Massage For Yoga
Like massage for sports, massage for yoga can rejuvenate muscles by increasing circulation, adding the strength and endurance required by advanced poses. Healthy muscles are more resilient in general, and therefore are better at resisting injury and quicker to recover than tightly wound and bound muscles that lack suppleness.
Anyone who’s tried yoga knows that in addition to strength, the practice requires a good amount of flexibility. We’ve all seen photos of advanced yogis twisted into some pretty impossible-looking positions, but this doesn’t mean their bodies are made out of floppy rubber. The flexibility needed for yoga in all stages of practice is a combination of mobility, proper alignment, and awareness. Massage can help stretch tight muscles and restore proper alignment by specifically targeting the areas of tension that are causing restrictions. It can also help improve your overall bodily awareness by allowing you to experience your fascia, muscles, and connective tissues in a new way, or just from a new perspective.
At Massage Therapy Works, we also offer Ayurvedic treatments that can complement your yoga practice. Yoga and Ayurveda are much more than a physical exercise and a bodily healing system. Ayurveda’s ultimate goal is to bring wholeness to one’s self by creating and maintaining a healthy mind and body, and the ultimate goal of yoga is self-realization, which relies on a healthy mind and body. Hence, the two sciences were developed together and are practiced together. They are both philosophies on living based off of the Vedas (Indian spiritual texts), and are meant to be practiced together.
Both yoga and Ayurveda focus on prana (a Sanskrit word meaning “breath” or “life force”) and its flow through the physical, sensory, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of life. The majority of the yoga popularized in the West has largely focused on the asanas (poses) themselves, but the true goal of these asanas is to open up energetic channels in the body to allow the prana to flow. This approach bears similarities to the meridian systems and concept of qi in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, though the methods and terminology are from different cultures.
Ayurvedic bodywork treatments such as Abhyanga and Marma balance the energy of the doshas (Ayurvedic humors) and clear blockages beyond the physical body into the subtle body (including our thoughts and emotions). Clearing these channels can not only help deepen and support your yoga practice, but will also carry over into your everyday life, leaving you with an increased sense of peace, well-being, and awareness.