Posted on 01/07/2012 11:04:18 PM PST by neverdem
On a cold Saturday in early 2009, Glenn Black, a yoga teacher of nearly four decades, whose devoted clientele includes a number of celebrities and prominent gurus, was giving a master class at Sankalpah Yoga in Manhattan. Black is, in many ways, a classic yogi: he studied in Pune, India, at the institute founded by the legendary B. K. S. Iyengar, and spent years in solitude and meditation. He now lives in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and often teaches at the nearby Omega Institute, a New Age emporium spread over nearly 200 acres of woods and gardens. He is known for his rigor and his down-to-earth style. But this was not why I sought him out: Black, I’d been told, was the person to speak with if you wanted to know not about the virtues of yoga but rather about the damage it could do. Many of his regular clients came to him for bodywork or rehabilitation following yoga injuries. This was the situation I found myself in. In my 30s, I had somehow managed to rupture a disk in my lower back and found I could prevent bouts of pain with a selection of yoga postures and abdominal exercises. Then, in 2007, while doing the extended-side-angle pose, a posture hailed as a cure for many diseases, my back gave way. With it went my belief, naïve in retrospect, that yoga was a source only of healing and never harm.
At Sankalpah Yoga, the room was packed; roughly half the students were said to be teachers themselves. Black walked around the room, joking and talking. “Is this yoga?” he asked as we sweated through a pose that seemed to demand superhuman endurance. “It is if you’re paying attention.” His approach was almost free-form: he made us hold poses for a long ...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
As with calisthenics or any athletic maneuver it’s possible to overdo the motions. If the class skimped on warm-ups that is one source of trouble. This leaves aside the philosophy of yoga which is a whole nother can of worms.
I intend to avoid both.
I never could do that crossing the legs onto the thighs thing.
Is that the secret Anthony Weiner pic?
Every time I get the urge to exercise, I lay down until it goes away.
Many yoga teachers are very ignorant. I started doing hatha yoga in my mid 20s and continued for many years until RA stopped me. Just recently started again after a hiatus of at least 10 years. I have never, ever injured myself doing yoga and only gained tremendous benefit.
People who injure themselves do it because they do not pay attention to what their muscles, bones and tendons are trying to tell them.
I taught a bit, too. Once one lady kept doing a simple pose the wrong way, I knew she would injure herself or at least it would hurt, and I kept correcting her. She insisted on doing it the wrong way. Finally she didn’t attend any more. If people insist on doing things wrong, what can the teacher do? And if the teacher is ignorant or misguided, then he or she can cause harm to others.
IOW, as in every sport or type of exercise.
In proper yoga, there is aboslutly no spirit of competition, and each person does their own practice according to their own capacity. A very good book that demonstrates simple basic postures and how to do them for various levels with excellent photos is the Runner’s Guide to Yoga, or something like that. It was out of print for a long time and reprinted. It’s very good. Simple, clear, one of the best for showing how to do exercises according to different levels of ability.
Many of my friends were “into” yoga but it seemed unnecessary to me — and Ida Rolf warned me away from it, saying I had “hypermobile” joints and could get hurt. I found the Alexander Technique, went on to take the 1600-hour teacher training, and have the best back in Eastern Washington State, though I’m not young any more.
Gentle, nonmanipulative moves of the limbs by someone who knows what he/she is doing, can do wonders for health and posture. And energy flow.
And I go to the gym, use some of their equipment with a good trainer and also some free weights to keep toned and trim. Life is very very good!
Like the teacher in the Times article, I taught at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, but just once. And that was in ‘93.
Back to the original point: I do not see the point of wrenching oneself around when there are sophisticated, gentle systems like Alexander and Feldenkrais to provided similar benefits.
I note that you are an osteopath. What do you think of yoga?
Well, I just had a sip of Oban in praise to your ethic.
It’s equally true that western furniture for seating is responsible for many of these lumbar, sciatic and hip problems.
The human body is not meant to sit in a modern western chair for hours at a time.
After sitting in a cheap $200 office chair for years , my back muscles started to hurt. After spending $1,300 for a modern western chair at the Relax The Back Store, my pain went away. I sit in a chair to do my work for long periods of time. I could never do my job cross legged.
ping
You know for every ergonomic $1300 chair produced, untold thousands of monobloc chairs are made...
http://www.designboom.com/history/monobloc.html
![](http://i1238.photobucket.com/albums/ff499/redmder/FR/FRnewsWhereWouldYouGo.gif?t=1319334229";)
Actually yoga has a set of exercises that warm you up a bit. Also if you sweat excessively a lot during yoga and it hurts, you are doing it wrong. In yoga, breathing is the key. If breathing is not done correctly during the poses, you will end up with aches, fatigue etc. There are specific times/poses during which one inhales and exhales. Messing it up will cause problems.
Most “yogic teachers” I’ve met completely ignore the breathing-factor or never inform the students on proper breathing. That’s how you know that the “yogic teacher” is a quack and probably learnt yoga on the internet!
Pull the plug,
and fight the current.
I’m on a high-carb, low-excercise diet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.