It is common that many Yoga teacher pushes you in to your
posture in order to make you stretch beyond your normal capabilities. They do
it with the intention to make you do all advance asanas soon. Question has
always been raised about this method. Is it a healthy way to do Yoga? Does it
cause any harm? etc etc. In this blog I am going to talk about this in detail
from my studies and experience.

When you push beyond your limits too fast, your muscles goes
for spasm[1] (sudden, involuntary contraction of muscles) in order
to prevent you from stretching/overloading further. Although most of the spasm
relaxes in a few days, it can even be permanent. Your muscle remembers these
spasms and next time it will occur soon unless you have trained rightly after
the first occurrence. All these are natural defense mechanisms to protect our
body. Finally, postural muscles (prevents
you from collapsing in the field of gravity) act like spring in the field of gravity
[2][3] and with gentle force you can keep them in completely stretched
position. Let us move ahead with these concepts in mind.
Many Yoga students and teachers ignore the pain and try hard
to work through the pain resulting in injuries. They say "Go beyond pain to achieve and improve
in your abilities” , “Pain is merely physical, a material thing. Go beyond
material world by ignoring the pain”, “I am not pushing, I am just trying to
correct you”. They all tend to push you hard to get results quickly. All these
statements are true but conditions apply!!.
Let us do an experiment. Sit in stretched leg position and
bend forward till you feel stretch pain. When you hold that position for some
time you will notice that pain will disappear and you can go a little forward
to feel pain again. This initial pain is the body’s way to warn you “Boss, hold
on, you are doing something new today. Let me get used to it”. This concept can
be explained from medical world but it is beyond the scope of this blog. Point
at which you feel this initial pain varies on daily basis. When teacher says “Go
beyond pain”, this is the kind of pain there are talking about. The initial
pain which you experience when you body is not ready. You can go deeper in to
the posture slowly by holding the posture for long time till you reach your
maximum at which point you should stop. In this approach you are being the
master and trying to acknowledge the natural responses of your body. Take it
slowly and steadily by having patience to hold for longer duration. I have seen
many students who are so disturbed to hold the posture longer to experience all
this!
Yoga teachers are not linked to your feedback mechanism and
they have no clue about what you are feeling. Without the knowledge of your feedback
mechanism they push you and their by increasing the chances of injuries. Many teachers even ignore your scream thinking
that either you are acting or you are lazy to do more!! This may be true but it
can be serious to ignore your scream. In this approach you are making your
teacher the master of your body without being aware of the natural feedback responses
of your body. So, being pushed by your teacher is always a strict ‘NO’. They
may say “You did more last week, so why not today. Let me push you”. Keep in
mind that it is not just your physical body but even your emotional pattern
decides what you can do on a particular day. As I said, your body is not the
same every day. Respect it.
How about teacher correcting your posture? Corrections are
done to make you feel the right stretch or to release unnecessary tensions in
certain parts. You feel good after the correction. After correction if pain
increases, then step back and move forward in the right direction slowly by acknowledging
the pain. Having said this there are some teachers who are aware of all this
and try to work only with the spring action of your postural muscles. This is perfectly
fine but there is a better way to do this. Yoga props used in Iyengar Yoga will
enable you to be the master and work to get right maximum stretch.
One of the Yama (self-restraints) of Ashtanga Yoga is “Ahimsa”(Non-Violence).
Ahimsa doesn’t just mean doing good to
society and others. Follow in even in your practice by not doing violence by
yourself or by someone on you. Apart from this many times it is your ego to
show off because of which you push yourself or allow someone to push you. Ego
is not Yoga. Understand that by getting pushed you are being detrimental to
your own progress. Yoga is not a competition but a lifelong process. Go beyond
you stretch pain slowly and steadily by staying in the posture for longer
duration.
Do I practice this? Honestly, I used to push my students at
the beginning but then I experienced the pain by being pushed. This triggered
me to do self-study. Slowly I refined my method of teaching to give precise
instructions to feel the right and optimum stretch without using much force. I
still try to bring the lost awareness by gently tapping at the places where
there is no awareness. I do this to deal with passive mind of the studentsJ. This is still work in
progress!! English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 coined the metonymic
adage “The Pen is mightier than the sword” and now I saw “Words are mightier
than the force in Yoga training!!”
If you liked the blog, please help me share the blog and spread the message
References:
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.
<!--[endif]-->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasm
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.
<!--[endif]-->http://nau.edu/Research/Feature-Stories/Spring-like-Protein-Key-to-Muscle-Behavior/
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.
<!--[endif]-->http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1456055/
Fexibility is one part. The other thing to consider is the student's stamina level. Some Yoga teachers are ignorant about this aspect. They insist on performing a series of asanas at fast pace (something like Surya Namaskar) which the student's body condition cannot handle.
ReplyDeleteGood One Vinay. Very informative..
ReplyDeleteYou are right Aishwarya. Beauty of any Indian sciences is that it is customized for individual. This very aspect is missed by many. Stamina, flexibility all depends on a person.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ramanath :). I request you to spread the message if you think it is worth it :)
Amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aniketa :)
DeleteHello Vinay,
ReplyDeleteGood article!
Does yoga differ for people who have undergone surgery?
- Vani
Thanks Vani :)
DeleteActually yoga differs for person to person. In this case lot many questions has to be answered first. What kind of surgery, when? to whom? etc
Dear Vinay,
ReplyDeleteYou have touched a good point. Half knowledge is dangerous. Yoga teachers must learn the science of human body; anatomy, orthopaedics, etc.
All the best.
Aijaz
You are right. Anatomy, and understanding of body is required but more than that he has to practice a lot to learn from self study. This is a good topic let us think about this. All yogis or great yoga teachers are either doctors or they have medical understanding but they all have learnt from experience or self-study which comes only by persistent practice. Now a days Yoga is a degree with the intention of making money out of it. So I think their is a big change in the focus.
DeleteVery informative. Even I would like to start yoga as part of my daily routine.
ReplyDeleteThanks Samichi :) I am glad that this inspired you to make Yoga part of your daily routine :)
DeleteVery nice article.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Vinay for your Yoga venture.
Thanks Shanthveer :)
Delete