Constipation Vs Backpain, Physical Vs Physiological connection

In my earlier blog, Misunderstanding the pain, I explained how pain in any part of the body doesn’t mean that only that part of the body is disturbed. You are just getting indication from the weakest link.  In this blog I will explain the relation between physical and physiological body from a unique problem I went through. Apart from this I got an insight in to how modern medicine and Ayurveda looks at the same problem.

One day after an intense Yoga practice I got a severe back pain. This was around a year back and I was ignorantly  testing limits everyday. Pain had become part of my life and I had learnt to live with the pain. But this time the pain was something unusual. I ignored it for a day but it started becoming worst. Most of the stretch pain will subside with sufficient rest but this was increasing (I explained about pains during Yoga practice in my earlier blog, Yoga teacher pushes...Good or bad?). On day two I rushed immediately to an allopathic doctor. He said that my muscles have gone for spasm and I need to take rest for a week. Bed rest is the first few words modern medicine speaks when they hear back pain. So, next time you visit allopathic doctor only after taking sufficient bed rest so that you can rule out the obvious response :)

After two days my problem worsened and on top of that I started developing severe constipation^[1] problems. Slight constipation was there even before but it was not causing any problem. This time as pain never subsided I went to an Ayurvedic doctor. Somehow I believe in Ayurveda for treating such common and chronic problems. Ayurvedic doctor said because of constipation I have developed back pain. He said when bowel movement becomes difficult it starts putting extra load on the surrounding muscles which was the cause of back pain. This was a thought provoking explanation and made me think. I started analyzing my problem in greater detail.

After much research and self study I understood the problem. When we overstretch a muscle it causes muscle spasm^[2]. Spasm means sudden contraction of muscle fibers to avoid being overstretched. This is more like a natural defense mechanism of our body. When back muscles goes for spasm they lose their flexibility or their rhythm. Back muscle rhythm is important to cause movement inside your intestine. Back muscle contraction and relaxation which happens even during walking, running etc creates rhythmic contraction and relaxation in our intestine. This movement is essential to move food inside our intestine. When this rhythm is affected it leads to constipation. Constipation will put load on back muscles which are already compressed due to spasm thus further increasing the pain. This cycle goes on and pain shoots up exponentially.

Constipation has many causes and what I experienced is one of the causes which gave me this understanding. This example clearly shows how our physical body is connected with our physiological functions. When we work on our physical body in Yoga practice we are working to release tension or contraction in our muscles which is influencing our physiological organs and its function. Wondering what I did? I thought of targeting the problem from both sides and I took both medicine :)
 

In my future blogs I would logically explain how Yoga practice will influence you at a much deeper levels such as mental, intellectual and energetic. I hope you enjoyed reading it.  

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References

[1] http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/digestive-diseases-constipation
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasm 

Previous related blogs
Misunderstanding the pain

Yoga teacher pushes...Good or bad?

We are indeed born to run

This blog was written some time back but stayed as draft till now... :)

Due to bronchitis I always found it very difficult to run longer. Before my mountaineering courses I used to work on my running as many blog suggested that I should be prepared to run at least 5-10 kms. I was not sure whether it was just mental but I couldn't run more than 3kms. I couldn't breath effectively after 3kms and I dint understand where I was going wrong.

In July of 2010 I dislocated my ankle. I was relieved to see my X-ray which said 'no fracture' but doc said that fractures can be completely fixed but with the degree of ligament tear I had, there is always a chance of recurrence. My leg was plastered and I was on bed rest for next 3 weeks. During these 3 weeks body intelligent was taking over. I observed that my leg was shrinking in its size (which is medically termed as 'Atrophy') and was more worried about recovering from the injury. This is when I goggled and bought the book "Born to Run" by Christopher Mc Dougall to motivate myself to recover sooner.

My injured ankle and the book

Born to Run was all about running bare foot. It sounded crazy initially but author had done good justice by explaining scientifically why running bare foot was good. He mentions that people can run bare foot for long hours. It indeed motivated me to recover sooner to try running bare foot. After 3 months my doc said I can start jogging but still no running. I was still worried about recurrence and had almost surrendered for the injury.

Next day, I decided to test the contents of the book by jogging bare foot. Till then I had complicated my life so much with good running shoes, socks, attire etc that I was very hesitant to run bare foot in front of people. I got up early in the morning to try before many could see my foolishness :-). I must say it was a very good run. My rhythm was perfect and I did not feel tired after 3-4 km which was usually the case. I stopped because I thought it was too much work done already. It was my mind saying you have run a lot but my body was not showing any signs of tiredness. I was happy when even my breathing was in control. It was magical.

From then on I always run bare foot and I can run comfortably. Lesson learnt "Nature has designed us perfectly with everything that is required. We want to act smart by constantly trying to interfere with nature" This battle which we will eventually loose. Now I am facing with the next big challenge- Mind. After one hour of running I stop because I get bored. I was able to overcome my physical limitation of running and now I need to deal with my mind. I hope I will be able to conquer it soon with practice. It funny that, I had to dislocate my ankle to find the secret of running :)

Book mentioned in the blog
http://www.flipkart.com/born-run-hidden-tribe-superathletes-greatest-race-world-has-never-seen/p/itmczyzknnhy9tds 

Yoga teacher pushes...Good or Bad?

It is common that many Yoga teacher pushes you in to your posture in order to make you stretch beyond your normal capabilities. They do it with the intention to make you do all advance asanas soon. Question has always been raised about this method. Is it a healthy way to do Yoga? Does it cause any harm? etc etc. In this blog I am going to talk about this in detail from my studies and experience.

Let us first understand the nature of human body. Pain is a natural feedback mechanism to protect your body from injuries. It is the warning indicator to tell you that you about to cross your limits. It is nature’s way of telling “Boss, you are doing too much, be careful!!”.  Limitation can be from any part of your body:  muscles, joints, ligaments etc, you first feel the pain. As I explained in my earlier blog: Misunderstanding the pain, pain in any part of the body doesn’t mean that only that part of the body has limitations. You are just getting indication from the weakest link.

When you push beyond your limits too fast, your muscles goes for spasm^[1] (sudden, involuntary contraction of muscles) in order to prevent you from stretching/overloading further. Although most of the spasm relaxes in a few days, it can even be permanent. Your muscle remembers these spasms and next time it will occur soon unless you have trained rightly after the first occurrence. All these are natural defense mechanisms to protect our body.  Finally, postural muscles (prevents you from collapsing in the field of gravity) act like spring in the field of gravity ^[2][3] and with gentle force you can keep them in completely stretched position. Let us move ahead with these concepts in mind.

Many Yoga students and teachers ignore the pain and try hard to work through the pain resulting in injuries.  They say "Go beyond pain to achieve and improve in your abilities” , “Pain is merely physical, a material thing. Go beyond material world by ignoring the pain”, “I am not pushing, I am just trying to correct you”. They all tend to push you hard to get results quickly. All these statements are true but conditions apply!!.  

Let us do an experiment. Sit in stretched leg position and bend forward till you feel stretch pain. When you hold that position for some time you will notice that pain will disappear and you can go a little forward to feel pain again. This initial pain is the body’s way to warn you “Boss, hold on, you are doing something new today. Let me get used to it”. This concept can be explained from medical world but it is beyond the scope of this blog. Point at which you feel this initial pain varies on daily basis. When teacher says “Go beyond pain”, this is the kind of pain there are talking about. The initial pain which you experience when you body is not ready. You can go deeper in to the posture slowly by holding the posture for long time till you reach your maximum at which point you should stop. In this approach you are being the master and trying to acknowledge the natural responses of your body. Take it slowly and steadily by having patience to hold for longer duration. I have seen many students who are so disturbed to hold the posture longer to experience all this!

Yoga teachers are not linked to your feedback mechanism and they have no clue about what you are feeling. Without the knowledge of your feedback mechanism they push you and their by increasing the chances of injuries.  Many teachers even ignore your scream thinking that either you are acting or you are lazy to do more!! This may be true but it can be serious to ignore your scream. In this approach you are making your teacher the master of your body without being aware of the natural feedback responses of your body. So, being pushed by your teacher is always a strict ‘NO’. They may say “You did more last week, so why not today. Let me push you”. Keep in mind that it is not just your physical body but even your emotional pattern decides what you can do on a particular day. As I said, your body is not the same every day. Respect it.

How about teacher correcting your posture? Corrections are done to make you feel the right stretch or to release unnecessary tensions in certain parts. You feel good after the correction. After correction if pain increases, then step back and move forward in the right direction slowly by acknowledging the pain. Having said this there are some teachers who are aware of all this and try to work only with the spring action of your postural muscles. This is perfectly fine but there is a better way to do this. Yoga props used in Iyengar Yoga will enable you to be the master and work to get right maximum stretch.

One of the Yama (self-restraints) of Ashtanga Yoga is “Ahimsa”(Non-Violence).  Ahimsa doesn’t just mean doing good to society and others. Follow in even in your practice by not doing violence by yourself or by someone on you. Apart from this many times it is your ego to show off because of which you push yourself or allow someone to push you. Ego is not Yoga. Understand that by getting pushed you are being detrimental to your own progress. Yoga is not a competition but a lifelong process. Go beyond you stretch pain slowly and steadily by staying in the posture for longer duration.

Do I practice this? Honestly, I used to push my students at the beginning but then I experienced the pain by being pushed. This triggered me to do self-study. Slowly I refined my method of teaching to give precise instructions to feel the right and optimum stretch without using much force. I still try to bring the lost awareness by gently tapping at the places where there is no awareness. I do this to deal with passive mind of the studentsJ. This is still work in progress!! English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 coined the metonymic adage “The Pen is mightier than the sword” and now I saw “Words are mightier than the force in Yoga training!!”

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References:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.       <!--[endif]-->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasm

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.       <!--[endif]-->http://nau.edu/Research/Feature-Stories/Spring-like-Protein-Key-to-Muscle-Behavior/

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.       <!--[endif]-->http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1456055/