Some time ago the Sheriff has sent me link to the famous NYTimes article on yoga dangers and injuries. Now I'll say something about that.
First of all, just because I practice yoga don't expect me to froth at the mouth barking at thie unfairness, inaccuracy, etc. of this piece the way the entire yoga community has. Overall the writer makes very good points. Sure, the example of the guy who sat in Vajrasana for "hours a day" was rather idiotic.
The Times article said:
Soon he was experiencing difficulty walking, running and climbing stairs. Doctors traced the problem to an unresponsive nerve, a peripheral branch of the sciatic, which runs from the lower spine through the buttocks and down the legs. Sitting in vajrasana deprived the branch that runs below the knee of oxygen, deadening the nerve.
This is a really goofy example, because "vajrasana" is none other than plain old Japanese seiza, the same folded knee sit position adopted by 80 year old ladies when they sit for 'hours a day" doing their tea ceremony. Everybody knows seiza is a killer if you sit too long and don't pay attention to what you're feeling (or more importantly, NOT feeling) down there. In Japan embarassing incidents of people who sit seiza for too long in some boring ceremony and then can't get up are common.
So that was a stupid thing to go no about when we're trying to have serious discussion about yoga.
Overall though I'm very sympathetic to the author's point of view. The fact is that yoga can cause tons of injuries. The deeper point is only hinted by the author but should be the main focus namely that yoga is presented too much as a Procrustean Bed, where the student is cut or ripped to fit The System rather than vice versa. Martial arts has this problem in spades too.
But one could seriously ask: why single out yoga? Any physical activity (and no physical activity) can result in nijury. Basketball, whatever. But I think yoga makes a particular target of itself because unlike basketball, yoga is marketed as this perfect universal absolute panacea, from which the very last thing you'd ever expect would be physical harm. But the body makes not exceptions. If you use it, for anything (or for nothing) it's going to bite you for sure.
That then brings me to my real pet thing, which isn't really anything bad per se, but something that continually amazes me, which is how unbelievably BODY FOCUSED yoga people are. Even after years of practice I've never gotten fully acclimated to the relentless physical body fixation of most of these people, teachers and students alike. Of course I know that the word 'yoga' is broad and there are many forms of what's called yoga that are primarily meditation or devotional ceremony or what have you. But here I'm talking about the asana centric practice that the word yoga connotes to most Westerners.
OK, asana-focused, but holy shit, these people are TOTALLY OBSESSED with their own bodies. Not saying it's a bad thing, but not my way at all. I do Ashtanga Primary and Second Series, which have their share of really badass physicall challenges, many of which I can perform with no problem. But I just don't care all that much one way or the other, neither about the things I can do nor the things that remain problematic.
Isn't the highest Indian philosophy the teaching that the body is nothing? How did this TOTAL BODY OBSESSION thing get going? These are nice, kind, decent, educated people, but man what a bore when they get into all this alignment minutiae and structure trivia. Who the hell cares?
You might say that kind of detailed obsession is what would prevent yoga injury but I think that just taking it easy and being sensitive to your own pain and limits will do that trick perfectly well. The more you try to assert or achieve some kind of ideal structure the more you are just cutting/pulling yourself into a Procrustean yoga injury.
These kindly yoga people with their bodily fixations remind me of nothing so much as the unspeakably innane EQUIPMENT FETISHISM that prevails among the (also very nice) people in the gun/shooting community. Boring!!
What the hell's wrong with you people? The wholel point is just energy, Shiva/shakti! And as long as you're body-bound, take it from me, you ain't going anywhere with that.
