Let me begin this blog by saying two things.
1. I have never properly addressed what this blog is all about. I will do that today.
2. When it comes to the human body, there is no definitive answer.
When I review and interpret research, the answer is always “more research is needed” or “sample size was too small” or “results were/were not statistically significant” and so on. There is rarely an answer. I must read through several related studies by the same researchers, by different researchers of the same opinion, and by different researchers of the opposing opinion. I must analyze the methods of the study to determine if the results are valid and if they can be reproduced should the study be repeated. This is no easy feat.
As many of you know, I’ve been writing my Master’s Thesis on the Biomechanics and Science of Stretching these last few years. Hopefully, you understand why it is taking so long. Sometimes it literally takes me 5 hours to write one paragraph. I must make sure I am interpreting the data accurately. 95% of my writing time is spent reading. And as of today, it’s 147 pages. You do the math.
My last post was challenging for me as a scientist. While my post was of full of “coulds” “mights” and “maybes” it was perceived by many as straight up advice about never balancing on one leg and moving from external to neutral rotation (think Half Moon to Standing Splits and vice versa). I admit, I was more dogmatic than I’ve been before on my blog. Wouldn’t you know it – it was one of my most popular posts. You guys loved it! And I think I get.
You don’t want to spend 5 hours of reading before planning your class. You want a trusted authority (me) to do that for you (you) so you can get on with your day and be a better teacher. And I love you for that.
In turn, I had some interesting social media conversations with some of you. I had to back away from the dogma to remind you all that when it comes to mechanical loading, it always depends!
To help you understand this concept, memorize this line: The tissues of the body adapt to the demands placed on upon them.
Translation: Your tissues can withstand stretch/compression/shear based on how you have trained them.
Can some of you rotate on one leg without degrading your cartilage? Of course! Some of you have resilient cartilage due to years of adequate loading. But how do you know who can and who can’t? In group settings, it’s hard to do know who is in your class, what their lifelong loading history is, or even what class they went to yesterday (yes, that matters, but that’s another post).
Can you learn this movement safely? Of course! If it’s a movement the body makes, there is a smart way to execute it. But it’s best taught in a learning environment like a teacher training or a workshop. A transition between poses in a vinyasa class is not an adequate learning environment. Furthermore, the muscles that would support this movement in a safe way are often fatigued during class. Especially if you like to sequence several poses on one leg (that also another post).
So why not err on the side of caution in extreme cases? Why not omit transitions that could potentially be harmful to even one of your students? This does not mean cannot ever, should not ever, move that way. Unfortunately there are a googolplex number of ways in which you can move and train your tissues. It is impossible to consider all of the variables when teaching a group class.
But if I write a blog that says:
“Maybe you should do something sort of like this unless you think you know something about some sort of past something that would change the way some of your students and some of their joints were able to handle some of the loads at some frequencies, for some durations, in some directions, at some rates, at some magnitudes, in which you case you could do this or this or maybe possible some of this. More research is needed before I can give you any advice.”
you would be just like a grad student researching her thesis pretty annoyed.
In reality, if your body moves that way, you should train it that way. But proper collagen adaptations to training do not occur in just 10 yoga classes. It actually takes years. This is exactly why my yoga business is based in private lessons – I have the opportunity to interact with the students and develop a sequence of poses for their unique adaptive needs.
In conclusion, my point here is we should agree upon some basic rules of this blog:
1. I know and you know that any advice I offer is my interpretation of my research geared toward the general yoga community – its teachers and students who want to learn. Not scientists. Although, I encourage you to wear your scientist cap while reading my blog.
2. There are exceptions to everything I say. Biomechanics is all about adaptation to loading – there is no such thing as generalization. But I generalize to make it readable, digestible, and fun.
3. I cannot even begin to teach biomechanics in a few blog posts. I actually believe in variety of movement and smart movement. I believe that all movement is good, even some movements I advise you not to teach. But a solid foundation in anatomy and biomechanics is the prerequisite to teaching complex movement. That’s what this blog is for.
4. When I choose to be dogmatic passionate about something, it is so I can provide you with some science in a 5 minute read or less. You’re welcome.
That is all. Thank you for following and for sharing. You make the difference!
On a side note, I have successfully mastered my handstand in the middle of the room. Thank you thesis! I think I have attempted 10,000 handstands in between moments of procrastination brilliant insights. It has proven to be an excellent shift in perspective during those 12 hours days. And yes, I have been loading my body weight on my arms for 20 years now. I made an educated choice to increase the frequency of the load. 🙂
Extend Your Learning: Online Education With Jules
Yoga Biomechanics Livestream
My flagship 3-day livestream course is for teachers who have an insatiable curiosity about human movement and kinesiology, are eager to know what the research says about yoga, and are open to accepting that alignment rules aren’t always accurate. Includes 30 days of access to the livestream replay and slides. 18 CEUs. Learn more >
Thank you Jules for writing your blog! I always enjoy reading it and learning from you. Your style entails a great balance between serious scientific information and self-irony 🙂
My pleasure. And thank you for reading and sharing!
Love your style Jules! 😉
Your wisdom and knowledge helps keep this old lady on the mat without injury! Blessings.
Brilliant again, clear, concise and insightful. One of my generation’s mantras was “question authority.” You remind and encourage us all to do just that. Thanks.
In my conversations with yoga teachers and my experience in working with them as a manual therapist for the past 10 years, perhaps I might comment on this point of anatomy, the so called hip joint.
The subjective conversations I have with scores of yoga teachers clearly indicate that this joint is a common problem area and appears to be more so in women than men. I am loathe to ascribe this one joint as being a problem child and I fully realize that innumerable factors contribute to degeneration, ranging from heredity to lack of awareness on our path to so called enlightenment.
I have a simple test which tells me something of the forces this joint is under. I lie the subject supine. I gently cup my hand around the ankle at the posterior Achilles and cup my other hand around the posterior knee. I then add a distractive force (I gently pull on the leg). I observe how much the hip joint will allow a movement before the rest of the body superior to it moves.
Here are the results of testing scores of yoga teachers the past 10 years:
One person passed the test with both legs!
(This is worse by far than the general population).
Over half of the teachers could not pass the test with either leg.
The remainder passed on one leg.
Not scientific, not double blind, not scientifically controlled. Just life! (And a still reasonably intact therapist’s memory)
Understand we are not talking about flexibility. Yoga teachers do not get hip replacements because they are not flexible; they get them because the joint has lost the ability to adapt and disperse compressive forces. To the degree the joint will not distend to that same degree it cannot handle compressive forces and every single step taken at that joint receives a mini shock rather than acting as a shock absorber.
Think of the shock absorbers on your car: If they are compressed already, every pot hole you hit feels like a sink hole! Really messes up your car, annoys off your passengers and may be the reason some don’t get second dates
Doing more yoga, more carefully will not solve the problem any more than running into more potholes will help your vehicle or get you that second date.
Many things could be added here in addition to the salient points Jules has raised.
And yoga is not the problem. Ultimately we are.
There are two things that are hardest to do:
1) Add incremental training (which may take 10,000 tries and 20 years.
2 Adequate rest between trainings. Like savasana and other activities.
And then of course there is one for the shrinks: Why are we so striving?
Re: Barry’s description of the hip test, the yoga instructor that passed with both legs – what does that mean? what did her hips do/not do? thanks, michele
Hi Jules:
Thanks for the request for clarification.
Here is the test:
I have a simple test which tells me something of the forces this joint is under. I lie the subject supine. I gently cup my hand around the ankle at the posterior Achilles and cup my other hand around the posterior knee. I then add a distractive force (I gently pull on the leg). I observe how much the hip joint will allow a movement before the rest of the body superior to it moves
What her body allowed her to do was for both hip joints to distract to a very reasonable degree. This indicated that the balls of her femurs were not jammed up into the acetabulum and that she was very likely not wearing the cartilage away on either surface. She was about 55-60 years old so I know that age does not have to be a factor per se.
But that was not all. What was even more highly unusual is that every single evaluation I used on her that would produce some sort of red flag on anyone else and would indicate a possible need for treatment, she passed every test by a wide margin. For 18 years she has been and still is one of a kind.
She had a calmness about her and a matter of factness about life that I have not seen in any other person. Not even so called tulkus, lamas or rinpoches whom I have met even come close to her.
I went home scratching my head.