A friend of mine just gave me a stack of old Vegetarian Times, and as I sat there flipping through the December 2002 issue, I came across an article titled “Yoga: It’s a Guy Thing”. I immediately started judging the article before even reading it. Turned out that the article was just about seeing an increase in men in yoga studios and turning to yoga to be fit. What’s kind of funny about all of this is yoga was designed by men for men. With the Americanization of yoga, came all forms and branches of the original ideas. Now we have vini yoga, hot yoga, power yoga, Yoga Booty Ballet and the list continues. The problem I see with many of these is that they still don’t take in account a woman’s body into pose alignment.
There’s no arguing it. Women and men just have different body structures. And I know ladies, we all want to prove that we can do anything a man can do. But continuing to force your body into a pose exactly like the guy in the picture could lead to serious injuries (to anyone male or female). When I teach Virbhadrasana I, I teach it with the female body in mind. Stepping straight back from tadasana and staying up on the ball of the back foot (as opposed to flat footing it) helps you keep the sacroiliac joint from torquing and coming out of alignment (most low back pain is attributed to the SI joint being out). I just have so many students who are unwilling to modify. I think the problem comes from many us being raised with a “no pain, no gain” mentality when it concerns any form exercise. Pain is not what I want from my yoga practice and it’s definitely not what I want for my students’ yoga practice either. Modifying a pose doesn’t mean that you are inferior or weaker. It just means that you are learning to really listen to what your body is telling you and some times, modifying the pose can actually make it more challenging.
Someone once said to me “Ask yourself. What is important? What is essential?”. This is a very good way to look at your intention for your yoga practice. My intention for my students’ practice is for them to be safe and to move in a healthy way. It is the most essential thing I can teach. Yoga is for every body. We just have to be willing to modify to fit that body.
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