I did permanent damage to myself in my first enthusiastic weeks of yoga. I stretched out all sorts of ligaments that will never regain their original condition. It cost me about $1600 worth of physical therapy to ease the pain caused by my naive exertions. <\/p>\n
The New York Times Sunday magazine writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n Indian practitioners of yoga typically squatted and sat cross-legged in daily life, and yoga poses, or asanas, were an outgrowth of these postures. Now urbanites who sit in chairs all day walk into a studio a couple of times a week and strain to twist themselves into ever-more-difficult postures despite their lack of flexibility and other physical problems. Many come to yoga as a gentle alternative to vigorous sports or for rehabilitation for injuries. But yoga\u2019s exploding popularity \u2014 the number of Americans doing yoga has risen from about 4 million in 2001 to what some estimate to be as many as 20 million in 2011 \u2014 means that there is now an abundance of studios where many teachers lack the deeper training necessary to recognize when students are headed toward injury. \u201cToday many schools of yoga are just about pushing people,\u201d Black said. \u201cYou can\u2019t believe what\u2019s going on \u2014 teachers jumping on people, pushing and pulling and saying, \u2018You should be able to do this by now.\u2019 It has to do with their egos.\u201d<\/p>\n When yoga teachers come to him for bodywork after suffering major traumas, Black tells them, \u201cDon\u2019t do yoga.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I did permanent damage to myself in my first enthusiastic weeks of yoga. I stretched out all sorts of ligaments that will never regain their original condition. It cost me about $1600 worth of physical therapy to ease the pain … Continue reading