How to Choose a Yoga Studio

While it is easy to be dazzled by a fancy and aesthetically pleasing space, there are other elements that you should consider when choosing a yoga studio.

One of the best ways to be introduced to a yoga studio is by a friend or coworker who can make a recommendation. Keep in mind that we all have different tastes, preferences, and standards. Ultimately, it has to be the right vibe for you.

You want your needs to be addressed with the types of yoga classes offered and their scheduling. You also want to receive quality instruction from qualified teachers. There’s no real way to assess this without actually attending a class at the prospective studio.

Practice in Action

If you call to make an inquiry, notice how the person on the phone communicates with you. Does she answer your questions directly, or does she seem to be giving you a sales pitch? You should never feel as if you are being manipulated. While you shouldn’t expect everybody who practices yoga to be smiley and happy all the time, it is fair to assume yoga studio staff will be mindful of their behaviour and service to customers.

A yoga studio is a business, but its foundation should still be yogic. Ideally, it will be run by people who practice and understand the basics of an authentic yoga practice and its application to everyday life.

Teachers

Most teachers will have trained with reputable schools but, since yoga is not regulated, they do not have to be certified or licensed. It is not inappropriate to ask your teacher about her training or background.

It is possible that you might not like a teacher’s personality. (If so, that might be your ego talking!) Try to look beyond to see what she has to offer. Does she challenge you mentally and physically? While it is ideal for you to develop trust and build a relationship with your teacher, this “connection” can occur without becoming friends.

Your teacher should give clear instruction, provide clarification, and answer your questions. If not right away, she should be able to address your concerns as soon as possible or the next time she sees you.

Management

A studio’s management style is reflected through its teachers. If management is more laid-back and casual, teachers will usually follow suit. Classes might not start or end exactly on time.

But if management is disorganized, this may result in discrepancies in the schedule. If a teacher shows up late and seemingly frazzled to teach an otherwise great class, consider that her tardiness might be because of poor management. Also, observe how the owner or manager speaks to or communicates with the teachers. This will tend to trickle down the line. If teachers are being treated well or poorly, this will eventually affect students.

These are some suggestions to help you make informed decisions when choosing a yoga studio. We all have different priorities. If location or price outweighs all other considerations, then choose whatever feels right for you!

Restorative Yoga: Therapeutic, Relaxing & Highly Addictive

Restorative yoga is gaining popularity as studios offer more regular workshops and classes. Unlike more familiar styles of yoga, restorative yoga is highly therapeutic. While less physically demanding, it requires mental focus and surrender, which can be just as challenging.

Anybody who has ever taken one of my Restorative Yoga with Thai Massage offerings becomes an instant addict! For 75- to 90-minutes, students are guided into passive yoga postures, fully supported by props such as yoga blocks, blankets, and bolsters for a luxurious experience. Participants also receive therapeutic thai yoga massage to encourage deep relaxation and release. Students pursue their inward journey through a combination of aromatherapy, inspiring words, and original poetry.

Who can take a restorative yoga class?

Anybody who seeks healing should consider restorative yoga. It can effectively address conditions of stress, depression, and anxiety. It is appropriate for people with limited mobility and/or injuries who may not be able to participate in physically active yoga practices. Most people can usually participate safely in a restorative class and receive its maximum benefits.

Learn to let go: Breathe!

The majority of our population needs to learn how to relax. Restorative yoga stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for bringing the body back into balance or equilibrium, especially after intense periods of stress or exhaustion. A restorative practice can help to release deeply held tension, stress, pain, and trauma.

Breathing is the foundation of any yoga practice. However, it is easy to forget this if you have become accustomed to straining and struggling through movements, as opposed to allowing your breath to lead you. Though active yoga should be a form of moving meditation, restorative yoga is more akin to what we know as meditation. Awareness of inhalations and exhalations brings us into the present and away from worry, fear, and anxiety.

Restorative yoga is all about deep release. Most people are just learning to let go. Proper breathing clears energy channels to allow prana, our life force, to flow freely and revitalize our bodily systems. Full deep breathing keeps us calm, centred, and connected.

What can I expect from a restorative class?

A class usually starts with an initial relaxation or meditation to focus the mind and set the tone. Your teacher might lead you through gentle movements and stretches before entering into the stillness of supported postures. A series of approximately 10 postures are held for anywhere between 2 to 15 minutes at a time. You should feel warm, comfortable, and pain-free!

Here are some key restorative postures:

Savasana (Corpse Pose) is the ultimate relaxation pose, usually considered a favourite by practitioners of all levels.

Supta Baddha Konasa (Reclining Bound Angle Pose) opens hips, groins, and the heart centre.

Salamba Balasana (Child’s Pose) is calming and comforting, helps with breath connection, and alleviates lower back discomfort.

After a restorative class, you will feel light, calm, and well-rested with a heightened sense of awareness. You will ask yourself. “Why haven’t I tried this before?” Fortunately, an addiction to restorative yoga has no known side effects except positive ones. So keep indulging!

Yoga: Making an Investment in Yourself

People who have not yet discovered the benefits of yoga often ask me, as a yoga teacher, “Why is yoga so expensive?”

In response, I suggest the question should not be about how much yoga costs; rather, it should be about how you choose to spend your money. The real question is: Are you consistently making an investment in yourself?

Some people think that yoga pants and yoga mats are expensive, yet they’ll easily blow 100 bucks on one evening of wining and dining. Compared to such self-indulgences, the benefits of yoga to the mind and body are much longer-lasting.

An Investment with Many Positive Returns

In our modern culture, we are enticed by technology and strive to own “things.” Usually, the accumulation of all of this “stuff,” such as clothes, computers, and cars, gives us the false idea that we are fulfilling ourselves. The irony is that, instead of seeking external satisfaction, we should actually be looking within ourselves.

Yoga is a complete system designed to lead us to enlightenment, if we choose to travel that path. People who consider yoga to be “expensive” feel that way because they do not understand its value. They do not attach value to it as they would to a condo or a bottle of champagne.

A consistent yoga practice can help us find balance, connect with ourselves, and live with less stress. Yoga keeps our internal organs working properly and can result in a better functioning body — not to mention a calmer mind.

However, a yoga practice is an ongoing process. Many people are so accustomed to being immediately gratified that a yoga practice seems like too much work. They aren’t interested because they know that yoga requires patience and persistence. They will not emerge from one 75-minute class with a brand-new tight body.

How much are yoga classes?

Is 20 bucks too expensive for a yoga class? Across Canada, the cost of one class ranges from 10 to 25 dollars, with the lower end being non-profit centres and the higher end being boutique-style studios.

Yoga studios offer discounts on 5-, 10-, or 20-class passes, as well as monthly and yearly rates. The rate per class often acts as a deterrent to paying-as-you-go, while the savings on monthly or yearly passes offer an incentive to making a long-term commitment to your practice. You save money in the long run when you choose to invest in your mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Paying for Quality

There really is no comparison between a yoga studio and a fitness facility. For a monthly rate, a gym offers a variety of classes, including yoga. However, the overall atmosphere and quality of the yoga teachers can vary. Indeed, a gym or fitness club may not be the best venue for those seeking an immersive yoga experience.

For example, consider the length of a yoga class at each type of facility. The basic duration of a fitness class is 60 minutes with no real transition time in between classes. At studios, yoga classes range from 60 to 90 minutes. Students do not have to rush after their final relaxation to make way for anxious students coming into the next class. At a yoga studio, the pace is slower and the atmosphere is more relaxing. In addition, students receive more individualized attention from qualified teachers when they join smaller classes.

People who might think yoga classes are expensive should consider all the little frivolous or decadent expenses they spend their money on every day. Whether it’s a bottle of wine or a gourmet coffee, all those little things add up. The cost of attending regular yoga classes is actually quite modest by comparison.

When we choose to spend money on our wellness, we are investing in ourselves. Like all good investments, yoga pays dividends in the form of a longer, healthier and more productive life.

Yoga Versus Pilates

Does it seem as if everybody you know is running off to either yoga or pilates class? Are you asking yourself, “What is yoga? What is pilates? Are these just trends or are they actually beneficial?”

Often, our lack of information hinders us from participating in activities that can help us make vast improvements to our overall health and well-being. More than just a physical activity, yoga is a comprehensive practice that can help with mental focus, physical fitness, and spiritual enlightenment. But how does yoga compare to pilates?

How are yoga and pilates the same?

In theory, yoga and pilates are based on similar concepts. Breathing is central to both practices. The entire body, specifically the spine, is addressed through controlled movements. Both emphasize the mind-body connection.

Breath control is used as a tool to focus the mind and control the body. Movements are precise and have been designed for specific purposes. In both, the health of the spine is foundational.

For example, yoga exercises include backbends, forward bends, and twists to keep the spine flexible and mobile. Pilates focuses on “core” work to strengthen the muscles that support the spine. “Yoga for Abs” and “Pilates for Weight Loss” programs have become popular due to demand, but the most positive results come from addressing the body in its entirety.

How are yoga and pilates different?

Yoga is a complete physical, mental, and spiritual system based on ancient teachings. Various paths of yoga include karma (selfless service), bhakti (devotional), jnana (intellectual), and hatha (physical asana and pranayama).

By contract, pilates is more about physical rehabilitation. Indeed, Joseph Pilates created the Pilates method (originally called “Contrology”) in the 1920s as a rehabilitative set of exercises.

Though proper breathing is essential to both disciplines of yoga and pilates, the techniques differ. The yoga breath requires inhalations and exhalations to be taken through the nose only, except during the practice of pranayama exercises. In Pilates, practitioners inhale through the nose, and exhale through the mouth, usually during the height of physical exertion.

Some styles of yoga, such as Iyengar, require props such as yoga blocks to assist students with proper alignment. Pilates has a complete repertoire of mat work, with similar exercises that can be transferred to specialized Pilates equipment.

What is the major difference?

The major difference between yoga versus pilates is that yoga entails a deep spiritual component. While many westerners focus on the physical component of yoga as it results in the improvement of the body’s appearance, ability to function, and overall health, the basis of yoga as a practice is, undeniably, spiritual.

Undoubtedly, the mind-body-spirit connection that yoga promotes can be profoundly more beneficial to one’s development and well-being than simple physical exercise. For this reason, yoga can become a way of leading a mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy and fulfilling life.

Is yoga better? Why don’t you find out for yourself? Next time your friends are going to a yoga class, join them!

Yoga for Back Pain: A Core Issue

Perhaps one of the most commonly cited reasons why people do yoga is to deal with back pain. Back pain can flare up from physical and/or emotional stress, overwork, muscular pinching and strain, accidents, slipped disks, sciatica or cramps. Fortunately many of these problems can be healed or mitigated by choosing your yoga poses wisely.

Weak Tummy Bad Back

The number one reason for back pain caused by strain has very little to do with your back; in fact, in many cases back pain starts with your stomach. The problems often begins with weak stomach and core muscles, especially those located deep within your abdomen such as the transverse abdominis. These are the most critical core muscles for your back, as they are the deepest abdominal muscles which wrap around your spine for support, stability and strength. When your core is weak, your back muscles compensate and in this way they can easily be strained and overworked.

Core Strength

The foundation of every yoga asana is a stable core, which holds the whole body and yoga pose together, and so a regular yoga practice will strengthen and tone your deep core muscles while alleviating lower back pain. It may seem counterintuitive to approach back pain from through activity rather than rest, but for cases of mild back pain, with a relatively good range of motion, strengthening your stomach is the best thing you can do for your back.

Start your yoga practice with some core and lower back stretches by doing a gentle supine twist on both sides. Open up your lungs and abdominal breathing to its fullest by slowly engaging full “Dirga”, or yogic breathing. Then start to really heat up your abdominals by doing the bicycle, the pose where you alternate touching opposite knee to elbow while remaining on your back. Do as many sets as you can, challenging yourself to increase each set by 5. Stretch out long on your yoga mat, breathing deeply into your belly to rest and stretch out your abdominals.

Upward Boat for Backs

Come to an upright position, drawing your knees into your chest while lifting your shins parallel to the floor. Lengthen out of your waist, focusing on using your core to hold your chest and legs up. Bring your feet back down to the ground if you notice that your lower back is uncomfortable and straining. You can practice numerous variations on this upward boat pose, or “Paripurna Navasana”, by lifting your arms up above your head or straightening your legs one at a time.

Core Yoga Poses

Carrying on into your full yoga routine, incorporate as many of the following poses: plank, half moon pose, warrior 3, side plank and triangle. Each of these yoga poses are core strengthening powerhouses alone, and together they’re a killer combination. Try to hold each pose for five to ten breaths, at least two or three times.

At first, it may take conscious effort to concentrate the ‘work’ of each pose in your core. Notice how, when you challenge your abdominals, your back wants to help out and take over. Don’t let it! Keep breathing and relaxing your back while stabilizing your core.

Our core muscles are the quickest to respond and strengthen, yet they are also the first to go. Keeping them strong will prevent the same fate for your back.

Master Your Mood With Yogic Breathing

Yogic breathing techniques, or Pranayama, are addictive. It is easy to misjudge the power of your breath by dismissing this practice as sitting and doing nothing.

It’s a deceptively simple-looking and subtle practice, from the outside. But within, you are working with a world of wonderful possibilities that can help you map and chart your mood.

Perfect Polarities

The key idea to grasp is that of balancing polarities. The qualities of the inhale, multiplied by its retention, are stimulating, energizing and heat-building. Conversely, the exhale (and its retention) is calming, soothing and cooling.

Deep and even breathing will uplift sluggishness or calm anxiety. The key is a slight hold at the top of the breath and an equal pause on the exhale. When we breathe evenly, we use these two powerful polarities to regulate and stabilize our mood.

Counterbalancing Techniques

Sometimes, however, our moods are so extreme that we need to work with the breath in a counterbalancing way. If you find that even breathing with momentary breath retention is not calming or, conversely, not energizing enough, then you can elongate one side of the breath or the other.

Intuitive Inhalations

For example, if you are feeling depressed and lethargic, shorten your exhales and eliminate breath retention on the exhale, which would further calm you. In this case, you are shifting that time over to the invigorating inhale.

Now try holding the top of the inhale for three or four seconds, with no pause on the exhale. How do you feel after five full cycles of breath? Do you need to retain your inhale a bit longer?

Once you know and feel the different effects of the top and bottom of the breath, experiment with where and for how long you place your holds.

Visualizing the Polarities

The more you experiment with the effects of breath retention, the more you will know intuitively how to breathe when you feel sad or stressed, and you will also know how to breathe when you need to boost your energy or mental clarity.

The principle of polarities of the breath stems from the yogic concepts of the Ida and Pingala. You can visualize these as long strands spiraling up the main energy channel in the body, the Sushumna (spinal column).

The Ida and Pingala intersect at each of the energy vortexes of the body, called the chakras, and then end at the nostrils. The Ida finishes at the left nostril and governs the same qualities as the exhale. The Pingala ends at the right nostril and corresponds to the qualities of the inhale.

Using the Ida and the Pingala

Using the same principles of balance and counterbalance, drop into alternate nostril breath, or Nadi Shodhana, and begin by bringing an energetic balance to your body and mind by equalizing your breath through each nostril.

Now, notice what you need: do you need to raise or lower your energy levels? If you need a little upper, inhale through the right nostril and out the left, and repeat. To quiet your mind, inhale through the left nostril and out the right. If you want to explore a little further, try combining the two techniques by inhaling through the right nostril and then pausing on that inhale.

Remember, yogic breathing is a very powerful tool, so a little goes a long way. Work with these techniques in short sittings, when you need them the most, and you will soon become master of your moods!

Break Free From a Silent Yoga Practice

Something has been bothering me about almost every yoga class I go to. The teachers are great. The studios are gorgeous. The practice is exquisite — but it’s far too quiet.

And when I say it’s too quiet, I am not talking about turning up the yoga music. It’s that the students are too silent. Why is it important to make noise in yoga class?

Socially Silenced

In as much as we may judge and criticize our downward dog, stacking it up against our ideals of what the pose should look like and where we are at, we also censor the sounds and noises that we make during our yoga practice.

You probably don’t even know that you are subtly stifling your natural sounds, because we are all very well trained and socialized to make only ‘appropriate’ sounds in appropriate places. We whisper in libraries for obvious reasons, but we also shun people who laugh too loudly at a restaurant.

In every case, noise is acceptable in a very controlled form. So it’s not surprising that we are all quite intimidated when it comes to open vocalizations. These are free and uncontrived, and they conflict with how we’ve all been trained to plan what comes out of our mouths.

It’s scary to let yourself be vulnerable to the unknown, even when you are practicing yoga alone. That fear becomes especially strong in the context of a group yoga class.

Make Some Noise!

What’s so important about vocalization? Why sigh? Releasing sounds is the easiest way to relieve mental stress. Doesn’t it feel good to howl when you cry sometimes, or scream into the sky when you are mad?

Of course it does. So why not let the worries of your day out? A simple ‘mmmm’ or ‘ahhh’ is the easiest way to release stress and tension.

Indeed, this unleashing has an enormous physical effect. Such sounds open and soften the chest, neck and throat muscles and tissues, while stimulating the throat (or fifth) chakra. The fifth chakra governs our centre of self-expression and communication: let yourself be heard.

Holding Safe Space

A great yoga class will allow you to feel so at ease that you can let a sigh or groan emerge on a delicious exhale. Instead of swallowing and quieting it, you are comfortable to let it manifest in the world, in whatever sound it needs to be.

Of course not every yoga class can offer this experience. It may be a 40 person drop-in class where you know no one; or, it may be a class with a teacher who doesn’t endorse the importance of sonic release.

In this case, the challenge is your own. Take this opportunity to push your edge and let it all out, whether the teacher invites you to. The best thing about vocal releases, such as sighing, is that they are contagious. Once you start, you won’t want to stop, and once you make noise, others around you will feel more at ease and are likely to join in.

Find Your Perfect Yoga Teacher-Training Course

So you are ready to become a yoga teacher! You have a dedicated and balanced yoga practice, and the heartfelt desire to share your knowledge and passion for yoga with the world. Now, how do you decide which yoga teacher training course to do? Here are a few basic guidelines to help you choose the yoga teacher certification that’s perfect for you.

Your Favorite Yoga Teachers

To help you sift through the incredible amount of choices when it comes to yoga teacher training, start by listing your favorite yoga teachers. Which classes touch you the deepest and facilitate your most joyful, reflective and transformative practice? This list will show you the teaching styles, and the yoga styles, that resonate with you the most. These are the styles which you are most likely to find passion in teaching.

Your Yoga Style

Look at your list. Is there one yoga style most common among these teachers? Which style feels right? Let your choice come from an instinctual draw, not the reasoning of your mind. From here, start talking to your teachers, your fellow yogis and let the path reveal itself.

Get the Basics

Once you have narrowed it to one, or a few schools, it’s time to do your homework. Look over their program. It should include reading the formative yogic texts, such as the Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads and the Yoga Sutras.

Does the program follow yoga alliance standards? Does the course have a well-rounded program including modules on anatomy, meditation, philosophy, and it does require at least 4 observation, assisting and teaching tests?

If the syllabus and ‘coursework’ is intimidating — well, it should be. This will be your induction into a lifetime of exploring a world of wisdom.

How Flexible Are You?

There are as many ways to do your yoga teacher training as there are to do pigeon pose. Some programs offer intensive courses, up to a month long, where you are completely immersed in your study and living at the ashram.

Other courses offer a more flexible training schedule, which many people prefer so they can study while carrying on with daily life. In this case, courses can run either every weekend or as little as one weekend a month. All yoga teacher-training courses, at the first level, follow the 200-hour model. What pace to adopt just depends on what works for you.

Committing to Community

Now that you have found a school, look at how long the training program has been running, and how many graduates they have. Also, check out the bios of the senior teachers, who you will be studying under, and, if possible, drop in on one of their classes to say hello.

Doing your yoga teacher training is much more than a commitment to your personal practice; it is a deep opening into the yoga community, locally and globally, so take the time to find your perfect yoga community and make yourself at home.

Working The 4 Corners of Your Breath

It’s easy to take breathing for granted. Our yoga practice teaches us to watch and listen to our breath, to be awake to the flow of life force inside us.

Consider experienced yogis, using proper deep-belly breathing in day-to-day life, or flowing smoothly through a vinyasa class using ujaii or ocean-sounding breath. Even for them, this breathing can become so habitual that somehow they lose contact with their breathing.

Breathing Under a Microscope

At this point, we start to look at the act of breathing under a microscope. If you watched your breathing, very carefully, you might notice that the breath has 4 distinct parts. The inhale, the moment of transition (that pause before the exhale), the exhale itself, and then the moment of pause before the inhale.

Each of these 4 parts of the breath has a different quality or signature effect. Just like each pose invigorates certain muscles, energetic pathways and emotions, the different parts of the breath do as well. The inhale and its pause builds energy and heat, while the exhale and its transitional pause creates a soothing and cooling effect on the body and mind.

Working at the Top and the Bottom

The moments of transition between the active inhales and exhales are the ‘top’ and the ‘bottom’ of the breath. In your yoga practice, you will broaden your breathing techniques to include working with these two areas. Practice deep-belly breathing, and notice your body’s subtle reactions and changes in these places.

As your breath deepens, start to work with the top and bottom of the breath by pausing in those spaces for one extra second. Think of this moment like putting a light cap over your throat; you are not squeezing or not forcefully holding your breath, but allowing the retention to be soft and easy.

The 4 Corners of the Breath

Another great visualization to use when you are working with the top and bottom of your breath is to imagine a rectangle. Each side of the rectangle represents the duration of each part: the inhale, the exhale, the retention at the top, and the retention at the bottom.

The four corners represent each stop and start of your breath; for example, you inhale up the right side of the rectangle, then the corner marks the transition from the inhale, to the suspension, followed by the next corner, which signals the release, leading to the exhale.

A Balanced Breath Diet

The main purpose of this visualization technique is to learn how to breath evenly. If breath brings energy, or prana, into our bodies, then we need to make sure we are getting a balanced diet of breath.

Using the image of a rectangle makes it easier to equalize the length of your inhales and exhales, which are the long sides of the rectangle. It will also help you to make the shorter holds at the top and bottom of your breath equivalent.

Working with the 4 parts or corners of your breath will not only keep you steadily engaged with your breathing; they will also help you learn how to control and influence your mood and energy.

Interview with William Broad on the Science of Yoga

Interview with William Broad, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and senior writer at the New York Times, on his book: The Science of Yoga.

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Jon Makkai (interviewer): From the ancient Yoga Sutras of Patanjali up to present day magazines like the Yoga Journal, a lot has been written on the topic of yoga. What contribution does your new book, The Science of Yoga, make to the discussion?

William Broad (author): Well, I call it the first scientific overview of the discipline. The first time that all the science that’s been done on yoga has been put into popular expression. A century and a half of yoga. The way I think it hugely contributes to the conversation is that it shows what’s real and what’s not. What helps, what hurts. Yoga has made many claims for many millenia and centuries, as you know better than I. And this book, this science, can help winnow and sift. What’s real, what’s not, what’s good, what’s bad.

Jon: You yourself practice yoga and I understand you’ve been practicing for quite a long time.

William: Since 1970.

Jon: Nineteen-seventy. And yoga’s introduction to the West goes back at least a century or so.

William: [Henry David] Thoreau used to talk about how he considered himself a yogi, so that’s back in the middle of the 19th century.

Jon: 19th century right exactly. But you know, even though it’s come in to Western culture, even back at that late date, it’s only really reached mass acceptance in the last couple of decades. So I guess I’m wondering what your thoughts are on why it took so long to catch on in the West.

William: You know, I don’t know. I mean, the social dynamics of this are beyond me. My strength is as a science reporter, at understanding the science of yoga and what scientists have discovered about yoga. To a certain extent, scientists were fascinated by yoga maybe even before the general public, right?

Jon: Mm-hm. Yeah.

William: There were so many extreme claims, especially back in the 19th century with miracle claims yogis can stop their hearts, or you can bury yogis for weeks and they’ll come out just fine. So those were, in terms of biology, extraordinary claims. So there was a lot of scientific interest and I detailed a lot of that in the book. Why yoga explodes as a popular thing? I could guess. One of my guesses is that yoga works wonderfully. I think the book goes into…I’ve got this reputation as a yoga basher, which I think is undeserved, because the book enumerates lots of the facets that science had shown, right?

Jon: Mm-hm.

William: I mean, one good reason why I think yoga has become so popular is because it works to relax you. It works to de-stress you. It works. It’s like an anti-civilization pill.

Jon: [laughs].

William: It helps you disconnect. It helps you center. It helps you find your inner … you know, this point of inner tranquility, which is unbelievably important in this day and age when we are facing so many stresses, so many cultural changes, so many uncertainties; they are skyrocketing. If I had to guess, I would say we’re just seeing the beginning — that yoga is going to get bigger and bigger, because it works!

Jon: Mm-hm.

William: It works to help people deal with their lives. There’s a reason in New York City why there’s a yoga studio every couple blocks — because yoga is an antidote to big cities, right? And you know the science of it shows how yogis are very good at activating their parasympathetic nervous systems. That’s the digestive side of the nervous system. It’s the metabolic rate. It slows you down, right? Most everything in our culture presses the other side, the sympathetic side: caffeinated drinks, loud noises, scary movies, theme parks, and rock music. All that stuff is pressing the accelerator right? It’s all zipping you up and yoga works the other way. It helps you wind down. That’s not very scientific. This is just my rambling science reporter, but I think yoga is big and it’s going to get bigger because it works.

Jon: I often wonder if it has something to do with the advent of the Internet age. Everybody’s sitting in front of computers all day long. I’m sure as a writer you probably struggle with having to sit in front of the computer.

William: Yep, yep, yep and I get hundreds of e-mails and I have to be talking to people all around the globe and, you know, it’s too much, right? Plus I’ve got two jobs and three kids.

Jon & William: [laughter]

William: Well, I’m not complaining. I have a wonderful life. But it can be overwhelming. Yoga, for me, is a very close friend. I do yoga every morning without fail. I don’t do a lot … I don’t claim to be an advanced practitioner, but I do what I do and I love it.

Jon: You’ve researched the scientific literature on the risks and rewards of yoga for human health, which we’ve already touched on briefly, but how well do you think Western scientists have done in making those inquiries and what conclusions if, any can, we draw from their efforts?

William: Well, the whole book goes into the conclusions, right? They’ve done pretty well. The problem is — and it’s not such a big problem that I wasn’t able to write a book. But, compared to other things, like cancer, like major diseases, like lots of things, yoga hasn’t been studied all that much by science.

Jon: Yeah.

William: And that’s quite logical, as I say in the prologue to the book, it’s because yoga has very few patrons. No drug company, which sponsors enormous amounts of research, is going to pay for it to study yoga. I mean, very few governments put money into yoga research because they’re just not interested. You know, it’s like, it’s considered marginal, right? That’s starting to change in the United States and it’s starting to change in other countries. There are some governments that are starting to put money into yoga and into yoga research, because they can see that it can work for disease prevention …

Jon: Right.

William: .. which they’re very interested in because it’s very cost effective. So, that’s starting to cook in some respects, but the money is still remarkably small. And that means that, overall, the scientific picture tend to spotty.

Jon: Okay.

William: There are some areas where the science is extremely clear. Like, for instance, modern yoga styles, like Ashtanga or power or these really heavy gym-oriented styles, claim that they’re aerobic, that they’ll get your heart going so fast that it’s like being a marathoner.

Jon: Mm-hm.

William: Well, there have been several studies done that show that’s not true. You can do sun salutations all day long and you’re still not going to get the kind of aerobic work out that you do working an elliptical cross trainer or cycling or something like that. You can’t get your heart going that fast.

Jon: I see.

William: There are some areas where the science is very clear; there are some other areas where it ain’t. At the end of the book I say, “Onward. Let’s do some more studies because yoga is, on balance, a very good thing, and it can become even better in the future if we understand it.”

Jon: So are you optimistic that we’ll see yoga become a normal part of conventional medicine or do you think that the two will remain disconnected?

William: I grew up in the Midwest and I’m a naive optimist. I think that, a few decades out — maybe even not even a few, maybe just a couple decades or fifteen years — we’re going to start to see yoga doctors. I think we’re going to see yoga get connected into more mainstream health care. The guy who is at the top of my health chapter, which is Chapter Five, he’s Mark Fishman. He is this wonderful physician in New York City who studied with Iyengar in India and uses yoga all the time in his practice. If he’s right, and if there are more Mark Fishmans in this world, we are on the cusp of a revolution in which yoga is going to go mainstream. Now, Mark is a very unusual person, and he’s very gifted, and he may not represent the median or the conventional medical wisdom but there are a lot of doctors out there, who are interested in using yoga. There are definitely professional societies that are trying to produce certifications, like the International Association of Yoga Therapists, which is based in Arizona. They are trying to create schools with hard curricula that train yoga therapists. They are trying to create a professional scientific basis for the profession of yoga therapy. They’re not there yet, but we will see it. It’s in the embryonic stage. If things keep going for decades, I think yoga doctors are a real possibility.

Jon: Yeah. I wonder …

William: And, also, I think that would be a good thing. Right. Because, we spend so many billions of dollars on little blue pills to have a better time in the bedroom — or, very expensive pills from neuropharmacology to try to lift our moods and take away our depression. What a bunch of … well, I don’t want to use bad language. But, you know, you can do yourself for free. Why not?

Jon: Yeah, exactly. I’d agree with you there. I sometimes worry that, especially in United States, the legal environment (as well as the way in which the medical profession is set up as a lobby group) might make it difficult for medical practitioners to embrace it.

William: Yeah. Maybe. But they do. The National Institute of Health, which is a big federal research organization here in the United States, has a yoga week. They sponsor a lot of yoga research. They spent $7 million last year on yoga research. That’s not a lot by federal standards, but it’s very good research done at elite institutions across the United States. They’re starting to shed a lot of light on yoga — and a lot of good things. For instance, yoga turns out to be really good for cardiovascular health. It doesn’t do what all these aerobic sports people say it does, but it does other good things for your heart. Because it lowers blood pressure, and it lowers hyper tension, which is a big risk factor for stroke. There are even wild things, like the stress decreasing aspects of yoga. The preliminary evidence suggests that it can work to make your cells live longer. So there could be this overall impact on the longevity. Every yogi I interviewed always looked like they were 20 or 30 years younger than their chronological age, and they often acted that way, too. They were spunky and had a gleam in their eye, and they’d tell funny jokes. I mean, they were alive in ways a lot of sixty- and seventy-year olds aren’t.

Jon: After I started practicing yoga, my wife told me that I was looking younger than when we met, originally.

William: Right. And you probably have an OK sex life, because, in the book, the sex chapter shows the evidence is very strong. Yoga zips you up. Yoga spurs those hormones. You can see it in the hormonal studies; you can see it in brain scans. A very nice study done at the University of British Columbia shows that Bhastrika, a kind of fast breathing, is definitely sexually arousing — which I think is a good thing. Sexuality is a central part of the human experience. Why not be in good shape sexually, like you can be in every other way? Why pay billions of dollars to the drug mafia when you can do it yourself?

Jon: Absolutely. Actually, that’s a good segue into my question about the New York Times review of the Science of Yoga, in which Annie Murphy Paul says: “yoga seems to have come full circle: flush with cash and focused on perfecting the body, modern yoga has returned to its earthy origins in money and sex.” I thought that observation would come as a surprise to many yoga practitioners.

William: Well, I think she’s a little bit mixing metaphors in a way. She’s kind of conflating the yoga industrial complex and Lululemon, and that kind of stuff, with some of the more earthy, sexual, tantric sides of yoga. I don’t consider tantra a part of the yoga industrial complex. Tantra is something you can do in the bedroom or in a meditative state.

Jon: One thing that I’ve found fascinating in the yoga tradition are the Sadhu, who traditionally were dreadlocked beggars who practiced yoga and smoked marijuana. It seems to me that most in the West would be unaware of the Sadhu and their connection to the yoga tradition, maybe because as you point out, it’s related to some aspects of yoga that are not in the mainstream discourse.

William: Yeah, people don’t know. I think some people do kind of have this general idea that yoga came out of that tradition, but yoga as it’s marketed, especially in the United States — it’s sleek and shiny, and it’s gonna solve all your problems and help you lose weight. Like Bikram, you know. He himself makes so many flakey claims. He says you’re gonna be a superman and a superwoman. I mean it’s just an over-the-top kind of crazy salesmanship. So, that to me, has very little to do with spirituality, compassion. I mean, what do we want out of life? Life is short. How do we be good to ourselves and be good to the people we love? It’s a crazy world, right. I mean there are these old ancient questions of spirituality and consciousness and how to live your life in the best possible way — a lot that the old Sadhu tradition addressed, and that modern yoga doesn’t. Modern yoga, to me, seems like an arm of the “me”-generation narcissism, right? It’s all about me, baby.

Jon: You mentioned Bikram and I’m sure you probably talk about different styles of yoga. There’s been a real proliferation of styles of yoga. Looking at the scientific evidence that you’ve reviewed, are there any particular styles of yoga that seem more or less beneficial from a medical perspective?

William: Well, the Iyengar people I think have shown a lot of creativity for trying to tailor poses to individuals rather than tailoring individuals to poses — with blocks and blankets, all their props and things. I think that’s smart. There’s not that much science that’s compared styles. So you don’t get that comparative stuff. A lot of it is common sense, but clearly Iyengar and gentle styles are going out of their way not to produce huge stresses on your joints that can be devastating. There’s a lot of anecdotal and survey evidence that injury rates have spiked quite high as yoga has become quite popular.

Jon: Yoga has become deeply politicized in recent years to the extent that it’s almost impossible to publish a book about yoga without provoking the anger of some practitioners. In writing The Science of Yoga, did you anticipate any controversy surrounding the book’s themes and, if so, how did you prepare for that controversy?

William: I didn’t think it would be this controversial. I mean, there are bits of really sharp attack. The overwhelming response to the New York Times article was positive, but I get letters from yogis and yoginis saying things like, “You are a jerk!” One guy, after about three or four sentences of invective, ended it with G.F.Y. I’m not going to spell out what that acronym means, you probably know it. But it’s a really crude, rude, un-yoga-like thing to say, right? I think it says loads about them. I mean, who are they that they get so — anyways, I guess I was kind of a naive. I wrote this book. I started doing it for myself and I ended up wanting to make it as available to practitioners everywhere as possible, because I felt the science could help them a lot. I didn’t think that there would be so many bitter denunciations and dismissals. The original headline of the New York Times excerpt really got people angry: How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. That [headline] came as a surprise to me. I didn’t know that was going to be that way.

Jon: Oh, I see.

William: I think that got people angry and, unfortunately, I think some people reacted but maybe never read the article. But I’m not a bastard, man. I love yoga, and I want to see yoga succeed as much as possible. There it is. I wrote a book about it. I hope people read it and judge it on its merits rather than the rumours.