exteroception
• Joint Mobility vs Stability
• Muscle Stabilizers
• The Three Primitive Spinal Cord Reflex Arcs
• The Muscle Spindle Cell Receptor
• Reciprocal Inhibition
• Golgi Tendon Organs
• Muscle Awakening