There are yoga phonies and there are knowledgeable, genuine yoga teachers. Crank up your common sense and switch on your bullshit detector when choosing.
By Dona Suri
Maybe you haven’t yet tried yoga yourself but you know somebody who has been practicing it. If they have been at it for a year or more, then they must be deriving something from it.
When people talk about what they get out of yoga, you hear many different things – some reasonable, some kind of strange.
They may mention relief from a physical symptom. “After doing the something-or-other pose for a month, my spondylitis disappeared. Now I do it every morning so I don’t get it again.”
A person ought to know whether they are getting dizzy spells or not. But was it just the yoga that set the problem right? Or were they also taking medication? Would another form of exercise have been just as beneficial?
Then there’s somebody else who declares “Thanks to yoga, my chakras are now totally unblocked and balanced.”
Hmmm… That puts yoga in the same basket with aura cleansing and crystal healing. The person who says it, obviously believes it, and it is entirely possible for people to psyche themselves into feeling better… especially if there was nothing very wrong with them in the first place.
Just say the word “yoga” and you get mixed reactions.
One major reason many people are skeptical of yoga Is that they have heard about fraudster yoga teachers, who made big bucks conning gullible people. And the exploitation wasn’t always just financial either.
When you go to a doctor or a physio-therapist, they’ve got their degree framed and hung up on the wall. There are associations who keep medical professionals honest. The guy who hangs up a fake certificate will be caught and punished – severely — sooner rather than later.
What are the essential qualifications of a yoga teacher? Not specified.
Must you have a certificate to teach yoga? No.
Is there any nationally recognized body that certifies yoga instructors?
There are several organizations. The largest in the USA is Yoga Alliance, which (on payment, and after verifying that the person has completed a minimum number of yoga class hours) allows a person to add RYT after their name. That stands for Registered Yoga Teacher. The RYT does not ensure that the person actually practices yoga, has any teaching skills, or that his/her training program was of high quality. The RYT label is helpful when applying for a teaching job at a yoga studio, but it doesn’t actually mean anything at the government, state, or national level. Yoga Alliance certifications don’t expire, but they do lapse. RYTs pay annual dues and do a few things every year or two to maintain certification.
Is there any recognized body that can prevent a person from claiming to be a yoga teacher and offering classes? No.
Of course, there are yoga phonies. But there are knowledgeable, genuine yoga teachers too. When choosing a yoga teacher, crank up your common sense and switch on your bullshit detector.
Attend a class or two, talk to other students, check out the Yelp reviews – best yoga teachers near me. Beware of teachers who
- make extreme promises,
- are pretentious or theatrical,
- appear to be probing or testing you out,
- don’t walk the talk,
- discourage questions
- pressurize you to attempt poses that hurt or for which you are not ready.
Bear in mind that there are many types of yoga.
Ashtanga, hatha and kundalini are the main yoga systems that originated in India many centuries ago.
See Ashtanga: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indian-philosophy/The-Yoga-sutras#ref314651
See Hatha: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hatha-Yoga
See Kundalini: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indian-philosophy/The-Yoga-sutras#ref314651
Kriya yoga also originated in India but it is modern: first taught in 1861.
See Kriya: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriya_Yoga_school#:~:text=The%20origins%20of%20the%20present,in%20the%2 0second%20century%20CE]
India’s original yoga systems are whole-life philosophies. All have the same aim, namely to still the mind as a first step toward achieving supramental perception and profound self-realisation. They all speak of purifying the body and channelizing energy — for which physical exercises are useful but only as a means to achieve the consciousness objective.
The word yoga, as it is used in America today, bears no relation to what ancient Indians were trying to do. And this is quite alright: flexible joints, sculpted abs, firm, perky glutes and thighs free of cellulite are certainly more desirable today than transcendental consciousness. The old yoga was for trimming psychological fat off the mind, the new yoga is for trimming physical fat off the torso.
Yoga teachers have proliferated and new routines have been invented, but in general, yoga poses are all about stretching and strengthening the muscles and holding poses. For people whose joints simply can’t take a high impact exercise, yoga is perfect.
Quite a lot of credible scientific study has been conducted to assess the effect of yoga on measurable physical parameters such as blood pressure, blood sugar, blood oxygenation, neural function and so on. Doctors agree that yoga practitioners benefit from their routines.
Health Beat, an online publication of the Harvard Medical School, gives yoga the thumbs up for
- treatment of eating disorders
- maintaining stable, healthy weight
- maintaining exercise capacity
- improving muscle strength and endurance.
In a post published online by Johns Hopkins Medicine, doctors say yoga is useful for …
- improving flexibility
- improving cardio-respiratory fitness.
- improving lipid profiles
- lowering excessive blood sugar levels in people with non-insulin dependent diabetes
- reducing symptoms of depression
- reducing biochemical markers of inflammation
- improving balance
- improving ability to fall asleep and stay asleep
- improving posture and body awareness
So far, all medical research has looked at people following a generalized yoga routine for varying lengths of time. The focus is not on whether or not such-and-such pose has an effect on some specific health condition. Such claims are so far unproven.
Also, the research is not focused on yoga vis a vis some other form of exercise. If we say that yoga is better than aerobics, cardio, cross-fit, pilates, tai chi, zumba or a pleasant walk in the park, then in what way is it better and how can we prove it?
Some yoga exercises may be substantially the same as exercises a physio-therapist would use – in which case, improvement in the functioning of a particular muscle or muscle group can be expected. To go beyond and claim that yoga cures, or relieves, specific ailments puts yoga on very shaky ground. Along with the scams, it is the exaggerated, pseudoscientific claims that give yoga a bad name.
Finally, there is the question: What should yoga be?
One answer is that yoga should be just another form of exercise … a collection of poses of varying levels of difficulty. If this is the definition, then there is no reason why yoga should not become an Olympic sport with gold medals for the super elite yogi who out-performs an international yogic best of best.
Competitive yoga ? Perhaps the idea is no stranger than a whole-life philosophy transformed to 60 minute sessions.
As a form of exercise, yoga’s benefits are not in doubt.
- Choose your teacher carefully.
- Don’t expect miracles.
- If your yoga class improves your health and your figure, then it is definitely worth the time and money.
- If it gives you a perspective on what’s important in life, then you have gained an ancient treasure that money can’t buy.
