Any Yoga is NOT good Yoga!

WAY TOO MUCH LUMBAR EXTENSION!!! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME IF YOU LOVE YOUR BACK!

A few years ago, someone said to me "Any yoga is good yoga" and I reluctantly agreed because I was a budding young teacher and this person had been teaching for a while. To this persons credit, she was (and still is) an AWESOME teacher and must have been comparing her way of instruction to students that resulted in good alignment and form. Unfortunately, not everyone does not have her deep and rich understanding of the mechanics of the poses. Actually, these days, I think its almost the opposite, especially in some of the Power Yoga and Vinyasa classes where getting a workout in is put over proper alignment. 

I have the opportunity to come into contact with hundreds of yoga practitioners per week who may be regular to my class, a drop-in or completely new to yoga. "Open Level" is what we call some of those classes. What I see from some of the non-regular students in their yoga poses forces me to stop class and really instruct on a particulars. Their alignment is all out of sorts but worse off its just plain dangerous and will more than likely lead them to a repetitive stress/strain injury. Some things I see are:

HYPER EXTENDED LUMBAR SPINES
LOCKED ELBOWS
OVERLY TENSE SHOULDERS
OFF BALANCE POSES
OVER ROTATING AT THE LUMBAR SPINE

The list goes on and on. The cause of some of these are structural like tight hamstrings that are compensated for, tight thoracic spine that is compensated for at the Lumbar spine. These can be worked through. But some of these are just from BAD HABITS and what gets me is that these bad habits extremely limit the practitioners progress.

This happens because many yoga teachers do not understand how the body REALLY works. Anatomy is studied but its focused on muscles and not the correct biomechanics of the WHOLE BODY. Understanding how joints and connective tissue all work TOGETHER, based on unifying principles of function, allows the teacher to create an authentic practice.

Simply calling out a pose in class is not teaching. It's reciting lines. Don't get me wrong. I was in that boat once. I am not blameless. However, when I found my way into understanding the body the other parts of my yoga teaching opened significantly and my students really were able to progress physically, mentally and spiritually. If they feel more comfortable in one, they will feel more comfortable in the other two. 

As a teacher and yogi, I am constantly working toward being as authentic as possible. Interestingly, that is where the hard work is. Being fake and artificial takes no work at all.

YOGA TEACHERS: Keep studying the sutras, chanting, inspirational reading, etc up. It's good. Get yourself into biomechanics and functional anatomy. If you want to see your students move with ease, efficiency, grace and power, sink your teeth into the science of movement. Do not be put off by it because it gets technical. GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE AND GET TECHNICAL! Your students will keep coming back and getting better and better every week because they will understand the body more. Help them own their practice.

This may ruffle some feathers. That's okay. My intent is to encourage you to study some of the science of yoga as well as the spiritual and mental. They are not SEPARATE!!!!

I will post some videos detailing certain asana soon. If you have any requests, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Any questions or comments can be sent to will@3doptimalperformance.com

Thanks,

Will