Yoga #2

Yoga #2.
The Pivot Point.

Overview:
All structural joint movement can described as based on a Pivot Point.


Function:
As a joint moves one muscle contracts, the opposite muscle expands.


HowTo:
Here's were it gets tricky! I'm over simplifying for now as I start out.

I think (correct me on this if there is more) that a muscle can ONLY contract. It is designed to tense, get shorter, and pull. The basic concept of a joint is as a hinge, a lever. Tense the bicep as you relax the tricep. Repeat analogy for ALL muscle groups. Rotators TOO!

Usefulness:
Shortening a muscle is ALL you can do physically. Mentally, you can ALSO think in pairs of muscles, IN SPACE, so that as the one muscle contracts you FEEL AS IF you are extending the opposite muscle.

Much of Yoga is based on ALSO feeling this RELEASE of the muscle against the pull of gravity. The relaxing muscle DOES NOT know, and can not distinguish between, the difference of a pull from the opposite muscle and the impulse the achieve "balance" against gravity. Thus there are all the different postures to "learn" how to interact with these, oftentimes conflicting, signals.


'nuff