Yoga Myths Busted: Yogis Are / Must Be Vegetarians

Another myth propagated by the peace, love, dove, save the daffodils, floaty yoga voice brigade.

You don't have to be a vego to be a yogi...matter of fact.

You don't have to be a vego to be a buddhist either. Shock, horror...I know!

The Buddha allowed his disciples to eat pork, chicken and fish, if the animal wasn't killed on the person's behalf.

Eating elephants and humans was however, prohibited.

Dunno what those buddhist zombies are gonna do during the apocalypse...starve to death I guess. Whatever.

Peace out, J.

The Yoga Sweet Spot...Where All The Progress Happens

If you want to make progress...I mean real progress, you gotta get to the sweet spot.

It's the place where you are doing so much yoga, that the gains just pile on.

It's hard to describe.

Ummm...Let's use an example. For your car to run the fastest it can, it needs to be in tune. That is.

All the parts are operating in synch. So now all your car has to worry about, to run it's fastest, is actually running fast. The other bits that support this have been taken care of.

Same with the yoga sweet spot. It's when you are doing so much yoga, that your body is the best it currently can be. So all you have to worry about is taking it to the next level i.e. running its fastest.

So, I'm currently trying to improve my backbends.

If, every time I attempt a backbend, I have to work through tight hip flexors and poor leg strength, then I won't be making as much progress in my backbends, compared to not having to work through those areas.

If however, I've been doing tons of yoga, and my hip flexors are loose and my legs are strong. Well, all that's left to work on, are the backbends.

So, the whole point is, you do so much yoga, that you start to make disproportionate gains (huge gains). Whereas, below that amount of yoga, your gains are constricted.

In a nutshell, do heaps of class yoga, and then, throw on top some personal practice in your weak areas, and you'll make huge gains in your weak areas.

Contrast this to...do less yoga and you'll struggle to make gains in the areas you are specifically targeting, because you have to work through other areas.

These other areas rob you of energy, flexibility and strength that you could be otherwise using in your target area.

Clear as mud?

Nope?

I'll have a think about it, and try to update the post to make it simpler and clearer.

But do more yoga! J.

New Yogis Be...Old Yogis Be...

New yogis be all uptight about being touched/adjusted...Old yogis gettin' touched everywhere be "Push HARDER".

New yogis be optioning up all the poses and straining...Old yogis be optioning up some poses and straining.

New yogis be wiping sweat from their face...Old yogis be spraying sweat everywhere.

New yogis be looking like deer in headlights when the teacher says to "Partner up!"...Old yogis be "You'll do!".

New yogis be all concerned about tucking this and sucking in that...Old yogis be doin' it without thinkin' about it or "F@rk that, I'm stretchin' this way".

New yogis be all excited, "I went to Yin, it was super relaxing"...Old yogis be scratchin' their heads, "What the hell was wrong with the old sanskrit pose names?"

New yogis' head be swiveling this way and that way...Old yogis be laser focused on one spot for the entire class.

New yogis be open to trying new things, with trippy names, like 'stargazer'...Old yogis be all "Nope. Not gonna do these fancy new poses."

Yin Needs To Bring Something New To The Table

Cue some early Alanis Morissette, it's time to get angry... 

So first we had Bikram yoga. 

26 Hatha poses sequenced in a particular order in a heated room (to simulate doing the poses in Mysore). 

Well ,the heating was new to Westerners...and it allowed us to go deeper. So at least Bikram brought something new to the table.

Of course, to teach his method, you had to go to special (read: really expensive) training. Even though as a teacher, you may have been teaching those same poses for years. 

Hey, everybody has to make a living.

Yogaglo - the popular online yoga classes - patented the camera view of their classes (I kid you not!). 

The patent is in the US, Australia and god knows where else. But hey, it is a good view, so they brought something new to the table.

You should be seeing a pattern emerging.

Now we have yin yoga.

This is the same old restorative poses that we all know, held for long holds, like in restorative.

...but to differentiate this style, the poses have Chinese names (sleeping swan for pigeon, or something like that. Whatever).

Now, I'm sorry, but re-badging old restorative poses with Chinese names, ISN'T bringing anything new to the table.

If you are going to profit from the yoga craze (which we are all for)...AT LEAST BRING SOMETHING NEW TO THE FREAKIN' TABLE.

Ok, rant over. Cue John Butler. Peace out, J

BTW - There are still some Midori Yoga teacher training spots open.

Midori is even slower and cooler than yin.

It has fewer poses, that we hold for twice as long.

The training will be in an authentic, rain-forest environment, using recycled trees.

Places are filling fast.

$10,000 non-refundable deposit on application.

Midori: truly green yoga.

How To Win At Yoga

Any yogi you see doing something abnormal. Say a backbend, where they are holding their heels with their hands (that's bending backwards, mind you). It's easy to say, that it's due to natural ability. 

999 times out of 1000, you'd be wrong. 

It's rare where someone is born with super strength, balance or flexibility. Mostly, it's practice and persistence.

Those hands, got to those feet, only after practicing that move over years. Day in, day out. Month after month. Sometimes, year after year.

A very successful trader I know, says it takes 1,000 attempts to become proficient and 10,000 tries to master something.

Same when you see someone in the splits or say pressing to handstand. They would have failed those moves 999 times, before being successful only on the 1,000th attempt. Not only that.

They aren't just doing the move once every couple of weeks. They would've been practicing the move every day, over a very long period of time.

A good rule, is that you need to practice the move at least every second day. Maybe once in a while there are two days between attempts. But never three. You see.

Winning isn't about luck. It's pure persistence.

Tiger Woods wasn't born a great golfer, he became great, after a LOT of practice. He'd practice when the other golfers were practicing. And then he'd practice when they weren't. Slowly, he edged away from them.

The only difference between the winners and also-rans in yoga, is that the people with their hands on their heels in a backbend, wanted it enough to keep showing up, and practicing it, until their hands touched their heels.

The good news is that it doesn't take natural ability to do the advanced moves. They are available to everybody. But you gotta show up.

This can be hard if you say, have young children. Hard, not impossible. You plan, make concessions and negotiate to make the time and space available. Then you have to hit it.

This is long term, endurance type motivation. Most of the practice sessions you won't be seeing or feeling any type of progress. But you are progressing.

The plateaus and setbacks are all part of the process. You have to experience them on the journey to get to the destination.

Patience and discipline = winner.

CU in class, J.

A Young Yogi And An Old Yogi Were Sitting On A Hill

A young yogi and an old yogi were sitting on a hill.

Down in the valley were all the yoga poses in the whole universe.

"Quick", said the young yogi, voice full of excitement. "Let's run down there and try some of the poses".

"No", said the old yogi, voice full of wisdom. "Let's walk down there and try them all".

=====================================================

The more time you spend with this practice, the more you'll realize it's a journey.

People often say things like "I can't wait until I can handstand".

"Oh", I say. "What kind of handstand do you want to do?", I ask.

"Huh?", they say.

"Well, do  you want to handstand using a wall or away from the wall?"
"Do you want to be able to hold the handstand or just kick up and fall over correctly?"
"Do you want to press to handstand or just kick into one?"
"How do you want to come out of it? Flopasana or lower through something like Koundinyasana or Eka Pada Bakasana?"

"Huh?", they say.

Know two things about this practice:

1) At the top of every yoga hill, you'll see a heap of other hills. Even if you can't see the other hills at the moment. There's never a final yoga hill.

2) Running up the hill to get to the top, just puffs you out. Just walk. Don't worry about the other yogis running up the hill, to be first to the top. Be the tortoise, not the rabbit.

Practice with patience, J.

Hot Yoga - Where It's Going Wrong. What Can Be Done

Locust, any of the warrior poses and chaturanga. What do they all have in common?

They are all strengthening poses.

Now you get the same amount of strength in these poses, whether you do them in a heated room or not. Think about chaturanga.

You aren't supporting any more weight with your bent arms because the room is hot. Therefore, you won't be getting any stronger by doing the pose in a heated environment.

Ok, let's switch to lengthening (stretching) poses. Heated vs non-heated room. More or less lengthening?

Now, everybody who has done hot yoga is saying; more lengthening in a heated room.

To summarize the discussion so far:

There is no additional benefit in performing strengthening poses in a heated room. 

But there is additional benefit in performing lengthening poses in a heated room.

Therefore, to get the most bang for your yogic buck, given that you have a limited time in the heated room, it would be best to stack this session with lengthening poses, at the expense of strengthening poses.

So, if you are fortunate enough to attend a studio that has both hot and warm classes, the best combination is to focus on strength during the warm classes and to focus on lengthening during the hot classes.

Yet more and more, we see vinyasa being performed in highly heated rooms.

Wrong way around studios. Wrong way around.

All that juicy heat, that could be used for huge hamstring stretches like upavistha konasana (side splits) and hanumanasana (front splits), or for breathtaking back-bends like wheel (urdhva dhanurasana) ...

...ARE GOING TO WASTE.

It is so disappointing to attend a hot yoga class, get all heated, only to never be given the opportunity to use that heat to explore deep asana. This is squandering energy.

Which actually goes against the yama called brahmacharya. I know! Bad hot yoga teachers.

Brahmacharya is one of those grey areas where people get confused.

But if you think about yoga and control, you know, ahimsa is violence control, satya is lying control, asteya is stealing control. Well, brahmacharya is energy control.  

This includes misdirected energy, like doing vinyasa in a hot room, when you could be busting out a thoroughly deep back bend.  Anyway, back to hot yoga.

What is most frustrating is that with a little bit of foresight, those studios could be really benefiting their students. 

They would do this, by focussing on strength during the warm classes, and then using the heat to the max, by hitting the deep stretches during the hot classes.

Such a waste.

See you in hot yoga class, J (err....on the other hand, maybe you won't)

Yoga Myths Busted: The Expectation Of Perfect Alignment

Let's have a look at the great alignment myth. This is where, unless you are perfectly aligned in a pose, you are somehow doing the pose incorrectly.

The alignment nazis descend on you with their straighten this, tuck that mantra. The sky falls on your head, and your incorrect pose is responsible for the next world war.

The one that always gets me, is the feet facing out in wheel pose.

Now, being able to instantly hit this pose perfectly, if you are a twenty something, female, yoga instructor is no biggie.

But for us <cough, cough> year old, inflexible guys. Well, this is a near impossibility, without about 30 mins of dedicated warm up. And even then.

Our feet may face outwards slightly.

Now, some people will say, that unless you can do the pose with perfect alignment, then you have no business doing the pose.

This is absolutely incorrect. And I'll prove why...

Who, when they started yoga, could hit even a single pose with perfect alignment? A big fat nobody.

So, according to the alignment nazis, nobody should ever start yoga. Because you shouldn't be doing poses incorrectly.

Now, obviously, this isn't true.

When people start yoga, their alignment is out in every pose. Over time, the poses gain alignment.

So too with hard poses like urdhva (wheel). Guys feet face outwards slightly, and over time the feet start to straighten.

Poses are a journey from imperfection to perfection. Which means, we must practice poses imperfectly.

We only perfect asana as we practice it imperfectly, J.

Can You Be A Yogi And Still Do Other Sports?

Arrrrgh!

You know the real answer is no. But hey, it's 2016, and we are in the Western world. So.
The PC answer is <said in a serious voice> "Yes, of course, you can be a yogi and do other sports". Trouble is.

Modern western yoga is flat out being one eighth of one quarter (mathematically one thirty-secondth) of of old school yoga.

Asana is only one of 8 'limbs' of Raja yoga. Raja yoga is one quarter of all yoga. 8 x 4 = 32.

So, if you had to spend 32 more times practicing yoga, could you do it?

Say you do 2 hours per week, of modern class yoga.

If you had to spend 64 hours per week doing yoga (2 classes per week multiplied by 32), would you have time for other sports?

This is like, six 10 hour days and one four hour day. When on earth would you get time for other sports and to sleep?

So, old school yogis did it full time. They didn't do anything else.

So the answer to the question is:

Sure, you can be a (modern) yogi and do other sports. However.

You can't be an old school yogi and do other things in life, because yoga was your life.

Peace out, J.

P.S. I know the math in this is dodgy. Point is that it was a way of life back in the day.

Look modern yoga can - and should be - practiced all the time. So the question in the heading is wrong. It should be "Are You Still Practicing Your Yoga When You Do Other Sports?"

Now we've got a topic.

Should Yoga Be A Workout?

Have you ever seen Dharma Mittra's 908 yoga poses poster? If you haven't...what am I doing? This is the internet...hang on, I'll get one...



So, there's Dharma Mittra doing a LOT of yoga.

Now if you started to categorize the poses in the poster, into easy effort to maintain, and hard effort to maintain, you'll get a lot more hards than easys.

What's this mean? Just that on the whole, yoga is physically hard.

So, the whole of yoga is best described as physically hard, because there are far more hard poses, than easy ones.

Now there are subsets, that have easy poses in them, like Restorative, Bikram, Vinyasa (when was the last time you did a Kapinjalasana in a viny class? Freakin' never! So, yeah, vinyasa is only a subset of yoga).

So, YES, on the whole, yoga is physically demanding.

Now, a workout is hard, and yoga is hard. Therefore, yoga IS a workout.

Whether, yoga is anything more than a workout is beyond the scope of this post. Why...because the whole point of the post, is to argue that yoga is a workout.

Job done, J.