Yoga: We can make it better!

Before you misinterpret this article, let me first say that Yoga is a fantastic exercise modality that can yield great levels of flexibility, stability and strength along with a better sense of well being and body awareness (just to name a few of its benefits).  But like all exercise, the proper yoga pose needs to be selected for the client performing the exercise along with proper execution (technique) of the exercise. This is where I see most Yoga routines fail.

Many proponents of Yoga say it is beneficial for the simple fact that it has been around for 1000’s of years. But one important thing to understand is people today move much different than people from 1000’s of years ago, let alone 100 years ago. We are a chair-borne society where our body is acclimated to withstand the rigors of sitting for many hours a day.  We perform little movement throughout our day in order to survive which is ultimately leading to our inability to move efficiently (Have you seen the movie WALL-E?).

Compare this to people of 1000 years ago who had ideal flexibility and used their body daily for hunting and gathering.

It is important to understand that many of the Yoga poses/exercises created were for healthy, flexible, strong people, hence why you might see exercises such as these executed with ease.

The average person today has the inflexibility/overactivity of the following muscles based on the way we are now using our body: Calf complex, Biceps femoris (short head), Hip Flexor complex, Adductor complex, Low Back extensors, Thoracic flexors, Lats, Chest and Cervical extensors and elevators. This leads to this type of posture:

If you look at the bad posture, notice just the lower back area. This is called an anterior tilt of the pelvis and excessive lordosis (arching/extension) of the lumbar spine. This creates a great deal of stress through the low back region during movement and is a major culprit for why 80% of the population has low back pain/stiffness. We won’t even discuss how this poor posture creates pain throughout the other areas of the body.

Based on this idea of posture, the yoga instructor should select appropriate exercises for their clients based on their current posture state (both static and moving posture). For example, these poses may do more harm than good:

Most people move with excessive lordosis through the low back region so poses like these will only exacerbate the issue and may lead to low back and hip problems.

How cool is this pose? Problem is look at the shoulder. See how it’s in front of the rest of the body? Most people already have rounded shoulders so this is a great way to put a lot of wanted stress onto the anterior superior part of the shoulder complex.

The Downward  Dog is a fantastic exercise to stretch and strengthen the posterior kinetic chain, however most people have tight calves, biceps femoris, lats and thoracic flexors. Therefore you tend to see this:

Heels off the floor,toes turned out, elbows bent, bent knees, rounded upper back, forward head….

These compensations can lead to poor posture/movement and injury. Why not make modifications so the person can perform the exercise with much better form? How about we elevate the hands to a chair or box? It is vital for both the person instructing the pose and the person performing the pose to realize when technique is less than ideal so adjustments can be made.

So here’s my final thought. How about we combine Yoga with Human Movement Science? Not only can we challenge and enhance our body using a modality of exercise that has been around for 1000’s of years but combine that with the understanding of how the body should move so we can appropriately select the BEST routine possible.

Namaste