In the third year of the epidemic, coupled with the strong infectivity of the newly mutated virus, the pressure and anxiety have pressed the government and the people out of breath.
Reducing stress and controlling emotions have become increasingly important.
Don’t let anxiety crush the current epidemic! In addition to aerobic exercise, yoga, which is familiar to everyone and especially favored by women, and the recent “comeback” Pilates are recommended as good stress relief exercises.
“Comeback” Pilates: shaping, weight loss + lowering blood pressure, but if you ask why yoga and Pilates can reduce stress, many people don’t know.
This is not surprising.
In fact, the sports science community has been exploring this problem.
Interestingly, the following research begins to uncover the mystery of yoga and Pilates decompression.
Dum,R.P.,Levinthal,D.J.,&Strick,P.L.(2016).
Motor,cognitive,andaffectiveareasofthecerebralcortexinfluencetheadrenalmedulla.
ProceedingsoftheNationalAcademyofSciencesoftheUnitedStatesofAmerica,113(35),9922–9927.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1605044113 When it comes to stress, many people immediately think it’s a bad thing.
In fact, pressure has been with mankind since the first day of human birth.
When tigers and lions come, people either run away or fight desperately.
The “physical and psychological stress source” of the tiger is called “fighting desperately”.
Decompression: “shout out” is better than “sweat out”! The most important organ in charge of this stress response is called “adrenal gland”, and the most important stress hormone is called “adrenaline”.
As the name suggests, the adrenal gland is located above our kidneys.
When we need to fight or escape, it will spray adrenaline into our blood.
This stress response is crucial in severe situations.
Hormone release keeps us nervous; Turn it off and we’ll relax.
For a long time, scientists have believed that the adrenal gland is opened and closed by the brain, that is, stress hormones are managed hierarchically from the upper (cerebral cortex) to the lower.
Seeing the tiger or fighting with it, the perceived signal reaches the frontal cortex all the way up along the command chain.
After making analysis and judgment, the brain sends a signal down to produce the corresponding countermeasure action of beating or escaping.
If the control of adrenal secretion is only from top to bottom, it is difficult to explain that yoga exercise can reduce pressure.
Therefore, neuroscientists assume that the connection between the brain and adrenal medulla is much more complex than previously understood, and the complex network of the whole primary sensory and motor cortex should be involved in our stress response.
To test this hypothesis, the scientists in the above study conducted experiments with monkeys using the latest neuroimmune methods.
They injected rabies virus into the adrenal glands of monkeys.
Rabies virus is a wonderful tool in neuroimmunology research, because the nerves of injected organs will bring rabies virus back to the central nervous system relative to the control organs.
By drawing the process map of the virus, scientists can clearly draw the neural connection between organs and brain.
Through these drawings, the researchers found that there is a discrete and fine network in the cerebral cortex that controls the adrenal medulla, that is, the connection between the brain and the adrenal gland is much more complex than previously understood.
The complex network of the whole primary sensory and motor cortex is directly related to our stress response, that is, stress is not only controlled by the traditional high-level cognitive field.
The relationship between “heart” (brain) and “body” (internal organs) recognized by Oriental Medicine began to be confirmed by science.
The results of the study identified key areas in the primate cerebral cortex and their connection to the adrenal gland through multisynaptic connections.
This link system includes all aspects of network and skeletal motion control in the field of sports, from stress response selection to exercise preparation and execution.
Networks from the medial prefrontal cortex are involved in cognitive and emotional regulation.
Therefore, the cortical regions involved in controlling movement, cognition and emotion are potential sources of central commands affecting sympathetic excitation.
These findings also provide anatomical basis for psychosomatic diseases in which mental state can change organ function.
In addition to the previously recognized importance of cortical motor areas in the top-down impact on the adrenal medulla, the results also reveal that limb and body movements are accompanied by the coordination of sympathetic output proportional to the metabolic needs of the task, that is, stress is not only controlled by the traditional high-level cognitive field, but also positively affected by the body from bottom to top.
The neural pathway mapping shows that the neurons opposite to the core muscle group play the largest role! Enlightenment: properly designed core muscle exercises, such as yoga and Pilates, can help reduce stress.
On the contrary, incorrect posture can also put pressure on people..