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Yoga Stretching Oil
Flexibility combined with strength is part of the equation that allows us to move with coordinated ease, while simultaneously maintaining joint integrity. Some people are naturally flexible and easily able to maintain flexibility. However, for many maintaining flexibility is not easy, particularly as we get older.
For centuries Chinese martial arts practitioners used herbal training formulas to help the body accommodate to different aspects of physical training, so it is no surprise that there are formulas to aid stretching and flexibility exercises. Liniments Like Yoga Stretching Oil can be a great help when performing stretching flexibility exercises. Yoga Stretching Oil has a remarkable and immediate effect on the muscles and fascial tissue.
Creating & Testing the Oil
I worked together with Dr. Carl S. Leung, the founder of Kamwo Meridian Herbs, to create a formula that would produce immediate palpable effects in increasing the ability of muscles to relax, extend and lengthen, and that would also be safe for daily use. Dr. Leung’s nearly 40 years of clinical experience in dermatology was invaluable in producing this product His creams and external oils have been utilized for years in the Chinese community because of their high quality and high level of success.
In creating this product, Dr. Leung and I looked at traditional Chinese muscle oil formulations. We went through four iterations of the product, testing each one on different people to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the formula. I had people test the flexibility of the hamstrings before and after using the oil. I knew we had arrived at the right balance of ingredients when I massaged some of the oil into my generally tighter right hamstring - within seconds I could stretch farther on that leg than on the ‘good leg.” Further tests bore out the consistency of these quick and effective results, and users reported less soreness from stretching when using Yoga Stretching Oil in conjunction with stretching and flexibility routines.
The result of our work was Tooth From the Tiger’s Mouth Yoga Stretching Oil (Yoga Shen Jin You), based on a traditional formula used by martial artists designed to increase the suppleness and flexibility of the fascia.
Using Yoga Stretching Oil
Yoga Stretching Oil is specifically designed to target the muscles, fascia, and sinews (tendons). Yoga Stretching Oil is rubbed into muscles and joints before and after activities like Yoga, or other stretching routines, so that the muscles and fascia more easily adapt to training, thereby increasing and maintaining suppleness and flexibility. Clinically it is often used for joint pain that is accompanied by tight, bound muscles.
Rubbing Yoga Stretching Oil into the skin is a type of Gao Mao therapy (rubbing skin, muscles, and joints with ointments or oils). Gao Mao therapies are very effective for heaviness, and stiffness, or unease in the limbs – a result of the intrusion of pathogenic factors (wind, cold, damp, etc) and stasis in the Cou Li. The Cou Li are the striae of the muscles – the spaces between the skin and flesh and within the superficial muscle layers. Small vessels know as the Network Vessels run through the body like a net. Blockages within the network vessels and Cou Li lead to muscle tension and stiffness. Yoga stretching Oil is specifically designed to enter the Cou Li, disperse blockages, and restore integrity to the surface layers of the skin and flesh, while simultaneously opening and relaxing the muscle fibers and their related fascial tissues.
Uses:
Massage Yoga Stretching Oil into tight tissues before and after stretching and flexibility exercises.
Massage Yoga Stretching Oil into cold, tight muscles that are tight from exterior pathogenic factors penetrating into the skin and flesh.
Use for joint pain that is accompanied by tight, bound muscles.
Yoga Stretching Oil is for External Use Only and should not be used over open skin lesions.
Ingredients
Yoga Stretching Oil is a blend of the following ingredients: macadamia oil, sesame oil, eucalyptus oil, bing pian, zhang nao, rou gui, shen jin cao, tao ren, ding xiang oil, dang gui
Macadamia Oil: Macadamia oil has superb emollient qualities and therefore helps to softens and soothes the skin. It contains ingredients that have a calming and healing effect when applied to the skin, therefore macadamia Oil works as an anti-inflammatory and aids skin recovery. Macadamia oil is often used for those who suffer from irritated skin caused by psoriasis and eczema. It has also been used for diaper rash and to reduce stretch marks. Macadamia oil is extremely moisturizing to the skin and is excellent an anti-aging product. In Australia is used in aged-care facilities and in hospitals for burn victims.
Because macadamia oil is readily absorbed into the skin and has the ability to amplify the properties of other ingredients it is often used as a “carrier oil” that is combined with other ingredients to increase skin penetration and absorption.
Sesame Oil: Sesame Oil seems to reduce oxidative stress to skin tissue and helps to heal skin damage. When applied topically sesame oil helps ease anxiety and boost immune function along with circulation. Sesame Oil helps relieve lethargy, fatigue, and insomnia, while promoting strength and vitality, enhancing blood circulation. It provides some relief from pain and muscle spasms. In one study, Sesame Oil combined with massage significantly reduced pain associated with limb trauma among emergency room patients.
Eucalyptus Oil: Research has indicated that Eucalyptus Oil has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial properties, and antiproliferative effects on cancer cells. Eucalyptus oil helps treat rheumatoid arthritis, and muscle and joint pains and aches. Eucalyptus oil is a vasodilator. Hence, massaging the body with it regularly will help you improve blood circulation throughout the body.
Bing Pian (Borneol): Bing Pian is easily absorbed through the skin and therefore guides other substances to the deeper layers of the muscles and flesh. It unblocks obstruction, drains excess heat, and stops pain. It also treats hematomas.
Zhang Nao (Camphor): Zhang Nao expels wind invigorates the blood, expels cold, and alleviates pain. Zhang Nao also guides other substances to the deeper layers of the muscles and flesh, while coursing the Cou Li. Even though it is Hot, its Yang dispersal provides a sense of coolness to the skin.
Rou Gui (Cinnamon Bark): Oils extracted from Cinnamon bark (Rou Gui) warm the skin and muscles. Rou Gui disperses cold, warms the channels, unblocks the channels, and alleviates pain.
Shen Jin CaoShen Jin Cao soothes the sinews, quickens the network vessels, and dispels wind-damp. It is used for wind-damp impediment pain with inhibited bending and stretching and tension of the sinews. Shen Jin Cao is a key herb in the Yoga Stretching Oil formulation because it relaxes the muscles and sinews and invigorates circulation in the collaterals, which helps improve flexing and extending of the muscles and joints. Shen Jin Cao literally means “Stretch (Extend) Sinew Grass.”
Tao Ren (Peach Kernel): Tao Ren moistens the skin stimulates local circulation, while also breaking up blood stasis.
Ding Xiang Oil: Ding Xiang oil has antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antispasmodic, and anesthetic properties. Ding Xiang is a type of cloves, so it is warming, dispels cold, and relieves pain. It aromatic nature unblocks obstruction.
Dang Gui: Dang Gui nourishes the blood and moistens, and also activates and moves the blood to improve circulation. Dang Gui frees the superficial network vessels and disperses localized swelling and stasis. It also relieves spasms.
“Stretching”& Yoga Stretching Oil
When we describe exercises that enhance flexibility we can’t help using the word “stretching” in relation to lengthening fascial tissue. In fact, muscles don’t really stretch, they contract. As one set of muscles, contracts (the agonist), other muscles (the antagonists) must relax, extend, and lengthen. A very simple example is that when the quadriceps muscles contract to extend the leg, the hamstrings must relax and lengthen.
Our muscles are not rubber bands or ropes that can be stretched out by pulling on the ends. In fact, muscles and tendons have a self-protective mechanism that works to prevent a sudden or forced stretch of the muscle tissue from occurring. This “stretch reflex” tells the muscles to contract. This is why many people experience a sense of tightness after stretching – the nervous system is battling against itself, negating your efforts. Consciously you are sending a message telling the body to manually stretch your muscles by pulling on them. But unconsciously and automatically, the stretch reflex is activated, contracting the very muscles one is trying to stretch. Attempting to stretch muscles can create micro-tearing and scar tissue at the muscle attachments, which in the long run can make it even harder to let muscles relax and extend.
Yoga Stretching Oil is designed to help warm nourish and moisten the muscles, and open up the meridians, Cou Li and network vessels while stimulating the sinews to relax and lengthen.
How we think affects the body at every level of engagement. When using Yoga Stretching Oil improve flexibility rather than thinking about “stretching” muscles, it is better to visualize that we are extending and lengthening the muscles and sinews and gently “opening up” space inside the joints, so that Qi and breath can move through the channels, muscles and connective tissue. This opening up and letting go allows fluids to move smoothly through the fascia, nourishing and moistening the tissue, while the muscles naturally extend without restriction. This opening up and letting go is exactly what Yoga Stretching Oil is also stimulating in the local tissues. Combining our intention with the action of the Yoga Stretching Oil will exponentially increase its effect. So when using Yoga Stretching Oil think of suppleness, opening, extending, releasing, loosening and letting go, and you will get far more out of your flexibility exercises.