Dangers of Yoga - Part 2

This is a continuation of my thoughts on the weblog article given to me by a student.
Here's a link to the blog: Alan Little's weblog

The International Association of Yoga Therapists published an article several years ago concluding that most yoga injuries occurred in classes in which there was an emphasis on external alignment. Reason - the teacher is trying to force everyone to conform to an arbitrary aesthetic standard or an an idea of what he or she thinks the pose should look like. I don't have any particular opinion on the forward bends issue Alan raises.  Forward bends are difficult for many people and take a long time to develop. Forward bends, as in the photos of Perturbs Jois and Krishnamacharya, look different because they are using bandhas. Their forward bends are similar to forward bends in the Bikram system in which the abdominal region is more engaged.  Folding from the hips and extending the spine is also a valid method, depending on the flexibility and experience of the student.


Regarding the part about inexperienced teachers teaching Ashtanga - this has always been a problem, which is why Mr. Jois and Sharath have always said that Ashtanga teacher training is 20 years long. I've been practicing Ashtanga now for 17 years and feel like a beginner. However, I take care to teach it correctly, following the Mysore method.  I feel comfortable about what I'm doing, based on Mr. Jois authorizing me to teach starting in 2004, and Sharath having given me Authorization Level 2 in 2009.  I participated in the first Ashtanga teacher training ever given in Mysore, which was for authorized teachers who had been going to Mysore for at least 10 years.  It allowed us to spend a month under Sharath's guidance, both practicing and teaching.

 I prefer to teach Mysore-style Ashtanga and I have a restrictive attitude about attendance. Only students who are willing to practice according to this system come to the classes, which creates a cohesive community of practitioners.  I think everyone has been in a class in which a student who is not "in with the program" has had a disruptive and unsettling influence on the class.  I make sure that this doesn't happen by screening the students and making sure that everyone agrees to practice according to the Mysore-style principles - working slowly and patiently at your own pace, stopping at postures you are not able to do, and attending on a regular basis so that progress is made. 

In my non-Mysore classes, I follow the guidance of the Mysore system, but I also use what I've learned from Iyengar teachers with whom I've studied such as Francois Raoult and Ramanand Patel.  I'm not sure that the issues with forward bends which the article attributes to the Iyengar system, really stem from the teachings of Mr. Iyengar.  There are plenty of "Ashtanga" classes out there that are not taught according to Mr. Jois's principles, and I'm sure the same is true of Iyengar classes.  It's important to find experienced, knowledgeable teachers who can articulate why they are teaching postures in a particular manner. It's also important for a student to be discerning, inquisitive and to think critically about what we are practicing and why we are practicing in particular way. 

Yoga is supposed to free us from our limiting thoughts, beliefs, habits, assumptions, and emotions. 

The Dangers of Yoga

Today an article appeared in the New York Times Magazine (January 8, 2012) by William J. Broad, a senior science writer at the Times.  The article is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards, to be published by Simon & Schuster.  Several students have linked to the article on Facebook or given me copies for my comment.  After the Saturday, January 7, Hatha class at Holiday Manor, a student also gave me a copy of an article published on "alan little's weblog", entitled "notes on nancy, part three".  The blog relates comments made by Nancy Gilgoff, a senior Ashtanga teacher, about yoga injuries.

Here are my thoughts on the subjects....

First of all, there is controversy among yoga practitioners and scholars as to whether yoga is intended to be used for therapeutic purposes.  I began practicing yoga over forty-five years ago for spiritual liberation. 

Yoga classes - up until 1990, I couldn't find a a yoga class at all.  Most people thought yoga was "weird", and I often heard people say they wouldn't practice yoga because it conflicted with their religious beliefs.  I met my first teacher, Maja Trigg, in 1990 here in Louisville. Maja was the founder of Yoga East, and she had been teaching yoga since the '50's.  Her classes were very small.  I began teaching classes in 1994 and I saw that most people who attended classes already had a yoga practice at home, had read yoga books and were primarily interested in deepening their yoga practice.  At that time, our yoga classes had 4-12 students.  Fine.

In 1993, Bill Moyers and PBS produced an Emmy-award winning series called Healing and the Mind which mentioned yoga as a healing modality.  Soon after that, articles about yoga's health, fitness and therapeutic benefits were featured in many mainstream magazines, and we began to see a surge in yoga's popularity and class attendance.  Many students then began to come to classes for health and fitness reasons and often told us, "My doctor told me I should start doing yoga."  Students with back pain, headaches, Crohn's disease, and many other ailments began coming to yoga classes.

At the same time, Baby Boomers, concerned about the aging process and wanting to stay youthful, began coming to yoga classes, and they often showed up with a litany of injuries from jogging, weight-lifting, step aerobics, and cycling. We had to contend with knee injuries, hamstring pulls, back injuries and rotator cuff tears.  Naturally, everyone wants to do Lotus pose and forward bends, even if they've already destroyed their knees and back.  Weight-lifting makes the shoulders so tight that back bends become very difficult (if not impossible).

My opinion - yoga is not intended to be a panacea for every health issue.  No matter how much yoga you practice, you are still going to die of something.  I always tell my students that yoga will help you to face your challenges with equanimity.  Yoga will not change your genes, either.  One of the teachers of our tradition once said that yoga is not intended for those who have a weak mind.  One needs a strong mind to practice yoga, and so I tell my teachers that yoga is not intended to be for those with serious psychological imbalances. Yoga will not help someone with a bi-polar disorder, for example, and can be harmful. Some yoga practices are not recommended for people with depression.

Yoga Asanas - the postures are intended to make the body strong to help the mind become still and fit for meditation.  I have found for myself - that yoga makes me feel better.  I started out with a very simple and gentle practice and gradually over time began practicing more intense forms of yoga.  Now at the age of 59 I feel better than I did at age 29, and I'm certainly stronger and more flexible. I can do yoga postures now that I never dreamed of being able to do when I was younger, and every day I can do more and more. I have no pain.  I take no medications except hormone replacement therapy.  (Disclaimer - I couldn't make my fibroid tumors go away with yoga, so I had a hysterectomy when I was 48.)  At age 56 I stood up out of a back bend for the first time - something I couldn't do when I was 26.  The older I get, the better I get.  I have no injuries and no pain.

Now - to look specifically at the issues raised in the article ...

Mr. Broad says that he was doing "extended-side-angle pose"  when his back "gave way".  Who knows that that means?  How was he doing it?  Was he in a class?  What does he mean by "gave way"?  For a science writer, that's pretty vague language. Next he cites an anecdote for a teacher who says he saw a man's ribs go "pop, pop, pop" in a yoga class.  No further information, so that's pretty vague, too.  Not to belabor the point, but to say that "students and celebrated teachers, too... injure themselves in droves...."  How many is a "drove"?  It sounds like Mr. Broad has an ax to grind. 

Anyway - the article goes on like that.  Maybe it's because I'm trained as a lawyer that I can pick out the vagueness and logical inconsistencies, but shouldn't a science writer be more accurate?  (Just sayin'.) 

I'm having too much fun slicing up this article, and I could go on, and probably will in future blog entries, but let me turn instead to the blog on Nancy Gilgoff's comments.

Nancy Gilgoff is one if the first Western students of Pattabhi Jois, and I think she knows what she's talking about.  The primary point made in the blog is that emphasis on "alignment" causes injury...  a point with which I agree.  I studied yoga with an emphasis on alignment from 1990 to 1999.  I worshipped alignment.  I thought alignment was the be-all and end-all of yoga practice and teaching.  Then I met K. Pattabhi Jois in August, 1999, and he blew apart my ideas of teaching yoga with an atomic bomb.  There is alignment in Ashtanga Yoga.  Mr. Jois said  many times in my presence, "The spine should be straight," but he allowed students to approach it gradually.  I do not think alignment proctects one from injuries. I think the human body is incredibly resilient and can cope with poor alignment.  However, I think that good alignment is equivalent to good awareness. A student who is aligned in a pose is also aware, and that is perfect yoga, even if one is a beginner and not "deep".

The essence of Ashtanga Yoga is found within the Mysore-style of teaching in which you practice the postures you can perform proficiently in the presence of the teacher.  In Mysore style, students are held back.  Yes, we hold students back until you can perform the posture correctly. Then and only then can you go on to the next pose.  This system prevents injuries and insures that you only practice the postures you are intended to be practicing. 

In the horrible disasters mentioned in the article - the student who held vajrasana for three hours until he damaged the nerves in his legs, or the student who arched her head back until she occluded her neck arteries - or Mr. Broad, practicing the postures he selected that he believed would help his back ... perhaps none of these injuries would have happended. 

Yes, injuries happen in yoga... serious injuries, even death.   However, one should practice in the presence of a qualified teacher, doing only those postures which one can perform proficiently.  As Pattabhi Jois always said, "Slowly, slowly...."

American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons advice for yoga