People ask me all the time, what is yoga therapy? Sometimes I answer...it's slow yoga, or gentle yoga, or yoga for people with pain, or it's like physical therapy-type yoga. That's just my short, I-don't-want-to-waste-my-time-explaining-it-unless-you're-really-interested answer. To be honest, I haven't got the "What is yoga therapy" schpeel down very well. It's not the easiest thing to explain. But I'm a better writer than speaker, so I thought I would write this blog so I have the time and space to explain it in a satisfying way. By the end you should have a good understanding of what yoga therapy is and hopefully my elevator pitch will be better.
In my line of work, I get a lot of people telling me or asking me about their body problems. Here are some examples of things I've heard:
My low back hurts every morning when I wake up.
I can't bring my left arm up over my head.
My knees hurt when I walk up stairs.
I hurt right here (pointing to the spot), where should I stretch to make it better?
I can't bring my arm behind my back.
I can't sit cross legged.
My hip flexors hurt.
Everybody wants to know the same thing...why is this happening? What exactly is wrong. How do I fix it?
When people are asking me this, they are in a fix-it mindset (which, by the way, is perfectly normal). Often they are frustrated because nobody will give them a straight answer. They want to be told exactly what is wrong and what to do about it. Similar to how we want a mechanic to explain exactly what part of our car is broken so we can replace it and be done with it.
So maybe they go to physical therapy and they get a pretty straight answer... E.g. Your psoas is tight and your glutes are weak. You need to stretch your psoas and strengthen your glutes. So they go home and do their exercises.
For some people this works. If the problem is truly the glutes being weak.
For others this will not work. They stretch their psoas and strengthen their glutes but it doesn't provide relief. Some may even notice that the exercises exacerbate the problem for the next day or two.
Understandably so, these people get frustrated or they give up and say that their pain is part of getting older and they just have to live with it. Or maybe they start getting more medical tests done and consider the surgery route.
Here's what yoga therapy would say to these frustrated people: There is an underlying pattern contributing to the glute weakness/psoas tightness. By doing the PT exercises, you are strengthening and maintaining the underlying patterns. You aren't changing the pattern that is contributing to the problem.
The yoga therapy mindset:
Instead of looking for one or two broken body parts and stretching or strengthening them, yoga therapy asks us to consider looking at the body from a broader perspective.
Consider the body as a house full of neuromuscular patterns that developed over many years. The patterns are a result of how the body adapted to stress and life experiences. Some of the patterns serve the body well and some do not.
Yoga therapy taught by a good teacher, will highlight these movement patterns so that you can see where you are moving well, and where you are compensating. Once you become aware of the patterns, you have the opportunity to deconstruct the inefficient patterns and create new ones. And the patterns can change fairly quickly - with a little time and practice, you start moving better and feeling better.
Simply put: the yoga therapy that I teach is one way of reprogramming neuromuscular patterns so you can feel good in your body.
Which is the part that is so exciting! It's empowering because it means you don't have to accept aches and pains as part of getting old. And if you have a curious mindset, it's kinda fun and interesting! You might be surprised at all the interesting patterns you find. Plus, you get to experience your body in a new and different way. Many of my yoga students say that since they started taking yoga therapy, they have become much more aware of how they sit, stand and move. Because of this awareness, they are more mindful of how they use their bodies in everyday life. As a result, they make adjustments to their movements or postures that are more body-friendly. So it has a ripple effect!!
A yoga therapy practice is very slow and the movements are very small. For most of us, ego-bruising-ly small. As a joke, I sometimes say: "The only kind of pain your are allowed to experience in this class is the pain of your ego realizing your true range of motion." Case in point: When I took my yoga therapy training in Canada, a fellow trainee was guiding me through a shoulder blade movement and she kept asking me to make my range of motion smaller and smaller...to the point where I felt like I was barely moving it. I knew that being asked to move smaller meant that my shoulder blade function needed improvement and that I was compensating in the bigger range of motion. I was pretty ticked off that my range of motion was so small. I thought I was fit and flexible and didn't expect to have sucky movement patterns. (I was a yoga teacher after all). But guess what? Everybody has sucky movement patterns. And I mean everybody. Nobody is exempt.
Don't be discouraged. Exemption would mean that you have lived a lifetime without any stress (physical, emotional, chemical, environmental) and you were born with perfect genes.
Now would that be any fun?
Ha ha ha. But seriously, discovering a funky movement pattern is exciting, because just in realizing it, you took one step toward change. Once you're aware of it...you're more than halfway there. It's the first step toward a whole new you.
In my line of work, I get a lot of people telling me or asking me about their body problems. Here are some examples of things I've heard:
My low back hurts every morning when I wake up.
I can't bring my left arm up over my head.
My knees hurt when I walk up stairs.
I hurt right here (pointing to the spot), where should I stretch to make it better?
I can't bring my arm behind my back.
I can't sit cross legged.
My hip flexors hurt.
Everybody wants to know the same thing...why is this happening? What exactly is wrong. How do I fix it?
When people are asking me this, they are in a fix-it mindset (which, by the way, is perfectly normal). Often they are frustrated because nobody will give them a straight answer. They want to be told exactly what is wrong and what to do about it. Similar to how we want a mechanic to explain exactly what part of our car is broken so we can replace it and be done with it.
So maybe they go to physical therapy and they get a pretty straight answer... E.g. Your psoas is tight and your glutes are weak. You need to stretch your psoas and strengthen your glutes. So they go home and do their exercises.
For some people this works. If the problem is truly the glutes being weak.
For others this will not work. They stretch their psoas and strengthen their glutes but it doesn't provide relief. Some may even notice that the exercises exacerbate the problem for the next day or two.
Understandably so, these people get frustrated or they give up and say that their pain is part of getting older and they just have to live with it. Or maybe they start getting more medical tests done and consider the surgery route.
Here's what yoga therapy would say to these frustrated people: There is an underlying pattern contributing to the glute weakness/psoas tightness. By doing the PT exercises, you are strengthening and maintaining the underlying patterns. You aren't changing the pattern that is contributing to the problem.
The yoga therapy mindset:
Instead of looking for one or two broken body parts and stretching or strengthening them, yoga therapy asks us to consider looking at the body from a broader perspective.
Consider the body as a house full of neuromuscular patterns that developed over many years. The patterns are a result of how the body adapted to stress and life experiences. Some of the patterns serve the body well and some do not.
Yoga therapy taught by a good teacher, will highlight these movement patterns so that you can see where you are moving well, and where you are compensating. Once you become aware of the patterns, you have the opportunity to deconstruct the inefficient patterns and create new ones. And the patterns can change fairly quickly - with a little time and practice, you start moving better and feeling better.
Simply put: the yoga therapy that I teach is one way of reprogramming neuromuscular patterns so you can feel good in your body.
Which is the part that is so exciting! It's empowering because it means you don't have to accept aches and pains as part of getting old. And if you have a curious mindset, it's kinda fun and interesting! You might be surprised at all the interesting patterns you find. Plus, you get to experience your body in a new and different way. Many of my yoga students say that since they started taking yoga therapy, they have become much more aware of how they sit, stand and move. Because of this awareness, they are more mindful of how they use their bodies in everyday life. As a result, they make adjustments to their movements or postures that are more body-friendly. So it has a ripple effect!!
A yoga therapy practice is very slow and the movements are very small. For most of us, ego-bruising-ly small. As a joke, I sometimes say: "The only kind of pain your are allowed to experience in this class is the pain of your ego realizing your true range of motion." Case in point: When I took my yoga therapy training in Canada, a fellow trainee was guiding me through a shoulder blade movement and she kept asking me to make my range of motion smaller and smaller...to the point where I felt like I was barely moving it. I knew that being asked to move smaller meant that my shoulder blade function needed improvement and that I was compensating in the bigger range of motion. I was pretty ticked off that my range of motion was so small. I thought I was fit and flexible and didn't expect to have sucky movement patterns. (I was a yoga teacher after all). But guess what? Everybody has sucky movement patterns. And I mean everybody. Nobody is exempt.
Don't be discouraged. Exemption would mean that you have lived a lifetime without any stress (physical, emotional, chemical, environmental) and you were born with perfect genes.
Now would that be any fun?
Ha ha ha. But seriously, discovering a funky movement pattern is exciting, because just in realizing it, you took one step toward change. Once you're aware of it...you're more than halfway there. It's the first step toward a whole new you.
