For students not knowing the body anatomy, they might think its possible to have the organs themselves twist or wring out in a particularly deep twist. And teachers, not being mindful of their words, might give this as a metaphor to imagine what’s happening inside. But it’s not true, and not physically possible to have the organs of the body twist or wring out.
BKS Iyengar in a deep twist
A simple explanation is that the human body has a skin layer, the superficial fascia layer containing the fat cells, a deeper fascia tissue layer, a thin tough fibrous tissue layer right above the muscle layer, before even reaching the peritoneum. That’s the sack that contains the body’s abdominal organs. The kidneys in the back are not in the peritoneum. But this same idea of many layers applies to the kidneys also.
Its easy to feel or imagine as if the organs are twisting in some of the deep twists where the belly seems quite squished and stretched, but those are the sensations of skin, fascia, and muscles. The nervous system reaches in around and through all of those layers communicating sensation.
A more accurate description would be that many of the movements in a regular yoga practice have us compressing, stretching and changing the shape of the structures of all the layers the torso. So the organs are getting a massage rather than being wrung out. New blood is always entering the organs. Every time we breathe, the organs are getting a bit of a massage because of the movement of the lungs and the diaphragm muscle.
With the added body movement, it just increases the degree of internal movement and massage for the organs. Digestion is aided because smooth easy movement of food is what happens in the digestive system and our own walking, bending, twisting, or squatting helps those organs digest and then eliminate properly. Besides the digestive and elimination systems getting the gentle benefit of the movement of compression and expansion, the lymphatic system gets a boost. In other words, all movement helps facilitate the metabolic processes of the body systems.
Next time you twist, notice the sensations of the body to see if you can identify what is actually twisting and what is just stretching and compressing.
