I
n the past two years alone, I personally know of eight instructors
who have had injuries requiring surgical intervention. One of those
was me.
Others are discovering that what was once appropriate in our
20s, does not necessarily make sense in our mid-30s, 40s, or 60s. Teachers
are learning firsthand the dangers of going beyond the body’s limitations.
First and foremost, teachers are students. Just as practitioners grow
on their mat, teachers must continue to grow on theirs. To be willing to
evolve. As our bodies change, it is also time for our teachings to change.
With this in mind, I’m observing a powerful shift happening in our
yoga community.
Shifting from Instagram Bait to Self-Inquiry
This is a shift in which seasoned yoga teachers are forgoing the “more
is more” approach so many took when they first started teaching in ex-
change for classes that promote prudence and inquiry. Yogis are setting
aside flexibility-laden postures of shock and awe in favor of shapes that
promote stability and space. People are learning to honor their body as it
is in the moment and as it changes with time.
While poses that emphasize strength and steadiness may not create
astonishingly beautiful photographs like the twisting of one’s body into
some advanced shape (see Instagram), they will keep yogis safe and prac-
ticing for a lifetime. It is better to work smarter not harder.
As teachers, we must both remember and remind students that the first
tenet of yoga is ‘ahimsa,’ to do no harm. It is easy to lose sight of this tenet
if the practice becomes pose-centric.
In 2012, New York Times writer William J. Broad published a contro-
versial piece entitled “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.” It infuriated a
lot of people in the yoga community because it seemed to be bashing the
very thing that saved our lives. I know, because I was one of those people.
Many have come to yoga (or are sent to yoga) to heal, either from physi-
cal or psychological pain. Yoga was my refuge from a high-stress job and
from caring for a dying mother.
In a live interview I did for NBC news, I scoffed at the reporter ques-
tioning if yoga was unsafe. And while I stand by my statement that it is
ultimately our ego which can “wreck our body” (as in people pushing
themselves in a pose), what my nascent teaching self did not yet under-
stand, is that it is more than just a matter of people overdoing things. Not
all poses are suitable for all bodies!
I was not able to fully grasp this idea yet, because I myself was still toil-
ing away at asanas I had no business doing. Like taking (er, shoving) my
leg behind my head, ignoring my low back and front hip screaming with
every attempt. How are teachers supposed to encourage students to make
wise choices, when we are not doing that in our own personal practice?
My father would often joke that “the shoemaker’s children have no
shoes,” when it came to my early teaching years. I would preach stillness
but run around the city to make ends meet. I would talk nonviolence, then
force my body through a grueling practice even on days when I needed
rest. I would encourage non-attachment, and then covet poses that looked
fancy on the outside but caused me pain on the inside.
Fortunately, it is through our own experiences that we become the best
guides! Not so fortunately, as with any growth, the path to get there may
be uncomfortable or quick.Teachers on Changing Practices to Cultivate Safety
I had the privilege of speaking with various yoga teachers about the
evolution of their practice, and ultimately their teachings.
Nicole Sciacca, Chief Yoga Officer at Playlist Yoga in Los Angeles,
explains that her “first yoga class was nothing short of gymnastics and
Cirque du Soleil style arm balances.” Like many, Sciacca came to yoga
seeking healing. However, as a dancer with an “already flexible body,”
she found herself looking to the bendy people at the front of the room
for guidance, versus listening within. This worked for a time and while
Sciacca credits yoga with healing her back (she had three ruptured discs),
she also suspects that yoga led to other injuries, including two frozen
shoulders. Sciacca continues, “I think the past 10-12 years of personal
practice have been a giant lesson in pulling back, squashing my ego, and
asking better questions.”
SmartFLOW teacher trainer Tiffany Russo also practices “from a
place of inquiry.” Explaining the evolution of her practice from one
where she was more interested in “the end result of an asana” to now
being more “curious about the experience within the journey.” Russo de-
scribes her current yoga practice as an ever-evolving continuum between
ease and stability. “It’s always a sweet moment when I arrive on my mat
to observe how much more ease of effort I might need, or on other days,
how much more stability my body needs.”
Bay area teacher and teacher trainer, Laura Burkhart of Laura Bur-
khart Yoga, is no stranger to “advanced party poses,” as she calls them.
Burkhart tore the labrums (cartilage lining the hip socket) in both hips,
including suffering numerous other muscle tears and chronic tendonitis.
She attributes the causes to “over-stretching and pushing too far.” Still
recovering from her injuries Laura says that her, “practice is much more
simple than it use to be.” She says, “It is mostly low to floor poses, very
few to no standing poses, no hip openers, no deep hamstring openers or
poses where there is deep hip flexion.”
Matt Champoux, Director of San Francisco Ashtanga School (SFAYS)
and Alignment-Vinyasa Teacher at Yoga Tree, had shoulder surgery
just last month for “a chronically unstable shoulder with torn labrum.”
While he suspects that the original injury happened in high school and
then was later exacerbated on a rock-climbing wall, Matt also believes
that “injuries from yoga are part of the process of a deepening inqui-
ry into the relationships of awakening spiritually, range of motion explo-
ration, and the psycho-emotional threads woven therein.” He says that
his teaching has changed “tremendously” over the past 13 years as he
becomes “increasingly enamored with subtlety and less driven by more
radical, contortionistic pursuits.”OPPOSITE: THERE ARE A LOT OF NEW POSES OUT THERE ON INSTAGRAM, LIKE THIS POSE (OPPOSITE), WHICH SOME CALL “PISTOL SQUAT COMPASS POSE,”
OR “EKA PADA PARIVRTTA UTKATASANA SURYA YANTRASANA.” MANY YOGIS USED TO PUT THESE SHOCKING SHAPES AS “AFTER” PICTURES,
BUT FOR OTHER SEASONED PRACTITIONERS, THESE TYPES OF SHAPES HAVE BECOME THE “BEFORE.”