Passive yoga: discover the benefits of stretching

April 1, 2024

Who has not stopped to watch with a certain envy (and wishes to do the same!) To a cat stretching, twisting and stretching slowly, meticulously and pleasantly?

These felines are true masters in the art of stretching , and that mastery allows them to maintain a state of perfect relaxation, flexibility, alertness, strength and agility. In Thailand there is a therapy used for millennia that allows us to experiment and get into this feeling: I mean the Thai massage, also known as "passive yoga" .

This type of massage has its roots in the confluence and fusion of different techniques coming from all of Eastern medicine: meditation techniques and serene concentration of the Buddhist philosophy, phytotherapy remedies and yoga postures from Ayurvedic medicine from India, and acupuncture points practiced in traditional Chinese medicine.

The tradition of Thai massage

Thai massage is not only a preventive and relaxing technique, but it is really a medical-curative therapy, it could even be considered as a philosophy of life, since it encompasses all the vital areas of the human being: the physical, the mental and emotional; Worked through stretching, feeding, meditation, full breathing ...

This type of massage is called passive yoga because its origins are related to a series of beliefs deeply rooted in Asia: it has traditionally been defined as a series of rhythmic sequences of pressures, torsions and stretches that the therapist performs with his hands, feet, knees, elbows and arms; with the aim of harmonizing, restoring and unblocking the flow of energy (or Chi) that runs through 10 main energy channels or Sen meridians that are distributed through the body, balancing the 4 basic elements that constitute all living beings , and whose blockage or disharmony is causing pain and illness.

These elements are:

land : that makes up the bones, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments ... the solid part of the body.
Water : that brings together fluids, blood and secretions.
Fire : that regulates body temperature, governs digestion and metabolism.
Air : that balances the breath and the blood circulation, and regulates the vitality of the body and mind.

The practice and benefits of passive yoga

In order to carry out this restoration work, the therapist takes the patient (who is dressed with comfortable clothes and lies pleasantly on a futon), at the limit of his joint mobility to each and every one of the body structures, in order to relax the muscles, recover the interarticular space, balance the nervous system, mobilize the viscera for its proper functioning, impel the blood so that it irrigates adequately all the structures and organs of the body and speed up the lymphatic circulation to purify the organism, granting a deep sensation of relaxation and physical and mental well-being, strength, vitality, flexibility, stillness ...

After a session, which lasts between one and two hours, we have the feeling that we are taller, that we breathe better, and that we have improved in our body posture. The mind clears, the muscles relax and a smile appears on the face along with a special shine in the look ... just as the cat, after stretching, is fully alert to any stimulus, able to get to the race of a jump, maintaining that elegance and innate balance in his movements so typically felines!

In the medium term, passive yoga strengthens the immune system, tones the whole body and relaxes the nervous system , balances emotions, increases respiratory capacity and blood oxygenation, strengthens ligaments, flexes joints, activates the lymphatic and circulatory system. Help with problems of insomnia, stress and chronic fatigue, muscle aches, lumbago, sciatica, headaches, constipation ...