What Science Can Teach Us About Flexibility
如何科学的练习柔韧性
By Fernando Pagés Ruiz
If you're already practicing yoga, you don't need exercise scientists and physiologists to convince you of the benefits of stretching. Instead, you'd probably like them to tell you if there's anything in their flexibility research that can help you go deeper in your asanas. For example, when you fold into a forward bend and are brought up short by the tightness in the back of your legs, can science tell you what's going on? And can that knowledge help you go deeper?
The answer to both questions is "Yes." A knowledge of physiology can help you visualize the inner workings of your body and focus on the specific mechanisms that help you stretch. You can optimize your efforts if you know whether the tightness in your legs is due to poor skeletal alignment, stiff connective tissues, or nerve reflexes designed to keep you from hurting yourself. And if you know whether any uncomfortable sensations you feel are warnings that you're about to do damage, or whether they're just notices that you're entering exciting new territory, you can make an intelligent choice between pushing on or backing off—and avoid injuries.
只要练习过瑜伽，你根本不需要那些运动专家和生理学家来让你信服伸展的益处。相反，你可能更愿意向他们请教他们关于柔韧性的研究成果是否能助你的体位练习一臂之力。比如，当我进入一个前屈体式，却突然因为腿后的一阵紧张而缩回上身，你们的研究能告诉我刚才发生了什么吗？能让我进步地更快吗？两个问题的回答都是肯定的。生理学描绘出身体内部是如何运转的，包括可以助我们伸展的特殊机制。如果搞清楚腿后的紧张是因为骨骼不端正，或者结缔组织太过僵硬，还是身体发出的自我保护警戒反应，那么你在练习时就更加张弛有度了。看清这些异样感究竟是肢体受伤的哀嚎，还是练习跃入新境界的狂欢，你可以在进退之间做出更明智的选择。
In addition, new scientific research may even have the potential to extend the wisdom of yoga. If we understand more clearly the complex physiology involved in yogic practices, we may be able refine our techniques for opening our bodies.
另外，前沿的科学研究亦有望拓展古老的瑜伽智慧。随着我们对人体复杂机能的了解日益透彻，体位法训练必能更好的打开身心之门。
Why Stretch?
为什么要伸展？
Of course, yoga does far more than keep us limber. It releases tensions from our bodies and minds, allowing us to drop more deeply into meditation. In yoga, "flexibility" is an attitude that invests and transforms the mind as well as the body.
当然，瑜伽可不仅仅意味着柔软。瑜伽放松我们的身体和大脑，帮助我们的冥想训练更加深入。在瑜伽中，“柔韧性”是一种态度，需要头脑和肢体的共同参与。
But in Western, physiological terms, "flexibility" is just the ability to move muscles and joints through their complete range. It's an ability we're born with, but that most of us lose. "Our lives are restricted and sedentary," explains Dr. Thomas Green, a chiropractor in Lincoln, Nebraska, "so our bodies get lazy, muscles atrophy, and our joints settle into a limited range."
但是在西方，生理学术语“柔韧性”仅指将肌肉和关节运动到生理极限的能力。这本是我们与生俱来的能力，但绝大多数人都慢慢丢失了。“我们的生活方式就是约束与静止" Thomas Green博士说道，他是一位来自内布拉斯加州的脊椎按摩师，“所以我们的身体越来越懒惰，肌肉逐渐萎缩，关节也越来越僵硬。”
Back when we were hunter-gatherers, we got the daily exercise we needed to keep our bodies flexible and healthy. But modern, sedentary life is not the only culprit that constricts muscles and joints. Even if you're active, your body will dehydrate and stiffen with age. By the time you become an adult, your tissues have lost about 15 percent of their moisture content, becoming less supple and more prone to injury. Your muscle fibers have begun to adhere to each other, developing cellular cross-links that prevent parallel fibers from moving independently. Slowly our elastic fibers get bound up with collagenous connective tissue and become more and more unyielding. This normal aging of tissues is distressingly similar to the process that turns animal hides into leather. Unless we stretch, we dry up and tan! Stretching slows this process of dehydration by stimulating the production of tissue lubricants. It pulls the interwoven cellular cross-links apart and helps muscles rebuild with healthy parallel cellular structure.
在人类刀耕火种的时候，每天的日常活动就足够维持身体的灵活与健康。但是到了现代，束缚我们肌肉与关节的不只是趋于静态的生活方式。即便你爱好运动，身体也会随着年龄慢慢失去水分和柔软。当你步入成年时，机体就已经丧失了15%的水分，并开始变得日趋僵硬和容易受伤。肌肉纤维开始互相粘连，肌肉细胞相互交联在一起，使得相邻肌肉不能相互独立运动。这种组织的正常老化过程就像动物皮革被加工时一样可悲。除非我们主动地去伸展自己的身体，否则只有等着变干变黄变硬！伸展练习通过刺激机体产生更多润滑剂来放缓衰老过程，它将相互交联的肌肉细胞逐渐分开，帮助肌肉重建健康的平行结构。
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