Ammar Alshukry – Sujood Reduces Stress In Spine – Physical Benefits of Salah

			Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh welcome everybody for this special session in sha Allah to
Allah for mindful Salah we have with us some special guests on my left or is this my yep on my left.
We have Dr. Thorndike who said, who I'll be introducing in a second and Charles out and on my right
we got Bill Adhaan the living legend in Charlotte Allah. Now Dr. todich Hussain is a individual who
has a doctorate in physical therapy. He's been practicing physical therapy for over 40 years
hamdulillah even though he's 25 years old, mashallah latika. He's a father of four. He has a degree
as well a master's degree in sociology. And he teaches physical therapy as an adjunct professor for
		

			the University of Cairo as well as teaching sociology as an adjunct professor for the University of
Houston and Clear Lake, so Masha Allah, he does a lot. And I wanted to have a session because I was
picking his brain as I was preparing this course, about prayer positions, and how it could possibly
affect your, your, your health, through how it affects your body. And you had messaged me back and
you said that this was actually something that you had done research on, you had actually, your
master's degree, was part of that research was the effect of Salah on your lumbar spine? Is that
correct? Yes, absolutely. We did that as a part of my master's thesis. We did the title was loading
		

			characteristics of human lumbar spine in different positions. So we choose standing, and we choose a
kneeling and we choose prostrating, which is the sujood position. And we were calculating what's
called axial and cheerful says, okay, you know, any force with a resolution of the force into two
parts vertical and horizontal. So the axial force, which is the vertical force, and the shear force
with which the horizontal force, so we found out that the minimum amount of load on the lumbar spine
was during the sujood position. And we recommended this position for people who have that problem,
to use this position as a training for them to minimize the amount of stress go with over the lumbar
		

			spine. So and by the way, Bilad has a journal training, clever. So lifelong martial artists got my
black belt when I was in 18. And continued practicing martial arts, or long the course, I actually
got went through personal training certification, with the focus on strength training, in the use of
area of martial arts. So that's the reason why I was like, you know, we got to get you both together
so that we can pick the brain of doctor has said,
		

			on this issue. So you had mentioned that the lumbar spine when people go into sujood, that that is
when there is minimal impact? Yes. And so even people who are non Muslim, you advise them to go into
this position of, yeah, absolutely. And subhanAllah, all those people have a tendency to go to fetal
position. Okay, so that was one of the position that really we found out from the study, and how we
calculate these forces for people to know, we took lateral view X rays, and we measured what's
called the angle, the angle of inclination of the vertebral body and the desk. And we put it in a
mathematical model, okay, with the percentage of the body weight. And that was the way we calculated
		

			the axial force, which is the compression force on the part. And the shear force, which is the
transfers force. And we found out that this is the least amount of force was on the lumbar spine in
that position of sujood. So for someone who's a novice, like I'm looking at this like novice
intermediate expert, is is is it to simply say that sujood is when your bought your back is most at
rest? You you use to shoot for, for comfort, okay? You really, in addition to the spiritual position
as Muslims, we know that this is the nearest position to Allah subhanaw taala. But also physically,
you really feel comfortable when you are in that position, because you reduce the amount of stress
		

			go with over the lumbar spine in that position, what that is for now, even in the area in any kind
of physical exertion activity, right? Somebody might sprint for a while. And what do they do? Yeah,
right.
		

			They go to Yeah, they go to, like, part of it is just like, if you want to recover faster, you know,
put your hands over your head so you can expand your lungs, but it's a natural reaction for people
to be like, you know, tired let me alleviate some of the pressure off the back. Yeah. So I just find
it interesting because you're talking about that from the research versus what you know what we
observe
		

			or, as we go through the prepositions, you research standing you research bouncing you research
sujood Yes, how are how is the
		

			effects of each on the back Subhanallah, I found out that when we stand, and even when we recall,
something we memorize, this is really very important. Because Allah subhana, Allah gave us this
blessing of reciting the Quran in the standing position. And when you talk, that's even you more
than one system is working, and that necessitate the heart, to pump more blood to go up to the brain
to help you to even memorize these eight. So that is a very good training for people to really avoid
dementia. Okay, you know, and I really believe that this is the blessing of Allah, that we recite
Quran in a standing position, because that really can help us to strengthen our memory, and help us
		

			not to get dementia as compared to other people. So because you're always engaging your memory by
recall exactly, exactly. In addition to also, when you stand, and you put your body weight over your
lower extremity joints, guess what, this is a kind of a compression forces go with over the joints.
And that position really is a stimulatory position for what's called Deep sensation, you know,
superficial touch is a is a superficial sensation. But there is something called Deep sensation.
Allah has designed that our body, which is the we call it proprioceptive system, that system is
responsible for regulating the muscle tone throughout your body. So if you stand like that, and if
		

			you try to shift a little bit, your body will react to it. Why because the muscle tone, try to
adjust to keep you in the position. So that in itself is a stimulatory to your deep sensation, which
helps to regulate your muscle tone throughout the body. And also shifting a little bit in Salah that
also is a training for balancing. Because we use that for physical therapy, we lead people to stand
up, and we ask them to shift their body weight to the right, shift to the left, shift forward and
shift backwards, we try to displace what is called the line of gravity, a line of gravity is a line
represented by the center of mass of each segment of the body. And that line of gravity goes within
		

			your base of support under normal standing position. So in follow, you may just you know, like you
know go a little bit forward or backward, you shift your lead of gravity and Subhanallah your body
reacts to it in a normal way to keep your position in standing. So this shifting, you're saying is
something that's healthy? It's something that absolutely yes, yes. See, in Salah, we do things, we
do it because we are ordered to do it. But really when you think deep and think critically about the
effect of every movement you do Subhanallah you find there is a benefit out of it the standing in
and of itself when I'm standing, I don't know if this is deep sensation, but what I feel is I feel
		

			like a tingling in my feet. Well, that's that's not a normal feeling. So you may need to see a
doctor.
		

			Okay, what is the deep sensation then, like I didn't understand what was deep sensation is like, for
example, I give you just a simple example also for the audience to understand, like if I close my
eyes, right? I still feel that I'm bending my elbow, or I'm extending my elbow, even though I don't
look at it. Okay, how do I feel that that's through what's called the deep sensation, which is the
the the sensation present at the ligaments, and the tendons of the muscles, and even the ligaments
and the cottage. These are this sensation are called proprioceptive system in our body. So that's
why you feel the movement, even though you don't use your sensation in terms of like vision, or
		

			hearing, you still can feel it. That's why we feel we in standing, we can feel it. And when we shift
our body knows that we are shifting is just why the body reacts to the normal position. So this
brings me a question. So in martial arts training, whenever we're learning weapons, right, my
favorite nunchucks right. Now, when you're first starting off, you're going to be hitting your head
and everything. But one of the things that Sensei would always mention is that hey, treat your
weapon, whether it's a nunchuck or a staff or whatnot, as an extension of your limb. Right and it's
like and once when he kind of pointed that out, is like you could almost feel where it's going
		

			although there's no you know, there's no
		

			Don't look at it. Yeah, you know, looking at what you know where it's going out how you're moving
into whatnot and you don't even close your eyes and you still be able to
		

			maneuver the staff or the nunchuck. And that's because of the deep sensation. Okay? Okay. So it's
beyond the sight hearing. It's not beyond the five senses. This was the first sensations. But I
mean, it is still like a sense, it, you just, I feel like you're using a deeper version of all your
senses, right? Like, you're not looking at it directly. But maybe there's a little bit of peripheral
vision, you're not hearing it directly, but you can sense the sound of it. You're not, well, you're
touching something, but you can also feel
		

			it's like the effect of whatever you're moving, whether it's your arms or your legs in relation to
even the air, or if you're in the water. It's movement around that. So I feel like it's not I feel
like it is which what you said it's a deeper sense. Yeah, of each of the senses. But in combination,
am I right? So simply a sense of position? Yeah. Can you know, I'm standing now, even though I don't
look at my feet. Yeah, but I'm standing. Yeah. And the sense of movement? Yeah, if I bend my elbow,
I know that I'm moving my arm without looking at it. So that's what so this orientation is when you
lose that? Absolutely. This is even for patients who really have like diabetic people or diabetic
		

			neuropathy. They lost their sensation in their feet. Yeah. And that's why they have like kind of
ulcers in the legs, or even the can undergo falling because they don't feel that sensation in their
feet. So they have repeated falling. Okay, I guess