Why Can’t I Lose Weight?
Because Your Adrenals have no room to Breathe
Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that wreak havoc on your body and shorten your life, to be blunt. And, yes, they include, ‘Where did that come from?’, stubborn mid-life Waistline Creep. Some of the more serious symptoms include Heart Disease, Diabetes, Generalized (all-the-time) Anxiety, and poor quality Sleep.
Here’s my take on why - No Matter What You Try - you just cannot get rid yourself of those ‘apron, love handle, bra fat, muffin top’ pounds OR bring down (without medication) any of the other ‘blood numbers’ that also represent the presence of this exploding modern health crisis, be they pressure, sugar, cortisol or simply the number of hours you spend looking at the ceiling, sleepless and anxious at 2 am.
As a long-time Yoga Teacher and a dedicated Home Practitioner, I had to expand my concept of Yoga to be about more than poses to meet this health issue in my own body and in the bodies of my students. Sincerely wanting to help people, I decidedly made my teaching about restoring the God-Given curves of your spine a long time ago. Maybe now, with Covid hitting those with Metabolic Syndrome so hard, my Spot-Specific Yoga will begin to catch on. It takes a lot less time than regular Yoga and hits you where you live, driving those numbers where they need to go - DOWN!
LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION . That’s what Spot-Specific Yoga has to do with your Weight Gain.
The point of this very geeky map-like image about Stress is the location of your adrenal glands. They lie in a place in your Spine that is absolutely compressed - I mean SQUISHED - by our Modern Phone/Computer/Tablet/Car Posture. What do you think they are going to tell your brain all day long? The same thing your youngest tells your oldest when he is smothering him in the playroom with the couch pillows: GET OFF ME, DUDE! Adrenals talk in cortisol, not words. They scream in adrenaline, not profanities.
If we don’t listen, they are going to scream us into Obesity, Heart Disease, and serious Insulin Resistance Issues, just trying to be heard.
Truly, I stopped worrying about your postures after a few years of teaching, when I realized that just about everyone - especially Women over 40 - have the equivalent of Lake George sitting in the middle of their backs, right at the height of their adrenal glands - with the deepest point of the lake being directly at the level of these screaming, cortisol-secreting endocrine nightmares.
Check it out for yourself? Stand with your heels and back to a wall. Lift your arms over your head. Can a small truck drive through behind your lower ribs? When you press your lower back to the wall, do all your ribs go back, too? If your entire spine has to be flat on the wall in order to keep your lower ribs back there, you have lost the naturally flowing curves between the thoracic and lumbar portions of your spine. This stinks, because it is precisely at this junction that your adrenals are trying to get some rest. Good Luck with that, right?
We are born with five natural Spinal Curves, each one housing an endocrine gland or glands. You would think that alone would alert us to their importance. Every spinal curve junction (where one curve meets up with another one), is also home to a huge tangle of nerves, which are trying to exit your spinal cord to tell your organs, muscles, and cells what to do to keep you healthy and free from Metabolic Syndrome, among other things.
Are You Practicing Spot-Specific Yoga?
If your Yoga Practice isn’t targeting the area of your spine where the White meets the Green, in an effort to restore the proper curves at the meeting place of your ribs and lower back, you won’t be getting rid of that Belly Bulge or bringing that Blood Pressure, Sugar, or Cortisol Level back to normal (without medications) anytime soon. Truly, I am sorry to be the one to say this, but it’s true. The endocrine glands and nerve outlets MUST have Breathing Room to function properly. If someone was sitting on top of you, wouldn’t you be FIRED UP, too?
Good Old Cat Pose - helps more than you know.
Ok, you are, in a weird way, making some sense. It’s worth a try. What can I do about this? Well, there are many Yoga Postures that target this area. There are certain Breathing Techniques that also help to create a spacious, blood-rich environment in which the adrenal glands can relax and do their job, untaxed and strain-free.
One of these postures is the Cat Pose, which is performed on exhalation, with the belly pulled way up under the rib cage - massaging all of your abdominal organs while making space for your adrenals. But what happens when you do a pose that requires you to inhale or gaze up? Try it?
Immediately, your adrenals are pushed forward again, held hostage by a neuromuscular pattern that reflects the pressure, fear, worry… we are all under at any given moment or have experienced in the past. This posture is called the ‘Startle Reflex’, and, unfortunately, it is very common and truly part and parcel of living in the 21st Century, where Stress Never Sleeps. There are, however, many Yoga postures, when done correctly - with an eye to re-making the proper curve between the lowest ribs and the lumbar spine - that really do help.
Here’s One. Some call this Pyramid.
To me, it’s ‘Hear My Adrenals’ Pose.
Ribs stay on the dowel. Thoracic spine and adrenals have space. Center of the sternum rises, cervical curve lifts.
If you are truly interested in this new way of coming to your Yoga Practice, here’s a link to an awesome video that describes exactly what I am trying to share with you in this blog post. It’s less than 20 minutes and gives you these three poses to work with, depending on your level. You can also just give me a shout-out, and ask me directly what I would recommend for you and your spine. These days my Texting and Messenger inbox are full of Spine Selfies and my recommendations in reply.
There is nothing I would rather do than help you make the switch from driving ‘anywhere’ - to driving where you, specifically, want and need to go. It’s what I do while waiting for the World of Yoga to catch up with my thoughts on What, How, and Why this Spot-Specific Yoga can help Heal Metabolic Syndrome (including Waistline Creep)..
See the Lowest Ribs Moving Out? And the Lumbar Spine Moving In? Healing Spinal Curves, not ‘Doing Poses’. That’s Dog Pose, done with real attention to the ‘spots’ that can help calm your entire system and help you lose that weight.
Thanks so much for reading my meandering thoughts on what your Personal Practice can become. I realize that it is hard for me to understand, practicing on my own for over 40 years, how wide the chasm must feel to many of you - when I ask you to Trust Yourself and the Wisdom of Your Own Body, when I urge you to Follow/Forge Your Own Path on the Yoga Mat. All I can say is that I Believe in You and in your ability to find a healthier way to dialogue with your weight gain, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes… and with your adrenal glands, so they don’t have to Shout So Loud to be heard.
Many Blessings & Namaste,
Kate
