If you happen to follow yoga, you’ve in all probability heard the entreaty, “Take heed to your physique.” It’s good, sound recommendation. While you embark on any bodily follow, it’s necessary to know and respect your physique’s limits. Tuning in and listening to your physique and what it’s attempting to speak to you every time you follow is important not solely to your physique’s well being, however to the expansion of your follow. How else can you actually know the consequences of an asana?

As academics, we will’t actually know what one other individual is feeling in his/her physique. So encouraging college students to develop their very own physique consciousness is essential. Though listening to your physique, and inspiring your college students to take action, is essential, generally it’s not sufficient to maintain your physique protected.

3 Causes Why Listening to Your Physique Would possibly Not Be Sufficient

Physique Consciousness Is Not a Given

A few of us come to follow with pretty refined physique consciousness, whereas others come to follow barely in a position to perceive what they’re feeling even when it’s under no circumstances delicate. This disparity is perhaps the results of some individuals having already engaged in numerous bodily exercise whereas others haven’t. An individual who has suffered bodily or emotional trauma may very well be both hyper-aware of bodily sensation, or might need developed a mechanism to close down excessive sensation. Regardless of the motive, it’s protected to imagine that each pupil who involves your yoga courses shouldn’t be experiencing the identical degree of physique consciousness. So not each pupil will have the ability to belief his/her listening abilities, no less than at first. That is the place an skilled trainer who is aware of how one can assess alignment integrity is so necessary. And alignment integrity doesn’t look the identical for each individual—people usually are not cookie cutters.

Ligament Ache Could Not Present Up within the Second

Even when your physique consciousness could be very refined, there are occasions if you is perhaps hurting your self inadvertently. A pose could really feel fantastic within the second, however in some instances, the ache response may very well be delayed. For instance, it’s possible you’ll not really feel overstretched ligaments till the subsequent day. As soon as ligaments are overstretched, they don’t return to their unique size. Over time, constantly over stretching ligaments can destabilize your joints. Refraining from pushing to your absolute edge is sensible, wholesome follow, in your ligaments in addition to your cartilage (up subsequent!).

Joint Injury is Usually Hidden—Till it Isn’t

A stickier, extra long-term subject is the potential for joint injury, particularly within the hip joints. Our acetabula (the sockets of the hip joints) are lined with a cartilaginous floor known as the “labrum.” As well as, cartilage covers the heads of our femur bones. The cartilage on each surfaces permits the ball and socket to articulate easily and freely. Cartilage has no enervation, so we will’t really feel the ball and socket articulating with one another. After we make a behavior of pushing or collapsing into our joints—this particularly applies to the bendier people—the cartilage can tear or put on down over time. We don’t really feel cartilage injury till the cartilage is gone, after which it’s typically too late. Thankfully, hip substitute surgical procedure has improved by leaps and bounds. However a greater thought can be to keep away from over stretching our joints within the first place.

How Can Yoga Academics Assist?

As academics, we must always encourage college students to hearken to their our bodies, and assist them perceive that ache and discomfort are alerts to again off, to not maintain going. However we additionally want to coach ourselves to know what collapsing right into a joint appears to be like like. Among the poses that folks generally collapse or push into their hip joints embrace excessive hip openers—assume Kapotasana (Pigeon), Hanumanasana (splits), Anjaneyasana (lunges) and Yoga Nidrasana (ankle behind the top). (Do you really want to place your ankle behind your head to get pleasure from a grace-filled life?)

Backbends is usually a downside as nicely as a result of there’s an inclination to push into your hip joints to get that further few millimeters of peak. And that ubiquitous instruction about preserving your pelvis squared in standing poses? Please don’t do it. Let the hip of your again leg rotate inward so that you just keep continuity between the legs and pelvis. This goes for twists as nicely.

Listening to your physique is important. You may keep away from loads of current and future struggling by merely paying consideration. But additionally, do do not forget that simply because every little thing feels fantastic within the second, it is probably not in the long term. Know what regular vary of movement is in your joints. And bear in mind: Nowhere in yoga’s texts does it say that pushing previous your limits is nice follow. Keep in mind shtira (stability) and sukkha (ease) from Sutra 2.46? (Translated: The bodily physique needs to be regular and comfy.) If you happen to’re going to place power into something in your follow, goal for a steadiness between these two qualities. And end up an skilled trainer who is aware of what meaning.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and folks sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards in 2010.