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Hari Om, dear brothers and sisters. The topic is how to come into balance with strengthening and stretching. It is typical, very typical for yoga to stretch the body. This is good, very good, and necessary. When we have blocks, whether psychic or from trauma, on a physical level our muscles react by contracting. It is very interesting that many, indeed all, of our problems are filtered and kept in our body, especially in the muscles and tissues. Most, actually all, of our issues are marked in our body, particularly in muscle tension and the tightening of certain muscles. If we do not stretch our muscles through their complete range of motion, they get used to being shortened. You notice this when you have a sprain or a bandage for four weeks; when you remove it, your muscles have shortened again. When muscles are tense and short, the prāṇa cannot flow freely. Our body, tissues, and muscles have their own brain, their own remembrance. This is very interesting and not so well known in Western medicine, which does not care as much about this as yoga does. We all know that Yoga in Daily Life is a holistic system. Regarding the āsanas, this system includes both strengthening and stretching. From a medical point of view, this is very good and important. When you stretch, as I said, prāṇa can flow freely again and you will feel good. We know the feeling we have in the morning after sleeping, the need to stretch ourselves. When we stretch our body, the breath automatically flows towards that stretched part. In our Yoga in Daily Life system, one of the first and very simple āsanas is lying on the back, stretching one side by raising one arm, stretching the whole body with slightly deeper breathing, and then doing it on the other side. What happens when you do this? The breath can flow equally into both sides of the lungs, supporting both sides and the organs. It also balances our nervous system. You know, Iḍā and Piṅgalā—Iḍā on the left side and Piṅgalā on the right side—are connected to our vegetative nervous system. Iḍā is connected with the parasympathetic nervous system, which has the duty to calm our whole body system down and to relax. All processes connected with relaxation, such as slowing the pulse and heart rhythm, are governed by it. Our digestive system will also function well due to the parasympathetic nervous system. The right side, Piṅgalā, is connected with the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system has the duty to contract our muscles, making us active. It is also responsible for accelerating the heartbeat. So, all this is regulated through stretching. It regulates our breathing system, our vegetative nervous system, and can release tensions. Through relaxation, tensions on both the physical and mental levels are released. So stretching is important. Now, what about strengthening? Yoga and strengthening. In all eight parts of yoga, and in the Daily Life system and the special system for back pain, we always have both stretching and strengthening. All our joints are held together by capsules, ligaments, and muscles. In our spine, we have a very thick ligament that runs from the cervical spine down to the lumbar spine and sacrum. It is called the yellow ligament, and its duty is to help and support the muscles in keeping our spine straight, allowing us to sit upright without tiring the muscles. When we move our joints, we do not just strengthen our muscles; we also strengthen the ligaments. This affects our tissues, which connect all structures in our body. Our yoga āsanas are holistic not only because they work on physical, mental, and spiritual levels, but also because, even if we stay only on the physical level, they holistically affect all structures and tissues. When you only stretch the body, you also stretch the tendons and joint capsules. Ligaments can become loose. You know this, for example, if you have weak muscles around your ankle joint and you twist it several times. The problem is that the ligament on the outside of the ankle joint becomes loose, and the only way to stabilize it again is by strengthening the muscles. You cannot strengthen the ligaments again; they cannot tighten. But by strengthening the muscles, the tissues and ligaments gain better support. This is also very important for people who are aging. We all are aging. Two examples: when you are pregnant, your hormone system changes and all tissues, ligaments, and muscles become wider and looser. The same situation occurs slowly after the age of 40. Physiology states that the body begins changing at age 25 at the latest, and this change happens very gradually. Therefore, it is important to care for your body in time, not only when problems arise. Muscles have the duty to protect all your joints and prevent you from going beyond your range of motion. So, how do we find the balance in doing our āsanas? How much should we stretch, and how much should we strengthen? One important limit, I am sure you know, is that it should not hurt. We can be very thankful that we have the possibility to feel pain and to take it as a red light—a signal not to go further. As Mahāprabhujī said, we should not go against nature, otherwise nature will take its toll. In Yoga in Daily Life, we all learn how to protect our body and develop a good feeling for it and for the movements we can do. I think we all can feel improvement after one week of doing our āsanas. Those who practice Kriyā Āṇusa Dhāraṇa find their own āsanas to protect against back pain or pain in the hips or knees. But especially then, do not just help yourself by stretching. When you sit for a long time and feel back pain, do not just stretch. Perhaps you have already experienced that stretching gives a nice feeling but does not last long. With stretching, you lose the tensions gathered during sitting, but there is no lasting hold. Also, when doing āsanas that remove stiffness, like the twisting āsanas that work like chiropractic to remove stiff parts of the spine, if you forget afterwards to strengthen your body, the problem will return. I will show you some postures, āsanas, which are very good, especially when you sit for longer periods, that combine both stretching and strengthening. First, for stretching the muscles on the back side, we have Paścimottānāsana. From a seated position, inhale and raise your arms. Then, with a very long, stretched back, come forward and place your hands on your feet. In this position, all your back muscles are well stretched, and it affects your vegetative nervous system. What if you cannot do this? You must understand muscles. If you stretch a muscle, you have contractile elements. If a muscle is too short, these elements stick close together. When stretching, you try to pull them apart. However, if you stretch the whole muscle, the stretch is not equally divided; the part that is already soft and easy to stretch will stretch, but not the other part. This can cause harm, especially if your back muscles are very short, leading to pain, particularly in the knees. The brain will remember this pain, and you will not want to do it again. Therefore, truly avoid pain while stretching. So how can you do it? There are two good possibilities from our program for diabetics, as this is very helpful for the digestive system. First, you can focus on stretching the hip part—the muscle that goes over the hips to the knees—while sparing the knee area. Begin by bending your knees. Place both hands and press your stomach towards your thighs. This stretches the muscle in the thigh area without tension on the knee. Slowly extend your feet forward as far as you can while keeping your stomach on your thighs. Alternatively, keep your legs straight and lean forward only as far as your back can stay straight, allowing your belly to get closer to your thighs. This is just an idea of how to achieve the right stretching. However, if you always tell your students or yourself to do it a certain way, with hands going only to the lower legs, the mental image of reaching the feet never forms. So, keep the whole picture in your mind. You can say, "Bend your knees as little as possible, as much as necessary, and then place your hands on your feet." In the Yoga in Daily Life system, the first part has a very good preparatory āsana. Sit with your legs slightly apart, place your hands on your thighs, and as you exhale, lean forward with your hands. The difference from Paścimottānāsana is that you can press your hands on your legs to support your back a little. For strengthening the back, for example, lie on your stomach. You know the different variations of lifting the upper body. You can cross your fingers and lift your back. If you have pain in the lower back, do not do it like this. Instead, ensure your pelvis is in the correct position by pressing your hips down to the floor. This protects the lower spine as you lift your upper body. Another way to protect the back is to come into Vajrāsana, then bend forward, cross your fingers, and lift your back and hands. This directly targets the area where we often have pain from sitting due to kyphosis. Another example is Setu Āsana. This is completely opposite to our prolonged sitting position. Lift your pelvis. If you have neck problems, do it gently; it is still good as these muscles gain strength. If you have no problems, the typical yoga posture is to put the head backwards, stretching the whole area. Try to bring your shoulder blades together to stretch this part well. A good releasing āsana from the second part is Bhūnamanā Āsana, a twisting posture that is a mixture of stretching and strengthening. It is important to keep your spine straight. Raise your arms to shoulder height. Before twisting, you should lean back slightly and then twist. The reason is that if you do not lean back and stay upright while twisting, you create a flexion in your spine. By leaning back first, you activate your stomach and back muscles and can keep almost straight. Sometimes after sitting, you can hear cracking sounds; therefore, after torsions, it is very good to strengthen. Therefore, we have, for example, in the second part of Yoga in Daily Life, Aśvasañcālanāsana, which follows Bhūnamanā Āsana. For me personally, this is very helpful after long sitting because it helps move the knees again, promoting better blood circulation in the knees and hips. At the same time, it strengthens the quadriceps muscles, which are stretched during meditation sitting. While sitting, there is much pressure on the knees. The quadriceps muscle in front of the thigh, which goes over the knee, is stretched in that area. When you bend the knee strongly, as in sitting, the meniscus inside the knee—which protects the bones from too much pressure—has to move backward. When you straighten the knee, it moves forward. Therefore, when you sit for a long time in such a position, the meniscus can get stuck slightly behind. By coming into Aśvasañcālanāsana, which I always do after sitting, you can help it. So, lean back a little. While bending backward, you have good activity on both your back and front sides, strengthening the muscles. The muscles on the front of your hips are also strengthened as they now hold your body. The arms should stay horizontal, and the knees should stay by the hands. Only the lower leg comes up. This is done a little quicker with quicker breathing, providing very good strengthening for this muscle that was previously stretched. It actively activates your Maṇipūra Cakra and strengthens your stomach muscles. Ensure your shoulder blades are down and slightly back to also strengthen the area that is often painful from prolonged sitting. Other āsanas for your knees after sitting include bicycling movements. This strengthens muscles without weight on the knee, so there is no pressure on the meniscus. The blood flow and nourishment of the knees are well supported. If someone has back problems while doing this, you can do it with one leg. Try to move your foot very strongly, as this is also a very good exercise for the veins. In the sitting position, our veins are pressed together as the upper thigh presses against the lower leg. Therefore, it is good and helpful, if you are not advanced, to do a few āsanas after sitting in meditation. It is also good to do them before you get into your sitting position so that your knees are already warmed up before pressure is applied. I hope you could take something helpful from this. Thank you very much for listening and for practicing. This is my student at the university; he is studying with me in the third semester.