3/1/12

Yoga & The Alexander Technique

An Alexander Teacher, Joan Arnold, responds to the New York Times article, How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.

How Yoga Can Free Your Body
By Joan Arnold, certified teacher of the Alexander Technique & Yoga

The provocative title of William Broad's article in the January 8th New York Times Magazine -- How Yoga Can Wreck your Body -- has a whole nation of yogis buzzing. The news is that people can hurt themselves doing yoga. But they don't have to. Bring some mindfulness and sound movement principles to your practice, and you greatly reduce your chance of injury.

Broad's indictment is, well, pretty broad. His sensational warning overlooks some essential elements: the wild panoply of yogic varieties, the habits of mind and body we each bring to the mat, the vagaries of teachers' instructional skills, and the risks that accompany all human movement - athletic or sedentary.