PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS : WHAT MAKES POSSIBLE

PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS: WHAT MAKES YOGA POSSIBLE
Through Yoga you will learn how to achieve true serenity of spirit and the mastery of self which comes from self-knowledge, qualities developed by means of yoga relaxation, concentration and meditation. Applied to the study of yoga, what you need now is a thorough understanding of the relationship between the physiology of your body and the various exercises and poses whose practice Yoga calls for. There are over four hundred pair of muscles articulating this framework. There are parallel systems of nerves and blood vessels controlling its movements, its sensations, its responses;feeding it, cleaning it, replenishing it. Most of us, for instance, breathe without giving it a thought. Nor do we control the beating of the heart, or our digestive process, or our rate of metabolism. Since they are what makes all the other body functions possible, the endocrines may be best described as the power behind the throne. There are eight sets of endocrine glands in all:the pineal and the pituitary in the head; the thyroid,parathyroid and thymus in the region of the neck; the pancreas and the adrenals in the region of the solar plexus; and finally the gonads,or sex glands, in the pelvic region. Among them the endocrine control growth, weight, size, metabolism, energy and health. If we worry, we lose weight. If we get angry we find ourselves with an upset stomach, and if we stay angry long enough and frequently enough we my end up with colitis or ulcers. First the physiology of breathing: The purpose of breathing, as everyone knows, is to supply the body with oxygen and cleanse it of carbon dioxide.Cut off the oxygen, retain the poisnous waste gas,and death will follow in a matter of minutes. Even when we are not living at par, the heart does a prodigious job. Every hour it pumps 800 quarts of blood through the lungs which,in turn, eliminate some 30 quarts of carbon acid during that time. The heart beats 100,000 times a day, which means it generates enough energy to lift a weight of 130 tons a foot high. As the freshly - oxygenated blood travels from the lungs to the heart and is pumped on, via arteries and blood vessels, via tiny capillaries, it reaches every cell in our organism.It makes possible the utilization of our food intake fort