Petra Yoga

“Recently the Washington Post called me the “Godfather of Yoga in the West” because most of the major teachers around the world have been trained by me. Having been a premier international yoga teacher for over 35 years, I found the concept that yoga is dangerous difficult to swallow (“How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” New York Times, 1/5/2012). Let me explain.

First and foremost, there is a big difference between yoga and asana. Yoga is a vast system which provides the process to discover, and the tools to fulfill, one’s own life mission. Asana, on the other hand, is a physical preparation of the body for that mission.  What most people in the West call yoga is merely asana, only a small part of yoga.
Next, since we are now talking about asana, let me further clarify its role in injury. First, the likelihood of injuries depends upon which school of asana is involved, and where an individual teacher has had his or her training. Some schools of asana are more vigorous and hence, tend to produce more injuries. Other schools are designed to open and stretch the body safely.
A second issue is the teacher. Some teachers are aggressive, pushing on students’ bodies without the proper training and pulling on different parts of the body without knowing the anatomy and the techniques.

Third, the student. If the student is aggressive and wants to compete and be the best in class, or if he or she wants to improve too fast, that too can cause injury.

Finally, we must look at the method of asana which the teacher is using. Some methods do not emphasize proper alignment and care, and hence can cause injury.
Therefore, you can never say that yoga is injurious to the body. However, in the worst case scenario, we can say, if the student is extremely aggressive, and if the teacher is only concerned with the student performing excellent postures, and if the system being taught is not an alignment-based system, and if there is no awareness of the actual movements while the teacher is adjusting, then, yes, perhaps asana can cause injury.

I myself have practiced yoga since the age of seven, and, being one of the senior most teachers in the western world, I can honestly say that my practice only caused me injury when I was not paying attention. I have injured many parts of my body, from my Achilles tendon to my neck – including severe lower back, shoulder cuff, neck, hip and knee injuries – all from the practice of aggression. The injuries came in my youth when I was trying very hard to be the best performer of asana. My own teacher, BKS Iyengar, taught me personally for over 30 years and all my injuries came from myaggression alone.  I can only blame my own ego and not the system.

The system of asana (not to be confused with yoga) is exceptional for the physical body. Just as a knife that can be used to cut vegetables can also be used to hurt another human being, so also can the practice of asana be done for self knowledge or for fulfillment of the ego. The knife is not to blame. The user is to blame. Yoga is not to blame. Asana is not to blame.  It is the individual’s ego and aggressive application of this ancient system that deserves the credit for injury.
Since I have suffered so many injuries myself, I understand how to prevent them. That is why the system I teach – called Purna Yoga – is carefully designed to prevent injuries. Our teachers around the world follow a safe and sane system of asana – and the accompanying system of yoga with includes applied philosophy, nutrition and lifestyle and the powerful meditations that are taught by Savitri.
It was a gentle and sensible practice of asana that helped me heal my injuries, while my aggressive practice of asana caused them. Please do not blame yoga. Please do not blame asana. It is the practitioner who has to take responsibility for finding and applying the appropriate knowledge through a sensible system. Please remember it is the style, the teacher, the ego and the application that causes injury, and not yoga.”  by Aadil Palkhivala

On the last, fourth day, of his workshops in London, Aadil lectured us on nervous system and how can we influence it with yoga.

The nervous system has 6 major parts:

1. Brain;
2. Spinal cord;
3. Nerves which go from the spinal cord to organs;
4. Skin;
5. Heart (it is made of 30% of muscle tissue and 70% of neural tissue);
6. “Second Brain” - Gut ganglia.

We learned about how to keep all those parts in a healthy and functioning state.

In particular, we did a few exercises for the maintenance of the spinal cord and the nerves that lead from it to the organs.  The feel fantastic and can be done at Petra Yoga Studio.

In this exercise, a student is suspended in badha konasana and on the exhalation they are releasing the spine down towards the floor, thus making the intervertebral spaces bigger and ‘unblocking’ the nerves.

In this exercise, a student first does suspended badha konasana and then catches the teacher’s hands and get lifted in a spinal extension (back bend).  Petra had a great time being both on the giving and the receiving end of the posture.

Today we talked about how force, however subtle, is a form of violence. Very often our actions are centered around the word ’should’. Don’t be ‘nice’, be ‘real’.
This practice is about being ‘real’, i.e. authentic.

Yesterday we talked about the 1st out of 3 pillars of restorative yoga, which was Observation.  If you can’t see what your student is doing, you can’t help them.  We should increase our perceptability.

Today, we talked about the 2nd pillar of restorative yoga, Support (both physical and emotional).
If you support the body, you support the person. When we feel supported (emotionally, maritally, financially), we relax.

The poses of the day were, supported child pose, Supta Baddha Konasana and Side-lying Savasana.

We finished the day with a 30-min relaxation in this version of Savasana:

The quote of the day:
“If you want to lead a happy life, don’t do anything to your full limit.”

Today we did two restorative postures: Savasana and the Supported Reclining Pose.  Judith calls Savasana, the ‘Tadasana’ of restorative yoga.

In restorative yoga, the use of props is to support the body into positions of comfort to facilitate relaxation and health.  We are manipulating the nervous system by using props.  Savasana needs props. Savasana is a relaxation pose in which the head and the heart are at the same level. When a student lies down in savasana, that is the only time in the day when they are ok with just BEING. The most important parts of the body to be supported in savasana are the head and neck.  Judith has a method of ’scrunching’ the blanket around that area. Every restorative pose, including Savasana, should be held for a minimum of 20 minutes.

Stress is related to our perception of time. We never have enough time.  If you want to reduce your stress, look carefully how you structure your time. For ‘homework’, we have to look at our diary and take out at least 2 things a day.

It is not asana that is yoga. It is the residue that asana leaves that is yoga.

We talked about unitasking vs. multitasking and approval vs. being loved.

Supported Reclining Pose - the only contraindication is the sunburn on the back.

It is very good for beginners and for when someone is coughing or has sinus problems. It is very good for the lungs. Generally, what is supported and elevated is stimulated in the pose. It is a very good pose to start restorative practice in.

Relaxation is a distinctive state from sleep.

People get healed by having an authentic connection with an authentic human being.

Today was the first day of the training and we learnt about the connective tissue in the body, fascia, which enwraps all the interior structures such as bones, muscles and organs. This tissue forms membranes, which are interconnected via a great network and provide a connection between all the parts of the body. In other words, an injury in the feet may directly affect your neck. Therefore, we must address the body as a whole to deal with a particular problem. A healthy fascia should be highly adaptable and constantly in the state of flux as it alternatively stiffens and hinders the connection and communication through the body. Tias calls fascia ‘The internet of the body’ because it ‘comprises a web that connects various parts of the body’.

In the second part of the day, our focus was on feet and how we can improve the asana practice by working with more focus on the feet. In standing postures, feet are the foundation; therefore, the most important part of the pose. If the feet are not working properly in a standing posture, that misalignment will propagate thorough the knees, hips and beyond.

With the arrival of warm weather our bodies perspire more than in winter.  For many people the idea of sweaty armpits is very unappealing.  The quick solution to that issue is a trip to the chemist and purchase of an anti-perspirant deodorant.  Well, before you do that, please consider this:

Sweating is one of the ways of detoxification.  By sweating we get rid of many toxins which would otherwise stay trapped in the body.  If you apply an anti-perspirant deodorant, you stop the sweat from exiting the body from the underarms where a lot of lymph nodes are situated.  Also, all the anti-perspirant deodorants contain aluminium which has been linked to the diseases such as breast cancer and Alzheimer disease.

So, please throw away all the anti-perspirant deodorants and all the ones containing aluminium and replace them preferably with crystal deodorants which will not prevent you from sweating but will prevent you from smelling.

Can you spot the difference in these two photos:

In the top picture, the student is rolling the shoulders downwards, thus creating a big strain on the muscles of the rotator cuff.  By doing the pose in such a way over a period of time, one puts these muscles at risk of a permanent injury.

The bottom picture shows a corrected press-up where the shoulder does not go below the elbow in respect to the floor, which is a correct and much safer way of doing this pose.

Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is a style of yoga with a precisely defined sequence of postures.  Not only the postures have a certain order in which they are practiced but each posture also has its own way of going into and coming out of it.  That routine is called a vinyasa of that particular posture.  One can think of it as a ‘choreography’ where the breath is the music to which we do the pose.  It is very useful for a practitioner to learn the proper vinyasa of each posture and when practising to silently keep count of the vinyasas along with the appropriate inhale or exhale and drishti (visual focus).  The best way to start learning the count is by trying to count sun salutations A & B and then to learn for subsequent postures as you practice.

The main benefit for counting while practising is that it helps keeping the mind focused on the practice instead of drifting away with the thoughts.

An excellent book with the proper vinyasa count for the primary and second series is Asthanga Yoga by Lino Miele

So, next time when you are on the mat, remember: “One, inhale, look at the thumbs; two, exhale, look at the nose; three, inhale, look at the third eye,…”

The Spring newsletter is finally here. Enjoy!

Supported shoulderstand is an excellent alternative to the traditional posture for people with stiff shoulders and/or bad necks. The contraindications are the same as for the regular shoulderstand (i.e. high blood pressure, period, glaucoma)

All the props needed can be bought from yogamatters.com .