Don’t Be Alarmed; Its Just Yoga

On January 5th, an article appeared in The New York Times about the dangers of yoga. Yogis were up in arms over the bashing yoga took in the article, while others were bragging that they knew all along yoga was harmful. Regardless of which side of the topic I heard, the conversations were passionate and valid.

When I heard and read the different views on the article it made me want to teach everyone the best way to approach yoga to have their best experience. But, since I’m only one man and not able to teach a yoga class everyday, all day, I figured I’d start my crusade with this blog entry.

In my last entry, I explained that yoga means union, and the intention of yoga is to create union between, the body, mind, and spirit. When I started my yoga teacher training, I thought I understood the meaning, but I didn’t really understand until I went through my own yoga injury and learned a valuable lesson the hard way.

When I started learning sun salutations, which is a series of yoga postures that flow with the breath, I started getting pain in my left hip.  My hip was extra sensitive in an equestrian pose, but I never thought anything of it, because I thought my body had to be positioned like everyone else in class. 

Now, I have to give you a little history at this point; I have had a corporate, sit down at a desk job for the past 12 years so my hip flexors (a group of muscles located in your hip and upper front of your thigh) were always tight.

The equestrian pose is a great hip flexor stretch, so I thought I was doing something good for my body. But what I found was that ego got in the way of me really getting the full benefit of the movement. 

I remember explaining my situation to my friend, , from Evolve Restorative Therapy in Westfield, NJ, and he advised me that I was stretching way beyond my hip flexor’s range of motion. He told me I was aggravating an extremely tight muscle, which only made it tighter.

At that point I thought about something Claire Diab taught in my yoga teacher training. She told the class that we should always have a smile or a pleasant look on our faces as we go through yoga postures.

Shoot, thinking back on me going into the equestrian pose, I never had a smile on my face!!  It was more of a look like I just drank a pint glass full of castor oil!!

So I took Patrick and Claire’s counsel and became more aware of what my body was saying to me during my movement. Once I was starting doing that, the true benefits of yoga started to come; and I have to say that with consistent practice, the benefits will go beyond the physical.

So my advice to everyone, whether you’ve taken yoga or not, is to listen to your body and be aware of your breathing. 

Yoga is never about perfection; it’s about progression. So modify a pose if you have to, or take a rest from downward dog (yoga pose) if you’ve been in it for a minute or two. 

Because yoga is for everyone, it’s different for everyone because everyone is different. So don’t worry that the way you hold a pose looks different from the person next to you, or you’re not able to hold a pose for an extended period time. Do the best that you can do and that’s all that matters.

If you’ve never taken a class and want to, start with a Hatha yoga class, which provides an opportunity to learn the basic yoga postures. My suggestion is to get the basics down, then try different classes to explore your capabilities. And always remember to be moderate in your activities because too much of anything can be a bad thing.

If you have cable you most likely have yoga material on your on-demand channels. Most cable providers have a free health channel and there are usually yoga segments you can do at home if you want to do the basics. Some of the segments are advanced so if it’s too tough for you when it first starts, find another segment. If it’s tough in the beginning it’s only going to get tougher.

If you’re in the Union County area, I teach a hatha yoga class at Flo Fitness in Westfield, NJ on Saturday mornings at 8:15 a.m.  Space is limited so you’d have to register through my client login on my website www.balancedwellness.org

I love feedback so if you have comments leave them or if you have questions, ask them. I’m looking forward to next time.

Namaste and until next time…