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Positioning the body in preparation:

          For muscles that raise the shoulders, a sitting position works well. For Muscles that raise one hip and leg (either side of the Lumbar/lower back region; eg: Left or Right Quadratus Lumborum), a Standing position actually works very well. Standing (as well as lying face up) also works for the Psoas muscles, but you may need to have a massage therapist or chiropractor show you how these muscles move the hips and legs. For muscles that pull the shoulders back or forward, lying face up or down works equally well (for either), but with experimentation you may find preference for one or the other. For Muscles that move the hips in ways other than noted above, lying face down or up will work, and again, experimentation will tell you what feels best, especially in the long run. This experimentation is a valuable part of your awareness building process in any case.

          If the execise causes any pain, especially pain that interferes with the awareness of how the muscles work in subtle ways, then I would suggest adjusting your application, position, speed of movement, and/or force applied, etc. If that doesn't solve the situation, and especially if the pain is severe, then you may have discovered a situation that requires you to (please) consult your chiropractor, physician, and/or massage therapist, to see if these exercises are the best therapy for the condition.

          I have put together a chart illustrating "Low-Intensity Low-Back Exercises." I call these low-intensity because they are for improving circulation and ones healing focus into the low back area, for gaining flexibility and mobility in those areas after an injury, and not for building strength. (For exercises that are particularly suitable for building strength in the low back muscles, use the keywords, "Low Back Exercise Therapy" in a search engine.) Please use these exercises with the instructions and suggestions included here. Do not use them if you are injured unless you follow the instructions on this page - mostly as regards moving very very slowly, breathing slowly and deeply, and stopping each/every time you feel pain, and/or adjusting your application, position, speed of movement, and/or force applied, etc.

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The Exercise

[If it has not been long since you have been injured, be sure to read all of these instructions and understand the nature of approach and the basic plan of approach before actually doing them; better yet, consult your physician or physical therapist]

          1) *Very very slowly* tighten, or contract, the muscle(s) -- as subtly as you can and still be able to feel the contracting. Allowing yourself to feel the contracting for the count of 3 ("one-thousand one, one-thousand two...). Then allow the muscle(s) to relax for a count of ten, then to a count of 10 let these muscles and your whole body "sink" into as fully rested a mode as you can w/o changing your overall body position. Really... it's the focus and the breathing into the muscles that make the difference. Do this three to five times.

          2) Same thing except contract slowly until it feels like the muscle is contracted half way -- half as much as it would be when fully contracted that is. Now take the same amount of time to relax it. Now do the same thing but make the contracting phase take a count of 10 or even 15. Have the relaxation phase take the same count, followed with a count of 10 or 15 to full rest.

          3) Repeat #2 adding to it an increased observance of how any other muscles in your body seem to be directly and/or indirectly reacting to this process, and while also noticing any changes in your breathing, or tendencies to alter it. Note that how you breath during the exercises is not that important, so long as it is generally slow and of moderate depth or deeper. What we are observing is any tendencies toward inconsistent rhythm, gasps, or the like. If/When you notice those, note the area of the muscle(s)/body that seems to be causing that. And, over time, notice how your steady application of this process massages out the ripples in the rhythm as you move through the ranges of tensing and relaxing the muscle(s).

          NOTE: unless you are already highly practiced at this, Yoga, Tai Chi, some types of movement therapies and meditation, you will find this more than challenging. Except for one thing: you cannot do it wrong, so long as your muscles are not in the acute stage of injury or re-injury (in which case, stopping each time you feel pain is a prudent rule). It is the practice of this effort that IS the exercise. The practice may get more expert results over time, but not if you expect too much too quickly. In these kinds of awareness building exercises, the attitude of critical judgment and competition - even with self - tends to reduce the effectiveness. It is an activity most effectively regarded with the same approach as with an art-form.

          For immediate benefits, consider do this before you get up out of bed in the morning and before you fall asleep at night. Doing them at these times provides in two important ways:

          1) You will also have pre-warmed your muscles and tendons and thereby prevented your straining them in case of sudden stress being applied to them.

          2) You will have set up your sleep state as a time to work on these areas unimpeded by distracting thoughts.

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          a) A Different Kind of Challenge: Unless you are already highly practiced at this, Yoga, Tai Chi, some types of movement therapies and meditation, you will find this more than challenging. Except for one thing: you cannot do it wrong (!) so long as your muscles are not in the acute stage of injury or re-injury. It is the practice of this effort that IS the exercise. The practice may get more expert results over time, but not if you expect too much too quickly. In these kinds of awareness building exercises, the attitude of critical judgment and competition - even with self - tends to reduce the effectiveness. It is an activity most effectively regarded with the same approach as with an art-form.

          b) Tensing Yoga is NOT a Stretching Exercise: Please do not confuse this exercise with "Stretching Exercises" - unlike most all athletic-based approaches, as well as a few yoga styles, the idea here is NOT to test the limits of the Range Of Motion (ROM) of the body parts being moved or the muscles being worked. For optimal benefit from athletic programs, you may consider doing the Tensing Yoga approach along with the muscle-building approaches, certainly with the muscle-toning approaches. If after some time of experimenting with this combined approach and you feel you might benefit by replacing the athletic approach with this approach as you do your muscle-building or muscle-toning work, I'd love to hear about the results from this.

          c) "Exploring Fiber-Space:" A core objective here is to focus on, to put the mind's light on, ALL the movement in between the limits of the Range Of Motion, that is, in between where the muscles being worked are at current maximum rest state and where they are at current maximum extended state. It is as if we take a 'look-feel' of all those little spaces in the muscle fibers in between those limits, especially the ones that we've never looked at before. Cells seem to be like children - they respond most when we give them quality time, taking a sincere interest in them, and especially when actually establishing a rapport with them.

          d) A Little Trick for Breathing: There is a good way to make yourself remember (and eventually develop the habit) to breath in a particular way; for instance, at a certain desired minimum of depth and/or speed). And that way is to focus on the EXHALATION. Focusing on the inhalation tends to revert us back to the very popular habit of holding our breath to a certain degree. No kidding. Compared to one experienced in breathing healthfully, the great majority of "civilized" people actually do not use near the capacity of the lung that is available. Whereas breathing FULLY on a regular basis does at least two wonderful benefits: a) it provides oxygen in great abundance which improves mental clarity, mood, physical health, and energy; b) it massages the internal organs, whose lymphatic vessels need this kind of movement in order to keep the gut clean and free of extracellular waste material.

          The best approach to a relationship with someone who has much to offer you, including self-healing, especially when you don't know if you'll be able to earn it, is with humility. You have to be willing and open to be taught something, actually even to be surprised, to change how you relate even to yourself. In this respect, and maybe a few others, the relationship with one's cells, organs, and systems, is no different.

         It's like learning to drive a car, a car whose immensity of power you have no idea of until you actually begin to get the feel of the wheel and the pedals. It's like driver training and the kids, who are the persona of the cells and organs and systems, are going to teach you how to drive because they want to, and they know that deep inside you want to -- because you are them -- but you have forgotten what it's like to be aware at that level. You were there when you were in the womb and for a time afterwards, and maybe in your sleep. Women know something about this when focused on their bodily cycles, but not necessarily about what we're looking into here.

         The kids aren't trying to hide knowledge or power or anything else from you. They want to share it all with you. But you must earn the right by meeting them on their level and learning what they have to teach you. Although you once knew as an infant, you soon had to learn how to externalize awareness, to operate and survive "in the world." That often included attitudes, and the postures that go with them, that do not work when engaging in or maintaining the aware mind-body relationship. This relationship requires an awareness balanced between internal and external. And there is a relationship of this type to seek between you and the kids, like a resonance or wavelength, and maintaining this is like riding wave.

         The way to go into this communion with the kids so you can learn to drive a little from the cellular level, is via the attitude I'm trying to impart here, via the breath, and via a kind of relaxed but confident focus. Part of the attitude is a confidence about knowing that eventually you'll find the wave, that once you find the wave, you can ride it for as long as you can maintain the right attitude. You gain the confidence by practicing the approach, finding the wave, and more and more steadily riding it with the focus, which carries and balances the attitude and breath with the wave.

         Another part of the attitude is accepting that you have to learn to ride the wave before you can drive or control the relationship to any degree. In fact, any attachment to driving before you really appreciate what it's like to ride will prevent attunement to the wavelength. On the other hand, it can be very healing just to ride the wave. The wave is there to be found, yet it is also created by the approach to the kids, because that's a big part of how relationships are formed. Go in humble, willing to be surprised, to be taught something, to be led into a rapport that will change your life.

         One more suggestion: Once "on the wave" (or in any case, actually), you might then extend appreciation for whatever state the cellular spaces are currently in, and then fill that space in with light and love. I say "appreciation" because these cells, particularly the muscle fibers, have always responded to our own conscious or unconscious mind's guidance (with the exceptions of DNA or other structural related limitations), whether or not we might judge the guidance at the time to be competent or not for whatever reason. After the appreciation, you might want to experiment with extending compassion into these spaces.

Note for Clarifying Context:

         Putting this body-mind relationship in context with person-to-person relationships may be helpful in applying the above metaphors in Tensing Yoga. Some of the things to be considered in this regard:
          a)     Perhaps the most important difference is that the relationship with one's cells is strongly effected by, indeed greatly represents, the relationship that we have with our bodies -- that is, we as Westerners with western ideas of health and personal and medical body-interaction, etc -- not to mention this being that of a male with his male body, and of a female with her female body. For most westerners, we think we know all we need to know about one's body, the rest we just turn over to the "experts." Many men and women nowadays could at least pass a written test about how to respect the opposite gender. But few of us could do the same when it comes to the real needs of our cells.
          b)     Further, the cells don't converse with us in our own most often used language. At least males and females both usually try to use some version of the same language (even considering the differences between the "Mars & Venus" dialects).
          c)     Comparatively, the relationship with one's cells presents a kind of paradox in how we approach them. This is partly because of the above. It is also because, on the one hand, the cells are more like children (our own inner children), and respond like children to one's inner parent. And because, on the other hand, they have a great store of wisdom to offer in very certain ways, a wisdom that can enlighten one, even provide another path to the understanding of All That One Is. At the very least, the connection with them can provide a definite path to self-healing.

  Attitudinal & Sensory Focus vrs. Mental Imagery with Tensing Yoga: