Top 3 Mistakes People with Chronic Health Conditions make when Choosing a Yoga Class:
Many of the clients I work with have some prior experience with yoga but feel like they can no longer “do yoga” because they can’t do what they used to do and/or what they see people on videos and magazines doing. Some of the people I work with who have chronic health conditions were told by their doctors to try yoga, and they tried it only to feel like a failure because the class was too fast and too hard. Even classes labeled as “gentle” can be too challenging for many people.
I want to save you from making the same mistakes my clients have made by sharing with you the top 3 mistakes people with chronic health conditions make when choosing a yoga class.
Mistake #1: Choosing the wrong class/ the wrong teacher
Let me make this clear...this isn’t really your mistake. Classes are mis-labeled as gentle, accessible, and for “every body” all the time. It’s just not possible to teach a group yoga class that is 100% accessible for every body, so any teacher who claims that’s what they’re teaching is a red flag. If you have a chronic health condition, you need to be extra informed when choosing a class and a teacher. It is totally ok to interview the teacher/studio owner beforehand to make sure you understand what you’re getting into. That said, many yoga teachers aren’t equipped to teach anyone besides young, able-bodied individuals, because that’s who we’re trained to teach in yoga teacher training. In fact, we’re usually teaching the other students in the program, which means upon graduation, new yoga teachers are well-equipped to teach individuals whose bodies are already strong and flexible from a regular yoga practice. When choosing your teacher, ask how many hours they have studied and any specific trainings they have taken. Yoga teachers are not governed by any governing body in North America, so literally anyone can claim to be a yoga teacher. It is standard practice for a yoga teacher to have 200 hours of training, but that could be accomplished completely online or in a 2 week program with homework. (For comparison, a Physical Therapist needs 2-3 years of schooling...your yoga teacher is not a PT, no matter how much anatomy training they’ve had!) Yoga Therapists have an additional 800 hours of training, specifically in working with the therapeutic applications of yoga, (and we’re still not PTs.) If you have a chronic health condition, I highly recommend you seek out a teacher who is also a certified Yoga Therapist, (look for the C-IAYT designation after their name!)
Mistake #2: Pushing too hard
The second big mistake I see with the clients I’ve worked with is feeling like they need to keep up with the class and so they end up pushing themselves too hard and potentially causing post-expertional malaise or injury. It’s ok to take breaks and sometimes it’s even necessary! Many of the clients I see, and many people with chronic illnesses, are perfectionists and it can be hard to realize that perfect for you today may be different from what the teacher is teaching or different from what you could do yesterday. That’s ok! When in doubt, do less!
Mistake #3: Focus on the physical practice
I see this mistake in most Western yoga practitioners, not just my clients! We’ve been misled to believe that yoga is all about handstands and splits, touching your toes with your fingers and your nose with your toes. It’s not. Yoga is a mind-body-spirit practice that goes back thousands of years in India. Many of the therapeutic benefits of yoga come from the more subtle practices of yoga like breathing, visualization and meditation. Clients think they can’t do yoga because they can’t do sun salutations, but that is just one expression of yoga. When we get past the focus on yoga as exercise for the physical body, we find a deep well of practices that can impact our mind and spirit as well as our physical body. Look for a teacher/class/studio that acknowledges more than just the physical practice. You might look for a mention of the 8 Limbs of Yoga, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, or some other indication that the studio and teacher have an understanding that the practice of yoga is more than a “yoga body” workout.
I hope this has helped you expand your definition of yoga and given you the tools to practice yoga, whatever your current health conditions are! Curious about how to practice yoga with your health condition? Send me an email, I’m always happy to share my thoughts and resources!