Have you ever seen a gorilla pounding his chest or a fighter hitting himself before he gets in the ring? The first reason for both is it lets their predators and opponents know that “Hey, I’m a bad mother fucker, you sure you want to do this?” The second I believe to so stimulate their sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for the bodies fight of flight response which activates the secretion of adrenaline and nothing will get you jacked up for a fight like adrenaline running through you.  But what about when you’re not in the jungle trying to fight gorillas or trying not to get your head torn off by some guy in a cage (or a guy who is flexing his beer muscles).

Recently a buddy of mine took my yoga class and said “Hey what is that posed called where we were lying on our stomachs?” “It was really relaxing.” I said “it’s called lying on your stomach man.” But what I realized is when you lay on your stomach most of your vital organs are protected by the floor. When our SNS is firing what is our defense? We can run or if the threat was greater than we thought we can clam up to protect our vital organs.  With your body pressed against the floor it gives your parasympathetic nervous system a chance to take over which has characteristics associated with rest, digestion, and sleeping. During that time your body has time to repair tissue, sort through the data of the day, and balance out homeostasis.

So the next time you’re all jacked up, can’t sleep, over worked, and run down, try laying prone for a few minutes and give your muscles, nervous system, and mind the break they need.