Bad Karma?

One of my favourite yoga images is this photograph from Alan Little. The yoga mats seem like they're floating in space but they're actually laid out on the floor of a shala in Munich, Germany.

I was puzzled that yogini friend Sasheen always comes late for class. She would stride into the shala, unfurl her mat and start her suryas as the rest of us would begin clasping our toes for padangusthasana. After an hour and a half of Led Ashtanga, she looked spent but always rejuvenated. Whereas I would crawl out of my mat, drenched in sweat, gulp down my water without caring if I was spilling half of it on my front and barely able to keep my hands steady while I write my name down on the sign up sheet. I am younger than Sash and longed to know her secret. So says Sash, the trick is simply to warm up before yoga.

That got me thinking. In ballet I used to do plies, backbends and leg extensions at the barre before going to centre for the floor exercises. For tennis, I’d limber up by moving my arms and joints in circles as well as doing some light lunges. But in yoga, we greet the sun right after the opening mantra in two fast-paced sequences that leave you gasping for breath. For many Ashtangis, the Sun Salutation is warm up in itself, especially Surya Namaskar B, which has a little of all the asanas in Ashtanga Yoga says Yoga Manila instructor Peachie Kilayko.

Working daily sometimes up to 12 hours straight in front of a computer always leaves me stiff as a board and unable to practice regularly, so if you’re like me, you may benefit from some other form of loosening up. For Sasheen, jogging around her La Vista neighbourhood complements yoga (and also explains why she's been late for class).

This now brings me to an article from the internet arm of my former employer, CNBC. Jennifer Wolf Perrine writes in “Bad Karma: When Yoga Harms instead of Heals”, that yoga became her salvation and then her damnation after she injured her arm in class. She reports that in 2006, nearly 4,500 people in the US ended up in the emergency room for treatment of yoga-related injuries, most commonly these include strained muscles, rotator cuff tears in the shoulders, exacerbated carpal tunnel syndrome in the wrists, torn cartilage in the knees, and lower-back and neck injuries such as herniated disks.

Being a “yoga butterfly”, a few months ago I encountered an overzealous instructor who was a lethal match for my over enthusiasm to learn. The result: a knee injury which has been compromising my right leg in ardha baddha padmottanasana, maricyasanas C and D, kukkutasana, padmasana, urdhva padmasana, baddha padmasana, yoga mudrasana, utplutih and leaves me sore and feeling extremely short-changed while lying in shavasana. I have been numbing the pain with 120 mg of Etoricoxib and by rubbing on the affected area a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory ointment twice daily, both doctor-prescribed.

But unlike Jennifer Wolf Perrine, I love yoga too much to feel betrayed by it. I still do Led Ashtanga but now I am more mindful of my limitations, heed my body’s signals, pace myself, modify the poses even stopping if I have to, and sometimes warm up to prevent injuries. I believe that yoga has more potential to heal than to hurt if done properly and when learned under the guidance of a qualified instructor. Studies reveal that yoga helps relieve chronic lower-back pain, depression and anxiety.

Ashtanga Yoga calls for strength, flexibility, proper alignment. Terri Kennedy, founder of Ta Yoga House in New York City adds that, “Yoga is about intention, attention and breath. If you keep the breath steady, then you can begin to steady the mind.” Kennedy who is also chairwoman of the board of Yoga Alliance, an American organization that sets standards for yoga teaching emphasises “That's the essence of the practice. It's not just about a perfect-looking posture.”