How Chiropractic Can Prevent Yoga From Wrecking Your Body

Posted by: Madelyn George

On January 5th The New York Times ran a fascinating and controversial article called “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body”. The article elicited a lot of angry responses from yogis, and probably did convince a lot of prospective yoga students to do something “less dangerous”. As I read through the article I admit it was pretty terrifying to read the stories of slipped discs and partial paralysis resulting from some of the more intense yoga poses, but I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the injuries might have been avoided if people had received care at The Balancing Center first.

Personally, I’m not going to stop doing yoga. The moral of the article was something much bigger than avoiding the practice as a whole. With yoga, like with any physical practice, injury is possible, but the biggest risk comes from tuning out the messages your body is sending to you. I plan to stay very present with my body, especially when practicing twists. When it feels like my body is saying “no”, I’ll listen. I hope you will too, and not just with yoga, but with any physical practice.

The care we provide at The Balancing Center is focused on getting people out of pain, improving performance, and improving lifestyle. As you can see from my chiropractic story, I was not in any pain when I started, but I was definitely out of balance. After my first few adjustments I noticed that I was able to perform all physical activity with greater ease and much less strain. Less strain means you’re less likely to get injured! We always tell people that you should keep coming in, even if you feel fine, because staying in balance can help you avoid injuries and pain in the future. It’s so true.

Regular adjustments aren’t the only thing that can improve your health and quality of life. The Balancing Center’s Foundational Movement Practices are a huge part of what makes our patients successful. In Dr. Fedeli’s words, “This is one of the main things we teach. It’s so important to learn how to use your body correctly, and we can teach you how to know when you’re pushing it too far. Our system is an incredible tool to help you sit and stand better, and the movement practices will definitely help you exercise more safely and effectively.”

Link to the original New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

A couple of interesting response articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suhag-a-shukla-esq/yoga-wont-wreck-your-body_b_1195754.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/14/yoga-can-damage-body-row?INTCMP=SRCH
http://www.firstpost.com/living/om-my-god-who-wrecked-our-yoga-the-dirty-picture-of-a-5-bn-dollar-industry-183391.html