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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. And it is good, it is very good, it is necessary. Because when we have some blocks, either psychic or from some trauma, on a physical level, our muscles react by contracting. So in our muscles—and this is not just in the muscles, but also in our tissues—it is very interesting that many, indeed all, of our problems are filtered and kept in our body, especially in the muscles. It is also interesting about the muscles, and all tissues, that most, actually all, of our problems are marked in our body, especially in muscle tension, in the tightening of certain muscles. In the complete range of motion, if we don’t stretch our muscles, they get used to it, and rather quickly they will be shortened. You notice this when you have a sprain or a bandage for four weeks, and you remove it again; your muscles have shortened. And if muscles are in tension and short, then the prāṇa can’t flow freely. So our body, our tissues, our muscles have their own brain, their own remembrance. This is very interesting, and in Western medicine it is not so well known; they don’t care so much about this as in yoga. We know, all of us, that Yoga in Daily Life is a holistic system. Regarding the āsanas, it means we have both strengthening and stretching in this system. From a medical point of view, this is very good and very important. When you just stretch, then, as I said, prāṇa can flow freely again, and you will feel good. We know how we feel when we stretch. We really have the feeling, after sleeping in the morning, to do this, to stretch ourselves. When we stretch our body, the breath automatically flows towards that stretched part. So we know in our Yoga in Daily Life system, one of the first āsanas, a very easy or simple āsana, is just lying on the back and stretching one side, raising up one arm, stretching the whole body, and with a little bit deeper breathing, and then doing it on the other side. What is happening when you do this? The breath can flow equally into both sides of the lungs, supporting both sides and also the organs. It is also balancing our nervous system. You know, Iḍā and Piṅgalā: Iḍā, the left side, and Piṅgalā, the right side, are connected with our vegetative nervous system. So Iḍā is connected with the parasympathetic nervous system, which has the duty to calm our whole body system down and to relax. All things connected with relaxation—slowing down the pulse, the heart rhythm becoming slower, and our digestive system functioning well—are 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; it makes us active, and it is also responsible for accelerating the heartbeat. So this is all happening with stretching. It is regulating our breathing system, our vegetative nervous system, and it can release tensions. With relaxation, what happens is that tensions on the physical level and tensions on the mental level are released. So stretching is important. Now, what about strengthening? Yoga and strengthening. You know, we have in all eight parts of yoga, and in the Yoga in Daily Life system and in the special system for back pain, always both stretching and strengthening. All our joints are kept together due to capsules, to ligaments all around, mostly, and through muscles. In our spine, we have a very thick ligament. It goes from the cervical spine down to the lumbar spine, also to the sacrum. It’s yellow; it is called the yellow ligament. The duty of this ligament, which is also rather wide, is to help the muscles, to support the muscles by keeping our spine straight. So we can sit straight without getting tired muscles. This is due to this ligament. While we are moving our joints, we do not just strengthen our muscles, but we are also strengthening the ligaments. It goes through our tissues, which are connecting all structures in our body. And so, our yoga āsanas—there is also one reason why we can call it holistic, not just because of the physical, mental, and spiritual levels, but also because if we just stay on the physical level, it’s also holistic because it affects all structures. That’s why we say that āsana training is holistic, not only in terms of physical, mental, and spiritual levels, but if we talk only about the physical level, we can also talk about the holistic way of doing it, because it affects all tissues, all parts of our body. Now, when you are just stretching the body, you also stretch the ligaments in the capsule, which are all around, keeping and protecting our joints. When we only stretch the body, we actually stretch the tendons and we actually stretch the joint capsules. So, ligaments can get loose. You know it when you, for example, have weak muscles around your ankle joint. It happens to you several times that you twist your ankle joint. Then the problem is that the ligament on the outside of the ankle joint gets loose, and the only chance to stabilize it again is by strengthening the muscles. You can’t strengthen the ligaments again; they can’t tighten again. You don’t have the ability to tighten them again. But through the strengthening of muscles, your tissues and also the ligaments get a faster hold. This is also very important to know for people who are getting older. We all are getting older. It is important also for those who are aging. I meant, two examples: when you are pregnant, your hormone system is changing, and all the tissues, ligaments, and muscles are getting wider and looser. The same situation is when you are slowly, slowly above 40. In physiology, it’s said the body is changing already when you are 25, at the latest. And this change is getting very slowly, slowly, slowly. Therefore, it is important to care for your body in this way, in time, not at the moment when you already have problems. Muscles have the duty to protect all your joints, to protect against going over your range of motion. So, how to find now the balance in doing our āsanas? How much can we stretch, and how much is to be strengthened? One important limit, I’m sure you know, is that it should not hurt. So we can be very thankful that we have the possibility to feel pain and to take it as a red light. Don’t go over. As Mahāprabhujī said, you should not go against nature, then nature will hit back. Just as Mahāprabhujī said, that we should not go against nature, otherwise nature will take its toll. And it is also very—we all learn in our Yoga in Daily Life—how to protect our body and how to get a good feeling for our body and for the movements which we can do. I think we all can feel the improvement after one week, at least after one week of doing our āsanas. And also, those who are doing Kriyā Āṇusa Dhāraṇa find their own āsanas to protect against back pain or pain in the hips or in the knees. But especially then, don’t just help yourself with stretching the body. When you are sitting very long and then you feel your back and you have back pain, then don’t just stretch. Because perhaps you already made this experience, that stretching is a nice feeling, but it doesn’t keep for long. Yes, with stretching, you lose all the tensions which you gathered during your sitting, but there is no holding. Also, when you are doing āsanas which are removing, you know, like chiropractic—sometimes it is helpful. We don’t need them, because we have our, especially our twisting āsanas, which remove stiff parts of the spine. You know, sometimes there are exercises like chiropractic, which we don’t need, because we have special rotating exercises, and they just remove the stiff parts around the spine. But if you forget afterwards to strengthen your body, then it will come again. Perhaps you have already made this experience. So I will show you some postures, āsanas, which are very good, especially when you are sitting longer. When you stretch, you also strengthen, which is helpful. So, I would ask somebody who will be a model. I will show you some āsanas that are just right for you when you sit for a long time, which have both stretching and strengthening. Thank you. Can you go there? So, for stretching the muscles on the back side, we have in the fifth part the Paścimottānāsana. From this, I will start and explain a little bit more. So, Paścimottānāsana: when you are inhaling, raise your arms. And then, with a very long, stretched back, you come forward and put your hands to the feet. In this position, all your back muscles are very well stretched, and it will also have an effect on your vegetative nervous system. What to do if you can’t do this? Thank you. You must know muscles. If you stretch a muscle, you have these contractile elements. And if a muscle is too short, the elements stick closer together. While stretching, you try to put them apart again. But if you have the whole muscle, then when you stretch, it is not equally divided on the whole muscle; these contractile elements will come apart. If you stretch, then it will happen that this part, which is already soft and easy to stretch from one muscle, will be stretched, but not the other part. So it is not equally divided on the whole muscle. And you can harm yourself when you are doing this stretching, when your muscles on the back side are very short, and when this stretching is causing you pain, especially in the area of the knees. The brain will remember this pain, and then you never want to do this again. It is then by itself; it remembers. Therefore, really avoid pain while you are stretching. So how can you do it? There are two good possibilities. They are in our program for diabetics; you will find this because this is very good for Paścimottānāsana. It’s very helpful for the digestive system. You can say, you will first stretch in the hip part, this muscle which is going over the hips and to the knees, and you leave this part of the knee. First you start with the part of the hips, so you bend your knees. And you go with both hands, for example, just so that you understand, and you press your stomach towards the thigh. So then you have the part of the muscle in the area of the thigh stretched, and no tension on the knee. In this way, you slowly go with the feet as far forward as you can, keeping your stomach on the thigh. That is one possibility. Or you leave the legs straight. You just go so much forward as long as your back can stay straight, and your stomach will go closer to the thigh. It’s just an idea of how to come to the right stretching. But if you always say to your students or to yourself, “You just do it like that,” and your hands go to the lower legs, then in your head never comes the picture of the hand reaching the feet. So this should also be a whole picture in your head. You can say, “Okay, you bend your knees as little as possible, as much as necessary, and then you put your hands to the feet,” so that they can bend their knees in the right way, just the way they need to be. We have in the system Yoga in Daily Life, in the first part, we also have a very good preparation āsana, where you have your legs a little bit apart. You just do it. In the first part of the system, Yoga in Daily Life, we also have very good preparatory exercises, where the legs are slightly stretched. And then you have your hands on your thighs. And then, with exhaling, you go forward with your hands. The difference from this and Paścimottānāsana is that you can press with your hands on your legs and so a little bit support your back. Strengthening the back is, for example, you lie on your stomach, please. And now you know this different variation of lifting up our upper body. So you can cross your fingers and lift up your back. In case you have pain in the lower back, then don’t do it like this. Either you mention to put your pelvis in the correct position. It means to press the hips down to the floor. So then you see, then you protect, and then you lift up your upper body. The lower part of the spine is fixed, and then we lift the body. So there is another way to protect: if you come into Vajrāsana, the position of Vajrāsana, and then you bend forward. And then again, cross your fingers, for example, and then you lift up your back and also your hand. So then it goes directly to this part where we very often have pain while sitting because of our kyphosis. Another example is Setu Āsana. Because Setu Āsana is completely opposite of our sitting position, to sit in long sits. In Setu Āsana, now you lift up your pelvis, and you will see: if you have problems in the neck, then just do it like this. It’s also good because these muscles get strength. If you have no problems, so typical for yoga is to put the head backwards, and it’s stretching the whole part. And really try to put your scapula, your shoulder blades, together to stretch this part. Very good, and releasing is from the second part, Bhūnamanāsana. This is one āsana where you have the torsion. It’s again a sort of mixture of stretching and strengthening. It is both. You know, it’s important that your spine is straight. And then you put your arms up in half shoulder. And now, before you turn, before you’re twisting, you know that you should lean back, and then twist. The reason is that if you are not doing it like this—if you stay like this and then you turn—then you already have a bending, a flexion in your spine. And if you go a little bit more back, first of all, you have to activate your stomach muscles and back muscles, and you can stay almost straight. And sometimes after sitting, you can hear this tok-tok-tok-tok-tok. Therefore, after torsions, it’s really very good to strengthen. Therefore, we have, for example, if I stay in the second part of Yoga in Daily Life, we have Aśvasañcālanāsana. This is precisely the āsana that follows after Bhūnamanāsana. And this, for me personally, is very helpful after long sitting, because it helps you to move your knees again. So there is movement and better blood circulation in the knees and in the hips. And at the same time, you strengthen the muscles, the quadriceps, these muscles which, while you’re sitting in meditation, are stretched. You know, while we’re sitting, our knees have very much pressure on them. And this muscle, which is in front of your thigh, going over the knee, this is our quadriceps. It is stretched in this part, not in the area of the hip, but in this part. And while you are bending the knee, and this knee is now in this position, very strongly, you have inside of your knee a meniscus. The meniscus has the duty to protect the knee, to protect the bones against too much pressure. While bending, the meniscus has to move backwards; when stretching, it has to move forward. A meniscus moves when you bend that knee, so actually the meniscus proceeds backward, and when you straighten again, it goes forward. It can get stuck, because the meniscus is a little bit sticking behind. And if we can come to this Aśvasañcālanāsana, I’m doing it really always after sitting. For me personally, it’s therefore very good. So you bend backward, you know. We lean back a little. And while bending backward, you have good activity as well on your back side and also on your front side, so you strengthen. And also the hip, the muscles on the front side of your hips are strengthened because they have to hold your body now. And then the arms should stay horizontal. They should not move horizontally, and the knees should stay by the hands. Just the lower leg should come up. And you know, we make it a little bit—this is done a little bit quicker with also quicker breathing, and very, very good strengthening, strengthening this muscle, which all the time before was stretched. And actively activating your Maṇipūra Chakra, strengthening your stomach muscles. And just watch that the shoulder blades are down and a little backwards, so that you also reach this area with strengthening, this area which is quite often painful through the longer sitting position. Other āsanas for your knees, after sitting, is, you know, bicycling. Bicycling is also strengthening muscles, and perhaps you can do it, and because there’s no weight on the knee, so there’s no pressure on the meniscus. The blood and the nourishment of the knees is very well supported. And if somebody has problems in the back while doing this, then you can just do it with one leg. And try to move your foot very strongly, because then you also have a very good exercise for the veins. Because our veins, while we are in the sitting position, are pressed together. The upper thigh is pressing against the lower leg. And so it’s good and helpful if you are not advanced after sitting in meditation, getting up. So just two or three āsanas will help you. And it’s also good to do it before you get into your sitting position, so that your knee is already warmed up when you are coming into this pressing, if you put the pressure on the knee. So I hope that you could take something helpful for you with you. And I thank you very much for listening. He’s my student at the university; he is studying with me in the third semester. I hope you learned something from this. Thank you for listening, and thank you for practicing.