Growth Opportunities in a Changing Body
Injuries and physical changes are opportunities for growth. They ask us to
get quiet and move more carefully. A changing body is also an invitation
to try things another way. For many teachers, this has meant not only
restructuring their current practice, but also integrating different modali-
ties to support their asana. Just as athletes are encouraged to go to yoga
to improve their flexibility, yogis can improve cardiovascular health and
strength by including other forms of physical fitness.
Matt Champoux agrees that “cross-training is supremely important for
the physical wellbeing of a yoga student” and that “no one practice can
include everything!” He continues to climb and run.
While there is some research that confirms that Sun Salutations do im-
prove heart health, yoga is nowhere near as effective for raising our heart
rate as cardiovascular-specific activities such as running, cycling, or swim-
ming. I now incorporate cardio by going to Soul Cycle spinning classes,
and it has greatly improved my breath on the mat.
Tiffany Russo is a yogi first, but she is also an athlete. Having run
cross country and track in high school, Russo continues to run, box, and
do circuit training for cardiovascular endurance. Russo also credits these
activities as helping with the “quality of the control of (her) breath during
times of high stress.”
Laura Burkhart swims and walks, however even walking can become
too much for her hip injury. Burkhart also lifts weights a couple of times
a week and believes that strengthening is crucial for preventing injury.
Nicole Sciacca is studying Functional Range Conditioning (FRC), a
system of training which applies scientific methods to the acquisition and
maintenance of functional mobility, articular joint health, resilience, and
longevity. “In other words,” she explains, “Do you have the prerequisite
range of motion to do the poses/movements you’re being asked to do?”
Sciacca says that since studying FRC she frequently leaves out some of the
poses many of us are used to seeing in power vinyasa practices, such as
chaturanga, upward facing dog, and warrior 1.
Sciacca gives another example, saying that yoga binds (clasping hands
behind the body around another body part, usually a thigh or bent leg)
are not a healthy way to go past your end range. “They compromise the
joints and eventually breed more dysfunction.” She encourages yogis to
consider “for what purpose and cost?” Sciacca credits teachers like Alex-
andria Crow for reconstructing our concept of asana.
Alexandria Crow, founder of the Yoga Physics school, is on a mis-
sion to “deconstruct and rebuild current system from the inside out.”
A proponent of the viewpoint that yoga poses are manmade constructs,
Crow focuses on teaching people how to deconstruct postures, helping
students identify the parts that support a person’s body/ability and teach-
ing them how to let go of the parts that do not.
Alexandria Crow agrees that strengthening and conditioning are
important, but she also warns that many poses as they are today, “exploit
hyper-mobility” and that trying to “stabilizing the current paradigm of
shapes may make the postures even more dangerous.” Crow emphasizes
separating “the quality of the experience” of the pose from the shape.
Alex sees people’s self-worth getting tied up in their ability to do postures
and she challenges practitioners and teachers alike to look at, “who they
are without the poses.”
I too have had to set aside certain postures due to injuries, aging, anat-
omy, and life. Like Sciacca, I no longer hold deep binds. As a former
Ashtanga practitioner, my practice was once riddled with binds, but since
my shoulder reconstruction whenever I practice them for more than a
few breaths I feel pain. I also now lift weights daily. Hyper-mobile bodies
tend to sit in their joints versus muscularly engaging. Adrian M. Carv-
alho, MPT and owner of Golden Gate Physical Therapy in San Francisco,
regularly encourages yogis to weight train to help with stabilization. He
also advises against “prolonged stretching at end ranges” for risk of over-
loading the joints.
As every teacher goes through their own personal experience, their
teachings evolve uniquely.
For Russo, her practice and teaching are “about finding integrity and
stability.” She advises her students “to become more aware of how and
why they move, rather than leading up to a pose.”
Matt Champoux’s teaching has always had a strong emphasis on align-
ment, however since his surgery, he plans to simplify his sequences even
more and avoid demonstration.
Laura Burkhart now makes safety a priority in her classes, by sequenc-
ing “in a way that minimizes repetitive stress wear and tear, and over
stretching.” She also includes “more alignment and verbal cues that have
been updated to help make certain postures safer for the body.”
Nicole Sciacca is currently looking “to blend the science of FRC with the
conceptual practice of western yoga asana.” She is studying ‘Kinstretch,’
the FRS (Functional Range Systems) solution to optimizing a group class
scenario and notes, “although there remains a strong push for assessing
people individually, FRS recognizes the fitness industry needs a group class
format.”
The way we practice yoga in the West as public group classes is still an
incredibly young approach to the discipline. We are told that Yoga was
traditionally taught one-on-one, under the astute eye of one teacher who
tailored the practice for the student’s specific needs. Teaching large classes
is a newer concept. It is challenging to keep everyone safe when there are
that many different bodies/genetics/anatomies/needs/energies in the room.
Alexandria Crow also points out that in group classes there is great “pres-
sure for people to keep up with the pack.”
While it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to make wise choices,
it is a teacher’s duty to provide a road map of safe alternatives. Further-
more, instructors must also emphasize the importance of taking those
smarter pathways. Paying careful attention to not make students feel like
they are missing out or being sent to “detention,” because some manmade
idealized shape does not suit their anatomy.
Beyond teaching alternative poses, teachers who have been through
their own injury and/or physical transformations can guide people how
to take care of themselves. The practice becoming a lesson in self-compas-
sion versus how to do asana.
Tiffany Russo puts it beautifully, “I hope to offer up students a greater
awareness of how they are in relationship with themselves and others.”
The kinder we learn to be with ourselves, the kinder we are in the world.
If we look at Patanjali’s translation of yoga from The Yoga Sutras,
yoga is explained as the stilling of the movements of the mind. If we are
hurting, lying to, or suffocating ourselves (challenging our breath) for the
sake of a shape, is the mind really still?
Instead of defining our practices (bodies, jobs, relationships, lives) by
what they look like on the outside, let us instead seek how we want to feel
on the inside. Safe. Loved. And ever-evolving.Sarah Ezrin is a motivator, writer, yoga teacher, and teacher trainer based out of
San Francisco where she lives with her husband and their dog: sarahezrinyoga.com
Clothing by Athleta: athleta.gap.com.OPPOSITE: THIS HIGH LUNGE VARIATION ON A BLOCK MAY NOT LOOK SO FANCY ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT ITS EMPHASIS ON STRENGTH AND LENGTH
MAKE IT AN EXCELLENT GO TO IN LIEU OF MORE FLEXIBILITY-HEAVY SHAPES, LIKE LEG-BEHIND-THE-HEAD.