Yoga Isn’t Only About Flexibility
At the beginning of March I attended a Professional Yoga Therapy Course, which taught me about medical therapeutic yoga. I honestly was a little intimidated when I arrived. Many of my colleagues at the course, although physical therapists, are also registered yoga teachers. Deep down I thought, "what am I doing here, I can barely touch my toes!” Years ago I consistently took yoga classes and struggled to find a strengthening component because it seemed like it was all about flexibility (which was fine then because I had more of it at the time). Over the last few years though I’ve noticed my body feeling tighter, less flexible, but I still wanted the strengthening component within a class. There are a lot of wonderful yoga classes and instructors out there, but I didn’t ever find one that resonated with me and what I wanted out of a class.. Strengthening and flexibility. I’ve also worked with so many patients who have been injured in a class or want to take a class but feel they are not “flexible enough”.
If you are looking for any of the previously mentioned, please continue reading as this is for you!
Yoga, as I was taught it, is about quality of movement, use of muscles, function, safety when performing poses, strength, and last, but not least, flexibility. What's ironic is not once during the class did we do "a hamstring stretch" but by the end of the week I was able to more comfortably move through my spine, touch my toes, and felt stronger than I had in a long time. My chronic neck and thumb pain had resolved and although I could feel my weaknesses, I could also feel my strengths and learned how to utilize them to heal heal myself.
I am excited to be able to bring what I learned to all of you. You do not need to be a “yogi” to be successful in yoga and reap the benefits of it. I would say that yoga is for anyone who wants to move better throughout his or her daily life. It’s for someone who wants to feel strong in what they do and medical therapeutic yoga is one tool that can be used to help you achieve those goals. It's appropriate for a person who already practices yoga, for someone who would like to but doesn't feel comfortable going to a class, or for someone who wants physical therapy due to an injury. We can use yoga as a tool to evaluate, assess and treat to get you back to doing all of the things that you love. I'll be sharing more over the next few weeks so stay tune for more blogs and videos of exercises you can start to do to feel better in your own life.
I so enjoyed the opportunity to be able to learn from Ginger Garner, a physical therapist and RYT who created the Professional Yoga Therapy Institute as well as Shelly Prosko, B.Sc. PT, PYT, CPI.
Here are some links to learn more about the Professional Yoga Therapy Institute, Ginger Garner, and Shelly Prosko, all of which are leading the way in reforming healthcare, both in how assess, treat, and utilize medical therapeutic yoga.