Yoga is really hot as a fitness concept. And because of that, it seems to have moved away from its original intent. Classic yoga, regardless of the type, was designed as a spiritual and meditative practice not as a fitness tool.
How did yoga turn into a fitness craze? Because yoga practitioners were associated with lean bodies, people looked to yoga as a way to get that look. Unfortunately, most adopted only one piece of what is really a complete lifestyle. It isn’t the activity alone but also the other practices—meditation, proper rest, nutrition and hydration—that worked.
Traditional yoga poses were designed for Eastern cultures, where people did not have furniture, not modern Western cultures. The lotus pose, for example, was intended to support your body when you didn’t have access to chairs. So when people who are accustomed to sitting in a chair all day try to take that pose, they can do some serious damage.
What’s more, the current trend is to create a hybrid of poses and positions ramped up to try to achieve a higher fitness level. Take the ever-popular downward facing dog. Even highly trained athletes who come to us for evaluation have trouble holding that pose for more than 10 seconds. In a typical yoga class, you might be instructed to not only hold the pose for a minute or two, but also to keep your heels flat on the floor while you do so. We use that pose in our training, but modify it so our clients balance on their toes. When your feet are flat, the angle of your body causes the area around the heel and the lower leg to stretch while simultaneously putting load on them. It is never a good idea to stretch muscles at the same time they are under load. When you do this, you are just asking for an injury.
Many yoga and pilates instructors come to us with back, leg and shoulder pain, mostly caused when they try poses that are too difficult for them without working up to them gradually. We also see yoga participants who have taken a class to fix a problem, but either it didn’t work, it exacerbated the original problem, or created another injury.
This isn’t to say yoga is bad. It becomes bad when you try to follow along in a class or with a video without respect to your own capabilities. Remember, yoga poses use your body weight, so when you change your angle or position if you are not in total control, your body weight can work against you.
If done properly, yoga is great for increasing breathing efficiency, and providing flexibility and relaxation—as long as you don’t exceed your mechanical abilities. When yoga instructors tell you to do only what you can, they aren’t kidding. It is not a competitive sport. It is critical that you not match yourself against other people in a class, or even try to match the instructor’s pose unless it is comfortable and presents, at most, a limited challenge. The best yoga instructors understand that is possible to make modifications to the poses for individual comfort and safety and will offer those options as they demonstrate poses.
Because its roots are in meditation, yoga is most effective when it is used to hold the body in a position to allow regulated breathing and clearing of the mind. If you’re thinking about using yoga as an extreme workout, you’d be better off participating in some other activity.
Originally published in Grosse Pointe Today.