Yoga

Yoga means connection.

Connection between the body and the mind.

A is yoke, a piece that connects two parts together.

Yoga in practice is often misunderstood and also mis-practised by many.

Yoga is not about pushing yourself to your limits, it is not about going to extremes, it is not about reaching maximum possible flexibility. It is not a competition, not even with yourself.

It is about alignment, it is about intention, it is about balance, it is about care.

Bad practice

It is true that yoga is not suitable for some people.

But, in my understanding, the majority of people who acquired an injury or other problem through yoga got that problem through practising yoga in a bad way.

I know because I did it myself.

My arms have hyperextension, and some of my other joints are extremely flexible.

Hyperextension is when the joints move past the ideal maximal extension — that is, ~180°.

With mild hyperextension, the person may not be aware that they even have it. When I extend my arms out straight, from my perspective they are indeed straight.

But from the outside perspective, it is clear that my arms are bent — bent, backwards!!!

I haven't delved into why this is, but essentially the ligaments and/or tendons are too long, or too stretchy.

As you may imagine, increasing flexibility in already-hyperextensible joints is probably not a good thing.

And, increasing flexibility too much in general would also not be good, for the same reason.

We need our joints to be strong and reliable.

Excessive flexibility makes it easier to injure ourselves in various other activities.

Indeed, many yoga injury stories seem to come from gymers, people who are used to pumping iron, pushing themselves to their limits, growing their muscles large. The mentality of pushing themselves, applied to yoga, would cause issues; and then doing gym workouts after over-increasing their flexibility would also cause issues, most likely resulting in injuries.

So, it's not that yoga is bad, or unsuitable for some people.

Rather, the problem is how yoga is done, how it is taught, how it is used.

There must be safety education around every activity and skill, especially something like yoga, which is practised over a long time period, often multiple times a week, for months or years on end. Yoga is supposed to change your body, so if you do it badly, you are injuring yourself every single time.

Learning the philosophy of yoga helps you to practise it safely and carefully.

Principles

Here I will write some basic principles about yoga.

My ideas about yoga