So I was lamenting with some colleagues about how I am feeling conflicted about teaching and writing at this time. Don’t we have more pressing concerns than a nagging, albeit tolerable, pain below the butt during yoga class? I mean really, let’s get some perspective here.
But then I was served perspective by my friend and colleague Catherine Cowey. She reminded me that our work is also about scientific literacy and critical thinking skills. And that by questioning things we’ve been taught about asana on our mats, examining the available evidence, and then choosing the best course of action, we learn to evaluate what we see, what we read, and what we hear.
This blog is sort of like a podcast, only you have to read it. It’s basically a conversation between me and my friend/colleague, Charlie Reid, about yoga and resistance stretching. We email often, so this is a glimpse into one of our email threads, just formatted to read more like a blog. Oh, and the cat photos have been removed and replaced with content related images.
I am not sure how or why this division came about, but whether or not to bend the knees during a hamstring stretch is a fiercely contested topic in the yoga community. Perhaps it is because injury at the proximal tendon (yellow part of photo below) is quite common among yoga teachers and students. When I lead biomechanics workshops for yoga teachers, I often ask who in the room has experienced, or knows someone who has experienced, proximal hamstring tendon injuries. The show of hands is staggering.
Don’t you just love it when worlds collide? I have been friends with a #bodynerd on facebook who posts the most awesome “Wednesday Musings” about her observations while working with clients, but I didn’t actually know who she was. In February, we attended the same seminar and I finally got to meet Jenn! The following weekend, I was in a marketing seminar hosted by the awesome peeps over at Udaya, and they urged us to find guest bloggers. Shortly thereafter, Jenn boldly commented on one of my facebook threads, questioning a particular transition we commonly encounter in yoga classes. She had I shared a similar view and had an interesting dialogue right there in the thread. Turns out, she writes a fantastic blog of her own. I asked her to turn our thread into a blog so I could share it here, after which we go into a short Q&A to somewhat recreate our original conversation.
