If you’re no stranger to my classes then you’ll know that I tend to encourage a ‘slow-flow’ approach to practice - one that’s centred around moving deliberately, with awareness, intention and attention.
This philosophy is partly driven by a simple belief that yoga practice is an opportunity to counter the sometimes overwhelming busyness and pace of everyday life; to recenter so that we can move through life with a greater sense of ease.
But there’s more to it than that…so I’ve explained my thinking in a little more detail below by outlining my top 5 reasons for ‘slowing the flow’ in your own yoga and movement practice.
1. It cultivates a mindful connection to practice
“There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting” Milan Kundera
The Pali word ‘sati’ which is often translated as mindfulness can also be translated as ‘to remember’ i.e. to remember what is occurring in the present moment and to continually come back to that experience. By slowing things down, we’re really able to deepen our connection to the ‘memory’ of our present moment reality and our experience of practice as it arises.
Of course it is possible to bring mindfulness to fast or quick activities too (and just for the record I’m not at all averse to fast movements - in fact I love them, just not in the context of my yoga practice)…but it’s much easier to build our ‘mindful muscles’ by moving slowly.
“When we move slowly, observing movements and sensations as they arise, we create time and space to observe the conditioning arising in the body-mind. And in seeing this conditioning we can begin the process of freely choosing how to respond, rather than blindly react.” Frank Boccio, Mindfulness Yoga
2. It teaches us to move better
When we take a slow, focused yoga or movement practice, we become more connected and embodied; cultivating greater awareness of our body and the ways in which we move and breathe.
Slowing our movements and deepening the mind-body connection in this way increases the amount of time we have to drop awareness into the body and process sensory information. We become more attuned to the QUALITY of our movement experience and how it lands in the body; whether it feels effortless or challenging, easeful or uncomfortable.
This in turn creates space for exploring different ways of moving and developing 'movement maps' for the body; these help us to become more proficient with our existing repertoire of movements and also to expand that movement repertoire over time.
Once skill has been acquired, this expanded repertoire can then be progressed to faster expressions of the movements (if we wish)…but if ’fast’ is our starting point and we only ever jump from one movement to the next then we simply don’t create the right conditions for learning to move with a greater sense of ease
3. It helps us get stronger (through greater ranges)
Our bodies respond and adapt to the forces, loads and demands placed upon them. Simply put, when we load the body (providing we don’t exceed its capacity to withstand that load!), it will adapt by getting stronger, specific to the ways in which that load has been applied. This is know as the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands).
When we move slowly we are effectively increasing both internal resistance and resistance to gravity…in turn increasing the load and demand that we place on our body. This maximises muscle activation and increases the feedback we send to our nervous system, causing it to create more adaptation in the body's tissues in response (i.e. by developing more strength!).
‘Putting on the brakes’ in this way (thanks to Jules Mitchell for the analogy) is primarily achieved by engaging muscles eccentrically (i.e. lengthening them under tension) and, where appropriate, by ‘irradiating’ internal tension through the body to maintain the integrity of our movements (e.g. when we wish to isolate single joint movements).
In combination with end range isometric loading (i.e. static stretching with applied load), eccentrics also help us to increase the ranges of movement available to us, as well the functional control that we have through those ranges.
4. It improves postural control, balance and co-ordination
In addition to improving motor control, slowing our movement practice down also teaches us how to better maintain a controlled, upright posture. Once again this is in part due to the fact that moving slowly provides us with the space to become more centred and grounded in our body; with both a greater awareness of the position of our body in space (proprioception) and a more acute sensitivity to the inner environment and experience of our body (interception)…which in turn helps to improve our balance and co-ordination.
Moreover, moving slowly is an optimal way to engage our muscles in the ‘right ways’ to improve postural control. This is explained expertly by Todd Hargrove in ‘A Guide to Better Movement:
“Slow movement preferentially recruits motor units with fewer muscle fibres, which have control of force output…[and] is an effective way to improve postural control which should be provided by tonic slow twitch postural muscles, as opposed to phasic fast twitch prime mover muscles.”
5. It promotes beneficial adaptations in the nervous system
Moving slowly helps to teach our nervous system that it’s ‘safe’ to move in new and novel ways. If the nervous system perceives a movement as threatening then it may try to restrict our ability to take that movement (e.g. by creating ‘stiffness’ in the body or inhibiting muscular engagement) - but if we move in ways that teach the nervous system that these movements are in fact perfectly safe, then over time those movements will become more accessible to us. Todd Hargrove explains:
“Moving slowly reduces the perceived threat associated with movement because it decreases mechanical forces to their minimum. Thus, slow movement is an important tool in a plan of graded exposure that can allow you to explore and try movements you may have neglected for years because they are perceived to be unsafe and involuntarily restricted.”
This can be helpful not only when we’re recovering from an injury, but also when we want to explore new movements that we may find challenging or movements that we haven’t taken in a long time.
Further to this, moving slowly can help to dial down nociception - the sensory nervous system's response to harmful (or potentially harmful) stimuli. This may help to reduce any pain previously associated with movement, once again teaching the nervous system that it’s ok to allow us to move more freely. And it may also have a ‘soothing’ effect on the nervous system in general; dialling down our fight / flight / freeze response, dialling up our rest and digest response and thereby reducing stress levels by helping us to find a greater sense of internal balance.
So there you have it - 5 reasons to slow your flow. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments - and if this is an approach to yoga and movement that resonates with you then I look forward to seeing you in class or on retreat soon.
References + Further Reading:
Mindfulness Yoga - Frank Boccio
A Guide to Better Movement: The Science and Practice of Moving with More Skill and Less Pain - Todd Hargrove
Recovery Strategies: Pain Guidance - Dr. Greg Lehman
Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined - Jules Mitchell
Functional Range Conditioning Lectures - Dr. Andreo Spina