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Science of Yoga Interview
Feb. 10th, 2012 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muck_a_luckWilliam J. Broad interview on Science Friday (a radio program). Interesting chat with him, though I had to leave the car right when he started talking about injuries.
muck_a_luckrydra_wongJust wanted to link to this excellent, snarky and incisive piece in Hyphen Magazine on the "yoga debate" started by William Broad's NY Times article:
The Yoga Debate: An Existentially Challenged Desi Chimes In by Kirti Kamboj
On the pro-yoga side was expert Rebecca Greenfield. She held positions such as: "When done right, yoga is a sweaty work-out. And, no, we're not just talking the 'hot kind.'" And, "Admittedly, yoga attracts some of the worst people on the planet: The image obsessed girls mentioned above, super-hippies, and self-righteous spiritual types. But any human that's obsessed with a type of exercise is generally intolerable."
I found these points both illuminating and disturbing. Before, I was under the assumption that I'd been doing yoga all my life. Yet things I believed to be the core of yoga -- yama niyama ideals, body awareness, breath control, etcetera -- have no place in it at all. When done right, as Greenfield points out, yoga is a series of sweaty contortionist work-out poses.
So all this time, I've been inadvertently lying, saying that I do yoga, when weeks can pass without me striking even one sweaty contortionist pose.
(Mod, could we have an "articles" tag, please? And/or a "meta" tag?)
The Yoga Debate: An Existentially Challenged Desi Chimes In by Kirti Kamboj
On the pro-yoga side was expert Rebecca Greenfield. She held positions such as: "When done right, yoga is a sweaty work-out. And, no, we're not just talking the 'hot kind.'" And, "Admittedly, yoga attracts some of the worst people on the planet: The image obsessed girls mentioned above, super-hippies, and self-righteous spiritual types. But any human that's obsessed with a type of exercise is generally intolerable."
I found these points both illuminating and disturbing. Before, I was under the assumption that I'd been doing yoga all my life. Yet things I believed to be the core of yoga -- yama niyama ideals, body awareness, breath control, etcetera -- have no place in it at all. When done right, as Greenfield points out, yoga is a series of sweaty contortionist work-out poses.
So all this time, I've been inadvertently lying, saying that I do yoga, when weeks can pass without me striking even one sweaty contortionist pose.
(Mod, could we have an "articles" tag, please? And/or a "meta" tag?)
Mr. Broad's Critique of Asana Practice
Jan. 10th, 2012 02:50 pmmuck_a_luckI came across this guy's article the other day. How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. Also, he is selling a book.
It is certainly a valid point that one should practice with care and non-violence toward self.
Not sure what else I think about this, though. Discuss?
It is certainly a valid point that one should practice with care and non-violence toward self.
Not sure what else I think about this, though. Discuss?
