Yoga Inversions: Why I Don’t Fucking Teach Them
Something came up in class this week, no pun intended. Yoga inversions. I don’t teach full inversions, sarvangasana, shoulder stand, sirsanasa, headstand, or sandasana, wheel pose. Go ahead, Yoga nazis, fire up your torches and sharpen your pitchforks. I’ll wait. I’m even going against my Viniyoga background on this one. Inversions belong to a set of yoga poses I consider Ego Poses. There is ZERO scientific evidence proving any physical benefit to practicing these poses. There are plenty of scientific studies supporting the many benefits of practicing yoga without propagating the bullshit. Aren’t inversions good for you?
Pain in The Ass Is A Killer: Hamstrings and Yoga Butt
Pins and needles. Dull pain running the length of your hamstring. A sharp ache in your ass when you sit down. Clients come to me on the reg with complaints about pain in the ass. No, they’re not referring to me. While it’s common to think it’s Sciatica, which is no fucking joke, I’ve found it’s more often a case of yoga butt. Hamstring pain is a killer. Yoga Schmoga. I haven’t been doing yoga. But Julia, I don’t even DO yoga. Even if you don’t do yoga, you can overuse or strain the fascia and upper tissue of the hamstrings. The number one thing people do when…
Yoga People Can Be The Worst
Hippy-dippy yoga people are supposed to be zen, accepting, and full of OM. Yeah right, whenever I start talking F*cking Yoga, you can see the zen just melt right out of them. Yoga people can ruin it for everyone. You would think a brand of yoga designed to draw more people into the yoga studio would be a good thing. Man, yoga people can be such a buzz kill. One of the offspring had his friends overnight and the breakfast table was full. Turns out, one of his gal pals is taking her yoga certification at the local community college. She recognized me from one of my yoga classes…
Yoga for Everybody Is Bullshit.
You know it. Someone has told you, “You HAVE to try yoga! It’s GOOD for you!” Fuck that noise. Yoga for everybody is bullshit. Don’t get me wrong. I love yoga. I hope so; I’ve been practicing it for over 30 years. I don’t love this sing-songy, oozing bullshit I hear when someone is talking about yoga. Yes, I eavesdrop. I’m a writer, of course, I am. This crap is everywhere. The top ten reasons you should try yoga. Yoga will change your life. Seven reasons you shouldn’t try yoga. Snort, like that, isn’t a shady bullshit move. Every single one of these articles tout the same malarkey if not…
My Personal Space Bubble. Your Personal Space Bubble.
I had a great bunch of new faces in my Beginning class on Saturday. Regular clients giving the weekend a shot. New people stepping out for spring to try something different. It’s great. Good mat etiquette is something you can find oodles of posts about. One yoga gaff I hadn’t counted on, in fact, it never even crossed the darkest recesses of my mind (and they get pretty dark) happened to a couple of my regular clients. A newbie walked across their yoga mat! Twice! No Touchy The Mat! Stunned, she couldn’t even respond, especially when the newbie returned the same way. She pulled me aside this morning to tell me about…