This is the second article (see part 1 here) that articulates some problems with yoga. I found this one to be a bit more penetrating in its criticisms. I’ve cut some of it out but you can read the original here. Looking forward to hearing what readers think of this.
Yoga this and Pilates that
By: Eric Cressey, MA, CSCS
Let me preface this entire article by saying that I’m all for anything that makes people enthusiastic about exercise, or gives individuals an outlet to relieve stress. If you’re not moving, you need to move – regardless of what it takes to make you do so. With that said, I gave these two modalities three strikes before I called them “out.” Here are my main issues with Yoga and Pilates:
Strike #1
They don’t differentiate between good and bad range of motion. That is, these disciplines look at being limber as being healthy. This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth.
The truth of the matter is that certain joints in our body - the ankles, hips, and thoracic spine for instance - require more MOBILITY training because they’re too stable/tight. Conversely, some joints - most notably the lumbar spine and glenohumeral (shoulder) joint - require a lot more stability training because they’re too mobile. Every joint in our body is designed to function with a delicate balance of mobility and stability; some just need more of one than the other.
My main concern with yoga and Pilates is the tremendous amount of lumbar hyperextension that occurs; this is the LAST thing you want at the lumbar spine. Most back problems are extension-based; that is, people get excessive ROM at their lumbar spine because they lack ROM at their hips, or they’re just too weak to prevent it at the lumbar spine.
In my view, being “limber” is another way of saying that you’re “unstable.” This is not a good thing. Limber people easily break down on the athletic fields, and they even get injured with ordinary activities like carrying groceries.
Strike #2
Of secondary concern is the excessive recruitment of hip flexors. In consideration of the fact that the majority of those doing yoga and Pilates are female, this is an even bigger issue; women tend to carry their weight too far forward already, and they already have a tendency toward anterior pelvic tilt and lumbar hyperextension.
I’ve worked with loads of female athletes from the youth to professional levels – and I can’t say that I’ve ever looked at one of them and said, “She needs Yoga/Pilates to get stronger, faster, healthier, or leaner.” Now, if these are athletes who in some cases are devoting 3-4 hours per day to training – and they still don’t need Yoga/Pilates – why is it that the average female weekend warrior who has 3-4 hours per week to devote to exercise is CONVINCED that these modalities are the Holy Grail of exercise?
Just to confirm my “intuition,” I contacted a few of the industry’s top performance enhancement coaches and personal trainers. I asked them a simple yes/no question:
Your female client has five hours per week to train. She wants to look good, get stronger, and perform better in the sports of her choice. Are yoga or Pilates going to occupy any of the five hours in the program you write for her?”
(cut — lots of coaches that say no)
Julia Ladewski, University at Buffalo Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach: “For someone with limited time who wants to improve athletic performance, I would not include yoga or Pilates in her workout schedule. I believe dynamic mobility work (as in your DVD) will give her all she needs in that area. So much more of her time needs to be devoted to strength training, getting stronger, conditioning work for her sport, etc. Her time to be devoted outside of sport skill is limited, so she needs to make the most of it in these areas.”
(cut)
Strike #3
Third, many of the movements used in yoga and Pilates only train flexibility - not mobility. Mobility implies that you have STABILITY in the ROM that you achieve; you need to have strength to support your body weight in all those extremes. Having excessive ROM without strength in those ROMs is actually a big risk factor for injury, so excessive static stretching can be a huge problem.
Additionally, I almost never stretch female athletes’ hamstrings. They are quad-dominant enough already; why would I want to inhibit their weakest muscles? Stretch it, and it gets slower and weaker - and it’s ability to prevent anterior tibial translation diminishes. English translation? Your ACL has to do a lot more of the work, and we know all too well that ACLs pop much more easily in females in light of biomechanical differences in their body types when compared to men.
An Important Note
I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water, though; there are good aspect to yoga and Pilates; I just wish people would take more time to qualify their recommendations. Movements that encourage ROM at the lumbar spine should be discouraged, and the same goes for those that involve long isometric actions of the hip flexors.
Additionally, if you’re too weak to punch your way out of a wet paper bag, you’d be better off spending your time lifting weights than taking yoga and Pilates classes. From functional carryover and aesthetic improvements perspectives, lifting weights is far superior.
So, in the grand scheme of things, women don’t need more yoga and Pilates classes. They need to get stronger, and focus on mobility and activation training that enhances stability in the ROM that they’ve already achieved. Additionally, they need to learn to stabilize the lumbar spine instead of tying it into knots.
I recognize that, in writing this article, I’ve probably once-and-for-all given up my change to ever date a yoga or Pilates instructor. If it’s going to save a lot of people a lot of back pain, though, that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Late breaking news | Basic Yoga Lessons // Jul 1, 2007 at 10:48 pm
[...] Problems with yoga pt. 2 [...]
2 GrahamB // Jul 2, 2007 at 5:31 am
That’s certainly better than part 1, which was just an unfocussed rant. I tend to agree with what he says here with the caveat *if you’re training athletes*.
There’s no mention of “fun” in any of what he says. The average person going to yoga class isn’t an athlete. They probably do it because they enjoy it!
Yoga also has spirtual connotations - finding a sense of balance and peace, which I’m sure you can’t get jumping around to the exercise DVD he’s selling.
I learned the ‘Salute the sun’ sequence (or whatever it’s called) in an Ashtanga yoga class, and I still do it now and again - it’s a great workout, gives you a good stretch all over your body and (goddamn it) - it’s fun!
3 cmc // Jul 2, 2007 at 9:54 am
Can anyone help translate these into English? What is ROM? And what is ACL?
The article is interesting in a general way to me as I’ve never practiced yoga and probably never will.
I have another question. Is it possible that the above criticisms are aimed at incorrectly taught yoga?
4 chessman71 // Jul 2, 2007 at 10:36 am
Cmc,
ROM= range of motion and ACL is explained here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_cruciate_ligament
As to the article only talking about incorrectly taught yoga, I would say no — he’s actually talking about yoga that is correctly taught without the awareness of its weaknesses IMO.
For example, I recently bought Iyengar Yoga for Beginners by none other than BKS Iyengar himself. He is THE leading yoga guru and is famous for making it popular in the West. The book is literally filled with men and women that are hyperextending their arms and even legs, in some cases, with him standing right there and putting them into these positions.
I had seen this before, but I was a bit surprised to see his students do it, too.
I notice an awful lot of “yoga legs” among women, and now even a lot of men, that do TOO MUCH yoga (and IMO it is entirely possible to do too much). Just as this article above states, they tend to overstretch the hamstring to the extent that the knee becomes unstable and begins to buckle due to lack of sufficient muscle tone in the back of the leg. I see it in Iyengar himself.
IMO far, far too many yoga people ignore strength exercises that would help balance out the negative effects of too much yoga practice.
But just getting people to the idea that you CAN do too much of it takes a huge amount of effort.
5 Marguerite Ogle // Jul 2, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Pilates and yoga do have a lot in common, but they are also very different and I feel some concern about how much they are lumped together in your (interesting) article.
It is true that Pilates develops flexibility. However, Pilates is probably more well known for helping people develop core strength, pelvic and torso stability, and increased functional mobility. Also, unlike in yoga, there is very little hyperextension of the lumbar spine in Pilates, in fact, almost none. Pilates does, however, work with a lot of spinal flexion.
Strength training is a core component of Pilates and one of the things that differentiates is from yoga is the level of strength and stability Pilates creates in support of flexibility.
I’m not writing to promote my website, , but you will find a lot more information about Pilates there, as well as some articles about Pilates vs yoga(which I love as well).
Thank you.
6 Marguerite Ogle // Jul 2, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I noticed the website I mentioned in my post above did not print. Here it is again: pilates.about.com
7 chessman71 // Jul 2, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Marguerite,
Welcome to the blog and thanks for the link.
You’re right that Pilates did get lumped in there with yoga, but the writer didn’t really address any issues with Pilates. I didn’t notice that with my focus on the yoga. Thanks for pointing that out.
Just checked out your link. Just on the front page is the Pilates pushup — likely an excellent exercise to prevent “yoga arms.”
Good link. Keep up the good work.
8 hz // Jul 2, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Sounds like another great example of..
“Too much of a good thing.”
Everything in moderation and Moderation in all things.
Look at the video you posted on the Gracies (Choke), Yoga, strength training, grappling, nice holistic moderation of different training modalities.
-hz
9 Corey // Jul 3, 2007 at 2:03 am
I would like to open by stating that the bulk of your comments in regards to yoga greatly prove that the west has completely bastardized the spiritual art and practice of a thousands of years old tradition. Yoga is not done so that one can achieve a certain look in an evening gown, nor should it be done with the idea that it will give the killer kicking ability of a champion like Bill “Superfoot” Wallace. Yoga has nothing to do with strength or endurance. The true essence of yogic practice is towards achieving enlightenment. Period. If you are not meditating, you are not truly doing yoga. You are just stretching. And if your teacher is just stretching, and calling it yoga, the chances are that this mistake is not their only one and they may not be presenting the data properly.
There are many approaches to yogic practice from a variety of directions, but the core principle that nearly all share in common is that through the unification of mind and body the spirit can them be connected with and trained to a higher level of consciousness. I know this all sounds quite hokey, but it’s actually easy enough when practicing regularly. The mind is accessed through breathing exercises that enliven the belly and internal organs, which stimulates great health benefits for both digestion and the removal of toxins from the body. The breath is then syncopated with the body’s movements to unify mind and body. (Some forms of yoga weigh more heavily on mind development to access spirit, other forms such as Ashtanga Yoga utilize powerful flowing movement throughout the practice to access spirit by releasing the body.) Both breathing and movement should be done with rigorous discipline. In time one is able to find the “spaces between thoughts” when the body & mind work together on their own, and a person’s true spirit can be revealed. Yoga is not something you do in a gym for an hour on certain weekdays. Yoga is an entire approach to life and can be carried with you every hour of every day.
On the material physical level, yogis do not strive for a muscular development, but rather a strength contained in the ligaments and tendons. Athletically, these are the true “saviors” from injury. Often sports injuries can occur when large muscles (such as the quadriceps) pull so greatly and powerfully that they tear tendon from the bone, or strain/sprain/tear ligament. Flexibility is developed over time, not in one session. A person should never force their body to go deeper than it is capable of going in that specific session. Ever. All good teachers will follow the ideal of “listen to your body, it knows best”, and changes daily. And since the practice develops a practitioner’s flexibility and awareness over time, they should also be developing a corresponding strength in the ligaments and tendons that keeps the body safe and in balance. Perhaps the ability to integrate the physical body, the conscious mind, and the spirit into one practice is what terms Yoga as what you referred to as “the Holy Grail of exercise”….but no matter how grand a practice is, injuries do happen though, as in all athletic pursuits.
That brings me to the practice of Pilates. Pilates was developed by a German man named Joseph Pilates (1880-1967) for rehabilitation of high level professional dancers – people who put some of the highest demands physically possible onto their bodies. Interestingly, Joseph Pilates worked in the early 1900’s as a professional boxer and self-defense trainer. His method of training revolves predominantly on developing “Core-Strength” in the torso of the body. Core strength is what truly protects the spine from injury in most cases. Pilates is NOT about developing flexibility. It is about developing muscles, tendon, and ligament in the abdomen and lower back areas. This is one reason many people use it for fitness, because it tends to tighten the mid-section. Ultimately though, Pilates is an accessory to any athlete that does a physical art form and would like to increase their body awareness in order to grow within that practice.
I liked it that you took the “devil’s advocate” approach towards what much of modern opinion is within your article, at times people can be so open minded that their brains fall out. However, in reading your article I found the writing lacking a true understanding of what the essence of both Yoga and Pilates are actually about; and so the article felt slightly “ignorant” at times. Neither Pilates or Yoga are a miracle exercise program. Both require strenuous work and diligent, patient, practice, with results coming in time. While both look similar in practice, one is purely physical, while the other is completely spiritual. Both do provide excellent health benefits when approached from the correct training angle. And the best way to find that angle is through a good teacher who can pass knowledge to the practitioner, and the best way to learn is to practice and honestly reflect on what you feel during and after the training. Only then will you know if the practices are right for you.
Corey Hunter Wiscomb
Martial Arts Practitioner of 22 years
Yoga Practitioner of 13 years
10 arlene // Jul 4, 2007 at 3:47 am
Thanks for this discussion, especially the different benefits of the two methods. I also appreciated the description of the history of pilates and its primary benefits. I am not sure what ‘yoga lags’ are but I understand the concern indicated about the lumbar hyperextension. I have always associated yoga with relaxation and meditation, however, in observing and taking a few classes I did not feel too relaxed. I opted for tai chi and felt that my mind and body benefitted. I thought it would be a walk in the park but none such.
I enjoyed the depth of the comments and discussion. My comment is part of a class assignment to find a site and make a contribution but I am enjoying this more than I expected. I am not knowledgeable in the areas of yoga, pilates or the strenght building needs of female athletes with limited time but I am enjoying the information.
11 Lynda Lippin // Jul 5, 2007 at 8:45 am
First problem–Pilates is not yoga! Different goals, different philosophy, different exercises.
Second problem–In no way shape or form does Pilates promote uncontrolled Range of Motion (ROM) and good teachers do not teach extreme lumbar hyperextension. Pilates is all about pelvic and torso stabilization with ROM dependent upon how stable the center is. We try to stretch what is too tight, strengthen what is too loose, and generally balance the body so that it functions as well as possible.
I have worked with many athletes over the past 18 years and they all found that Pilates was able to pinpoint and address areas of instability, tightness, and laxity that other fitness training methods were unable to go near.
And by the way, Jospeh Pilates started out working with war wounded soldiers, injured internees, rheumatic patients, and boxers before he went near a dancer!
Lynda
Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Website
Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog
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12 chessman71 // Jul 5, 2007 at 9:15 am
I would like to remind new visitors to the blog that I didn’t write this. That’s why I provided a link to the original.
But i do much appreciate the info on Pilates!
13 scott // Jul 8, 2007 at 5:11 am
Eric Cressey has some good ideas. People who try to sell Yoga to young sports competitors are silly. People should also realize that yoga is a technology. Like all technology in America, it is improving all the time. Many of the things I used to say about yoga aren’t true anymore. Can anybody prove that x or y posture was originally to ‘improve’ some organ system? I think that stuff came out of Chinese theory or perhaps Body Mind Centering.
I don’t like his list of mobile vs. stable joints, but he has the right idea. For instance, I find people often have hips that are too mobile. Their bodies tighten up to protect hips that are too loose, and that makes them stiff.
Of course, I’m against all this weight training stuff and Pilates is just mini-weight training. If you do too much of it you will have problems articulating distally (hands and feet).
The kids I teach who have the best muscle definition are the ones that get beaten regularly. Muscles are the body’s response to injury. Fall down flat on your back hard on ice or concrete a few times and you’ll see what I mean, your whole body will puff up like the Incredible Hulk.
If you are doing “injury” based sports, you better have some muscles, and you better get out while you’re still young.
The reason so many women Yogis have arm and shoulder muscles is because they are injuring them, these are not functional muscles.
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