September is Yoga Awareness month, a good reminder to chat about a topic that has been on my to-do list for a while.

To be exact, what most of us refer to as yoga is the physical practice of yoga, also referred to as asana, distinct from the spiritual practice. Going forward I will use the word yoga to mean the asana physical practice, as the method of interest for our chiropractic care application.

Yoga is enjoying a robust and well deserved popularity in the West, as a complete form of physical activity. For myself I first started discovering the benefits of yoga about 15 years ago, and have come to realize that along with my other recreation, dancing, it is going to be a continued learning curve.

I saw the benefits of using yoga in my chiropractic practice quite early on, but did not feel comfortable incorporating any elements of it until I had more experience several years later. Yoga practice, among many great options for rehabilitation, offers several distinct benefits:

Yoga focuses on the strength and stability of a whole body area and a particular function / movement rather than an isolated muscle group. This mimmicks more closely what we do in real life.
Yoga incorporates balance and lengthening with strength building
Yoga builds all movement and transitions with the unit of breath
Yoga practice can target autonomic nervous function
Yoga require little to no prop beyond a mat, and optional strap and blocks

One caveat of yoga practice that is often overlooked is that it is a complex skill that, in my clinical opinion, should not be acquired without early supervised training before you start practicing on your own. While I am by no means an expert, I still cringe at a lot of what I see in popular group classes. Not only is the technique (or lack thereof), displayed by my fellow yogis not beneficial, it can be outright harmful and a source of injury. I strongly encourage all prospective yogis to work in a small group class with a dedicated instructor for a couple of months before joining a larger class or practicing remote.