Vinyasa Yoga?

[limewave]

The New York Times Magazine has a very good article that offers some persepctive on the use of yoga. If it feels good, do it, but if not.... watch out.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/ma...me&ref=general

Huh. I was going to a yoga class briefly (and although she was certified, I did not believe she was an expert teacher). She was trying to get me to do stuff and my body just flat out wouldn't do it--I even told her I had back issues. I talked to my doc about it who has been working with me on my hips and low back (chronic pain from an injury years ago) and she was adamant that I should not be doing those things! So I quit.

I do a video, available on netflix, Candlelight Yoga. It's a very gentle yoga program. It's relaxing and I do enjoy it very much. But it is the only yoga I have ever been able to do.

[OakLeaf]

To me, the entire article can be summed up in the second to last sentence: "if you do it with ego or obsession, you’ll end up causing problems."

And you know what? That's not just for yoga. That's for weight lifting, running, and for that matter, scientific research.

I don't at all mean to suggest that there isn't a chance of serious injury in yoga, or that sometimes even the best teachers miss something. But it seems to me this article has a tone I often see in NYT fitness articles - the idea that practitioners of whatever sport they're talking about are "outsiders" of some kind. There's an underlying tone of alarm and mocking in that yoga (unlike weight lifting) is supposed to take the ego out of the practice, and yet many practitioners can't help letting it slip back in. Well, duh. That's why we practice for years trying to take it out...

It also reflects a lot of the reason why I'm souring on group fitness, both as an instructor and a participant. Some teachers are MUCH better than others (and I count myself in the middle there), and obviously smaller and skill-tracked classes are easier, but outside of one-on-one, there's just no way for a teacher to closely monitor every participant's form every minute of every class. And then there are always the participants who insist on doing a move unsafely no matter how many times I correct them or how many different cues I use...

[indysteel]

I have decidedly mixed feelings about the article. I will be the first to admit that the rise in yoga's popularity has led to an increase in inexperienced teachers and classes that cater to the masses. As a student, you have to be discerning, which is pretty difficult if you know nothing about yoga in the first place. Even when you have a good teacher, you have to resist the urge to follow their every instruction. It's your body and your practice. But I think that's true for anything involving a teacher, trainer or coach. You have to remain willing to think for yourself.

But I fault the article for making it seem like yoga is inherently dangerous or somehow unique in causing injury. Most physical activities can lead to injury if done to excess or incorrectly. Heck, they can lead to injury even when we're being exceedingly careful. Stuff happens, and sometimes we don't know our body's limits until we exceed them.

So, while I appreciate the caution suggested by the article, I think it should be applied equally to most of our physical pursuits.

[Crankin]

Oakleaf, +1 on your reasons for souring on group fitness. I felt exactly like you did, and I also put myself squarely in the middle of instructors. Well, maybe in terms of "skill (i.e. unique choreography)," not in safety or monitoring. I mostly taught smaller classes, because I taught early in the AM. I think part of the reason I got burned out is that there were a lot people who thought doing weird, hard stuff equalled "better." It's the same when I lead rides. I am a safety zealot and it pisses people off. This is why I actually prefer to work with beginners.
I am taking spin classes at my new gym. They don't have a lot of classes. Although it's 5:30 AM, I still would like a little variety. There's no warm up and all climbing is done standing, save maybe 3-4 minutes. Lots of jumps on Wednesdays. It's just boring. She doesn't correct me when I don't do stuff, as she knows I'm a "cyclist." It's making me want to get spin certified, but I don't want to go down that road again.
I had very good yoga instructors at my old gym and at the one yoga studio I went to. I have only done 2 yoga classes at the new place; one was fine and the other was really too easy for me, but nothing strange. She seemed to be noticing what people were doing. I may try the power yoga class today, just to see how it is.

[pll]

The NYT article was interesting and, as OakLeaf says, alarmist. I think that, regardless of the instructor's skill, many people tend push themselves into situations they should not be in. "No pain, no gain" is a deeply rooted belief in the US (no equivalent phrase in Spanish, for example) and there is nothing unique to yoga practitioners in that respect. People might be making a pose more extreme to "feel the stretch," ignoring pain when they run, etc.

[OakLeaf]

my practice, my decision

I think my favorite teacher uses the phrase "you are your own teacher" at least ten times every class.

Now, I've worked with another teacher who gave lip service to the concept but habitually pushed me beyond my limits (verbally, not physically, but in such a way as to get my ego very much involved ). I wound up with a minor injury almost every time I did his class. Needless to say I stopped going to his classes... Still, I think working with a well-trained teacher has got to be safer than working on your own with no one to watch or supervise.

Like most things, from food to disease, north/western culture places so much emphasis, from infancy onward, on NOT listening to the body, that it can be very difficult to unlearn those lessons and listen to the guru within.

[Catrin]

This has been an interesting discussion, and as I said, I am holding off on trying anything new until I am released from PT. It will also be almost the start of riding/mtb season when that happens so I still won't be taking on yoga then. I may give it a shot next winter, we will see.

Part of my problem is that not only do I ignore pain (improving here though) - even when I am injured there are things that don't hurt that should. Still trying to figure out the difference between actual pain and soreness, and you would think that I would have that figured out at my age

[Owlie]

Like most things, from food to disease, north/western culture places so much emphasis, from infancy onward, on NOT listening to the body, that it can be very difficult to unlearn those lessons and listen to the guru within.

This is true, though I've not thought about it before. All those "pain is a sign of weakness leaving the body"-type sayings...

I've taken one yoga class through my undergrad institution. She actually wasn't a bad teacher. She gave tips on how to modify positions if we needed to. Her favorite thing to say was "Yoga is not supposed to hurt. If it hurts, back off," though this was a class pitched explicitly for beginners. I wonder if her more advanced classes had the same kind of tone.