How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body

grassette

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

Yoga enthusiasts, check out this article. It give you good information on poses to avoid, and makes you more aware of what can go wrong.

yoginimary

If done with mindfulness and care, I don't believe you should avoid those poses; however, if they make you uncomfortable, by all means avoid them.

I think the main point of the article was to let go of the ego, find an experienced teacher, and stop believing that yoga is free of injury.

rml_16

Yoga is all about listening to your body. And there is a reason that whenever someone comes on here asking about trying yoga that I tell those people to TAKE A CLASS with an instructor and not to just do a DVD.

Any excercise will cause harm if done incorrectly. Form and listening to one's body and not pushing onesself too far are important in all exercises.

Demwitted

Yoga is all about listening to your body. And there is a reason that whenever someone comes on here asking about trying yoga that I tell those people to TAKE A CLASS with an instructor and not to just do a DVD.

Any excercise will cause harm if done incorrectly. Form and listening to one's body and not pushing onesself too far are important in all exercises.

^^agreed

stylistchik

It's way better than everything I did to my body dancing ballet...

rybo

This was brought up the other day, and as everyone stated there, do only what your body can handle and you won't have to worry about any pose or any injury. Pushing beyond what you can do causes injury.

lindsaymo34

As the others have stated, a new or beginner yogi should locate a studio in order to learn the poses properly (IMO). It's when people pop in a DVD and start practicing on their own without proper form that injuries happen. Injuries happen with all forms of exercise if not done properly. My instructor informed me that one should never hurt while practicing yoga, but may be sore after; however, it shouldn't be anything that would be considered an "injury." If this is the case, the person was doing it incorrectly. And if you do a pose incorrectly, the teacher will be able to correct you hands-on so you can improve you practice and eliminate the possibility of injury.

rml_16

People who have never done yoga see others do it and think it looks very easy. They don't realize what it takes to actually get properly into poses and hold them. And they very much underestimate the muscle strength needed to get fully into the poses.

So, they get themselves a DVD, pop it in and think they're doing the poses correctly because it FEELS to them like they are, but in most cases, they are not correctly in the poses.

It looks easy, but it very much is not.

bluebird321

Any exercise can injure when not done properly.

http://bernadettebirney.com/2012/01/oh-fer-crying-out-loud.html

mandylooo

Any exercise can injure when not done properly.

http://bernadettebirney.com/2012/01/oh-fer-crying-out-loud.html

Exactly.

It's a good article for reminding you listen to your teacher when he/she tells you not to strain and push yourself too far.

KavemanKarg

Of course people get injured doing yoga classes. It does not just happen on DVDs.

I have seen classes of over 40 people, and during those classes the instructor is down on the ground in their poses too. It is pretty hard to ensure people are monitored. Just sayin'

I do yoga, and I love yoga. I also love my yoga studio as they stress the correct level of mindfulness and how to listen to your body. But most of the classes I have seen at the local Y and the local commercial gym and even a few other yoga clubs are more about getting you through your forms and getting the workout in, instead of instilling the necessary mindfulness.

rml_16

Of course people get injured doing yoga classes. It does not just happen on DVDs.

I have seen classes of over 40 people, and during those classes the instructor is down on the ground in their poses too. It is pretty hard to ensure people are monitored. Just sayin'

I do yoga, and I love yoga. I also love my yoga studio as they stress the correct level of mindfulness and how to listen to your body. But most of the classes I have seen at the local Y and the local commercial gym and even a few other yoga clubs are more about getting you through your forms and getting the workout in, instead of instilling the necessary mindfulness.

A yoga instructor who is not walking around the class checking his or her students' forms is not a good instructor.

The instructor should be constantly reminding students not to push themselves, not to turn their heads in certain poses, not to push themselves if there's pain and should be offering up the modification options for difficult poses.

Of course people get injured in classes, but it's far less likely than when trying to do it at home without any instrucion for the first time.

grassette

What I found interesting about the article is that it was the first that I ever read on injuries from Yoga. Yoga is relatively new, but I guess bad experiencing have been accumulating. With this people are more fully informed as to what the risks are. And to the fact that there might be a few.

rml_16

What I found interesting about the article is that it was the first that I ever read on injuries from Yoga. Yoga is relatively new, but I guess bad experiencing have been accumulating. With this people are more fully informed as to what the risks are. And to the fact that there might be a few.

Yoga is thousands of years old and as a "fad" exercise, it's been around at least 40 years, maybe longer.

There have been many articles about how one can injure onesself doing it. Even publications dedicated to the practice discuss the dangers of performing postures incorrectly.