How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body

nytimes.com:

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.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[opsudrania]

03:10 PM on 02/19/2012

There is some motive behind it, other than in Yoga. William Broad has just published his book on this topic. And an article in NYT to sensationlise it makes a good advert for his marketing strategy of the book. I only hope that the people will weigh this piece against the benefits of Yoga.

[Paul G DeCroix]

05:42 PM on 01/23/2012

I always heard yoga was good for you.

[classyoga]

08:48 AM on 01/19/2012

Sadly, Yoga is already wrecked. Divorced from the factual Hindu roots, this "yoga" is dishonest.

Swami Param
Classical Yoga Hindu Academy

[alignyo]

10:06 AM on 01/12/2012

As founder of alignyo (www.alignyo.com) - it's exciting that so many people are talking about yoga. We review classes, provide interviews and have the goal to get people onto their mats - safely. Check out our response:
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/ u=2ccac56fca532e7f470ab2924&id=824e777e68&e=3e3b84b248

[karen lyons kalmenson]

08:29 AM on 01/12/2012

if you truly comprehend what is at the heart of yoga, you would not do anything more than you body allows, and the body is not silent in its wishes

[dorota1012]

02:39 PM on 01/16/2012

I agree with you. My yoga teacher always says that we should never feel pain. "No pain no gain" is not a yogi philosophy. In fact, yoga allows you to build awareness of your body and its limitations - you should never force or hurry yourself into a pose. I do see potential for injury if one is overzealous and does not practice common sense - just like with ANY other exercise.

[karen lyons kalmenson]

03:04 PM on 01/16/2012

yep!!!!

[Mark Keister]

08:47 AM on 01/11/2012

As with virtually ANYTHING involving movement of the body, improper dynamics will lead to suffering. Asanas as they are frequently taught and practiced in the West are forced postures, held for extensive periods, sometimes done in exceedingly hot rooms ~ none of this is in the philosophy of yog. There are upwards of nearly one million postures classified and many should not be done without intelligent practice and With the removal of the notion of competition or "no pain, no gain" attitude and to stop the trying to attain a perfect posture ~ the direction one goes is far more important than the attainment of a perfect pose.

[DandaPanda]

03:55 PM on 01/10/2012

the only reason people who live in my darling little pocket of surburbia go to yoga class is so they can buy lulu lemon yoga pants.

[chiodo08]

03:20 PM on 01/09/2012

it's not Yoga that is bad for you...it's YOUR EGO ...

[Leckey]

11:49 AM on 01/09/2012

Yoga doesn't hurt the body. That's like saying guns kill. They don't until a person uses it to do so.

Yoga doesn't hurt the body, doing it wrong does. Whether teacher or student.

[jetscan]

07:05 PM on 01/09/2012

Coudn't have said it any better.

F&F

[Leslie Robinson Goldberg]

01:47 AM on 01/09/2012

I kind of agree with this. I've been amazed to see seriously overweight and over-old people, especially men in Bikram classes going full board. The teachers say, "no matter how awful you feel, just stay in the room." Sometimes the temp will be as high as 110 and I think something is going to happen. But so far I haven't seen it. I guess God does watch over drunks and fools.

[Wendyness]

03:50 PM on 01/08/2012

My husband pulled his hamstring in Ashtanga Yoga. When he shared his injury with his teacher she told him, "Work through the pain!" Another teacher told him to tape small batteries to the injury and like a fool my husband tried this "holistic" method against my better judgment and he ended up with battery acid burns that he is still scarred from. I could write pages of the emotional and physical harm that I have witnessed over the years of having friends and family harmed by IGNORANT, NARCISSISTIC Yoga teachers. Maybe it is truly time to regulate Yoga teachers.

[Leckey]

11:52 AM on 01/09/2012

I thought NY was moving in that direction. Some teachers are certified, so that's one thing to consider. The other is a teacher who says stuff like "work through the pain." My son teaches and he never says that. He will oft tell students if you can't do a move, go to the prayer pose until you can rejoin. It's learning to function in and with the body, not master it. But then I'm just a rookie at yoga.

[chiodo08]

03:14 PM on 01/09/2012

Ashtanga is probably the toughest yoga on the planet....especially when you get into the 2nd and 3rd series....IF you had the "years" of experience you would know this and not point specific body types to try that method...agreed it's NOT for everybody. There are things I will NEVER get in the primary series unless I develop the body of a 12 y/o Indian boy in which these methods were built around.

If you are of muscular frame you will never get some of the binds and twists. If you are an athlete ie. runner, x-fit and just about anything that creates bulk...you will never get all those positions. Sure there are "bad teachers" but it is miniscule compared to BAD STUDENTS whose ego forces them to try things they have no business doing...

Yoga is about practice to get to a place of mediation while connecting the breath with the movement...short sighted will need not apply

[Wendyness]

05:16 PM on 01/09/2012

"Sure there are "bad teachers" but it is minuscule compared to BAD STUDENTS whose ego forces them to try things they have no business doing..." In the training of Yoga teachers they are taught the Yamas and Niyamas of Yoga. One would think that teachers would know better than to have student-teacher affairs. They are a problem and I quote, "They are so incredibly common, you have no idea. I get a phone call a week about it," says Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., of San Francisco, President of the California Yoga Teachers Association. Plenty of Yogis behaving badly. What is bad for the heart is bad for the body.

[goldy67]

11:01 AM on 01/08/2012

I love this article. It is a long time coming. Yoga schools, running $3000 a head teacher trainings, are unleashing zealous but unprepared teachers on the public at an alarming pace. Even doctors are feeling freer to tell people to do yoga because they view it as gentle and safe. These yoga teachers tell everyone to "listen to their body" and "back off if you feel pain" (yoga teacher 'cover your ass' speak) without realizing that the damage is already done once you feel pain. Listening to your body isn't always protective, as anyone will tell you who has heard their own ligaments suddenly pop.

I am a former yoga teacher, and stopped teaching because I felt it was unethical to teach 90 minutes of yoga asana to a group class of students with varying health ailments, fitness levels, ages, and body types. I concluded that it can't be done without risk of injury. Risk of injury is fine, and expected in any sport or physical activity. The problem is that yoga is not a sport, and yoga teachers try to live by the principle of ahimsa (non harm). Yoga is only a physical activity insofar as the body is a vehicle for meditation.Yoga is a spiritual path. I don't know how it got so intertwined with exercise, but the time has come to bring it back to its roots. Patanjali doesn't even give significant mention of asana in the Yoga Sutras. Maybe we should follow his lead.

[frankenheimer]

09:09 AM on 01/08/2012

So, after reading the article, it seems to me the headline should read, "How Doing Yoga Improperly Can Wreck Your Body." You could say the same for running, weightlifting, etc. There's really no story here.

[reader1]

10:49 AM on 01/08/2012

I agree, and what is behind the story? Yoga is wonderful even if you cannot do it properly, the fact of the stretching and the quite time that it brings is worth the manufactured risk! Eating foods that are genetically modified seems to be more of a risk of wrecking your body than Yoga, a non story!

[spudprint]

06:37 PM on 01/08/2012

You have to assume the experienced and careful Yogi Mr. Black was a serially holding improper yoga poses. It seems more likely that it's jsut far easier to do Yoga incorrectly, and dangerously, than most realize.

[Peter Pitchford]

08:24 AM on 01/09/2012

If you read the description carefully, its obvious that he was indeed doing it incorrectly. He says as much when he says he started being sore 20 years ago but continued to do extreme back bends for another 20 years.

[BuddhaMind]

08:03 AM on 01/08/2012

There's so much confusion. What we call "yoga" in the West (and often, what is called "yoga" in India) is not truly yoga. Most studios and teachers, even certified or registered by whomever, are not even teaching real yoga. It has become a way to work out, tone your muscles, stretch, get hot and sweat, etc. As beneficial as it may be, this is not yoga. According to the ancient founder of Yogic philosophy, Patanjali, yoga is a state of consciousness, also known as "samadhi." The yoga word means "union" -- union of jiva (individual self) with cosmic self (atma). The asanas (positions) are just one of the eight limbs used to achieve the state of samadhi. Yoga is defined as the state where all mental fluctuations have ceased, yet the mind is fully awake in pure consciousness. This is a transcendental, meditative state, achieved when one has gone beyond not just physical activity but also mental activity. A true yoga master teaches that the asanas are performed to complement meditation, to help prepare the body to experience transcendence. They are to be performed delicately, gently, without force. Then, the most delicate experience of all: meditation, which, when practiced correctly, allows the mind to experience samadhi (which is the strongest state there is). I'm a Buddhist, but this is what I've learned about yoga from my own study and from my TM friends, and it jibes with my experience and understanding of the ancient texts.

[PhotoMaineAC]

08:48 AM on 01/08/2012

Yoga is bad....but Fluoride and Radiation is good for you???

The transition between educating people, and training people!

[chris44107]

11:37 AM on 01/08/2012

I agree - while yoga is a physical practice, it should not be used willy-nilly as exercise.

[a lucky cat]

02:27 AM on 01/08/2012

Well it didn't hurt her body...lol