SKIN PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN YOGA
The skin is the outer most covering of the “body pot”. It forms the chief interface between the internal and external enviroment. It is a sense organ of air element in the body. The skin as a sense organ brings in information from the external enviroment. This knowledge from the skin alters the workings of the internal organs of the body, so as to maintain the internal environment constant.
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The superficial–Epidermis 2. The deeper-Dermis
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The Epidermis is the protective response of the skin to the rays of sun. It also response to the stress from body and mind. The skin’s color changes according to the above factors.
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The Dermis,
The Dermis is the essential sense organ of which is rich in blood vessels, lymphatics and nerves.
The skin is bound to the underlying structures of bones and muscles. The stretching of the skin with the muscle action activates the skin from within. Activation from within means that the sensory nerve endings in the skin get stimulated. This impulses evokes parasympathic vasodilator response of the vascular bed of the body. Any exercise or asanas without stimulation in the skin can only bring obout the sympathetic nerve response so as to raise the blood pressure and quicken the pulse . It is essential to stimulate the skin in order to give balance to both sympathetic and parasymthetic response to body.
The skin is richly supplied with nerves. Many of these nerve erminals have special receptors like touch receptors, pressure receptors,vibration receptors and thermal receptors. These skin receptors can get stimulated by outside agencies as well as from within. During Asana- Pranayama these receptors ger activated from within.
In Iyengar practice, the weighs and bandages are used to relax the muscles. The possible explanation for this is that the steady stimulation of the pressure recptors helps to reduce the tone of the muscle. the weight pressure removes the build-in muscle tension, and the muscle submits to the force of gravity and relaxed.
It must be remembered that during Asana and Pranayama practice, not only the outer skin gets activated but the nerves if the inner linning of the body cavities also get activated and send impulses to spinal cord brain centres. The whole object of doing asana and pranayama is to work on nerves system of the body to improve its receptivity , and to control abd expand its reactivity.