Key 3 is Mobility and encourages a flexible, stable posture and integrated whole-body exercises. Slow and careful movements in all directions – stretch and strengthen all of the muscle groups. A combination of strength and flexibility results in agility.
One of the reasons why yoga is so effective is that the entire body is mobilised – including the long, large muscles in the legs, back, arms, and the joints in the toes, feet, ankles, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands and spine. Maintaining suppleness in the larger muscle groups encourages a greater range of motion in the joints and increases the strength and pliability of the whole body. When the bones and muscles are kept mobile, they are more likely to align correctly, and so maintain the postural integrity of the skeleton. This, in turn, allows the muscles, ligaments and tendons to operate optimally.
The result is a more stable, pliable and powerful body. Performance levels increase in every respect. That is, when all muscle groups are strong and working together, the total power and performance of the body is enhanced, and can function more effectively as a whole. Exercise such as walking, for example, beneficial as it is, only works on the legs, while training programmes often emphasise certain aspects of the body, for example, strength or cardiovascular stimulation.
How to practice Key 3 Mobility
The Five Keys to Well-being book and eBook contain a suite of basic exercises for mobilising each area of the body.
These basic exercises have been selected from the vast range of yoga postures that exist because they are simple to learn, easy for most people to do anywhere, every day, and because they combine to enhance general mobility, flexibility and strength in each area of the body.
If done together, they will enhance the mobility of all the joints and spine, and have deep massaging, stretching, toning and strengthening effects on most of the body’s muscle groups. The full set lasts for 15 to 20 minutes if you use the minimum allotted time or number of repetitions indicated for each exercise.
The practices are clearly described and illustrated with photographs.
Also Download the Yoga Home Routine pdf for mobility practices from the Five Keys to Well-being. Includes individual practices (poses) and convenient short sequences sets. More Online Yoga class videos
The Holistic Five Keys tip:
Key 3 Mobility
The Mobility Key practices will loosen every joint and aspect of the body. This offers great assistance to Key 4, body stress release.
More important is how breathing and posture, or posture and breathing, benefit from the Mobility Key. A more flexible musculoskeletal, coupled with deep breathing capacity, can make a considerable contribution to general well-being due to benefits for cardio vascular health. The particular tourniquet effect (bending and twisting) and up-and-down (inversion) nature of yoga esercises stimulate the condition of all the organs.
This contribution to well-being ties in closely to the Key 5, Lifestyle integration, that suggests that health nutrition is as important, and so is mobility, but that neither is as effective (or often quite ineffective) without mutual synergy. And the aforementioned is much enhanced when incorporating positive attitudes and conscious downtime, or meditation.
Return to the Introduction to the Five Keys to Well-being
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