What’s the Point of Yoga in the Ornish Program?

The American Heart Association recommends yoga to boost your heart health. But how does yoga boost heart health? When most people think of yoga, they think of working up a sweat while flowing to a musical beat or twisting one’s body into a pretzel. But at Ornish Lifestyle Medicine, yoga isn’t about exercise – it’s about simplicity, gentleness, ease, and stress management. It’s about guiding us inward, and returning us to a place of healing. 

Often people say “I’m not flexible enough for yoga” or “I can never get the movements right” – but that’s the trouble with doing a pose found in a book, or a video. Yoga should be tailored to your needs, and finding the motions that work for you. It’s not about doing the pose correctly. It’s about allowing us to observe ourselves, and our patterns – both physically and mentally – without judgment.

The yoga practices used in the Ornish program have roots in Integral Yoga, founded by Swami Satchintananda. This style of yoga favors a calm, meditative approach. The specific techniques employed in Integral Yoga have been shown to reduce stress, which is a major factor in heart disease. We can explore what this means with a classic restorative pose: the shoulder stand.

• Lying on the floor, place one bed pillow under the back of the pelvis.
• Then place both legs up on the seat of a chair. Try to support the calves up through the back of the knees.
• Now place a second bed pillow under the back of the head so the chin is slightly tucked downward.
• Let yourself relax and breathe.
• Stay this is position for 3-15 minutes at a time.

When the legs are elevated, the blood from the legs starts to drain back towards the pelvis and lower back. The carotid arteries tell the brain that the heart has enough blood and it doesn’t need to pump so hard. While the initial inclination is for the blood pressure to rise when we are upside down, it may rise momentarily. In a few minutes, however, the heart rate lowers and the body adjusts to the mild inversion.

Hopefully, this simple pose will provide you with some much-needed relief! Find additional simple poses online at https://www.sharecare.com/health/heart-disease/slideshow/yoga-poses-for-heart-health