4 Common Misunderstandings About Yoga

Yoga is a very popular form of exercise and spiritual balancing, but it is also very often misunderstood by a lot of people.  This is almost inevitable when you consider the incredible popularity of Yoga as a discipline and the many different strands that Yoga has.  Quite often people have experience with one type of Yoga but not another, and as such they will base their overall impression of Yoga on what they have seen.  It is like people basing their impression on Germans on the most famous German they know - Adolf Hitler, or more recently the portrayal of George Bush internationally as the only example of an American anyone knows.  The truth is that Yoga can be very different depending on who you learn it from and how they perceive Yoga.  This article looks at some of the common misconceptions.

(Photo credit: GO INTERACTIVE WELLNESS)

Misconception Number One:  Yoga Is a Form of Exercise.

Well yes it is, but so is walking.  I can walk from my couch to my table and I can hardly claim to have done my exercise for the day.  The truth is that exercise is just the beginning of what yoga is.  It's closer to a combination of exercise, physiotherapy, psychology and spirituality all rolled into one.  As you come to master Yoga you will need to become more and more mentally strong, and most importantly disciplined.  If you can discipline yourself to do regular Yoga sessions, and maintain your discipline to do each pose for the prescribed time, and do it properly, then you will naturally become a more disciplined and organized person.  For some people this transcends to a spiritual level because they are so efficient at clearing their thoughts while meditating.

Misconception Number Two:  Yoga is for Hippies.

As previously mentioned Yoga can be a very spiritual experience if you become good enough at clearing your thoughts and concentrating whilst performing the exercises.  But you certainly do not have to begin with any certain type of spiritual belief.  Yoga is about aligning the body and the mind and the spirit through achieving inner balance. What that means to you is probably going to depend entirely on what your beliefs already are.  For some people it will be a spiritually freeing experience, for others it will be an effective way of de-stressing and achieving a level of calmness of thought.  Still others will claim that these things are one and the same.

Misconception Number Three:  Yoga is a Fad.
Recently there have been some very hyped up Yoga courses making big claims about what Yoga can achieve.  These are easy to associate with other 'fad' exercise crazes.  However Yoga is not something new and is based on principles that are hundreds of years old which describe exercises and poses that were probably being performed for generations before that.  An individual style of Yoga may come and go, but as long as people are still stretching before a game of football then Yoga is still being used.

(Photo credit: GO INTERACTIVE WELLNESS)

Misconception Number Four:  Yoga Is Too Slow to Help Me Lose Weight/Gain Tone etc.

This one is way off the mark, but we have been somewhat trained by the weight-loss industry that weight loss, and toning our body is all about hours in the gym and fast high-impact exercise.  That's simply not true.  Yoga can help with weight loss and in particularly toning for a number of reasons.  Firstly the exercises, while low impact and performed either statically or slowly - are still exercises.  While you use them you are using your muscles, and in many cases you are using muscles and muscle groups that regular exercise programs ignore. Building these muscles will gradually increase your metabolism, so that you are actually burning more fat even while you're not working out.

The second way that Yoga can be of benefit in a weight loss program is that it will increase your mental strength and allow you to be more disciplined with your food consumption.  When it comes down to it, pure and simple, as probably everyone knows, excess weight is a result of excess eating and not enough physical exercise to burn off the intake of calories.  Have you ever noticed how some people can eat donut after donut and not put on any weight at all?  It seems unfair, but it's a natural result of the state of their body.  Usually these people will be quite 'sinewy' and this muscle allows them the metabolize food faster.  That's the third benefit of Yoga in weight loss - as your muscles develop your body will actually become more efficient at consuming foods and processing them into nutrients and waste.

Hopefully we have now done away with the various myths associated with Yoga.  Bottom Line: Yoga is pretty much what you make of it, and it can have a myriad of benefits for both body and mind.

The Three Steps of A Yoga Session

The benefits of yoga are well know to anyone who has ever tried the discipline, but if you are new to yoga let me recap.  Yoga is a fantastically popular and effective way of strengthening you physically as well as mentally and spiritually.  This last 'spiritual' aspect may turn some people off, but it's not something that needs to be associated with religion.  Really the best alternate word for the spiritual strength of yoga is contentment or happiness.  It allows you to be a calmer person and more happy with yourself.  Put like that it sounds pretty great doesn't it?

So you've probably heard a little about yoga and wondered what it's all about.  You probably have a few preconceptions and maybe an image of an old man with a long beard sitting in the lotus position springs into your head in automatic association with the word.  While old men (and women) certainly can benefit from a regular yoga practice, there's a lot more to it than that! So let's go through step by step what you can expect in a typical yoga session.

Step One:  The

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, Galleria dell' Accademia, Venice (1485-90) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Introduction and Preparation.

Most Yoga classes begin in a standing position.  There are both mental and physical reasons for this and they are closely connected.  The standing position is the most natural Human position there is.  Leonardo Da Vinci produced a famous scientific picture of the symmetry of the human body when it is in it's natural standing position.  The outstretched arms and legs can have a perfect circle drawn around them and this is true of everyone regardless of their height or weight.  What this means is that a standing pose comes naturally to us - we are not worried about getting it wrong and we can concentrate of the state of the body.  Breathing exercises will be a key part of the warm up stage for your routine.  This is the only time in your life you will be 'taught' to breath and it's a skill which allows people to restore calm to their bodies and thoughts.

Step Two:  The Main Routine

This is the heart of your Yoga session which will vary the greatest depending on what forms of Yoga you are learning.  While the individual exercises you will be doing are going to be quite different, the nature of them will be very similar.  This will mean moving into certain poses and positions and holding those poses to allow the body to stretch out muscles and muscle groups that in many cases haven't been given much attention during the week.  Some yoga teachers will talk to you about energy points or chakras.  These are important junctions in your body where congestion occurs and stretching them out allows energy to flow freely around your body.

Siddhasana, Yoga Asana, adept's or perfect pose. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Step Three:  Ending the Session

While the main session is about releasing pent up energies, this stage of your yoga workout is all about allowing that energy to flow around your body.  Many people have trouble with thinking about some strange mystic force that is flowing through you and driving it to certain parts of your body.  If you are one of them just mentally substitute the word 'energy' with the word 'blood'.  We know that the job of blood is to carry nutrients and oxygen around our body, and we know that if any part of our body is lacking in this supply that we will become ill, so it's not a huge stretch to think of blood as the mystic energy force that brings health around our body, and exercises such as yoga as being the method of ensuring the smooth and successful flow of that blood.

There are many different branches of yoga, but most yoga workouts will consist of these three steps. The poses and style of what is contained in these steps may vary, but all of them provide great benefits for your whole body. Check back later this week for some examples and a fun yoga workout!

Got a Few Minutes?

Ina Marx at 68, looked 35, and could do things with her body that a 16-year-old farm hand can't do, but she wasn't always fit-as-a-fiddle.

At the age of 30, while pregnant, she was forced to jump from the third story of a burning hotel. She landed on concrete, fractured her spine and pelvis, broke several ribs -- and lost her child.

Image via WikipediaOver the next 10 years Marx tried nearly every kind of regimen to rescue herself from this state. Nothing worked, and she eventually reached such desperation that she attempted suicide, twice. Then she discovered yoga -- her salvation.

With new confidence and a new lease on life, she began teaching yoga and has also written two books, ''Yoga and Common Sense'' and ''Fitness for the Unfit.''

With her special yoga program, she combines the physical aspects of Hatha Yoga with Raja Yoga, the meditative side.

Her method is specially designed to reach out to all those who have been left in the dust of the high-energy, high-impact state of modern fitness programs, and those who need to relax and unwind in a short amount of time to relieve a lot of stress quickly.

What's more, the best thing about Marx's form of practical yoga is that a few stretches a day, for a few minutes a day -- at home or in the office -- can lead couch potatoes and grouches to a very bright light at the end of the tunnel.

Practical Yoga Resources: