Many people have made the commendable decision to improve their physical, mental and maybe even spiritual wellbeing by beginning or improving their Yoga and/or other types of physical disciplines.
While the intention is great, sometimes too much enthusiasm and too little knowledge will actually move you further away from your goal(s). Of course, we all know the person who started out just like the rabbit did and ended up just like the rabbit did...on the side of the road watching the tortoise cross the finish line.
However, in this article I won't be referring to such obvious mistakes. Instead, I want to share with you some of the subtle, yet very significant traps it can be all too easy for us to fall into.
Let's start by taking a look at a group class. Group classes are a very convenient and affordable way to improve your practice. However, how can you be sure that what you are improving is what really needs improving?
For example, let's assume that someone has a hip or knee that is already too unstable. Let's also assume that this person is attending classes where they do a lot of seated hip opening asanas/poses. It can not be good for the integrity of those joints to add more flexibility and range of motion when they can not stabilize themselves now.
Now why did I specify seated poses? Because certain standing poses, when done correctly, may provide for some strengthening of those unstable joints. Thus these can be beneficial to some extent. But, seated poses will take the stress off of those joints and for all practical purposes, offer only more flexibility.
Now, let's take a look at why people may chose to attend the classes they do. Of course it may be simply various financial and/or logistical factors which lead to their choices. Or it may simply be that they like those classes more than others. However, herein lies the pitfall:
People tend to like what they are good at and avoid things they are not so good at.
So let's take a look at that person with unstable joints again. Their very instability may be making them more flexible and giving them more range of motion in the poses which stretch those areas. Although they may be "better" at doing those poses than at doing poses which stretch stronger, more stable areas, they are making the wrong choice here.
They are actually making their imbalances worse by making their unstable areas more unstable and not increasing the flexibility of their stronger areas and strengthening their weak ones.
So what is a person suppose to do? I'm glad you asked!
First, we must take a good look at ourselves and decide where are strengths and weakness lie. Then we must try to look at the underlying reasons for these strengths and weakness.
Secondly, we must determine our likes and dislikes and tie them into out strengths and weakness. Are they related? And if so, why and how?
If we can do these things, we can make more intelligent choices in our practice. We may find that we end up changing what we do, how much we do of it and/or how intensely we do it. We can tailor our practice to OUR needs and not the needs of someone else or a group of other people. Indeed, keeping OUR need foremost in our minds may result in our ignoring our likes and dislikes when choosing what, when, where and how we do our practice.
Our practice must always be our practice. A generic routine can not be specific to everyone unless everyone doing it had the same imbalances.
Therefore, when attending a group class, even with the best instructors, sometimes it maybe better not to do those poses which contribute to your imbalances or you can chose to modify certain poses or not hold them for as long.
Of course, the best thing would be to do something to correct your imbalances. That is better than just not making those imbalances worse.
Some kind of resistance training maybe in order. Whether you choose different asanas/poses, body weight exercises or assisted resistance training (read weight training), what matters is that you will be doing something to help correct your problem areas.
Of course the same holds true for just about anything. If an aspiring pianist was very good at reading and playing music and not very good at improvising, what are the odds he/she would be spending a lot of time playing jazz instead of classical music?
The same goes for weight training. If a person has a strong back and not much flexibility, he/she would probably hate doing squats and/or dead lifts. Instead, they would probably do lots of rows or pull downs.
However, this is exactly what they should not be doing because it doesn't address their lack of flexibility in their lumbar-pelvic region. They are strengthening their strong area and ignoring their weak/tight one(s). Instead, they should be doing some other type(s) of weight bearing exercises that will help correct their structural imbalances. They should seriously consider Yoga or Pilates to help remedy their particular situation.
Strength without Flexibility is as useless as Flexibility without Strength! (Remember, you heard that here!)
Working Smart is almost always better than just working hard. Of course, Working Smart and Hard is Best.
If you need help in determining what your imbalances are and what you should do to help correct them, kindly contact me. Together, we will find, address and solve the problem within your physical limits.
Gary Giamboi is a NASM certified Personal Trainer, an E-500RYT Yoga Alliance Instructor, a Level 4 Qigong Instructor from the National Qigong Association, holds the rank of Kyoshi (Teaching Master) in several Japanese Martial Arts from the Genbukan World Ninpo Federation and the Kokusai Jujutsu Renmei and a Master's License in Taijiquan (Tai Chi) and Qigong.
He is available for Private Training and Consultations, as well as, seminars and the 200 hour Yoga Teachers Training courses.
He can be reached via his website, Genbukan.biz Genbukan.biz
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