Therapeutic contribution of Iyengar yoga in physiotherapy

Therapeu(c contribu(on of Iyengar yoga in
physiotherapy

©marcmichnowski - marctecartm@gmail.com - @marc_michnowski - @soignezvousenpra:quantleyoga 1

Medical gymnas.cs and physical exercises are tools used in
physiotherapy.
Aims :
Strengthen, maintain, restore the func:onal abili:es of the body when
it has been trauma:zed or simply undergoes the ac:on of :me.
In the West => therapeu:c means to bring pa:ents to a normal and
op:mal physical form.


The philosophical texts of ancient India indicate that the prac:ce of
yoga postures (Āsana) is a means available to humans to:
-  Stay healthy.
-  Have a strong, agile and stable body, more resistant to diseases.
-  Have a disciplined mind, available and controlled.

Like Kung-Fu, Tai-chi-chuan or Qi gong
in tradi:onal Chinese medicine, yoga postures
are the physical part of tradi:onal Indian
medicine (Ayurveda).


The prac:ces of yoga postures and those of medical gymnas:cs or physical
exercises have the same objec:ves.

Even if yoga seems more spiritual…
=> Is this the reason why yoga is s.ll li9le used by physiotherapists ???

What does the story tell us about the two
techniques?

The earliest traces of yoga date back to 1800 BC and are found in the
Mahābhārata (sacred book of India) wri^en around 400 BC.
The dei:es of Hindu mythology told the people that they must live in
accordance with the laws that govern the world (Dharma).

Only solu:on for this: apply the (yoga) method!

When death comes, an individual record
of acts of life (Karma) would be trained and
presented to God, to enable him to decide
on the future incarna:on.

In 300 BC, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (philosophical text of yoga) describes
the yoga method and its 8 pillars.

The 5th deals with the prac:ce of postures (āsana) :

To have a good behaviour, stability and a ﬂexibility of the body.
For training to have strength in the work.
To be more resistant to diseases.
To discipline the body for an available mind.
To have be^er control of emo:ons.

Western gymnas:cs seems more recent:
(600 BC) => Greek "gymnos": exercises of maintenance, relaxa:on and
warm-up of the body before the prac:ce of wrestling and athle:cs
under Ancient Greek.

(400 BC)=> Under Ancient Rome we ﬁnd traces of Medical Gymnas:cs
under the Metho:c Era.

(131-200 BC) => Galien develops it for
purposes educa:onal, military, sports
and medical.

The history of Asana prac(ce and gymnas(cs seems to follow
that of the discovery of anatomy!
In orient:
Āyurvedas: (sacred Hindu book), 3000 years old,
Described bones, tendons, fascia, joints, nerves ...
Late discovery because Hessler translated it in 1844.

In Occident :
It will be necessary to wait for Hippocrate (5th BC)
and Galien (2nd) to see appearing
the ﬁrst trea:es of anatomy.


How yoga and gymnas:cs evolve over :me?
In India, foreigners see yoga as a ritual, they are not interested in it and
aim only at the invasion of the territories.

Yoga con:nues to be passed on from genera:on to genera:on.

In the 17th century, Catholics discovered Hinduism and yoga with the
arrival of Bri:sh explorers.
First considered as contor:onist gymnas:cs, physical and spiritual yoga
is taken into account aoer reading ancient texts.
Westerners will even ask the Yogi Masters to use it to train their armies.

Medical gymnas:cs also crosses :me and different currents.

In the Middle Ages: the interest of the body is not a priority.

During the Renaissance: body care appears more important and
gymnas:cs finds 4 axes:

- Pedagogical => man is physical, moral and intellectual en:ty.
- Military => man must be strong to serve beêr.
- Spor:ve => man must be compe::ve.
- Medical => man must maintain a good health.

1850 => Big changes for yoga and medical gymnas:cs!


In India, yoga evolves and is divided into two parts:
-Rāja yoga or Ashtanga yoga=> spiritual part.
-Hatha yoga (eﬀort yoga) => physical part

1900 => Ashrams (both spiritual centers and hospitals) appear.
Prac:ce places for medita:on and postures to treat pathologies.
Become schools that train yoga teachers (guru).
They will travel around the world to introduce and train other teachers.


In the West, tradi:onal, chemical medicine has li^le success.
Bonese^ers and healers gain importance.
Massage, chiroprac:c, osteopathy, gymnas:cs are mainly provided by
non-doctors.
Doctors forbid these techniques by chan:ng the illegal exercise.
They create very quickly the physical medicine.
Sweden: Ling - Norstrom
France : Lagrange - Mesnard
Australie: Kenny


The ﬁrst world war imposes the increase of the number of act of
physical medicine.

Soldiers must be treated to return to combat or to reduce the amount
of disability premium.

Pilates creates his techniques by caring for prisoners of war in England.

In France, in 1946 the physiotherapy is prac:ced by specialized nurses
and teachers of sports under the control of doctors.

Medical gymnas:cs is then inﬂuenced by German, Bri:sh, Swedish and
Spanish.
Based on 5 basic postures (lying - sirng – kneeling - standing and
suspended to a chinning bar).

From them, sta:c and dynamic examina:ons
are carried out and exercises are proposed to
correct the defects.


1970: Fitness methods explode in the United States and Europe
=>Cooper (Aerobics) or Jane Fonda (Workout)
Ephemeral methods follow one another
=> step, body pump, body balance, body combat, body aEack

Yoga also a^racts a lot of followers because the West is looking for
spirituality in a mode based on technical progress and economic proﬁt.
Yoga prac:ce remains tradi:onal (Ashtanga, Hatha) but is popularized
thanks to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, S.ng then Madonna ...

Pilates and Swedish gymnas:c are also gaining popularity

Yoga does not resist muta:on either.
Postures, breathing, medita:on are not enough, the prac:ce must be
entertaining!
Vinyasa ﬂow, yoga Bikram, power yoga, yoga for dogs(doga), yoga
goats, nude yoga, yoga beers ... 200 names are counted today.

.

However, there has recently been a return to basics in prac:ces.
Like the organic with the food!

Fitness => Cross ﬁt (mix of weightlioing and gymnas:cs)
=> Hiit (interval training exercises with body weight)

Yoga: => Hatha, Ashtanga are Tradi:onal
=> Yin (Chinese meridians)
=> Kundalini (medita:ve)
=> Iyengar (Therapeu:c)


Fortunately, medical gymnas:c exercises have also evolved.
Gone are the wire cages, ropes, sandbag weights, sheaves.
The physiotherapy rooms now look like a real small gym.
The material is some:mes even more modern, even if there are s:ll
unstable pla^ers and wooden s:cks.
There are expensive installa:ons (balance plasorm, virtual system,
isokine:c devices) that make the rehabilita:on more comfortable, fun
and entertaining.


Whatever the ac:vity and the material used, the required exercises
must be performed with the greatest accuracy for an op:mal result
especially if they have a therapeu:c or preven:ve purpose.

Otherwise they will be ineﬀec:ve or pathogenic quickly or on a short
term basis.


In physiotherapy as in yoga prac:ce, it is common to see achievements
of exercises or postures without worry of correct alignment of skeletal
parts.

The most frequent errors are found during balancing exercises on one
foot, performed for example, following a sprain of an ar:cula:on of
the lower limbs.

The exercise is certainly done but with many compensa:ons of the
whole body.


In yoga:
To avoid these mistakes and for a purpose of care Iyengar creates a
method that uses the tradi:onal postures of Hatha yoga.

This orthopaedic technique seeks the voluntary and precise alignment
of bone parts during the construc:on of yoga postures.
It wants to train the spirit to just ac:ons.

It takes into account individual innate anatomical varia:ons and only
acts on the shrinkage of the :ssues as well as on the muscle tone.


Who is Iyengar?

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar(1918-2014) was a student of
a Guru in India.
Aoer two years of study, he makes him understand that yoga is not an
art in his reach.
Iyengar then decides to be his own master and work on his own body
to compose his technique.
He opened an ins:tute in India in 1973, a second in 2001. He receives
and trains students and prac:ces with pa:ents with orthopaedic
pathologies.
There are Iyengar Ins:tutes all around the world.

In medical gymnas:cs, the corrected standing posi:on is used to
correct axis defects in the spine, pelvis and limbs.

The techniques are called MÉZIÈRES, RPG-SOUCHARD or BUSQUET.

In Iyengar Yoga, the mountain posture (Tādāsana) is the basic posture.
She seeks the perfect alignment of bone parts from the feet to the
skull.
It seeks to rest the center of gravity above the feet, precisely on the
keystone arches it must ﬁrst recreate looking for a perfect ground
support

Let’s take a closer look at the two modes of execu:on of the same
corrected standing pose:

From here, let’s analyse the exercise of balancing on one foot.


Corrected standing in
medical gymnas:c :

Few instruc:ons :

- Feet together
- Knees stretched
- Contracted abs
- Shoulders down
- Chin returned

=> Climb the top of
the skull

Tādāsana :
Many instruc:ons :

-  Feet together
-  Toes up
-  Toes down
-  Lengthen feet
-  Press both inside and
outside feet part on ﬂoor
-  Shake shins, knees and
thighs together

-  Contracted Quadriceps
-  External rota:ons of lower
limbs
-  Contracted abs
-  Sacrum on middle of feet
-  Sternum up and forward
-  Roll shoulder back and down
-  Climb the top of the skull
-  Breathe

=> Hold posi:on and correct all
serngs again.

This example illustrates perfectly that it is possible to perform the
same gesture with more or les complex.

It’s not useful to rely on scien:ﬁc studies to conclude that the exercise
performed according to the Iyengar method is more demanding and
requires a large number of muscular contrac:ons and as many
propriocep:ve circuits.

The results obtained on the organiza:on of the body and the quality of
the equilibrium also seem rather indisputable.

In a way that may be less visual, it is possible to do the same
experiment from the sirng posi:on.


Medical gymnas:c exercices and others are used in physiotherapy
protocols validated by studies.

The prac:ce of certain yoga postures begins to be used for therapeu:c
purposes.
On PubMed, we can ﬁnd a number of studies that reference the
therapeu:c beneﬁts of Iyengar yoga.

They do not yet include enough pa:ent certainly because they are not
funded by hardware manufacturers.

A large number of simple and non-acroba:c postures can be easily
used according to the Iyengar construc:on method.

Well chosen, they can certainly bring a lot of beneﬁts if they are
incorporated at the right :me in the physiotherapy treatments.

They do not require special equipment and are reproducible by
pa:ents alone.

I hope I have drawn your a^en:on to the therapeu:c interests of the
Iyengar yoga method.
I wish that a large number of physiotherapist are interested in it,
prac:ce it and use it to prac:ce their pa:ents diﬀerently.

Merci

Namaste.

Therapeutic contribution of Iyengar yoga in physiotherapy

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Similar to Therapeutic contribution of Iyengar yoga in physiotherapy

Similar to Therapeutic contribution of Iyengar yoga in physiotherapy (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Therapeutic contribution of Iyengar yoga in physiotherapy