Ask a Yogi

Many students write me with questions about yoga.  Here's a new forum where I can share my thoughts on anonymous personal issues, so that everyone can learn a little bit…

TREMBLING MUSCLES

A student recently wrote in with concern over the muscles in her outer, lower leg trembling not only while practicing poses during class, but trembling for the greater part of the next day as well.  She suspects something is releasing from her in those trembles, but there is a bit more to it than that.

BKS Iyengar

“In general your lower, outer leg likes to be a little long/overstretched and torqued in your body.  It strongly likes to work in this long torqued way, and maybe even is a bit lazy when asked to try working in a new/different way. You know how I am always helping you to reach up through your inner legs and ankles as well as inner heels and balls of big toes when you are upside down in an inversion? That is because the outer lower leg tries to take control and overly lengthen, when it should really pull back a bit. This is your body's habit showing up. And you know how we did a lot of that wide leg standing position (Prasarita Padottanasana) yesterday? That pose was asking you to engage the outer leg in a new more aligned way and it is saying to you... yikes... we don't do it that way!"

So my ‘super cosmic’ answer is similar to your intuition, that the trembling is energy releasing from your body, in any form or shape such as emotion, stress, thought patterns, unconscious holding, or habits working themselves out.  This topic however, is vast and very subjective, and I feel we must begin with more concrete answers for our western minds.

An anatomical answer must be broken down into two parts:

A. Trembling from muscular action

B. Trembling from stretching of muscle

A. First we must look at action of a muscle... Actions are performed in muscles because the brain, or more scientifically, the central nervous system (CNS), sends information to the muscle to do something. The trembling from muscular action is usually because the muscle has been asked to perform an action it is not accustomed to doing. When muscle tissue contracts, the fibers of the tissue slide over one another smoothly in a well known, or habitual action. But in a new action the fibers are still trying to learn how to move in this unknown way and create a bit more tension through their new awkward movement. This tension is then released from the body through trembling. Muscles can also vibrate on a cellular level due to the process of converting the body's chemicals into energy for exertion. But once the muscles and the chemicals required learn the new action through repetition over time, this trembling begins to go away and will cease if the body turns this new action into more of a habit.

BKS Iyengar

B. The way the muscles react to stretching is different. Stretching brings into play the CNS as well and therefore the sensory neurons imbedded in the muscles that are responsible for our reflexes. This is a vital aspect in our makeup because if the muscles were to begin to stretch too far towards damage or possible tearing, the CNS sends out a message to the muscle to stop and retreat. This quick back and forth communication of information between the muscle saying ‘Stretch!’ and the CNS saying ‘Retreat!’ can cause trembling. This is why subtle pulses in a pose, say bending and straightening the knees a few times in a hamstring stretch such as reclined hand to big toe pose (Supta Padangusthasana), can help calm the nervous system into saying, ‘ah yes, all is ok, I can stretch a little further, those reflexes are not needed now'.  Important: this is only something to tap into if the stretch feels safe to you and is ‘good pain’ rather than ‘bad pain’ (bad pain tends to feel sharp and electric).

And for why the trembling persisted into the next day: This is due to the CNS receptors re-setting their threshold and patterns for stretch and the replacement of the chemicals that are used up during action. Trembling later, after the action, is actually good and can signal that you are integrating the work into your body's structure. You are beginning to own this new way of moving whether it be from action or stretching."

A great blog to learn more is: http://functionaltrainer.co.za/blog/? p=58