15 Apr 2022 · 0 min
Aly Faber explains how yoga and mindful stretching protect your body and nervous system. Connecting breath to movement reduces stress and fight-or-flight reactivity. She walks through a guided body scan and recommends gentle hip and leg stretches before bed, especially for hockey players prone to groin and hip injuries.
Foreign.
Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley Cup Champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.
Hi, my name is Ali Faberum, otherwise known as the Stretch Lady. I want to thank Mike Hartman and the Mike Hartman show for having me on today. What we are here to talk about is why yoga stretch is important and the importance of the mindfulness aspects of it. So if you don't know, yoga is a over 5,000 year old practice and the word means to yoke or put together the mind and the body. It encompasses the postures, the shapes and in yoga we call these asanas as well as the movement patterns which we can call Vinyasa breath work which we can call pranayam and the mindfulness aspect of it which can move into more of a meditative aspect. Yoga practices can range from being very slow and mindful to extremely vigorous and energetic. What's important to remember is the breath and to connect the breath to the movement to keep the central nervous system safe. We move from a place of rest and digest into fight and flight. When that heart rate starts to rise and dangers rise and what happens is yoga and the practice of mindful movement can create that safety in that central nervous system and allow everything to calm down. Yoga is important because it stretches the muscles in ways that activate what's called the stretch reflex and this creates a good tension in the muscles that allows the muscles to stretch more deeply without injury. Hockey can create a ton of tension in the groin, the hips and the legs, so stretching muscles mindfully is extremely important to prevent injury. A mindful yoga practice is really encompassed in thinking about what you want to stretch, why you want to stretch it, how you want to stretch it, and then using the breath to move in and out of the movements. I happen to have a fantastic video program that is called the Stretch lady that you can purchase on my website that has a lot of these mindful stretches within it. It's truly amazing. You can also follow me on social media, on Instagram and on Facebook under the Stretch Lady. I have an enormous amount of videos and tips there as well as my YouTube channel which is again the Stretch Lady. So let's do a little exercise in mindfulness. Wherever you are, allow yourself to find yourself in a comfortable position. You could be seated or lying down and allow every single muscle of your body to relax. Allow the space between the eyebrows to relax, even your ears to relax, your mouth, your chin, the front and back of your neck, the chest, the upper back, moving into the belly, even into the lower back into the hips and the legs, quadriceps in the front, hamstrings in the back, moving down into the calves and the shins, front and back of the lower leg, and then into the feet. And then imagine your entire body completely melting. If you're seated, let the shoulders relax, maybe even if you're seated, allow your feet to dig down deeper into the ground. If you're lying down, allow the back of your head to sink into whatever surface you're lying on and the lower back to relax, and the glutes and the backs of the legs. And then take just a few moments to breathe, breathing from the top of the head into the shoulders, into the central chest and belly, almost around the lower back, and then all the way down into the body. Just allow yourself to breathe fully with intention with what we're going to call mindfulness, and take a few deep breaths right here, allowing the complete body to relax. As you do this, you may find that thoughts move in and out of your field. Allow those thoughts to release and just take a few moments to connect to you and nothing else. Maybe you inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Just taking a few minutes to be. When you're ready, start to bring some awareness into the body. Maybe wiggling the fingers and the toes very gently, allowing the eyes to open softly. That's mindfulness. We did that for just a few minutes and I bet you all of you feel completely different. This is something you can come back to at any point in time and utilize to help create focus, balance. Anytime that things get heated in your life or challenging, that's what mindfulness is is coming back to the breath, coming back to the body, coming back to embodying your body another time. That's really amazing to do. Mindfulness practice and some mindful stretching is right before bed. What you can do is allow yourself to do some very, very gentle stretches Again. Visit me at thestretchlady on all social media platforms and you can find some really nice stretches to do before bed. I'd suggest hips, legs and shoulders before bed just to allow your body to start to get ready and prepare yourself for complete relaxation again. I wanna thank the Mike Hartman show for having me on. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me on social media at the Stretch Lady. Thanks so much and make it a great day.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.
