How to relax about being tight
“I can’t do yoga – I’m not flexible!”
I hear this complaint a lot from would-be hot yoga students. I try to explain that hot yoga is the antidote to inflexibiity. In fact, the tighter you are the more quickly you may notice the before-and-after of your hot yoga body.
But hot yoga is more than skin deep.
While you're busy twisting and turning and stretching, yoga is expanding you on many other levels, loosening your mind, for example
Is there such a thing as too tight to do hot yoga?
If you believe you’re inflexible, you are likely to think so. Becuase a tight mind is even more painful. So loosen up your old ideas about yourself and come in closer...
In the West when we say yoga, we mostly mean asana: the poses in hot yoga class.
The story of yoga itself is way more complex, rich and vast.
Asana is a technique of yoga but not the whole story. Compassion, mindfulness, respect for the teacher, using the body, withdrawing the senses, developing meditative focus - these are all yoga.
Hot yoga is asana.
In hot yoga, the words you hear from your teacher are philosophical; they are specific and nuanced instructions for moving your body into alignment before, during and after each asana. There are also instructions for proper breathing to support safe movement and deliver maximum benefits.
Asana leads to balance on all levels. Ask a longtime (even a relatively new) hot yoga practitioner. They may tell you about healings to lower backs, tight shoulders, damaged knees, even ailments like thyroid conditions, digestive issues, and more – but listen more closely and you may also hear about more patience with their children, being more productive at work, feeling more satisfied with life outside the studio.
Can yoga hurt?
Can you get hurt walking across the street?
The “injuries in yoga” conversation was set off a few years ago with the article by William Broad in The NY Times. While his article discussed injury in yoga, it did so by focusing on a few random examples, not the vast experience of yoga asana.
And there is a vast body of experience out there. Not only is yoga 5000 years old, today there are actually more yoga studios than Starbucks in the US. More people practice yoga now than ever before.
Injury itself is a complex topic. Where does an injury originate? How long has it been building? Is it due to a momentary anatomical misalignment or a reinforcing bad habits over time? Sometimes an injury results from awakening an unknown weakness. Injury can be the result of from constant, repetitive movements. Just yesterday I had to remind a longtime student not to throw her neck back and look to the ceiling during a sit up that I know she has done many times already.
How much physical injury stems from your thoughts about your body, and opinions about yourself?
Injury in yoga can result from not following instructions and/or simply pushing too hard. Hot yoga is both a focused following of specific cues and a letting go into the ability of your own body: this is what we mean when we say "follow the instructions to the best of your ability today." You need to check in constantly by going as far as you can in the pose each class.
One problem I have seen over the years is students moving too zealously through hot yoga; I call this pushing without patience.
Patience is not about accepting your limitations – in fact, just the opposite: be patient enough to experience each pose. Follow the instructions without fear. Relax and ease into the best of your ability.
Too much, too fast? Too bad. You’re missing the point of hot yoga which is beautiful, gradual unfolding of all that you can be body, mind, and more.
Stop trying to “achieve” yoga. Make it simple, make it fun
Many people advise you to practice yoga mindfully - that is, know your limitations. In hot yoga we also say, mind your teacher. Follow the instructions and give each asana a correct try. Take pain as a signal to back up a bit. This is mindfulness.
But how much can you trust a mind filled with fear, anxiety, past history and false perceptions? That's the conundrum. Fortunately, you have a teacher to guide you through this maze of the mind and into the experience of right here, right now.
Yoga is 5000 years old and yet, today yoga is a new proliferation of methods, thanks to American inqenuity and a desire to invent, interpret, and reinvent yoga again and again. These days you can find everything from Yoga for Elephants to Chair Yoga for Seniors, to Yoga For Nursery School Kids Who Do Too Much.
Choices are good news.
Yoga is a tool of personal development. Asana is one entryway to the best of who you always knew you could be.
Can personal development be painful? Let's just say that sometimes, it can take you out of your comfort zone. How far is far enough for you today? That's your choice and your journey
Yoga, like anything in life, can be made way more valuable way sooner if you find a coach, a mentor, a guide
Fortunately in hot yoga you don’t have to look far: there’s your teacher, right there in the room beside you. behind you, in front of you. Just listen and learn to be right where you are. Follow the instructions to the best of your ability. Back away from pain and look forward to getting the most from your hot yoga experience which grow you, support your willingness to stretch into new places of body, mind and spirit. Just let go and go to hot yoga today.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (6)
I like the encouragement "Stop trying to achieve yoga. Make it simple, make it fun." When I decided to adopt that mindset, everything changed. I do what I can, the best I can, on any given day and I feel like I am now getting the most from my hot yoga experience, rather than pushing myself too far and ending up with pain.
Its really interesting Kim - the more you struggle or push, the more you contract even physically - and that just aint good for the yoga. In so many ways, hot yoga is training for life and a great example of "how you do anything is how you do everything." Want to do hot yoga better? Follow the Guru and relax into the pose. Want to do life better? Follow your best Guru - your heart - and relax/feel good before you take action.
This is a great post for people that are starting out or want to start doing Yoga. Yoga can be bit intimidating but reading this post puts me at ease knowing that if you think of it as fun that would remove some of the intimidation feeling.
Glad to hear that you feel less intimdated at the idea that yoga should be fun - you have the right idea. It seems odd that people would be stressed about doing yoga but it happens all the time.
I think you just have to laugh about this and come to yoga anyway!
I remember my first hot yoga class thinking before I walked in that it was going to be my last. It turned on something inside me, more than just asanas that I couldn't put my finger on. I think the part of it taking me out of my comfort zone, you know, my type A comfort zone (!), was exactly what I was looking for.
Haha - a lot of people think this, Heather, especially AFTER their first hot yoga class. But when you wake up the next day feeling that indescribable something, and, Type As especially have to go back and check it out again...and again....and again. It does wake up something essential in you: and sometimes its exactly that part of you that's been hoping for this opportunity to come back home.