AS A SENIOR Yoga Teacher and former Martial Artist, I’m not afraid to say that I am appalled to see yoga’s 5000-year old practice reduced to ‘poses’ such as the newly-invented “#comingoutofquarantine”! Yoga is not designed to be about acrobatic or gymnastic-style poses and how good you look on Instagram. The holistic yoga practice is there to combat the superficial spiritual and encourage mental transformation through movement.
Search ‘#yoga’, and you will find 92.6 million posts of people – including ‘celebrities’ – contorting their bodies into a pretzel shape in all sorts of photoshop-filtered locations. Guess what? Most of them – and any of their followers who try – will hurt themselves as they attempt to copy poses that their bodies are not ready or designed for, but we will save that for another day.
I don’t teach traditional yoga, but my program: JUMPGA – a fitness-yoga fusion – upholds its values. JUMPGA was conceived from my work rehabbing myself (following many traumatic injuries) and professional athletes, who still needed cardio and strength training that not even Power Yoga could match. Using a rebounder for yogic exercise lessens the weight-bearing load on the body, so it works well as a ‘prop’ for athletes with injuries or pre-existing conditions, in a similar way to using a brick or block in normal yoga practice. With JUMPGA, while there is plenty of cardio and flowing movement, the focus remains on breath, range of mobility, flexibility, and body alignment.
The practice intention is for improved physical and mental wellbeing; the poses themselves are less important; a means rather than an end, and they ensure that you do not risk injury which would interfere with long-term recovery. Yoga is not about the attainment of dramatic poses or keeping pace with other people in the class. Instead, the benefits derived come from a consistent and mindful practice of poses that progressively and gently physically challenge you.
With an estimated one in ten people worldwide suffering from low back pain, my practice is back-friendly. There has never been a better time to re-think the way that we exercise. The more people twist into the postures (in some cases, contort), the better they assume themselves to be. If it’s not a pose echoing our bodies’ necessary, natural movement, are we better in ourselves to perform it? Stuart McGill, leading back pain researcher, maintains that we are not – that science has come up with no concrete benefit to increasing spine flexibility.
Furthermore, some people are more flexible than others, depending on the genes you were born with, i.e., ‘life isn’t always fair’, and some of us have to accept that we are ‘flexion intolerant’! I emphasise moving mindfully from pose to pose to give the body time to re-set and to notice the feedback from your body. If you’re not in a rush during transitions, it is easier to stay mindful of your alignment. Slow, mindful movement can also help build strength. Slow doesn’t mean easy—quite the opposite – it requires more control and effort, not less.
Don’t compare yourself with the person you were twenty years ago, who could do any pose with abandon. In my twenties, I was able to carry a rotator cuff tear and exacerbated an existing knee injury, and still practiced daily. As a Senior Instructor, I now recognise my limitations and practice the appropriate pose for my body while maintaining optimal alignment and breathe awareness.
Guys, please note women tend to be more flexible than men, and they maintain more significant motion with age than men do. Men tend to do more vigorous fitness than women – building muscle bulk, causing wear-and-tear injuries, and scar tissue resulting from repetitive movements. These all contribute to flexibility losses.
Men’s comparative inflexibility is not a reason for them not to do yoga; instead, it makes yoga even more important. And the excellent news is that men can eventually make gains in range of motion, as women do. They need to take things more slowly than they might be naturally inclined to do.
At middle age and beyond, it is vital to know the difference between what you could have done twenty years ago and what is right for you now. Applying your earned wisdom through self-awareness and self-care will infuse your practice inwardly instead of outwardly.
