Neuro Moves | Yoga and Cranial Nerves.
Right at the base of your skull where it attaches to your neck is a portion of your brain called the Brain Stem. This portion of your brain is known as the “old brain”, It is in control of many fundamental subconscious and autonomic processes in your body that you need to stay alive. It has a HUGE amount of jobs and tasks, some of which are relevant to movement…this is where our work begins.
Today we look at one of its many roles which is the influence of setting global flexion and extension tone.Considering these 2 terms as categories we can understand the following:
Flexion - The movement that protect vulnerable spaces. This will also include the movement of internal rotation and adduction. As simple example, think arms over head with elbows bent to protect head, spine curled around to protect organs, knees tucked up into the chest.
Extension - The movement that is open, safe and relaxed in its environment. Also including the movement of external rotation and abduction. Perfect example is the yoga pose of recline butter fly with arms out wide to the side, palms up, knees open and front of body open.
A closer look at the anatomy of the brain steam will guide us to the specific tools and tricks we can play with, almost like pressing buttons and seeing (sometimes) huge changes in our easy range in a specific movement. Easy meaning we are not forcing ourselves into the movement ever, the changes if they work, should feel effortless.
1)The brain stem is divided into 3 portions, each one having a specific influence on regulating the autonomic nervous system and movement. We used a breathing drill to stimulate each one of these portions which will be listed in “tricks and drills” below.
o The top portions of the brain stem is the Midbrain, this regulates our FLEXION tone and up regulates our autonomic nervous system, commonly known as “fight or flight”.
o The middle section of the brain stem is the Pons, regulating EXTENSION tone and down regulating our autonomic nervous system, typically known as “rest and digest”.
o Finally the lower portion is called the Medulla, which regulates FLEXION tone and is down regulating also known as “rest and digest”.
2.) 10 out of the 12 cranial nerves originate from these 3 portions and each cranial nerve has ways to be stimulated to influence movement. Here comes our button pressing magic tricks. Let’s look at these systematically so you have a playbook on how to test and retest movements, shapes and postures you want to work on.
The tricks and drills:
AIR HUNGER- Midbrain- Upregulate and flexion. Big breath in, empty completely either march on the stop until you need a breath OR while holding an empty breath do as many air squats as fast as you can.
LUNG POP- Pons- Down regulate and extension. Take a side stretch, inhale completely, when you think your full, take a extra sip of air, then continue to THINK about breathing in and release.
FAKE INHALE- Medulla- Down regulating and flexion. Big inhale, exhale a tiny bit, then do a fake inhale, exhale a little bite, fake inhale…repeat process until you run out of breath to exhale and repeat 2 more times.
EYE CONVERGENCE: Midbrain- Cranial Nerve III- Ocular motor- Upregulating and flexion. Take your thumb extended away from you and slowly track towards your face. Blurry is okay, but avoid your thumb going into double vision.
DRAW “H” WITH YOUR EYES: Midbrain- Cranial Nerve IV- Trochlear- Upregulating and flexion. Take both thumbs side by side extended out infront of you. Keep your head still. Move one thumb over the draw half of a “H”, tracking with your eyes smoothly. Repeat on other side.
BITE ON WEAKER SIDE: Pons- Cranial Nerve V- Trigeminal- Down regulating and extension. Figure out what side of your jaw your nature bite feels strongest, then hold your bite down on the weaker side for 20 seconds.
EYE DIVERGENCE: Pons- Cranial Nerve VI- Abducens- Down regulating and extension. Thumb starts at the tip of your nose, slowly track your thumb with eyes as your extend your arm away. Once fully extended, gaze past your thumb. Close your eyes, reset and repeat 4-5 times.
WORK AGAINST YOUR SMILE: Pons- Cranial Nerve VII- Facial- Down regulating and extension. Look in a mirror, do the biggest smile your face will let you, observe which side of your face is not as smiley. Take your hand on that weaker side and gently pull down as you smile as much as you can.
CLICK INTO YOUR EAR THAT NEEDS STIMULATION: Pons- Cranial Nerve VIII- Vestibulocochlear- Down regulating and extension. Figure out which ear cannot hear as well, click into it for 20-30 seconds.
HUMMING: Medulla- Cranial Nerve IX- Glossopharyngeal- Down regulation and Flexion. Simply, hum on the exhale x 5
SLOW BREATHING: Medulla- Cranial Nerve X- Vagus- Down regulation and Flexion. Simple slow breath, you can add counting to help guide the breath to get longer.
UPPER TRAP STIMULATION: Medulla- Cranial Nerve XI-Accessory- Down regulation and Flexion. You will need a buddy for this, get them to press down on your shoulders as you push up into their hands.
TONGUE OPPOSITE SIDE OF MOUTH: Medulla- Cranial Nerve XII- Hypoglossal- Down regulation and Flexion. Notice which side of your mouth your tongue natural rests on, it might only be the slightest difference. Then push your tongue into the opposite direction either against the inside of your teeth or push into your cheek.
Extra notes:
Everyone is different: meaning now all the drills will work. There are so many to play with though, don’t waste your time working with drills that don’t work. Find the ones your like, pop them in your tool box to help with your various movement practices.
Dosage: These drills are like medicine, some people need more or less. Following on from above point , we are all different. For example, if anything makes you feel sick or dizzy, try making it a smaller or slower. Alternatively if it doesn’t work and you are an active person, you might need to “stack” the drills and do 2 at the same time.
Autonomic nervous system description is simplified: The notion of “rest and digest” and “fight or flight” is common and easy but it is more nuanced, to the point it makes me cringe simplifying it so much in this article but I wanted to keep it on topic and not go down a rabbit hole there. Just to note: Fight and flight is not inherently “bad” and nor rest and digest inherently “good”, which sadly is the typical way it has been taught over the years. More on this in another article.
Don’t get bogged down with the science. Don’t let the terminology get in your way of using this! Again, find the drills that work and use them. It is not essential for you to remember what part of the brain or what the cranial nerve is called. These are just geeky extras.
To learn more, and not just theoretically but more importantly to embody and feel the results of this neuro biomechanics in your body join our monthly Neuro Moves Class.