“Gravity presses you to the ground, and your entire internal structure reacts in the opposite direction.” — Francisco Kaiut
Let’s consider for a moment a young woman in her 20s who wants to be fit and healthy and carry a certain amount of weight. She wants to look and feel good. To her benefit, she enjoys movement, adventure, and, of course, good food. She’s constantly searching for ways to balance her work, calorie intake, and activity levels with how she wants to look and feel. It’s a dance that, at times, she pays close attention to, and at other times, other priorities take precedence.
Her brain must constantly respond to these demands to keep this young woman doing everything she loves. She doesn’t notice this phenomenon directly or need to, but it’s always there. When she walks, her brain must orient to the demands of that activity and deliver to her what her body needs to make it happen.
She might choose to specialize in rowing for ten years or more. During these ten years, life might happen, and she might experience an accidental shoulder injury. The entire biomechanical system will now work with a body that has experienced a particular trauma and recalibrate around the healing of that injury. Over time, compensatory and rigidity patterns are established to keep her standing, walking, running, sitting at a computer, or even playing a sport. Specific patterns are developed and needed, and those aren’t wrong. So, what exactly is her brain responding to?
There are forces beyond our control that we don’t think about or notice. These forces aren’t bad or wrong. They are in the background of our lives, silently influencing how our bodies age within every moment and over decades.
Understanding how these forces influence aging can positively impact our choices and quality of life now and over the next 30 years.
From the time we are in the womb to this very moment, our brains and bodies are under the influence of gravity, time, and our bodies’ response to gravity. Gravity works from the top down, and the body works from the bottom up. The brain and body have to adapt constantly to this setup. In other words, this phenomenon works as described below:
“When standing still, gravity tends to flex and collapse structures like the spine, knees, feet, and hips. However, there is a natural internal reaction in the body that prevents this breakdown from happening. This reaction has been disregarded in yoga practice. Disregarding this factor that is reactive to gravity results in a loss of control over the outcome that the lever system of each position proposes to create.” — Kaiut Yoga Teacher Training 2024
We can glean from this information that if we are standing, our eyes aim naturally toward the horizon, and the brain organizes us around this orientation. Every person standing will be under the same influence of gravity; however, each body will respond differently to this natural force. Our young woman in the above example will have developed her unique rigidity patterns in response to the demand she’s historically placed on her body. Her brain will be searching for ways to keep her balanced in an upright position.
The force of gravity creates distinct systems in each joint. The forces are passed through the muscles and then distributed to the joints. When muscles respond to these forces, it can lead to excessive stress on the muscles, leading to imbalances and fatigue. Over time, this consistent overload can affect the surrounding joints, leading to a joint disorder as the joints compensate for impaired muscle function, resulting in pain, inflammation, and potential damage to the joint structures.
The Kaiut Yoga Method was partly inspired by the theory created by Austrian osteopath Dr. Randolph Stone in his extensive work, which gave rise to Polarity Therapy.
“Dr. Randolph Stone’s work merges ideas from various traditions, such as Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, and his theories. His ideas, quite futuristic for their time, are extremely effective. He created more than a way of adjusting joints and correcting muscle structure: a system of homeopathy with the hands. From the reorganization of one part, there is a systemic consequence for the whole organism.” — Kaiut Yoga International Teacher Training 2024
Within the first 100 classes of the Kaiut Yoga Method, students will see a variety of standing poses in the upright position. Most poses will have the torso upright or a forward fold. In some, the hips and legs move this upright position from side to side, forward or back, or within a spiral, as in Virabhadrasana 1 and 2 (Warrior 1 and 2). This is on purpose, as the Kaiut Method aims to move a student along a path of designing and rebuilding biomechanically the potential each body has for reclaiming function that has been lost.
What students don’t see in the first 100 classes are poses like Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), Virabhadrasana 3 (Warrior 3). These poses take the torso off a specific orientation to the floor and gravity, which places a particular demand for equilibrium on the system in response. The first 100 classes were designed for people who live in modern society, and most of us don’t have the full availability of these poses without having the bodywork against gravity and finding a workaround. Therefore, we can’t predict whether students will benefit from these poses.
The Kaiut Method and practice were built from an understanding of these forces. Each asana and movement cannot happen randomly. Every movement has purposeful oversight to keep this natural process in mind, including the shapes of the poses and meditation exercises. Standing with one foot forward and the other foot back, nose lifted, eyes forward. With our eyes open, we will naturally do what we always do—in our daily lives, walking with our eyes open means getting something done. In a yoga class, we want to soften the gaze to have a different intention and adapt to gravity and the floor from a different perspective. We then might invite the shoulder girdle to be slightly more parallel to the wall in front of us, asking the brain to organize itself around a slightly different orientation.
The method has been designed and tested for over 30 years and has had predictable outcomes from the creator and teachers he has trained from across the globe.
“We should not consider yoga a movement activity but a reorganization of the mind and body. Kaiut, according to its creator, is a dynamic method that aims to create a continuous and progressive learning movement. Unlike other types of Yoga based on the repetition of poses, Kaiut classes are verbal and student-oriented. Various sensory stimuli are offered, further enriching the experience since the bodily tools are not limited to the muscles. It is a rescue of the biological functions that were paused. Since this method focuses on individuality, the practices are unpredictable, as they are presented according to the students present, requiring dexterity and skill from the teachers to make it accessible to everyone present. Another characteristic of the method is it helps students focus on the present moment, create body awareness, and increase self-knowledge.” — July 2024 Newsletter
The aging process of the woman described above is unpredictable. Her brain and body will respond to the forces of gravity above and the responses from the body from below based on the activities and specialties she enjoys over her lifetime. Within a regular Kaiut Yoga Practice context, the aging process becomes more predictable as classes were designed with this in mind. This is excellent news as we know it’s possible to keep doing all the activities we love for as long as possible. For her, it might be dancing, hiking, or adventure with friends and grandchildren for as long as possible.