Are You Making Things Worse?

By Gary Giamboi

Many people have made the commendable decision to improve their physical, mental and maybe even spiritual wellbeing by beginning or improving their Yoga and/or other types of physical disciplines.

While the intention is great, sometimes too much enthusiasm and too little knowledge will actually move you further away from your goal(s). Of course, we all know the person who started out just like the rabbit did and ended up just like the rabbit did...on the side of the road watching the tortoise cross the finish line.

However, in this article I won't be referring to such obvious mistakes. Instead, I want to share with you some of the subtle, yet very significant traps it can be all too easy for us to fall into.

Let's start by taking a look at a group class. Group classes are a very convenient and affordable way to improve your practice. However, how can you be sure that what you are improving is what really needs improving?

For example, let's assume that someone has a hip or knee that is already too unstable. Let's also assume that this person is attending classes where they do a lot of seated hip opening asanas/poses. It can not be good for the integrity of those joints to add more flexibility and range of motion when they can not stabilize themselves now.

Now why did I specify seated poses? Because certain standing poses, when done correctly, may provide for some strengthening of those unstable joints. Thus these can be beneficial to some extent. But, seated poses will take the stress off of those joints and for all practical purposes, offer only more flexibility.

Now, let's take a look at why people may chose to attend the classes they do. Of course it may be simply various financial and/or logistical factors which lead to their choices. Or it may simply be that they like those classes more than others. However, herein lies the pitfall:

People tend to like what they are good at and avoid things they are not so good at.

So let's take a look at that person with unstable joints again. Their very instability may be making them more flexible and giving them more range of motion in the poses which stretch those areas. Although they may be "better" at doing those poses than at doing poses which stretch stronger, more stable areas, they are making the wrong choice here.

They are actually making their imbalances worse by making their unstable areas more unstable and not increasing the flexibility of their stronger areas and strengthening their weak ones.

So what is a person suppose to do? I'm glad you asked!

First, we must take a good look at ourselves and decide where are strengths and weakness lie. Then we must try to look at the underlying reasons for these strengths and weakness.

Secondly, we must determine our likes and dislikes and tie them into out strengths and weakness. Are they related? And if so, why and how?

If we can do these things, we can make more intelligent choices in our practice. We may find that we end up changing what we do, how much we do of it and/or how intensely we do it. We can tailor our practice to OUR needs and not the needs of someone else or a group of other people. Indeed, keeping OUR need foremost in our minds may result in our ignoring our likes and dislikes when choosing what, when, where and how we do our practice.

Our practice must always be our practice. A generic routine can not be specific to everyone unless everyone doing it had the same imbalances.

Therefore, when attending a group class, even with the best instructors, sometimes it maybe better not to do those poses which contribute to your imbalances or you can chose to modify certain poses or not hold them for as long.

Of course, the best thing would be to do something to correct your imbalances. That is better than just not making those imbalances worse.

Some kind of resistance training maybe in order. Whether you choose different asanas/poses, body weight exercises or assisted resistance training (read weight training), what matters is that you will be doing something to help correct your problem areas.

Of course the same holds true for just about anything. If an aspiring pianist was very good at reading and playing music and not very good at improvising, what are the odds he/she would be spending a lot of time playing jazz instead of classical music?

The same goes for weight training. If a person has a strong back and not much flexibility, he/she would probably hate doing squats and/or dead lifts. Instead, they would probably do lots of rows or pull downs.

However, this is exactly what they should not be doing because it doesn't address their lack of flexibility in their lumbar-pelvic region. They are strengthening their strong area and ignoring their weak/tight one(s). Instead, they should be doing some other type(s) of weight bearing exercises that will help correct their structural imbalances. They should seriously consider Yoga or Pilates to help remedy their particular situation.

Strength without Flexibility is as useless as Flexibility without Strength! (Remember, you heard that here!)

Working Smart is almost always better than just working hard. Of course, Working Smart and Hard is Best.

If you need help in determining what your imbalances are and what you should do to help correct them, kindly contact me. Together, we will find, address and solve the problem within your physical limits.

Gary Giamboi is a NASM certified Personal Trainer, an E-500RYT Yoga Alliance Instructor, a Level 4 Qigong Instructor from the National Qigong Association, holds the rank of Kyoshi (Teaching Master) in several Japanese Martial Arts from the Genbukan World Ninpo Federation and the Kokusai Jujutsu Renmei and a Master's License in Taijiquan (Tai Chi) and Qigong.

He is available for Private Training and Consultations, as well as, public seminars.

He can be reached via his website, http://www.TheInstituteofAsianArts.com

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The Westernization of Yoga or Why Stretching & Flexibility is Not Yoga

Yoga has become extremely popular over the last decade. Today, almost everyone knows someone who says they are practicing Yoga. Many of these new yogis/yoginis are quite dedicated and go to class several times each week.

Let’s take a look at what they are practicing:

Most classes are 60-90 minutes of doing various Yoga poses/stretches/asanas, which can vary from gentle to intense. The intensity will vary from class to class, style to style and teacher to teacher.

And so, the student will say they are practicing Yoga regularly every week.

I do not wish to belittle anyone’s practice or imply that anyone is claiming to be or do something they are not. Yet, the fact remains that this is not Yoga.

To claim that this type of activity represents learning Yoga is similar to someone learning the hand and finger exercises practiced by great pianists and thinking that they are learning to play and indeed, even are playing the piano.

This is not the fault of the student. Imagine if most of the piano teachers only taught these exercises and called the practice “Piano Class.” Why wouldn’t the student feel he/she was learning to play the piano?

Perhaps you are saying that this is silly. After all, great pianists make beautiful music when they are playing. That’s true. However, it is my contention that most people are only aware of the exercises and not what the exercises are meant to prepare them for. It’s as if somehow they never get to hear the music. They only see and hear the exercises. Usually, there is no time and sometimes no desire to learn more in class. Sometimes, the instructors themselves have not been taught more than these exercises, sometimes they do not practice them and sometimes they do not want to lose students who are not ready to transform themselves.

In Reality, classical pianists study the already written works of great composers and try to play them as the composer intended them to sound. Modern jazz pianists try to understand what their fellow musicians are playing and try to make up new, never played before music that fits in perfectly with what is going on around them.

You can play for yourself or you can go play for the enjoyment of others. This is similar to what true Yoga is like. You can study the ancient scriptures or you can go out into the World and practice Yoga in everyday life. You can practice Yoga for your benefit, or for the benefit of others.

I am not saying that going to a Yoga class and stretching for an hour is of no benefit. Not at all. There are plenty of benefits which anyone can and will get from even this limited practice. However, since their practice is on the gross or physical plane, most of the benefits will be limited to this physical plane: Better Health.
And so the most Yoga, or Union, they can hope to achieve is that of uniting one part of their body with another, via the flow of their Pranas. I use the plural for Prana because by definition, you cannot unite just one flow. You can only unite separate and different flows.

This is another area where most Western Yoga Instruction falls short. Most instruction is only in the placement of the various body parts. And while it is true, that the flow of one’s Prana will be influenced by where one’s body parts are in relation to each other; this is also low level Yoga. The flow of one’s Prana should be directly regulated and controlled by one’s mind. Of the Yoga classes that do talk about the flow of Prana, they usually talk about the main flow of Prana in the Asana and not the counter flow.

Since Hatha Yoga is the Union of the Ha or the Sun Flows of Energy and the Tha or the Moon Flows of Energy, talking about only one flow means they are practicing either Ha Yoga or Tha Yoga. They cannot be practicing Hatha Yoga.

Most people are not aware that the practice of the Asanas or stretches is actually the third step in the classical school of Raja Yoga. The first step is the practice of 5 Restraints: Non-Harming, Truthfulness, Non-Stealing, Self-Restraint and Non-Possessiveness. The second is the practice of the 5 Observances: Purity, Contentment, Austerity, Self- Study and Surrender to God. (Notice there are 10, as in the 10 Commandments).

The concept behind this is that since the practice of the Yoga Asanas does make you Healthier and does give you more energy regardless of your State of Being, if you have not become a better person first, all the Yoga Asanas will have accomplished is making you better able to carry out your gross impulses. This is what happened to Darth Vader. He practiced the exercises of a Jedi Knight and they only fed the Flaws in his character.

My Yoga Teacher, Yogiraj Swami Bua, Maharaja of Hatha Yoga, sums this up when he says; “The Lotus Pose will not take you to Heaven.”

Another way of looking at this is: Yoga is Union. How can one claim to practice Union only a few hours a week? Do we get married for a few hours a week? (OK. I can hear all the humorous comments about marriage this will generate.) I think we can legitimately question the validity of using the term Union to refer to a fleeting or very temporary State of Being.

By this, I do not mean we are not practicing Yoga unless we are in the State of Union. I mean we must be trying to be in the State of Union. Whether we succeed or not, is another question.

My purpose in writing this article is to try and stop Yoga from following in the foot steps of the many Ancient Traditions which have been reduced by the market place to nothing but a hollow shell of their true selves.

There is no money to be made in not giving people what they want. Therefore, I hope this article will inspire some to examine what they want and lead them to true Yoga.

For more information about Gary Giamboi's or Swami Bua's views on Yoga, please go to
http://www.genbukan.biz/disciplines_yoga.html

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