Physical and emotional response, confused by this

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi to all, my name is Trina,
I’m fairly new to yoga, took a course a year ago for six weeks and want to join another group.

I’ve recently been under a lot of stress, and told I have an anxiety disorder. Have had heart palpitations, shaking spells, but my heart ultrasound is normal and holter monitor normal.
I want to control my anxiety myself, the anti anxiety med makes me feel lethargic. So, I got a book and started doing some yoga exercises.

The exercises help tremendously, however when I do the Warrior I or II poses, an odd thing happens. My heart rate jumped to about 120, and my bp went up to 150/77. (yes I checked it while doing the pose!) Last night I even felt my pulses bounding.
I held the pose for about five minutes, felt a little dizzy
(a floaty feeling), and could feel the anxiety and emotion surfacing. The first time I tried this pose, I began to shake. My bp returns to a perfect 108/70 or in that range and my heart rate returns to normal after. I find that when I am done I feel less anxiety, and over the past five days it has improved.

Is this normal? Please, I would love input.
Thankyou so much, Trina

#2

If it helps and improves,stabilizes, then it is good. I cannot give medical advice, but just stay alert, yet relaxed and confident. Don’t stress too much about your heart rate. If you check your heart rate while doing the pose, that’s ok, but if you keep doing that, you are missing the point of hatha yoga poses.

They are just the physical form that anchor the mind to the place and time of your body (here and now) so you can forget all else and be absorbed by what you are doing at the moment. Focus your attention on the body and let go of everything. If you keep checking your heart rate while in the pose because you want to reduce your anxiety and stressfulness in the process of it al, you are being stressful by doing just that. Just do the pose, surrender to the pose, surrender to your heart and let go. Don’t try to control in any way whatsoever. That way, energy will flow and stabalize the heart chakra, which won’t miss it’s possitive results on your physical heart.

But as you said, you feel less anxiety when you are done, and in the last five days it has improved. So my bet is that these asanas do you good indeed. Keep doing them the way you do, just relax and surrender more in the process. Don’t try to keep track of it all even though it is a nice experiment.

#3

Hi,

Benthino’s advice is excellent and if you follow that it can only help. I want to draw your attention to another aspect as well. You say that you are new to yoga and already hold the poses for 5 minutes. This is my own perception and the way I was taught yoga by my teacher, but in the beginning of yoga one should never hold the poses that long, 1 minutes at the most and gradually you increase your holding time as you make progress over the years.

Yoga is a gentle art and one should ease into it slowly,yoga takes time and needs time to work with you. Relax about your heart rate and enjoy the journey.

#4

So, is the heart rate increase due to exertion then? It definetly releases anxiety when I do it, sometimes I break into a sweat. I prefer this to taking the anti anxiety med that they gave me, it makes me feel out of it.
Thankyou for your input, Trina

#5

Hi,

I wouldn’t say it is exertion, I myself still breaks into a good sweat after an intense programme and my heart rate is usually also fast after such a programme. But I think what you do not realise yet and what Bentihno is trying to tell you, is that apart from the physical there are other energies on other levels which also affects your heart beat when you do yoga. Your body on all levels, not just physical undergoes a purification and this may cause certain physical discomforts for a while, but in time they will balance out.

Relax about the heart, focus on what yoga does for you, the release of the negative feelings (anxiety) and try to keep yourself in that moment for as long as possible, in time your body will learn it is much nicer to be relaxed than to feel anxiety.

I am not a doctor and the following is purely from a lay perspective. My lay understanding of blood pressure tells me that 155/77 is nothing to be really worried about. The critical reading is the bottom reading (77) and this is well within accepted norms, 120 after exercise is still acceptable. Also what I understand from one of my yogi’s who is a doctor, is how long does it take your heart to return to normal beats after exercise, a normal healthy blood pressure is in the region of 120/80. If your blood pressure return to normal within a few minutes after the exercise, then you have not much to worry about. It is when it is elevated for hours and days that you need to worry.

#6

5 minutes are way too much for a beginner in strenght postures. (Warrior I-II-III are strenght postures)
I only keep it for about 12 breaths, that means about a minute. This way no sweating and heart rate increase occurs.

Because of what you say, I think the anxietey releasing effect is due to endorphines secreteted by the brain because the physical exertion.
It is not wise to hold these poses as long as a beginner, because in time your knees, hips, and ankles might develop repetitive strain injury.

If you want to feel the endorphine rush, do some jogging, sprints, squats, push-ups , anything what makes the heart and breath rate increase.

#7

Hello Trina,

Two things I’d like to share. the first is that resting BP is not at all the same as active BP. This is the same for the heart rate. The resting heart rate is so labeled because it is taken and recorded at rest.

Second is that yoga’s effects are often after the pose rather than during the pose. For example Sirsasana (headstand). It is not accurate to say the BP is lower in Sirsasana. In fact it is not. What is accurate is to say that studies indicate the BP is lower after doing Sirsasana. This is why it is important to pause after each asana and feel the residue left behind (using the awareness). In this scenario there’s no point for one to monitor the BP and heart rate while doing Virabhadrasana I (unless you are curious or are doing a study). It is a strenuous pose and thus it would be odd for a practitioner to not have an increased heart rate when doing the pose - though to what degree the HR should increase varies as much as human beings themselves.

If you are doing yoga asana for blood pressure then there are things to do and things not to do. Some poses, even though they may have wonderful effect on the body as a whole, should not be performed or not be performed in certain ways when the student has a blood pressure issue, anxiety, a heart condition, etcetera.

It is here that a qualified teacher enters the picture. Such a person can steer you in the proper directions such that the sequence and duration of your asana practice is conducive to quelling the stress and anxiety you outline.