[dheer01]

Every software engineer at some time in their working life will experience lower back pain. Before, you waste time/money going to your favourite medical practitioner, who will most likely advise you with a chemical cocktail - please visit your local yoga practitioner and ask him for a one minute session on Salamba Bhujangasana. This will 'cure' your backpain completely and irrevocably.

If you havent yet crossed over, welcome to the world of yoga.

RIP BKS.

[andrewl]

Some forms of yoga can be good for some people. And some of them can be quite bad, which isn't often acknowledged. There's a lot of dogma in the yoga community. See the New York Times article How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body [1] and the followup discussion The Healing Power of Yoga Controversy [2].

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wrec...

[2] http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/the-healing-pow...

You can get around the login by using an Incognito or Private window, in Chrome or Firefox.

[peterwwillis]

Here's my $0.02 on the subject. Every modern western yoga teacher (if they've passed teacher training) will tell you several things when you're starting out:

  1. If it hurts, don't do it.
  2. Listen to your body.
  3. You can not 'win' yoga.
  4. If you have an injury, use a modified pose.
  5. It's your practice, do it your way, at your own pace.
  6. Rest if you feel like it.
  7. Don't do everything everyone else does.
  etc

I've injured myself once so far. Most other people I know who practice regularly have also hurt themselves doing asanas, usually improperly. But the same goes for anyone who does a challenging physical activity, which yoga can definitely be if you push yourself or aren't mindful of your body. At the end of the day, there is no perfect way to prevent injury as all our bodies are different.

So unless everyone did the senior-citizen-modified poses there's always going to be risk of injury. Assuming a person could just jump into a crazy backbend like Vrschikasana without injury would be crazy... I don't know who you think isn't acknowledging this as every yoga instructor has probably also hurt themselves at one point or another.

The people who advocate yoga as healing or beneficial are not incorrect. But they're also not explaining to you everything about yoga in one paragraph. People who read one or two sentences and stop learning are dooming themselves from ignorance.

Much like people who work out without a personal trainer, people who do yoga without an experienced teacher (not just practitioner) are going to be at a significant disadvantage. Perhaps the real issue is that most people don't acknowledge that yoga is complex and can't be minimized or simplified.

[andrewl]

"I don't know who you think isn't acknowledging this as every yoga instructor has probably also hurt themselves at one point or another."

Many yoga practitioners do acknowledge the risks, but many do not. I should probably change which isn't often acknowledged to isn't acknowledged often enough or which many in the community do not acknowledge.

If you read the articles I linked, and the article comments, you'll see a lot of anger and denial. (But not from everybody.)

[JoeAltmaier]

Yeah but injury while skiing or wrestling makes some kind of sense. Injury while sitting on a mat - something is not right there. Something intrinsic to the activity, if "there's always going to be a risk of injury".

[peterwwillis]

When you're skiing or wrestling, you naturally engage a significant number of muscles and position your body to engage in said activity. When your whole body is in motion you instinctively flex your muscles to do things like balance, twist, bend, jump, etc. A body in motion is essentially in a more healthy alignment and supports your passive body parts (bones, blood, nerves, organs, etc).

When we are still and calm, our muscles relax (in general). This is basically a bad thing for our bodies because it stops the support that a lot of our body needs. For example, letting your neck sag forward or hunching over your desk over a long period of time can damage parts of the neck and spine, overdevelop your deltoids/chest and hurt your lower back.

When you're doing yoga asanas, this is all exacerbated as you intentionally put your body into positions that we don't naturally move into without lots of practice. So in effect, it's significantly more dangerous to sit on a mat if you're not engaging your muscles or positioning your body in the correct way to support everything.

Yoga is dangerous in the way that every physical activity that requires skill to perform is dangerous, with one caveat: yoga asanas are dependent on the way you personally move your body and the state it's in. So really, it's only dangerous for people who naturally move their bodies in a way that might promote injury. This is why learning from a teacher how exactly to get into a pose, and practicing that regularly, is so important: it removes ambiguity and improves the entire physical act to not only be safe, but also be superior to how you might naturally do something.

But as a practitioner, I don't personally see how yoga is any more dangerous than skiing or wrestling. You can break an arm in wrestling, and a collarbone in skiing, if you're not careful. Just because sitting on a mat looks easy doesn't mean it is.

[JoeAltmaier]

I think it has something to do with hurling your body at 50mph down a mountain slope, that makes injury seem more normal.

[discardorama]

I think part of the blame lies (IMHO) in, what I'd consider the American desire to "be number 1!!11!!" and the adrenaline rush. Just doing yoga is not enough; there have to be _competitions_ and challenges and so on. Why, regular yoga not giving you the adrenaline rush? Try "Acro Yoga" ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMMlzQsQPk4

What the heck. Yoga is not about being competitive; it's just about you, and you alone. Do the same yoga that you do when you're alone, as when you're in front of 1000 people. Listen to your body.

An analogy is: yoga is like tango. The 'woman' is your body, and you are the lead.

[dheer01]

Its obviously not a cure for everything and will not suit some people/problems - exactly like most medicine.

The overwhelmingly positive effects of yoga are though undeniable and most people will definitely benefit. Your personal mileage should obviously vary.

[mseebach]

I'm sure yoga is great, but for regular office lower back pain, pretty much any kind of regular physical exercise will do the trick.

[random_ind_dude]

I am not sure that's true, at least in my personal experience. I have lower back pain and this pose, while it relieves the pain temporarily, only makes it worse in the long run. Arching the back like in this asana compresses the lower spine. So I don't think it will cure one's back pain.

[jacquesm]

I'm kind of skeptical about wholesale diagnosis and medical advice dispensed with authority.

[lostcolony]

..anonymously on the internet.

[geographomics]

If the pain is persistent, medical practitioners would be more likely to recommend physiotherapy than an endless supply of painkillers.

[maccard]

I found I got an ample supply of both for a slipped disc. Tried Yoga, hurt more both short and long term.

[lafar6502]

Be careful, first of all not all yoga instructors know what they're doing, and secondly you can hurt yourself when doing exercises your body is not prepared for. If you're in your 20s you'll probably handle anything without a problem, but things change when you're older.