Can Yoga Cause Your Body Undue Harm?

A recent article in The New York Times outlined the extensive dangers that can go along with yoga. The article, adapted from “The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards,” by William J. Broad, to be published next month, followed Glenn Black, a senior yoga teacher that’s studied in India and today teaches at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Black spoke of the fundamental dangers of the practice for the general public. Black, who himself just underwent serious spinal surgery, says that a number of famous teachers have traumatic injuries due to pushing themselves too hard in years of practice.

The article went on to talk about various studies that have shown serious and long lasting injuries associated with the practice. A few excerpts from The New York Times article were particularly disturbing:

Willibald Nagler, a renowned authority on spinal rehabilitation at Cornell University Medical College, published a paper on a strange case. A healthy woman of 28 suffered a stroke while doing a yoga position known as the wheel or upward bow, in which the practitioner lies on her back, then lifts her body into a semicircular arc, balancing on hands and feet.

“[T]he arteries feeding her cerebellum had undergone severe displacement.” causing the a stroke.

Another case:

A few years later, a 25-year-old man was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, complaining of blurred vision, difficulty swallowing and controlling the left side of his body.

This formerly healthy individual had a particular yoga practice each morning:

His routine included spinal twists in which he rotated his head far to the left and far to the right. Then he would do a shoulder stand with his neck “maximally flexed against the bare floor,” just as Iyengar had instructed, remaining in the inversion for about five minutes.

Though these cases are rare, they certainly speak to the dangers of ambitious back bending. I’m a yoga Instructor myThere are eight limbs of yoga:

Yama : Universal morality

Niyama : Personal observances

Asanas : Body postures

Pranayama : Breathing exercises, and control of prana

Pratyahara : Control of the senses

Dharana : Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness

Dhyana : Devotion, Meditation on the Divine

Samadhi : Union with the Divine

Asana is only 1/8 of the pie but in the West it’s become all of it. The purpose of asana is to cleanse the body and keep it healthy in order to make the other limbs of yoga possible. And mostly all of these limbs crave mindfulness--mindful behavior, mindful breathwork, concentration, and meditation. It’s this mindfulness that should always be present in your physical practice. It’s this mindfulness or awareness that keeps you from over stretching your hamstring and compressing your vertebrae.

Ego Keeps Your From Yoking

If your ego has taken over your practice, as Black referred to in the article, then you’re not doing yoga. You’re stretching out or doing what amounts to gymnastics. Yoking with your inner soul or spirit is the purpose so if that’s not what you’re doing when you hit the mat, then call a spade a spade.

That said--there will be times when you’re not mindful, when you’re somewhere else practicing atop your mat. In those times you are in the most danger of serious injury. The most common of these injuries in my experience, is over stretching ligaments, which can me permanent. Aggressive back bending can be another culprit. And if you’re bendy be aware that you’re in more danger of over stretching then your inflexible friends. And of course, headstand and shoulderstand are very dangerous when you don’t know what you’re doing.
self and from my experience it’s not these more dramatic injuries that are the problem. Especially in larger cities, in many arenas, yoga has become a sport. The Origins of Yoga discusses how so many forms of yoga only outline the physical just as this article did. Yoga is so much more than just asana.

There are eight limbs of yoga:

Yama : Universal morality

Niyama : Personal observances

Asanas : Body postures

Pranayama : Breathing exercises, and control of prana

Pratyahara : Control of the senses

Dharana : Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness

Dhyana : Devotion, Meditation on the Divine

Samadhi : Union with the Divine

Asana is only 1/8 of the pie but in the West it’s become all of it. The purpose of asana is to cleanse the body and keep it healthy in order to make the other limbs of yoga possible. And mostly all of these limbs crave mindfulness--mindful behavior, mindful breathwork, concentration, and meditation. It’s this mindfulness that should always be present in your physical practice. It’s this mindfulness or awareness that keeps you from over stretching your hamstring and compressing your vertebrae.

Ego Keeps Your From Yoking

If your ego has taken over your practice, as Black referred to in the article, then you’re not doing yoga. You’re stretching out or doing what amounts to gymnastics. Yoking with your inner soul or spirit is the purpose so if that’s not what you’re doing when you hit the mat, then call a spade a spade.

That said--there will be times when you’re not mindful, when you’re somewhere else practicing atop your mat. InThe commercialization of yoga can do as much harm as it does good. While I’m thrilled that more and more of us are looking for balance, yoga is about so much more than just shapes. Make mindfulness on the mat and in your life your practice rather than that triple backbend headstand with a cherry on top. those times you are in the most danger of serious injury. The most common of these injuries in my experience, is over stretching ligaments, which can me permanent. Aggressive back bending can be another culprit. And if you’re bendy be aware that you’re in more danger of over stretching then your inflexible friends. And of course, headstand and shoulderstand are very dangerous when you don’t know what you’re doing.

The commercialization of yoga can do as much harm as it does good. While I’m thrilled that more and more of us are looking for balance, yoga is about so much more than just shapes. Make mindfulness on the mat and in your life your practice rather than that triple backbend headstand with a cherry on top.