Yoga teaches you a lot about the human body

I have always been fascinated by the human body. Over the years of teaching and studying yoga, I’ve learned more than a few interesting things about the human body:

1 The nail on your middle finger grows faster than the nails on your other fingers. This isbecause the growth rate of a nail is related to the length of the bone in your finger tip. The middle finger has a longer bone so its nail grows faster Your pinky finger has the smallest bone so it typically grows the slowest.

2. Your ears and nose get bigger as you age. Neither get bigger because they grow. Both are made of cartilage and, over time, the cartilage it undergoes process that makes it thicker, heavier and less elastic. Gravity also causes the cartilage to sag, making our ears and nose bigger

3. You are at your tallest in the morning. For some people, this could be as much as 1cm

During the day the soft cartilage between your bones gets compressed, leaving you shorter in the evening. Time to rest at night enables the soft cartilage to decompress.

4. You can’t breathe and swallow at the same time. When you swallow, a flap in your throat (known as the epiglottis) covers the entrance to your airway in order to prevent food or fluid from entering your respiratory tract And, yes, I know you are going to test this out. I did!

5. Your skin is your body’s largest organ and makes up about 15% of your total body weight. Another fun fact: each inch of skin is made up of approximately 19 million skin cells, 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, and 1,000 nerve endings

6. Your nose produces about 1 to 2 litres of mucus every day Both your nose and throat are lined with glands that produce mucus. Most of this mucus gets swallowed throughout the day which helps to keep the linings of your nose and sinuses moist.

7. Your jaw is the strongest muscle in your body. Known as the masseter, this muscle is capable of closing a set of teeth with a force of up to 200 pounds.

8 Newborn babies aren’t able to produce tears While they certainly can cry, the tear ducts of babies aren’t’ fully developed until they are about two weeks old and it takes another two to four weeks before they can actually produce tears.

9. The acid in your stomach can burn your skin. Gastric acid is comprised of hydrochloric acid, which can cause severe burns and even blindness. Fortunately, the stomach is with mucus which protects it from burns.

10. More than half of your bones are in your hands and feet. As an adult, your body consists of 206 bones and 106 of them are in your hands and feet (27 bones are in each hand and 26 bones are in each foot).

11. Your orbicularis oculi is the fastest moving muscle in your body The orbicularis oculi is responsible for the action of closing your eyelid and is capable of contracting in less than 1/100th of a second. This quick action usually occurs when wanting to avoid having something land your eye or when trying to remove tears from your eyes.

12. Messages from your brain can travel along nerves at up to 325 km/hr. The rate of travel is influenced primarily by distance (the farther the signal needs to travel, the longer the reaction time), neuron characteristics (messages sent through thicker neurons travel faster) and the complexity of the message (the more neurons required, the slower the rate).

13 Your little finger contains 50% of your hand’s strength. Your thumb, index finger and middle finger help with dexterity while the ring finger and little finger give your hand its power to grip.

14. Taking just one step involves up to 200 muscles. Not only are the leg muscles involved, muscles in your core and back all work together to take just one single step.

15 Your finger nails grow faster on your dominant hand. Because you use your dominant hand more, your body tends to sends more blood and nutrients to it, causing the nails on that hand to grow more quickly. Your finger nails also tend to grow faster in summer. Cold environments and smoking are factors that can slow down nail growth.

While it may be stating the obvious, I do believe it is worth mentioning that yoga poses are intended to gently stretch and strengthen your muscles and to not cause pain. If you experience any pain or discomfort, let your teacher know so the they can modify the pose in a way that works for you

Want to learn more about your body? Try yoga. A simple, regular practice can help you connect further with the many wondrous things going on inside your body.

For more information, contact Heidi at heidi@yogawithheidi or 519 755 1447 or visit her online yogawithheidi.ca