Sadie Croshaw, Yoga Instructor
Here’s how most yoga classes go: the instructor demonstrates the poses at the front of the room, giving basic cues and guidance, while the participants attempt to follow along and mimic how the teacher looks. The participants likely question whether they’re doing the poses “right” and feel like most of it is uncomfortable, inaccessible, or even painful. And then they often never try yoga again.
Sound relatable?
I’ve been reading Your Spine Your Yoga, an excellent book written by Bernie Clark. He states something very important at the beginning of the book:
Focusing just on the muscles may cause a student to miss the real opportunity for growth; even more unfortunately, a muscle-only viewpoint may cause the student to push too hard and create an injury, because the limitations had nothing to do with her muscles.
He also quotes an unknown source, saying:
We don’t use the body to get into a pose--we use the pose to get into the body.
Your body is unique, as is every other body. Your ribcage is shaped differently, your leg bones are a different length and shape than any other, your spine has a different configuration of mobility than any other. So shouldn’t you get one-on-one, personalized instruction for a physical activity like yoga? One of the keys to safe yoga (or any physical activity, for that matter) is understanding your spine, in relationship to the movement.
Each unique spine creates limitations for the body it’s attached to, so one person’s Cobra Pose is going to look vastly different than another’s. AND THAT’S GOOD! If you were to force your body to exactly mirror someone else (namely, a yoga instructor), you would likely feel the effects of it days later--and not in a good way. In fact, a study published by the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies discovered that 10% of yoga participants experienced new injury, and 21% had existing injuries worsen. This angers me. This rate is too high. Of course injuries happen, but 21%? Clearly, we’re doing this whole yoga teaching thing wrong. I don’t believe these injuries are a result of the participants not being flexible enough or yoga not being for them. It’s likely a result of their body and the body they were mimicking having unique and complex construction. The participants needed a personalized approach to a yoga practice.
Staffan Elgelid, PhD, a yoga therapist and an associate professor in physical therapy at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. told Healthline:
I think one reason we are seeing more people complain of pain is that more and more people are turning to yoga for issues with pain that have not been resolved by allopathic medicine … One big problem with that is that many … yoga teachers do not have their clients fill out a medical history form, so the teacher has no idea if the student has any musculoskeletal issues or not, and therefore cannot modify the practice accordingly.
This is why we take yoga so seriously at Cache Valley Counseling/Cache Valley Yoga. Anyone who takes advantage of our yoga services cannot begin until I’ve looked over their Health Questionnaire. Beyond my qualifications and training, I constantly do individual research about the body, the mind, different illnesses and diseases, etc. I’m always educating myself because I recognize that every person I work with has a different body, different experiences, and different needs, and I plan to do my best to care for them as a WHOLE person. (*Important note: personalized yoga does NOT need to involve physical adjustments. Physical touch may not be something you’re comfortable with, and that doesn’t exclude you from private yoga. In fact, we have a virtual option for personalized yoga as well!)
What would personalized yoga do for you?
Find out! Contact me on Facebook, Instagram, or email me to have a free discussion about your needs and how yoga could help you!