HA! I know athletes (and the rest of the world) what you are thinking…vagal tone…what’s that!?!?!
Here is the 101 on it
So crazy important. Because while we all know that exercise is important, exercise is still stress on the body. And if you aren’t exercising right now, keep reading…unless you have no stress in your life.
The vagus nerve, the largest cranial nerve in the body, starts at the base of the skull and wanders throughout the whole body, influencing the respiratory, digestive and nervous systems. It’s the “air traffic controller”. It helps to regulate all body functions. Breathing, heart rate, digestion…as well as our ability to take in, process, and make sense of our experiences.
This vagal “tone”, as it increases, we feel better. Digestion improves, our heart functions more optimally, etc etc. This means for the athlete specifically that if our digestion is better (for example), we are absorbing nutrients better and getting of waste better so the SYSTEM (aka the exercising body) is working more optimally. So the athlete recovers faster, better. You get sick less often.
We have an easier time moving from the more active and often stressful states of being to the more relaxes ones. As we get better at doing that, we can manage life’s challenges with the right blend of energy, engagement and ease.
Low vagal tone bring on a feeling of depletion, digestion gets sluggish, our heart rate increases and our moods become more unpredictable and difficult to manage. Studies are showing that low vagal tone is correlated with health conditions such as depression, PTSD, chronic pain and epilepsy.
Ok, so what does this mean? DO YOUR YOGA. Get to class, do the practice. Don’t go to the class thinking about toning the vagal nerve. (hahahaha) Just know what when your yoga teacher is asking you to do that breathing practice that seems odd, it’s gonna benefit you in a really BIG FAT WAY!
If you really want to know, the practice of the ocean breathe, aka Darth Vader breathing, aka breathing as if you are fogging up a mirror, (ujjayi pranayama) is a great way to increase vagal tone, as well as repetitious speaking of single symbol words such as “om” (aka chanting or prayer). To take the mystery out of it, its the vibration quality or frequency that results of the word “om”, when chanted, that works to increase vagal tone (It’s science, not voodoo).
Yoga helps to manage the crazy, or increase vagal tone. However you want to think about it. And that’s the rest of the story!
