How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body and Reward Ego Games
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star0 18 weeks ago
star0 18 weeks ago [Glenn] Black has come to believe that “the vast majority of people” should give up yoga altogether. It’s simply too likely to cause harm...
“Today many schools of yoga are just about pushing people,” Black said. “You can’t believe what’s going on — teachers jumping on people, pushing and pulling and saying, ‘You should be able to do this by now.’ It has to do with their egos.”
5 Comments
Nonsense Article
NYTimes is an awful publication. I can't see how anyone thinks they're still relevant. Like most mainstream "news" sources, fear, lies and propaganda is the M.O.. Anyhow... any exercise can cause injury. I think everyone knows this.
and:
And what about the ego part?
NY times article on yoga
publishing a article with a one sided opinion/ assumption is careless. I do my own practice and the only one that is pushing me is myself. when i do attend classes i feel at free will to push myself as far as i want to go. usually, its communicated that its our practice. Yoga is more about the focus on breath then posture. Hitting a posture is a bonus. That is unfortunate this article was published.
yogaL
I don't think the article is against yoga, per se. It's just against the kind where people are pushed to the point of causing serious physical damage, and against the kind of ego-posturing that some yoga instructors engage in. I think, for example, the author of that article would be perfectly happy with simple stretching exercises and meditation; he would be against having people hold a painful pose for 20 minutes at a time that could cause nerve damage -- and against instructors saying things like, ``Come on, come on, you should be able to do this by now.'' while the guy or gal is struggling to hold the posture (instead of, ``Ok, I see you're struggling. Maybe you should rest yourself and try a different pose. I myself have a hard time with that one! (slight chuckle)'' -- a bit of empathy and bit a self-deprecation).
hmm...
If your yoga instructor sounds like this ..
//``Come on, come on, you should be able to do this by now.''//
Your "yoga" instructor is probably a physical trainer that masquerades as a yoga instructor (check their credentials).
Also, I would not recommend taking yoga at one of the "big box" gyms, if you do, checking the credentials of your instructor is even more important.