Welcome to your Body Systems Yoga Series for Full Body Health by Mary Ella Wood, DO. Dr. Wood is an integrative primary care doctor and certified yoga teacher. Integrative medicine is the field of medicine that blends evidenced-based complementary practices from around the world with traditional western medical training. The idea is to broaden the scope of treatment plans– rather than prescribing only ‘western’ or only ‘eastern’ medicine.
In this series, Dr. Wood takes you through 7 different yoga classes, each one stimulating a different body system. Yoga can be beneficial for a lot more than just stretching and strengthening the muscles. This series will help you understand the many benefits yoga has for the body and how you can utilize it for your whole health journey.
Each flow was designed to undulate between more active and passive flows each day, so it can be done one a day for 7 days to jump-start a health journey or fully reset your body from the bottom up. However, feel free to jump around classes and utilize the series however best fits you and your schedule.
Each class will be broken down into a different body system (listed below). Dr. Wood will provide a little bit of medical education about each body system and how yoga can benefit it. Additionally, each flow will contain a few bonus techniques to accompany the yoga flow. These bonuses range from pranayama breath-work to osteopathic manual medicine techniques and more.
– Class Overview –
Class #1: MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM: Power Yoga Flow for Strength and Stability (special focus: myofascial release)
Class #2: REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM: Gentle Vinyasa Flow to Activate the Sacral Chakra (special focus: sacral chakra)
Class #3: GASTROINTESTINAL SYSTEM: Detox Hatha Yoga Flow (special focus: osteopathic manual medicine for constipation & bloating)
Class #4: ENDOCRINE & AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM: Yin-Yang Vinyasa Flow to Improve Resilience to Stress (special focus: ujjayi pranayama)
Class #5: LYMPHATIC & IMMUNE SYSTEM: Yoga to Support the Immune System & Lymphatic Drainage (special focus: diaphragmatic pranayama & lymphatic drainage)
Class #6: CARDIOPULMONARY SYSTEM: Power Cardio Yoga Flow (special focus: lion’s breath pranayama)
Class #7: NEUROLOGICAL & PSYCHIATRIC SYSTEM: Restorative Yin Yoga to Reset the Mind (special focus: mindfulness meditation)
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See you on the mat!
Full Transcript
Intro 0:00
foreign [Music] wood and I'm a board-certified primary care doctor and certified yoga teacher and welcome to your body systems yoga series for full body Health this series will consist of seven different classes each one focusing on a different body system it was designed with a bottom-up approach starting with the musculoskeletal system and ending with the neurological and psychiatric system this series will help you jump start a health Journey or reset your body from the bottom up yoga can be so beneficial for the body and for a lot more than just stretching and strengthening the muscles which is what a lot of people think when they think of yoga and all the different asanas and poses but there's so many other benefits and we'll talk about those all along the way during this series this series was designed to do one class a day for seven days to finish in a week with that in mind we'll undulate between more fiery and active poses followed by more Yin and nurturing gentle style poses just so that it is doable to do seven days in a row without burning yourself out however you don't have to do them every day in a row and you don't have to go in order either pick a body system that calls to you or come back here anytime to do a flow to activate a particular body system and just see how it goes for you listen to your body this series was designed for all levels from beginner to Advanced and I go through different variations of some of the more challenging poses so if you are a beginner it is doable for you however if you've never taken a yoga class at all in your life I would recommend going back and starting with a beginner yoga flow just so you can start to learn the terminology what the poses look like what the poses mean but if you really are jazzed to start your yoga Journey with this series it definitely is doable just make sure to listen to your body and don't push yourself if you're starting to develop any pain with any of the poses so with all that day one is going to focus on the musculoskeletal
musculoskeletal system 1:50
system this is going to be a power Hoth and styled flow to really activate your muscles build strength and stability and our special Focus during this class is going to be a myofascial release technique which is an osteopathic manipulative medicine technique that I use in the office as we go through this series you'll see that in each class I talk about each body system give a little bit of medical education nothing too crazy just a few little pearls here and there so you can start to understand your body then we'll go through a special Focus which can be anything from an osteopathic manipulative medicine technique to a breathing technique a massage technique just something else besides just our yoga flow so you can start to activate that body system in a different way day two will focus on the reproductive system our special Focus
reproductive system 2:34
during this class is going to be the sacral chakra this is going to be a more gentle Vinyasa style flow to really get blood flow and lymphatic drainage to your reproductive tract day three will focus
gastrointestinal system 2:48
on the gastrointestinal system so this will be a detox Hatha inspired yoga Flow full of lots of twists and turns to really activate your GI system in this class we'll talk about what detoxing actually means a little bit of a misnomer our bodies do a great job of detoxing all on our own so our goal here is to stimulate that system and support what our bodies can already do naturally our special Focus here will be another osteopathic manipulative medicine technique to stimulate the GI tract great for constipation bloating gas pain anything like that day four will focus on the endocrine system and the
endocrine system 3:22
autonomic nervous system so this is one of my favorites when we're talking about yoga flows or just medicine in general and the reason that I paired these two systems together is because they're both involved in the stress response in our body so the endocrine system with the release of cortisol and the autonomic nervous system with our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system working together to help our body respond to stress we'll talk a lot about this more in this class but essentially what we want to do is support our body to respond to stressful stimuli when it needs to and then calm down when it needs to so this flow will be a yin yang Vinyasa style flow that will kind of go through that natural course of our body so we'll do more fiery and active poses and Then followed by some more Yin and nurturing poses and focus on our breath work to help our body adapt to stress the special Focus during this class will be on the ujjayi Press because it actually stimulates the vagus nerve which is the biggest parasympathetic nerve in our body day five will focus on
immune system 4:18
the lymphatic and immune system so this will be another Vinyasa style flow to really stimulate our immune system get the lymphatic flow going all over our body the special Focus during this class will be a lymphatic drainage technique which is another osteopathic manipulative medicine technique that I use in the office day six will focus on the Cardiac and Pulmonary system and as
cardiac pulmonary system 4:37
you probably guessed this one will involve some cardio so we'll get our heart rate up during this one we'll get our lungs working we'll just get blood flow going all over our body and because we are also focusing on the pulmonary system we'll go through another type of breathing technique during this one as well and last but not least day seven will focus on the neurological and the
neurological psychiatric system 4:56
psychiatric system so this will definitely be a Yen style flow very gentle not a whole lot of movement here just some gentle poses to help calm the mind and relax the nerves our special Focus which will be a big part of this flow will be on mindfulness meditation so this is a specific style of meditation that helps us release any judgment associated with our thoughts and we'll talk more about why that's important when we get to that flow but overall this type of meditation is really great for depression anxiety PTSD and just overall improving your outlook on life so with all that I hope you guys enjoy this series and I'll see you on the mat [Music] thank you
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