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Media Relations

The uplifting effects of yoga -- with or without kids

Scientists are taking note

Not so long ago, I passed through a week during which I felt meaner with each passing day, each rising degree of Fahrenheit (or was it the humidity) and each ache from my deepening lower back pain. By Saturday evening, not even the rare date with my husband could dislodge my foul funk. I had to do something.

The next morning, as two of my children played in the sandbox, I plopped down nearby with two yoga mats, a beach towel, a yoga block and my Total Yoga book by Tara Fraser. A mere hour later, everything had changed. It felt like a miracle -- my bad mood and back pain vanished without a trace.

My yoga routine began as a solitary exercise, as it normally is, but Jake, 6, and Dale Suzanne, 2, soon joined me, summoned by my downward dogs (A.K.A. tunnel to climb through, amusement park ride). Despite the extra mat and towel, they both ended up on my mat, often laying perpendicular to the mat and on their stomachs, like they were watching TV, but waiting with glee for me to flatten them as I moved from a standing forward bend to an upward dog (think push ups). How could I not smile as my daughter looked up at me and invited, "Squoosh me, Mommy?" I was spanked, tickled and ridden, having to catch a howling Dale as she fell off my downward dog (Jake seemed to enjoy falling off of me headfirst).

Afterward, I asked myself, "Why'd I wait so long to do yoga?"

At the beginning of the year I felt like I needed to do yoga more regularly for emotional reasons, rather than physical reasons, so I've tried to do a yoga workout at least once a week. When I trained for a 5K last winter, I substituted a more rigorous yoga routine for my strength-training workouts, a combination that seemed to really work for me. Sometimes I throw a DVD into my computer at work and do a routine over lunch, with my friend Elisabeth Andrews joining me on occasion and offering some pointers when I ask.

Because of the uplifting effect yoga has on me, it comes as no surprise that researchers are studying the potential psychological benefits of the ancient exercise. Here are three examples:

• Preliminary studies by Marieke Van Puymbroeck, assistant professor in Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies, found slight stress release benefits to caregivers who practiced yoga or walked regularly. Her research focuses on people who care for adults with chronic disease or disabilities. Around 44 million people in the U.S. are informal caregivers. "If caregivers burn out and are unable to provide care, what happens to the person they are providing care for?" Van Puymbroeck asks. Her studies are challenged by the very nature of caregiving -- caregivers have such little time for leisure activity that it is difficult to recruit them for research studies into how to help them.
• Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and McLean Hospital have found that practicing yoga may elevate brain gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) levels, the brain's primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. The findings, which appeared in the May issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, suggest that the practice of yoga be explored as a possible treatment for depression and anxiety, disorders associated with low GABA levels. See the complete BUSM news release about the study: http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news/releases/display.php?id=1343.
• The American College of Sports Medicine promoted this research that found yoga improved concentration and motivation. Read this news release about the study: http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Media&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=7485

A note about professionals and injuries

I've practiced yoga off and on for around 25 years, doing it regularly during two of my three pregnancies to help me relax and feel strong. One of my biggest yoga regrets is that I have not been able to make time for a class. Elisabeth, who teaches yoga, has been kind enough to give me some pointers. I definitely see how regular instruction would improve my poses, increase the benefits I receive from yoga, and help me avoid injuries.

Yoga often is billed as a gentle form of exercise but injuries and aches can result from doing poses wrong. I learned several years ago, for example, that I had been doing the triangle pose wrong and now suspect that this had been contributing to the lower back pain that I hoped my yoga would alleviate. Elisabeth has coached me on the importance of keeping my feet flat on the ground during warrior poses, even if it means not going as deeply into the lunges. She tweaked my upward and downward dogs after I began experiencing some shoulder pain. Last winter, when I tried an advanced version of a seated twist, I felt and heard something in my left knee pop. I had problems involving everything from my quadriceps muscle to my ankle for months and at one point had to stop running.

Performing yoga poses with children hanging from me no doubt invites injuries, but it's a fun way to spend time with my kids. Sometimes they'll leaf though my book and try out poses that look interesting. My son Peter, 8, and I have a running contest to see who can hold the crow balancing pose the longest (he's winning at 1:39 minutes). Who knows, maybe when they're older, they'll find the same kind of comfort in yoga that I do.

Tracy James is a media relations specialist in the IU Office of University Communications. She helps prepare Active for Life each month.

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