The new yoga mantra, especially for beginners, is “know your limits.”
Steven Stewart thought he was doing something good for himself when he took up yoga 15 years ago. He still believes in its benefits. But as he stretched his shoulders during an exercise in 2008, Stewart unknowingly went too far, damaging his rotator cuffs and sending him on a painful path to renewed health. “That was a long recovery,” says Stewart, a 56-year-old chiropractor, adding that he has since resumed his yoga practice.
It was a difficult realization to make: that yes, yoga can hurt people. Stewart has since seen patients come into his Portola Drive practice with injuries to their shoulders, hips and knees from yoga. “Those are what I see most commonly, though we do get a few lower back injuries,” says Stewart.
It’s a hot topic right now. A New York Times Magazine article this month titled “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” reports that yoga can cause serious injuries like strokes, back problems and unresponsive nerves. The article relies heavily on longtime yoga teacher Glenn Black, who says most people should give up yoga altogether.
Not surprisingly, the story has ignited controversy in yoga communities. Skeptics are calling its claims greatly exaggerated, even sensationalistic, and say major injuries can easily be avoided. Eva Norlyk Smith from YogaUOnline.com wrote a response that ran on Huffington Post with tips on practicing safe technique. Local yoga teacher Mark Stephens wrote a similar piece for SantaCruzYoga.net called “How Yoga Will Not Wreck Your Body.”
Yoga teachers nationwide seem to agree that the most important thing is paying attention what one’s body can and can’t do—or, to invoke 1990s rapper Ice Cube, “Check yo’ self before you wreck yourself.”
“I think it’s personal responsibility, personal understanding,” says Julie Kimball, who has been teaching yoga classes at UC–Santa Cruz for 30 years. “It’s how you would approach your finances. That’s how you should approach your body. Be in charge of it.”
Maya Lev, owner of Yoga Center Santa Cruz, says yoga has risks just like skiing or any other physical activity. “I’m sure there are students in my classes who have suffered injuries, but nothing close to what was incurred in that [New York Times] article,” says Lev. “That’s why I feel it was sensational.”
Sure enough, yoga injuries like strokes may not be an issue in Santa Cruz County. According to Dominican Hospital spokesperson Mike Lee, there’s no record of patients coming into the emergency room complaining of yoga pains.
Lev and other yoga teachers concede that yoga carries minor risks but hesitate to name poses, types of yoga or teachers that might be unsafe.
Lev does have thoughts on what she is doing right. She says her teachers walk around the room during class. They keep an eye on their students, she says, instead showing off, doing the stretches and challenging their students to keep up with their own flexibility.
Kimball, who teaches 10-week courses, has thoughts too. She suggests long-term classes like hers might be safer than drop-in classes, in which teacher and student don’t develop the same level of trust. If a teacher and student can talk about what hurts, she says, students are more likely to stay safe.
Kimball has a Ratemyprofessor.com page with 18 comments on it, the vast majority of them overwhelmingly positive. In one recent review, however, a commenter complains about rolling an ankle in class. Kimball “doesn't make sure everyone is doing things correctly,” the anonymous commenter writes.
“So did that person come back and tell me?” Kimball asks. (According to the review, the student dropped the class soon after the incident.) “Apparently not. If they had, then the learning practice begins. We as students of life have to not just point fingers, but take responsibility for our questions.”
What about the idea that some people aren’t fit for yoga? Kimball and Lev both dispute the claim. Stewart, though, thinks people who have connective tissue diseases should probably stay away.
Stewart also notes, counterintuitively, that especially limber people need to be careful. Before a flexible student develops strength, his or her joints may be capable of doing things that the muscles aren’t ready to handle. He explains that that can actually result in joint problems. “People think they twist themselves up in knots—and maybe they can,” says Stewart, “but it isn’t necessarily good for the joint tissue.”
Kimball says for the most part, a little pain is part of the game and part of life too. “Everybody gets hurt,” says Kimball. “I shipped my kid out to India. ‘Go out into the world. Learn from cause and effect.’ That’s what yoga is. It’s a practice through which you can learn about yourself through your body, through your mind. It’s a personal journey.”
