Newsflash! Yoga can hurt you! Well, at least according to a New York Times article, How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body by William J. Broad.
I bring this article to your attention for two reasons…
First, I sounded a similar alarm about training injuries in the martial arts right here on SenseiAndo.com.
Second, I think the article is unfair and does more harm than good in its attempt to create an image of yoga as being risky or bad for you. It’s like reading about a few people getting sick from eating spinach tainted with salmonella and then campaigning against spinach.
In the same way, when I talk to people about trying a martial arts class, they are often scared away because of a mistaken belief that it’s all about violence and fear they will be hurt.
Yikes! What an unfair image!
I don’t want yoga to suffer from the same prejudice as martial arts. Even though I prefer martial arts to yoga, as detailed in, Why I Practice Martial Arts and Not Yoga, it would be a crime to scare people away from trying something that may change their life for the better.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying no one gets hurt doing yoga!
I agree with the article when it asserts that most people are not prepared to do yoga and are therefore susceptible to injury when they begin their practice. Especially when they practice under a teacher or style that does not purposefully build a student’s foundation first. But here’s another newsflash—
All physical activities carry risk.
Would you believe my mother-in-law once broke a bone in her foot reaching for a can of beans at the supermarket? No more reaching!
Another friend twisted her ankle stepping off a curb. No more walking!
The key point the article fails to state is whether or not yoga is the cause of more injuries than comparable activities. Are yoga practitioners, as a group, more or less likely to be injured when compared to professional football players? How about dancers? Or runners?
Yes, it’s possible Mr. Broad presents more information in the book, The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards, from which this article was excerpted, but taken at face value, the article is nothing more than hysterical anecdotes.
What the article does state, is that the number of injuries from yoga has increased dramatically in recent years. But the article also states that the number of people participating in yoga has increased dramatically in recent years.
See the connection there? More people, more injuries. The real question is whether the percentage of people experiencing injuries in yoga is increasing. That’s another crucial point that should absolutely be made before trying to frighten people away from what is largely a healthy activity.
Another newsflash for you–
Not exercising is far more detrimental to your health than exercising.
If you are pursuing a lifestyle that carries you from bed, to an office chair, to the dinner table, to the couch, then back to bed, you are on a pathway to back pain, lack of strength, poor flexibility, poor circulation, weight gain, and wait—do I really need to explain why moving is better than not moving?
Bottom line: yoga is no different than martial arts. It all comes down to what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, why you’re doing it, and with whom you’re doing it.
Get that formula right and the rewards are powerful and profound. Get that formula wrong and you will likely experience pain. Last newsflash—
The same formula is true in every part of your life.
