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Yoga?

princesspoppy

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princesspoppy
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
Messages
58
Hi everyone,

I was just wondering what peoples views were on the wooness of yoga?
I havent been going to classes recently because I have been bogged down with revision.
I know that essentially it is based on new age twaddle but physically I think I felt the benefits, increased flexibility and muscle strength etc...
I was just wondering though, am I really benefitting from it or are my perceived physical improvements and bendiness(:p ) a kind of placebo effect if you like?
So after much waffling, my question is, would I be wasting my money on yoga, another new age fad, or are there proven health benefits?

Ta!
 
Stretching is good. The rest is BS. (Paraphrasing the Penn&Teller show on the topic.) :)
 
Yoga does give you some extra strength, especially "core strength"- a harder tummy too. Bending over backwards really does work in strengthening your abs. You could test it by trying to do regular situps after some months. You should be able to do more- and easier. It's good for ballance, too, although other sports achieve this as well.

Never did the breathing stuff, got too bored. Yoga positions, however, seem to induce a state of relaxation and a sort of mild trance. Nothing supernatural and if you find those relaxing, yoga is good for you. It's possible to feel a bit wooly-headed after trying to meditate. Personally, solving sudoku has been more useful in decreasing mental stress than deliberately spacing out.

As to safety- a fit person should not have trouble doing yoga, although some positions may be demanding on your back. See doc for advice. If unsure, do join a group so you can get more advice than from a book. Good thing is no special equipment is required.

Another good thing is that once you learn a certain number of positions (20-30 for a non-pro, I read somewhere), you can just perform them anywhere, so no need to pay for a club.

It's now all woo, but someone said it may be a gateway drug to woo.
 
princesspoppy said:
By the rest, do you mean the spiritual side of yoga, meditation etc?
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I have not tried it myself, but their point was that it was all unscientific and thus inefficient. Apparently, science says that holding a stretch for over 30 seconds is a waste of time. In yoga, 30 seconds is nothing.

So if you want to become as strong and flexible as possible with a minimum time investment, you should probably lift some weights and do some serious stretching. BUT, let's face it: That sucks. If you like yoga, do yoga. It sure beats watching TV.
 
Ririon said:
In yoga, 30 seconds is nothing.
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I happen to own one pretty cool "secular" book on yoga (maybe because woo was edited out of yoga books behind the Iron Curtain). In that book the general rule was for a one-breath stretch for most of the exercises. While that breath may be quite long (about a minute for advanced practitioners), it seems the more aggressive stretching positions are only held briefly. Relaxing positions are held longer, sez my communist yoga book:)- Eva Ryushpol is the author.
 
hipparchia said:
I happen to own one pretty cool "secular" book on yoga (maybe because woo was edited out of yoga books behind the Iron Curtain). In that book the general rule was for a one-breath stretch for most of the exercises. While that breath may be quite long (about a minute for advanced practitioners), it seems the more aggressive stretching positions are only held briefly. Relaxing positions are held longer, sez my communist yoga book:)- Eva Ryushpol is the author.
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I suspect yoga in India, California and Bulgaria are three very different things. :)
 
hipparchia said:
Sure...it depends on the brand. Can you go with 30-second stretches if that's what science tells you?
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"No-nonsense bulgarian scientific yoga"? It could work. Just come up with a more catchy name for it, get a beautiful ex-gymnast or ex-balletdancer to do an instruction video and watch the cash roll in! :D
 
As long as you consider the woo bits as, at best, useful visualization exercises and don't expect them to be a representation of reality, you're probably fine. Anything where you're stretching and getting your heart rate up is gonna have some health benefits, and some people find yoga in particular very relaxing. Just avoid the head stands if your back isn't in tip-top shape.

I liked yoga back in the day because it was low on uncomfortable torso jiggling and didn't require heavy equipment filling the living room.
 
I do about a fifteen minute stretching routine a couple times a week, which really helps my back and overall flexibility. I have a dvd that helps with strength training, which I used to do.

I find it beneficial. I usually have other music on while following the video. That way I bypass the woo.
 
Is yoga full of woo? Sure. I could relate a lot of stories of stupid things people say about yoga. The abuses the word "energy" is put to in the hands of yogis is horrific. And in a sub-culture in which one woo is embraced, all others seem to be given an easy ride as well. So chi is mixed with chakras, a dash of homeopathy to salt your kriyas.

On the other hand, yoga can have plenty of benefits. We just have to realise what they are. I've met so many yogis who talk about how good they feel after practice as though it were some amazing spiritual experience - what they don't realise is that it's just the endorphin rush you get after any exercise and maybe a little relaxation to boot.

So why practice yoga, then?

Well, its a fun way to stretch and improve flexibility. The form that I do - Astanga - is a very physically challenging practice. We work a lot of different muscles, and I've developed a lot of strength from it as well as flexibility. Fifteen minutes in and I'm already coated in sweat (and no this isn't "hot yoga"). There are also a number of poses that work on balance as well.

The deep breathing exercises are nice too - they may not be as useful as the woos suggest, but it feels good to sit and breathe deeply for a while, and I've noticed for myself a certain increase in clarity and focus since I started doing it.

I'm one of those evil atheists, but even I like the chanting. Not for any "spiritual" reasons, but some of them have nice sentiments, and more than that, it feels good to sing (badly) a little. Wakes me up and helps me focus some before the practice, and that's good enough for me.

One of my students asked me about something she'd read in a yoga book recently. I don't remember what it was exactly, but I told her something that i think is relevant here. Many of the things we do are beneficial, but the theories about why they're beneficial aren't correct. They're old and they were made by people whose understanding of the world was not what ours is now. Meditation won't give you super powers. But it does feel nice, and it certainly helps me get to sleep at night.

One doesn't have to buy into all of the woo to get the benefits from yoga.

edit: spelling
 
hipparchia said:
It's now all woo, but someone said it may be a gateway drug to woo.
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This can be very true.

About four years ago, I had a new friend who by all measures seemed thoroughly secular: studied medicine (although for reasons of her own went into the IT game instead), very methodical, non-religious, et cetera. Her regular exercise was badminton and tennis, both of which were killing her knees. I had been doing yoga for about a year then and thought the almost-no-impact stretching would do her knees good, so I invited her along to a class -- although I did that with some small hesitation as I thought it might be too freaky for her. The classes I was doing then (as the ones I do now) involved some chanting and breathing exercises before and/or after the physical exercise.

I needen't have feared though -- she loved it and within a few months had bought a long-term membership at one of the many, many yoga gyms that had started popping up in Hong Kong around that time.

Today, she is into colour therapy, reiki, everything organic and vegetarian, and actually, seriously, thinks she's a "touch healer". She went to a workshop that promised to "develop" people's "natural psychic abilities" (the things people will shell money out for, I swear!) and at that workshop was told that she had a talent for identifying people's emotional hurt and easing it away with her touch ... or something like that. She said that she's been "practising" with her other friends -- presumably friends who don't think she's gone off the deep end when she talks about this -- and that her success rate is high. And before you ask, yes, I told her about the Million Dollar Prize. Well, actually I emailed her a link to the details because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep a sincere face on if I told her in person to apply for it.

I don't think she was this nuts before I took her to the yoga class, although I admit that we had only known each other for a few months then.

Having said that, though, I have been doing yoga for five years now and appreciate the mental and physical benefits it gives me. I like the chanting because I like to sing and that's close enough to singing for me to enjoy it. Recently I've even learned to like the pranayama; for the first four years I would get deathly bored and start looking around the room, but now especially after a particularly strong session, it feels good to sit very still and think of nothing but your breathing.

Just like any exercise, yoga can bring on a rush of feel-good endorphins ... so if you enjoy it, Poppy, keep doing it. Take what's good about it and leave out the rest that's questionable. Sure, a lot of yoga teachers out there have their heads stuck in their mula bandhas, but there are a few who are sensible about it. You just need to seek them out.

Good luck! :)
 
Great article, hipparchia!

One of this woman's books, pictured on the page, called "Becoming an Empath" ... I think that's what my super-woo friend thinks she is: an empath. Kind of like Jean Grey. Only not. :D
 
I used to do Yoga when I was young and believed in woo. Yoga can really help your flexibility and add some strength training. The breathing and medition was relaxing. I found the same effects when doing rythmic breathing when I used to lift weights. The woo-spiritual stuff aside, I think Yoga is an effective, no-impact way to improve flexibility and limited strength. I don't think you should practice Yoga unless you're physically able to. Right now I've got a ruptured disc in my spine and I wouldn't dare submit myself to all the bending and twisting that Yoga entails. Basically, it's a nice way to limber you up. I used to find doing the "salute to the sun" in the morning a good way to start the day.
 
I had a girlfriend who was a yoga instructor. I can attest that watching a beautiful woman do yoga did wonders for my health, confidence, and vitality. :blush:

How about this: yoga vs. Pilates. Two very different disciplines that have some similar goals. Anyone done both?
 
Gravy said:
How about this: yoga vs. Pilates. Two very different disciplines that have some similar goals. Anyone done both?
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Well I tried a Mat Pilates class at the gym of a hotel I was staying at once, does that count?

The instructor led us through some of what she said were the basic movements. There seemed to be a lot of similarities to yoga, the main difference being the breathing method. She instructed us to inhale through our noses and exhale forcefully through our mouths, whereas yogic breathing is mainly inhale/exhale through the nose.

Some of the Pilates moves we were taught made my lower back hurt, but it may be that perhaps I wasn't doing them correctly. ((shrug)) Personally, I prefer yoga; it's less expensive and doesn't require as much equipment.
 
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