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The TRUTH About Yoga and Pilates by Mike Boyle

I don’t think I have a problem with the new “magic bullets” in fitness, yoga and Pilates, as much as I do with the thought process of one size-fits-all cures. They are two obviously different disciplines but, have one thing in common. Both seem to be taught and patronized by zealots who believe that their discipline of choice is “the key” to fitness. I can tell you that at least once a month I get approached by an acquaintance who knows what I do for a living who says, “We have to talk about yoga; you have no idea what it will do for your athletes.”

Point 1

For all you zealots out there trying to help me train my athletes, I actually have done OK without you. Just for the record, there are many folks like me who have been training athletes for decades who have drawn much of their warm-up and flexibility work from yoga but don’t feel the need to dedicate two of their eight hours a week to this relatively small area. I need to work on strength, power, speed, and conditioning — all in eight hours a week. I need to do that with a proper warm-up and attention to flexibility. Can’t you just see the yoga guy or girl jumping up and down saying, “I know, I know, yoga does all that.”

The truth is yoga does not do all that.

Yoga develops strength to a point and then simply works primarily on muscle endurance.

Point 2

To develop strength, we need progressive resistance exercise. The only way to get that in yoga would be to try to gain weight. If bodyweight is a constant than progressive resistance is not possible without adding external load. Sorry. That is a fact.

Point 3

Yoga by its nature will not develop power. For power, we need speed of movement. Yoga does not have speed of movement. I know some styles of yoga bill themselves as “Power Yoga” but that is a bit of an oxymoron. For power we actually need to move as fast as possible against a given resistance. In yoga the only available resistance is body weight and no one is moving as fast as possible.

Point 4

Conditioning. I love this one. The yoga folks say, “But yoga is great for conditioning.” How can something be great for conditioning if you don’t move? The essence of sport is movement. In yoga you stay in your own little space.

Point 5

Please stop telling me about the breathing. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that my athletes really don’t know how to breathe and that yoga will totally change them. Thank God I have never had an athlete stop breathing on me.
Let me explain something to you yoga folks out there.

I’m happy that you found something that you like. In my mind, if it works for you, it works for you. Stop trying to sell it to me.
I think many people get tremendous benefit when they commit to a system. That system could be yoga or Pilates or any other trend that materializes. I think what many people are really saying is, “Hey, I found something that works for me, let me tell you about it.”

The truth is I’ve thought about it. And I firmly believe it is not the answer you think it is. That should tell you something, but it probably won’t: you can’t see the forest because of the trees. You’re mad that I don’t like yoga. Get over it. Go to another class. If I come across anyone who is training to stand in the same place for an hour, I’ll send them your way.

Want more? Check out Mike Boyle’s new site: StrengthCoach.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 10:43 am and is filed under Fitness Professionals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • jo
    Great comments. I totally agree with what you are saying. Having said that, I do enjoy including yoga in my training whenever possible. Unfortunately it always seems to be the first thing to go in my 12ish hour training week. The flexibility benefits of yoga far outway any other stretching method FOR ME! It also seems to just make me feel better during a hard weeks training. Just thought I'd share my two bobs worth. I can see both points of view, and hey yoga and pilates are better than doing nothing.
  • Steve Z.
    so true. thanks for speaking up for performance coaches everywhere!
  • Although I agree with your general assessment of yoga as not being a good total fitness practice, you come across as a bit mean-spirited about it. Yoga has it's place in fitness, and if nothing else, it is a great stress reliever. Most of us are regular "joes and jills", with regular jobs, who are not athletes. Most of us try to do WAY too much and be way too many things to way too many people. It's nice to take a break to calm the mind in stillness every now and then. I know, I know, if you want stress relief you'd probably rather go and pump iron and work up a sweat. Thats good too, but sometimes it's nice to just be quiet. Wishing you peace and health (namaste), Cindy
  • Anna
    Geesh.. who p..... in your Wheaties? I agree everyone has his/her own favorite way to train and one should not be over zealous in recommending his/her preference to another. But it seems to me that you have no personal experience with yoga because it is far more strenous than staying in "your own little space". And no, I'm not mad that you don't like yoga.
    Open the heart and open the mind:) Oops.
  • On behalf of my company and my team - great work Mike. I am going to re-publish this, if you don't mind in my online newsletter that reaches physios, strength coaches, sport med docs and trainers around the world. Give me a shout; I'd like to chat with you more about this . . . I actually stood up at the Can Fit Pro Conference in Toronto last August when I was lecturing to over 250 delegates that Yoga was for the "YO-GEES" and was related to performance about as much as the banana sitting on my desk to my ink-jet printer. Oh, but there is yoga for athletes . . .Plllllease. carmen@humanmotion.ca

    Cheers Mike.
  • jb
    Mike -

    Finnally...a peer who is not afraid to speak his mind! I could not agree with you more.

    John Balano MA, USA-W
    Head Speed Strength and Conditioning Coach
    City College of San Francisco Football
    1946-1948-1994-1999-2000-2001-2003 National Champions
  • Hannah
    So true!!

    I teach yoga, but like you, i don't believe it is the cure all that many people think it is. Which is why my classes aren't taught in traditional yoga format.

    I have always believed that yoga and pilates can be used as a PART of a complete program. I have clients who have injured themselves in their yoga classes, most of the time because the instructors don't teach proper progression, and my clients pay the price when the over do things.

    thanks for the great commentary.
  • Larry
    My daughter talked me into Yoga classes. "Up Dog, Down Dog, Cobra". I thought I was going to Breathe my last as a result of boredom and enter a final state of nemastae, or whatever they call it. I'm sticking with your excercises. Sand Bag the Yoga!
  • Steve MS, CSCS HFI
    Mike,

    Loved the article. I have taken a few yoga and pilates classes and most of the time there is NO individualization or attention to past injuries that you may have had etc. I think it is a nice recovery style workout perhaps to add in during higher volume training periods, but is far from the answer. People try to tell me oh you'll decrease your injuries, to which there is no evidence, Moreover I will school any yogie in an agility pattern or sport movement. Sure they can stand on thier head but can they output a kilowatt or two?
  • Why would you want "more" power? Isn't it enough to be have flexible body and good heath in any age? Yoga provides you with body-mind excercise and has been arround for thousands of years.
    It has been proven that anybody who pushes body beyond limmits, does not lieve long enough to tell stories to his grand children. Why die from exostion just to gain power and speed? Beet's me!
    James Marincic
  • jen
    Wow, that's awesome that you can simply brush aside a tradition that's been growing strong for over 10,000 years. And, I'm not mad that you don't like yoga (you actually didn't mention anything about Pilates in your tirade). I definitely agree, it's just not for everyone and I don't train athletes, except my husband. I will say this, though. He had suffered consistent varied injuries over 15 years until I got him training in yoga and Pilates and no serious injuries since.
  • Glenna
    I'm not upset that you don’t like yoga. It takes all kinds, right? If we were all the same, life would be pretty dull. The truth is, yoga has been around for thousands of years, and it’s probably not going anywhere any time soon (even without your support). There are a lot of smart people out there doing yoga, and I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn’t keep doing something that didn’t produce a pretty significant benefit. I just don’t have enough time to fritter away on something that doesn’t work.

    By power yoga, you probably mean Astanga vinyasa yoga, or possibly Bikram yoga. Have you tried either one of these? To be fair, yoga has been somewhat bastardized in its transition from East to West. We have everything from "Yoga Booty Ballet" to "Yogalates," which don’t represent true yoga traditions. But if you look at the practice of many celebrities—people who are paid to look good—you’ll find that yoga is pretty popular, not just for its ability to produce physical results, but also for its mental and spiritual benefits. Whatever your feelings about Madonna, can you argue that Astanga yoga hasn’t produced for her? From a purely physical perspective, I agree that there is no magic bullet for everyone. For me, it has been the answer. I started practicing yoga while recuperating from a serious illness. It was the only thing I could ease into gradually. Now I teach beginning yoga to psych patients, and can attest to the benefits of stress release, increased physical stamina, and sometimes, even the need for fewer meds. At least one person asks me for “my DVD” every week, so we yogis and yoginis must be doing something right.

    But I’m not here to sell you yoga. I also like the idea of muscle confusion—doing something different every day seems like a good idea for muscles and mind. In fact, I’m pretty excited about the 12-minute workouts I’m learning from Ryan Lee's new book. And there’s a Krav Maga center five minutes away that I REALLY want to try...thank goodness there are so many options! But for someone who is inflexible in mind, a good start is to become flexible in body. It’s amazing how these things fit together. It is often that the very things we rebel against/don’t appreciate are the very things we need:)

    Namaste,
    Glenna
  • Chris
    I'm really quite disappointed in the aggressive manner of your rant against Yoga. I agree that Yoga (or any other specialised regime) is no 1 stop solution. It is however a vital (for me anyway) part of any weekly regime. This includes Dynamic Stretching, Body Balance, Body Combat, Weight Training, Circuits and Ab Blast. I teach all these disciplines (along with basic Yoga)and I personally have noticed the difference in my own fitness and body shape and that of my participants. As you can see from my regime, it has a healthy balance of aerobic, anaerobic, muscle building, endurance, power and stretching. The key word is balance here which is the whole basis of Yoga. I personally couldn't care less if you do Yoga or not, but as someone in this industry with a lot of experience and respect from your peers you have a responsibility not to be so destructive and negative. Just to be clear, I am not saying we should all shave our heads, wear sandals and chant 3 times a day, but the benefits of any Yoga-type exercises should not be overlooked by anyone with an interest in a varied and balanced training program. Maybe if you tried Yoga you would be able to word your depressing tirade in an inspirational way and perhaps it would open your obviously closed mind.
  • I think you've made a lot of valid points, Mike.

    One thing which was not addressed was yoga as a means of compensatory movement. Due to specialization in athletics, every athlete's body develops in a specialized way. For instance, wrestlers and grapplers often have hunched forward shoulders and neck, compressed chest, etc. Every sport comes with its own typical "imbalances," as we like to call them.

    I think that yoga is a great way to compensate for the imbalances we develop in sports training. If our sport requires us to hunch forward a lot, it will benefit us to bend backwards to counteract that conditioning.

    I don't understand that much about breath, as I am relatively new to practicing yoga, but I know of one athlete that has presumably never practiced yoga until as of two months ago. Specifically, with his breath training, he is now able to increase his heart rate 70 beats in 60 seconds, without the consumption of muscular or biochemical energy. More importantly, this athlete can recover his heart rate 50 beats per minute.

    www.scottsonnonlive.com (search for performance breathing)

    Glenna made an excellent remark, "To be fair, yoga has been somewhat bastardized in its transition from East to West." I couldn't agree more - the yoga you see here in America is nothing like it is meant to be, it is much more specific than building flexibility (it's actually not about becoming flexible at all, arguably). There are few yogis that have actually visited the East to learn true yoga, and it shows with all of the fluffy programs that now exist.

    I think Jen has also made a great point about her husband having "consistent varied injuries over 15 years until I got him training in yoga and Pilates and no serious injuries since." I can vouch for this being true and know many people who will explain the same thing.

    I don't understand that much about breath, as I am relatively new to practicing yoga, but I know of one athlete that has presumably never practiced yoga until as of two months ago. Specifically, with his breath training, he is now able to increase his heart rate 70 beats in 60 seconds, without the consumption of muscular or biochemical energy. More importantly, this athlete can recover his heart rate 50 beats per minute.

    www.scottsonnonlive.com (search for performance breathing)

    Obviously, yoga can only build so much strength and it will not increase an athlete's power output, and many yogis will admit they are not optimally trained for full-contact sports like hockey or MMA. Of course, the thought of yoga as the only way to benefit athletics is a bit narrow-minded. But ignoring the other benefits of yoga is just as narrow-minded.

    I would encourage you to reexamine yoga from the perspective of compensatory movement, I know it has greatly benefited my personal practice in martial arts. I practice Prasara yoga as taught here:

    www.rmaxi.com

    Namaste,
    John
  • To those of you who do not understand why Mike sounds like a bitter old man when he talks about yoga and the obnoxious people who oversell it to him.

    See, to create traffic to one's website and a buzz around one's name one needs to get attention, and to get attention it helps to be controversial. So what does Mike do? He finds some obvious truths (yoga is not THE THING for sports-specific, athletic conditioning) and states them as revelations ("The TRUTH about yoga and Pilates"). Effect achieved - he got me to post here!

    On the other hand, this is the last time I receive
    the newsletter that his article was in (Ryan Lee nudge nudge wink wink).

    When I open my Inbox for news about the fitness industry I expect POSITIVE SPIRIT, not some
    half-intelligent and angry rant.

    Mike, I know you are mad at us because we like yoga, but let me try to sell it to you one more time: Yoga facilitates a clear mental disposition and a positive mood. Try it - you could end up writing more intelligent stuff, which would do a lot for your traffic ;-)
  • It's funny how things are always misconstrued no matter what training technique or discipline we might be talking about. Agreed that Yoga is not made to please everyone but I'm not really sure that you even thought about what you were saying when you subconciously stated that Yoga is a trend.... I'm pretty sure that if you'd done any research on the topic that you'd know that Yoga is actually a science consisting of over 5000 years of study.
    Yoga is obviously not meant to create faster or stronger athletes...that's a given... anyone thinking that it would has also not their research.
    Fact of the matter is is that Yoga was never meant to be driven by the Ego to exelerate one person into physical performance perfection. Yoga is about bring awareness into the mind and body. I think that this awareness is lacking in several athletes and their training programs.

    I beleive that Yoga holds unbound benefits for all. Bring the mind into silence to the point of ultimate mental and physical awareness.

    When a Yogi tells you that your athletes don't know how to breath, this obviously doesn't mean that they're going to stop breathing.... don't be patronizing!! All they mean is that by paying close attention to your breath and the way that you breathe can unlock the potential to go beyond many physical and mental barriers.

    So to wrap it up.....
    Anyone that thinks that Yoga alone will create the ultimate performance athlete is being nieve. And anyone that thinks that Yoga holds no benefit to performance althletes has never studied Yoga beyond going to a class and going through the poses..... and anyone that really knows Yoga knows that it's not about the poses!!!
  • Mike is experiencing what is known as...Testosterone. Those offended are experiencing what is known as...Sissyness. His article was meant to piss you off, that's what those of us with remaining testicles like to do when the rest of society is engaging in demasculazation.

    And guess what it ties into eastern philosophies. For every yippy, tweaking on the high of life, estrogen saturated, tofu eater; there must be a yang. Those of us that love a bloody steak, watching 300, picking up really heavy things, grunting because talking is overated is that yang. Are we a**holes? Absolutely. That's the nature of aggression.

    Now on the flip side does yoga have benefits? No doubt, as has been said it's been around for generations. But does it maximize training economy? Not really. Does it support maximal aggression that leads to a heartier species of human? We're 50% obese, the DNA is being destroyed. We need people that want to survive and advance the species.

    His article is a rant. Rants are suppose to be aggressive and making fun of those at which it is aimed. Rants may drive away traffic to his website...traffic from those that get their panties in a knot when somebody makes fun of them. Traffic from those that like watching panties get tied in a twist will increase and most likely result in a constant state of traffic.

    I've referred many future clients to do pilates or Tai Chi before starting a new exercise regimen. But for the purpose of this article and disscussion, go get some Vagisil if you can't handle a little friendly ribbing ;)
  • Great article, Mike... Yoga IS evil!

    -JS-
  • Hey Nathan I can stand a little ribbing - you'd be surprised. (I can give a little ribbing too, which is a different story altogether). Congratulations on keeping your testicles - red-blooded men like you are a rarity these days. (Maybe because to survive, brains matter more).
  • gigi
    Well i always thought you were a typical tight jock, but when you are e-mailing out to the masses, it is very necessary to do at least a bit of research into the different types of Yoga.Many forms of yoga involve much movement from one posture to another. i really think that you should challenge yourself to 1 Ashtanga or Vinyasa class ( even a level 1). I have been a competitve athlete for many years. I finally realized that I had put my body through trainings such as you use to the point where I was constantly injured. I changed to Yoga and still get the sweat the endorphin rush, the cardio and the strength, but hey no more injuries. I can consistently hold my body weight by using only 1 hand. Now that is strength.
  • Ooh ooh Grog smash!! I have been doing Intu-Flow for several months. It may be some type of yoga or not. I still like my workouts in blizzards :) Mind-Body connection that! Haha the best part is seeing peoples reaction when you ask if they wanna join in a snow workout ;)
  • Good for you! This reminds me of the "aerobics argument" (no different than the aerobics instructors I've worked with and attempted to work with throughout the years). They think that all they need is aerobics (step and such), but if that's all they need then why are so many of them FAT and unfit? To be "in shape" for one thing is ... well...to be in shape for one thing. No rocket science, just physiology. I teach pilates on the stability ball by the way as another alternative, i.e. CROSSTRAINING. Let's hear it for crosstraining. But most of all let's hear it for strength, power, agility, balance, functionality, flexibility and core training (proper nutrition notwithstanding). If one were totally honest with oneself, then they would admit that no one discipline can possibly cover all the components of total fitness. "Nuff said"!!!
  • Mike,
    Thanks for your comments. I am a pilates teacher and athletic trainer in Toronto. I strongly agree with your points on how to train for power, stregth, speed and conditioning. However, I also feel that there are many benefits of adding pilates exercises to an athletes training program. Working on proper alignment, biomachanics and fuctional movement patterns will help the athlete with their performance. Pilates is a great form of crosstraining and injury preventions for athletes of all types and I regularly add pilates exercises into my programs. So although I appreciate your strong views on this subject please go and take some pilates classes and find out how this may be beneficial to your clients.
  • Mike Barnaby
    I laughed at your article Mike! I have a friend who has been pitching Yoga AND Pie-Lattes at me for years!

    Every time I am the least bit injured, she pipes up about how these miracle training styles would have cured these ailments! I do kickboxing and MMA, and used to be a body builder. I am sure the hours of stretching wouldn't hurt me, but I do not have the patience to get into the cult like classes..maybe when I'm in my late 60's I'll be doing it, but for me it's high intensity weight/ cross training and blasting the pads!
  • This was a reprint and it is amazing to see that it still produces the same responses as last time it was published. To be honest, I agree on a number of fronts with my detractors.
    1-Yoga has been bastardized in the name of money-making in the east. Probably another reason I am not a fan.
    2- I would prefer "tongue in cheek" versus "pissed off". The intent is to get the zealots to think about their approach. As Vahagn (who stated above that they would never read Ryan's newsletter again) noted the intent is to be a bit controversial to get people to read, think and perhaps write. Just a note, don't read only what you believe.
    3- The article was intended to slow down the "yoga as a cure all" folks out there who feel they have just witnessed something akin to the discovery of electricity.

    Truth is they have discovered an ancient art that forms the basis of much of our flexibility work. However, it is not a miracle, not for everyone and frequently not taught well.

    Sorry if I pissed you off. Happy Thanksgiving.
  • Please see my response at the following link

    http://www.pilatesandreikiinparadise.com/2007/1...

    Lynda Lippin
  • Yoga is not meant to be a workout. It is not about doing a bunch of poses to increase range of motion. Yoga is a way of living. It reminds us to be mindfull. Who doesn't need a good dose of mindfullness now and then. Taking a yoga class here and there will not make a difference in performance for anyone. Just like one workout now and then will not make someone stronger, faster, or leaner. It's practice over time.

    I've been teaching Krav Maga at the National Training Center for over 10 years and a competitive gymnast my entire life. I love training to be powerful, explosive, and aggressive but I really don't think my level of performance and skill would be where it is today without a yoga practice. And yes... it has so much to do with who the teacher is and how they transfer knowledge. It's very hard to find a qualified yoga teacher due to the trend of Yoga in the fitness industry.

    Keep in mind yoga has tremendous health benefits. The healthier one is the better their sport performace will be. It cleanses the lunges, aids in digestion, stimulates nervous system function, it camls the mind...etc. Any great coach knows how important visualization is in athletic performance. The yoga practice is a great time to visualize skills, drills, strategies, even the promotion of healing an injury. Athletes and coaches must not forget the power of the mind.

    That being said, yoga IS NOT sport specific just like Mike mentioned but it is a great tool (with the appropriate teacher) to aid any kind of performance whether you are a competitive athlete, a sedentary couch potato, or living with an illness.

    Tina Angelotti, Vence CA
  • Thank you for your honesty! Many people try to push their new-found cure-all on everyone around them and although I believe they are doing so with good intention, not all things are for all people. On the athletes side, they have to do what gives them the most bang for their time invested. Controversy is a beautiful thing :)
  • Karla
    Mike,

    Thank you on behalf of all sports performance coaches out there. Your right Yoga is a crock of Shi**!for us strength and conditioning coaches out there. Athletes can not and will not improve there performance by doing useless breathing techniques and holding flexibilty poses for 5 minutes or more while listening to birds chirping in the back ground and listening to terrible sanctuary cd's. How many athletes do you know hold any position or pose in their sport for as long as you hold yoga poses?

    Oh yeah some of you say, what about golf? ask Tiger Woods, Yoga is not what makes him one of the strongest athletes in sports today.( neither is on steroids). Strength, speed, and power is what athletes need and yoga for sure does not provide that.

    Even if you are not an athlete,yoga and also pilates does not provide the benefits to the best conditioning for your heart, lkie running or resistance training can, for example. Get up, get out, and do something diferent and do not rely on yoga to solve all your health problems or achieve total fitness.

    Karla
  • A1
    It's funny how many people have taken this as an attack on yoga and that p-stuff when it's really against the zealot pushers that feel y/p should be integrated into athletes training at the cost of true strength and conditioning training. I train for MMA and do yoga a couple days a week (mainly 'cause it's free for me) and I think yoga is great. If I had to take time out of my martial arts training to make room for it I would take the sport specific training in a heartbeat over yoga, because the time and energy I spend on training is going to yield far more results than yoga. That's the point of this article, not that yoga and pilates suck (though pilates kind of does suck).
  • Charlie
    Mike,
    I was exposed to yoga and pilates at the same time I was learning about functional work, and for the most part I agree with you. However, I did see where the slow controlled aspects of yoga and pilates helped my clients and myself get more out of some of the complex functional movements as well as typical resisted exercises. Long story short, I like to use yoga in place of the typical dynamic flexibility routine, and I have my clients do the first few reps to get their form, eliminate "cheats", and get mentally connected to what they are doing.
  • Brenna
    My goodness, someone's a little cranky!! Yoga in the true sense is a mind/body relaxation technique. As an athlete myself, I've used it to increase my flexibility and range of motion, which improves my ability to lift weight in those ranges of motion... Yoga isn't to be used to produce power; power is a product of moving a force a certain distance in the shortest amount of time... that's not the point of yoga... many athletes have inflexibility issues, like hamstring tightness in football/basketball players... yoga is just one way to combat that inflexibility and possibly help prevent injury... geez man... relax!
  • mark
    If that's your experience..ok, but I haven't seen any yoga advocates putting down progressive resistance, or specific athletic speed/skill/strength training. If anything, they seem to be doing exaclty what is you say is ok with you; just doing what works for them. Sorry to be redundant: You say you're getting these remarks, fine, but it looks lke a "straw man" arugment to me. All of the attitude I hear comes from progressive resistance trainees and trainers.
  • christiane
    May be you have made some valid points. Please try Ashtanga yoga, then comment. If you want long, lean and taut body do yoga, if you want short and stocky do weight lifting
  • Sandra
    Mike, your article and most of these responses, are very sad. Aside from a few comments, it is clear that yoga is highly misunderstood.. by "fitness Professionals"! The exercises (poses) you see in yoga classes are just one aspect of yoga and unfortunately most of what people are exposed to (therefor creating this yoga association and misunderstanding). Yoga was never meant to prepare a person to burst into a 5-minute mile after a crushing hilly ride in the middle of a triathlon. Yoga is a lifestyle that helps an individual reach a higher state of conscious. The "poses" were origninally meant to be taught to an individual by his/her guru, to help that indiv abtain balance in their body (strengthen what's weak and lengthen what is tight). It is believed that a person will struggle with their meditation practice, if their body is ill and out of wack. So yes, a guru would not assign tree pose to someone who already has strong legs, focus and balance. However, a guru would have their work cut out for someone who is just trying to display the most power of anyone in their gym (reducing the control your ego has over you is a predominant part of the yoga practice). Perhaps you right on by taking a stab at yoga zealots who obviously have their own misunderstandings. However since yoga has a strong tradition and isn't going away, it's not a bad idea for any fitness professional to have a basic idea of its offerings. For example, breathing practice can help a person move in and out of the sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous system at will. Our breath is the only part of the autonomic nervous system that we have control over, therefore yogis utilize it as a "way in" (mind-body connection).

    Maybe part of the problem is that it only takes 200 hours of training to become a yoga teacher and clearly that's not enough. It's enough to lead an Asana class (what you think of as yoga) safely and provide a basis to move forward. But isn't that statement true for most disciplines?
  • This is the great blog, I'm reading them for a while, thanks for the new posts!
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