STOPPING HICCUPS

I recently had a bad case of the hiccups and had a hard time getting them to stop. I breathed into a bag, held my breath, breathed essential oils and pressed points in the ears – all with mixed results.

The technique that finally worked consistently occurred when I was doing a hatha yoga shoulder stand (that's where you have your feet straight over your head). I brought my knees down to my chest and held them there for 30 seconds. When I came out of that position, I realized my hiccups were gone, because the pressure from my knees on my diaphragm stopped irregular movement of the diaphragm. Goodbye hiccups!

STRETCHING THE HAMSTRINGS DOES WORK!

A while back, I shared a study that said stretching the hamstring muscles in the legs for 60 seconds makes a big difference in how you whole body functions, as well as reducing lower back pain. Well, even though I do Hatha Yoga every morning, I was only holding the hamstring stretch for a few seconds.

I increased the time of my stretch to 60 seconds and discovered what they reported is true. I've been noticing much less lower back discomfort during the day and more flexibility, too. So if you haven't started doing the stretching, right now's a good time to start.

HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE TO STRETCH A MUSCLE?

Would you believe only 60 seconds? That's what researchers found. This study had people around 85 years old stretch their hamstring muscles for 15, 30, or 60 seconds. The 60-second group's flexibility went up nearly twice the other groups. This also results in better mobility, greater ease in bending over, and less back pain. This notion of stretching and holding the stretch is actually about 5,000 years old and is one of the principles of Hatha Yoga. In all of the Yoga positions, you hold the stretch while you keep breathing into the tension in the muscle.

I love it when a 5000-year-old system gets validated from modern research. My only question is how did they figure these things out 5000 years ago?