Wholistic Fitness

Most Treasured Student on the Path of Wholeness,
my short answer: yes.

Ashtanga yoga even at 3x weekly is going to produce injury for most Americans…let alone 5-6 times per week! Such a Discipline-Specific Spike In The Graph of your 38 years is a huge WF no-no!

Ashtanga Yoga is now quickly replacing Ballet as the most injury-producing discipline in America…which is totally ironic, since the 6,000 year-old First Rule of Yoga is Ahimsa. Ahimsa has multiple meanings, like everything else in Yoga, however, first and foremost Ahimsa means; Do No Harm…Do Not Harm yourself or other Beings.

In my Teachings, i have warned new students to be VERY judicious about choosing which forms of Asana to pursue. One must study the Teacher of the style very deeply to make sure he or she reflects Wholeness across the physiologic spectrum; otherwise, like any sport or occupation, the asana will produce Imbalance and Injury instead of Healing and Wholeness. as in the Martial Arts, in Yoga-asana there are Hard forms and Soft forms. HP Yoga® – one of Wholistic Fitness®’s Five Noble Fitness Disciplines – enjoys the Middle Path; it is neither hard nor soft rather a beautiful interweaving of both. this i TAF, is optimal…especially since in WF, our Practice includes sports, fitness, and Meditation.

The founder of Ashtanga Asana was deeply influenced by Western gymnasts, hard-style martial artists, Southern Indian wrestlers, and other joint-intensive practices. The vinyasa’s inherent to Ashtanga Asana are extremely joint-intensive as a result and certainly are not practical or in my opinion, safe for modern North Americans who grow up addicted to furniture, chairs, shoes, etc., all of which stiffen our knees, lower backs, and hips. The South Indians grow up sitting in Lotus, walk with barefeet, and don’t depend on cars and furniture as much as we do. Thus, as ilg has Taught many times, a North American trying to conform his or her body into Ashtanga Asana postures and flows, is like trying to pound a square peg into a round hole…something is gonna bust.

i’ve compared Ashtanga Asana to Cat. 1 Road Racing on bicycles; it is a very, very elite group of usually genetically and karmically gifted souls…if an average joe tries to keep up with them, us Average Joes are gonna get injured or dropped very quickly. personally, ilg would LOVE to be able to perform asana like an Ashtangi…however, perfecting studio-asana is not a High Priority on the Path of Wholeness. Remember, the ONLY REASON why we do asana flows is so we can sit in Meditation without being bothered by a body that fidgets after prolonged sitting or a mind that wavers. the point of Asana is to attain a several hour command of either Padmasana or Siddhasana and the strengthening and eventual merging of Ida and Pingala Nadis into Sushumna – both of these Benchmarks need to be accomplished by age 75.

Having experienced dozens and dozens of sports and training disciplines, i have only hurt my joints by doing three Disciplines in my life:

• Zazen
• Ashtanga Yoga
• Bikram Yoga

ironic that in all the extreme, outdoor sports ilg has reached high levels in, it has not been sport that produced injury, but rather spiritual-training disciplines! now, having wrote that, you may be thinking, “My Beloved Whacky Coach has gotten drunk on the Durango Pran again…what about you breaking your back during rock climbing?”

valid point, my Precious DL Warrior.
however,
during that ascent of the Diamond, ilg was in Performance Mode…Full On Warrior Mode.
this column is not about Performance.
it’s not about being in Battle.

it’s about Training.
it’s about Practice.

once we are in Performance Mode, all bets are off. the Warrior should risk Death or Enlightenment or both.

while Training however, the Goal is Wholeness.

i created HP Yoga® to complement a Wholistic Approach to sport performance and/or spiritual training. The unique HP Sun Salutations that you see described in TBT along with pivotal HP Yoga® Teachings such as Hold-And-Hover, the HP Yoga Asana Mudra, Internal Float Philosophy, as well as using the Proven WF Strength Training Techniques as Staccato®, 3-Stage®, etc. while in an HP Yoga® session all as deeply healing and nourishing and strengthening and balancing of our Joint Capsules. in HP Yoga® our Maxim is that SUPPLENESS MUST BE CREATED BY JOINT-ENHANCING STRENGTH; this means developing Strength of Ujjayi, Strength of Internal Floatation, Strength of Bandha, and most of all, Strength of Mental Discipline to overcome the Ego Impulse to think that ‘going deeper into a pose’ is somehow ‘better.’