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Pandiculation

In this episode - Pandiculation . . .

Have you ever noticed when your cat wakes up from a nap how they arch their back and enjoy an entire body stretch, yawning with legs extended, paws, claws, and toes spread wide? Now fully awake, they're ready to take on the day.

What about you? When you wake up in the morning, do you sit halfway up, contract your arms to your body, then raise them high above your head while yawning? Then, relax your arms, pause for a second, and jump out of bed refreshed? That’s pandiculation.

Little did I realize this is natural to our body functioning - simply put, pandiculation is the act of yawning and stretching. Wait, there’s more.

Pandiculation is the involuntary stretching of the soft tissues, which occurs in most animal species and is associated with transitions between cyclic biological behaviors, especially the sleep-wake rhythm (Walusinski, 2006).

Pandiculation comes from the Latin root pandiculari, 'to stretch oneself,' which is the act of contracting and stretching all body muscles.

According to an article on https://www.yogauonline.com, Pandiculation is as essential to our health and wellbeing as nutrition and exercise! It is necessary for the optimal functioning of our neuromuscular system. Without this yawning-and-stretching activity, our muscles and fascia become increasingly tight, leading to physical imbalances such as poor posture, limited range of motion, pain in our joints, and other core imbalances.

How does pandiculation work?

Pandiculation is the nervous system’s natural way of waking up the sensory-motor system and preparing for movement. Humans and all vertebrate animals tend to stretch automatically when we wake up or have been inactive for a while. Pandiculation sends biofeedback to our nervous system regarding the level of contraction in our muscles, thereby helping to prevent the buildup of chronic muscular tension.

Pandiculation contracts and releases muscles, so the alpha-gamma feedback loop is naturally reset. This resetting reduces muscular tension and restores conscious, voluntary control over the muscles. Preventing the buildup of tension in our muscles is critical to maintaining healthy posture and movement throughout our lives.

In a pandicular response, the body contracts even more and then relax the whole body from head to toe. “This ensures a reset of the alpha-gamma feedback loop – a biofeedback loop in our nervous system between the spinal cord and the muscles – that regulates the level of tension in our muscles."

Unfortunately, our alpha-gamma loops can be compromised due to structural imbalances caused by habitual patterns and trauma. Typically, our muscle strength is determined by the central nervous system and the information sent to the brain from our proprioceptors (sensory receptors on nerve endings). When our alpha-gamma loop is working correctly (alpha neurons to muscles and gamma neurons to muscle fibers in muscle spindles), we can contract muscles when we need to, and they will automatically relax when they are not receiving "contraction" messages.

However, due to the previously mentioned structural imbalances caused by habitual patterns and trauma, muscles and fascia that are 'stuck' cannot send or receive the proper proprioceptive messages, causing them to remain contracted and unable to relax.

Benefits of voluntarily pandiculating our muscles.

Even though pandiculation is considered an involuntary response of our nervous system, we can beneficially affect our overall health and wellbeing with Yoga by stretching.

Voluntary pandiculation forms part of the clinical somatic education developed by Thomas Hanna. Slowly, consciously, and in sync with our breath, we can begin to restore our alpha-gamma loop function with the consistent practice of muscular contraction and release - stretching, and yawning.

In conclusion, if someone asks, “Are you tired?”

Nope, just yawning and stretching to relieve muscle tension, practicing Yoga to improve overall body function.

I'm Patrick Ball; thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.

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