“I’m too stiff to do Yoga”, is a phrase I have heard more than a few times since my own discovery of Yoga. I heard it again this week when promoting my own class in Exeter, and it made me reflect on why people feel this way.
When I went to my first Yoga class, I certainly didn’t think this way. I actually went knowing that I might be able to do something about the stiffness that I had. My idea of Yoga was that it was all about stretching and that it would be helpful to me. Ironically, becoming more flexible is only a part of the benefits that Yoga brings with strengthening, balance and mindfulness being other major benefits and many other aspects too.
When people tell me they are too stiff for Yoga, it makes me smile. Even as a teacher, there are parts of my body that are very inflexible. My shoulders are an example and I work on them daily with very small improvements. The arms in the pose Gomukhasana is a good example. I have students who can clasp their hands behind their back but for myself, I need a belt between the hands because I can’t reach. I have students that are more flexible that I am, and this didn’t stop me becoming a teacher! Furthermore, I often had thoughts that the four years of training would have been enough to have dealt with all the stiffness, but the reality is that I will have stiffness forever.
Stiffness is not necessarily a bad thing. Less flexible people tend to have more awareness of their limits, and will encounter warning signals far sooner than flexible people, and this will help prevent injuries. Flexible people tend to have less control of their actions, and they need to learn about “putting the brakes on” whereas in stiffer people, the brakes come on automatically. There is a tendency to focus on stretching in Yoga, and overstretching can then lead to problems. Ligament and tendons can become stretch or torn and then joint problems occur. It is muscle tissue that should be stretched as it repairs well because of having a good blood supply. Ligaments and tendons that connect muscles to bones and muscles to other muscles, respectively, do not have such a good blood supply and do not repair well after stretching or injury. It is suggested that ligaments never return after overstretching.
This is why I feel the Iyengar method is safe. As a Level 1 teacher, the syllabus of poses that I have are relatively safe to teach and are the foundation of moving towards the next levels. We also use lots of props to help with ability and safety. I observe teachers from other methods of Yoga teaching some very extreme poses with as little as 250 hours of training, and I see then being taught extremely unsafely and with no props. I estimated that I spent at least 1000 hours of training before qualifying and I have to spend at least three years before I can consider progressing to Level 2. The likelihood is that it will be even longer because there is so much to learn.
Thinking back to the topic of why people think they’re too stiff for Yoga. It is down to the media, and more recently, social media. There is a huge emphasis on flexibility, and we are exposed to many picture-perfect images of Yoga poses. I constantly see slim models doing pretzel like poses, and the reality is that most people will never achieve the same. In fact, there is rarely any need to, and it is more working towards that final pose that is important. As an example, this is me in parivrtta janu sirsasansa, revolved head and knee pose (this pose is not in my syllabus, so don’t expect me to be teaching it!):
I am definitely not slim and the pose is nowhere near the “final” pose. I am sat on a prop and I have a block under my elbow next to my knee. What I do know is that I was working extremely hard and “achieving” the best pose for me. Those shoulders will never come back far enough so that I can look directly at the ceiling, but that is not important. The sad reality is that media portrayal of Yoga seems to suggest that it is important.
No one is too stiff for Yoga!