REason: the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments logically
some context
Yoga is a very old and deeply varied practice, with the first known mentions of yoga appearing in the Vedic text the Rig Veda, which was written 1500 - 1000 BC. However, ‘yoga’ at that point was entirely different from how we typically conceive of it now, referring much more to internal attitudes, and not referring to physical practices. The Vedas were and are key sacred texts to Vedism, a group of religious ideas and practices that pre-dated Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism. Vedism is also sometimes referred to as ‘ancient-Hinduism’. As with any ancient and complex belief system, Vedism took many forms, and interpretations of ‘yoga’ varied. Yoga, when described in the seminal Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita (500 - 200 BC) by the god Krishna, is presented as an attitude and approach to life, as well as state of being. Notably, the word ‘yoga’ appears both as a verb and a noun: both a thing that one does and a thing that is. Yoga asana (poses or ‘seats’) originated as a means to an end: a way of preparing the body for long periods of meditation. It is only in relatively recent history — the last few decades — that yoga has developed for many practitioners into a very physically focused practice, which can serve as a form of exercise. Indeed, for many modern practitioners, a regular yoga practice forms part of a healthy lifestyle, by offering physical movement alongside breath-work, mindfulness, and — for some — spirituality. This holistic approach to gives many people a sense of rounded well-being.
The discussion of yoga’s history could easily fill an entire degree program, let alone a small website, and inevitably a huge amount of nuance and context will be missing from this page. I think that it is important, however, to at least attempt to frame some of yoga’s rich and complex history here. This is, in part, because the the application of modern scientific knowledge to an ancient practice can cause resistance and concern among some yoga practitioners. There are complex conversations to be had around this topic, especially for yogis for whom yoga is a spiritual practice, or even a way of life.
I think it is important, however, to acknowledge that modern-day physically yoga classes — even ones that includes other elements of a yoga practice — are focused almost entirely on engaging with and moving the physical body. There are certain things that modern science cannot investigate, but it certainly can — and has — vastly increased our knowledge of the human body and how it works. This knowledge has expanded enormously in the decades since physically-focused yoga practices started to be developed, and continues to grow now. This is where, however, modern yoga teaching sometimes lags behind, in large part because inaccurate information or pseudoscience are still often taught on teacher trainings. Of course, very few people want to spread inaccurate information, but nonetheless this can happen for various reasons, some of which are explored here.
Ancient beliefs about subtle (non-physical) energy systems in our bodies can get tangled up with misunderstandings about physiology in some teacher trainings, leading to claims about the physical body that are not accurate.
Example: the claim that it is physically unsafe to invert during menstruation. This is based on the belief that inverting during menstruation can affect the flow of apana (a downwards-moving subtle energy or ‘vayu’ in the prana system of energetics). Whilst it is of course perfectly valid for a practitioner to honour that belief, what is troubling is when it is stated or presented as physically risky to invert during menstruation. In some trainings, it is even claimed that inverting during menstruation could cause endometriosis — a very serious and often distressing physical condition — a claim that is completely ungrounded in any medical research.
Claims made by famous teachers get taken out of context, or are repeated without being scrutinised with modern-day knowledge.
Example: BKS Iyengar, an extremely famous and celebrated yoga teacher who created the Iyengar practice, taught — amongst many other things — that twisting create a ‘squeezing and soaking’ process in both the spine and internal organs, that literally squeezed out old blood and flushed in fresh oxygenated blood. This belief led or contributed to the claims — still made in many yoga teacher trainings — that twists ‘detox the body’. This feels quite intuitive: it’s satisfying to imagine being able to literally wring toxins out of ourselves! It is also completely untrue: whilst exercising and varied movement have myriad benefits for health, the removal of toxins happens constantly in our bodies, and relies on processes occurring at the cellular level. Attempting to wring out our organs with specific movements will not help.
Out-of-date anatomy and physiology research continues to be used, because it is well established within the community and people start to believe it and repeat it without question.
Example: the oft repeated claim that it is dangerous to allow the knee to come forward of the ankle in yoga poses. This is based on extremely outdated research on physiology, and there is plenty of robust evidence now that it is actually good to train our knees and ankles to cope with greater loads and different angles. But it is still very common to hear the cue to never allow the knee forward of the ankle.
what ‘evidence-based’ means
Evidence-based means an approach that emphasises the practical application of the results and findings of the best available up-to-date research. To break that down a bit: research into the human body and how it works is always ongoing, on an incredibly wide variety of topics. New research might change the modern understanding of: how stretching works, the most effective ways to manage pain, best practice for avoiding or rehabilitating from injury, to name just a few examples! But, of course, we do not want to be quoting journal papers in yoga classes, and yoga teachers are not expected to be medical or sports-science researchers. So how can we meaningfully access and apply this modern information in class?
Some teachers might indeed choose to go straight to the source — to read journals directly. This might be a good option for someone with a background in science or medicine, or just someone that really enjoys complex texts! Others might go to sources which have already processed the technical information in journal papers and have used it to come up with up-to-date recommendations based on that research. These might include public health services (such as the Netherlands' Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, de Verloskundige for pregnancy-related information, or the UK’s National Health Service). Other sources could include yoga teachers, sport scientists, physiotherapists, researchers, or doctors who make a point of relaying evidence-based information in an applicable and clear manner. These individuals might publish books, create courses, online content or podcasts, which contain information about physiology or movement science that are relevant to physically-focused yoga classes. They should back up their claims with reliable sources — such as peer-reviewed research from reputable scientists — especially if they are making big claims.
In yoga classes themselves, it might not be terribly obvious if a yoga teacher is endeavoring to teach in an evidence-based way. Their classes will probably contain the familiar elements of a yoga class: breath-work; meditation; yoga asana and transitions, possibly with extra exercises to help support this work. They might well include elements of yoga philosophy or spirituality: teaching about the physical body in an evidence-based way does not mean someone is not interested in or connected to philosophy or spirituality.
my approach
When yoga teachers are teaching about the physical human body, I think it is our duty to teach accurately and in line with modern knowledge.
In my opinion, that includes:
If we do comment on anatomy or physiology in classes, doing so accurately.
It is actually possible to teach an entire yoga class without using much anatomical or physiological language at all. Some teachers might do this by physically demonstrating poses and transitions, others might simply cue very lightly and have a different focus — like holding space for some silence, or inviting students to explore what they are feeling themselves. And that can be wonderful! However, if a teacher does go down the path of using more anatomy or physiology-focused cueing, they should endeavour to do so accurately. This might involve having a clear idea of: what different joints are doing in certain poses (internal or external rotation, adduction or abduction etc.), which muscles are particularly affected by certain poses.
Inaccuracy can be hard to spot unless you know a bit about anatomy and physiology yourself. However, if a teacher ever comes out with a cue in class, and you are not really sure why they said it, it should always be fair game to politely ask about it at a good moment. As an example of this, many years ago I had a teacher who was absolutely convinced that all practitioners should constantly and actively tuck their tailbones (posterior pelvic tilt) under during a yoga practice. It was not until a visiting anatomy teacher presented an opposing view on this and explained why that it occured to me that this teacher had never offered any reason for justifying this cue that she enforced strongly during all her classes. Eventually, it became apparent that she used the cue because she personally felt that it was a good idea, not because she had clear reasoning backing it up.
What I try to do is to only use anatomical or physiological cueing if I am confident that I understand why I am saying it and what it means. For example, I used to tell students that Virabhadrasana I involved internal rotation of the back leg (the leg that’s straight) because I sincerely thought that that was true, because I had been taught so on multiple teacher trainings. As my understanding of physiology developed, and I started really thinking about what the body is doing in certain poses, I realised that this was actually inaccurate: in fact, the straight leg is externally rotating in the hip socket. This is actually really hard to do in this pose for a lot of people, and most bodies compensate by allowing the straight-leg side of the pelvis to roll back, in order to avoid that external hip rotation! This means that a lot of practitioners have to quite actively steer one side of their pelvis forward in this pose, leading to the feeling of rolling in (and, I think, the misunderstanding about the direction of rotation of the back leg in the hip socket).
Not creating fear unnecessarily.
A lot of modern yoga teacher trainings have a big emphasis on injury prevention and avoidance. This is an excellent idea in principle, but sometimes gets taken to the point of making students a little fearful. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that yoga is a relatively low-impact, body-weight only (unless extra weights or resistance bands are used), highly adaptable practice that is substantially less risky than a lot of other popular physical movement practices. It is also worth remembering that there are substantial health risks associated with not remaining physically active, and as yoga teachers we should strive not to inadvertently make people fearful of moving their bodies. There is still the tendency for yoga teacher trainings to present certain alignments or poses as inherently injurious or dangerous. This can create a situation where teachers think they create simple blanket rules for what is safe for all their students, which does not allow for the fact that everyone has an unique body. It can also risk creating the situation where yoga teachers end up telling students what they are feeling, rather than inviting them to remain curious and to develop their own bodily awareness.
‘Fear-based’ language can sound like: ‘that alignment will hurt your knee’ or ‘that pose will cause neck damage’. To be clear, I am not saying that there are never moments when yoga teachers should advice students to exercise caution. That said, blanket cueing that states that something will be dangerous or will hurt — if made without proper consideration or even a clear physiological basis — could not only make students unnecessarily nervous of certain positions or movements, it might actually create pain, because of anxiety about perceived (but not actual) tissue damage.
What I try to do is to avoid making blanket statements of risk, unless I have an extremely clear reason in my mind for doing so — such that I could justify the reason to a student if asked. For example, one of the few really serious injuries I have encountered during my teaching career was a teacher who was kicked in the head by a student during an inversion assist. It is arguably easier to injure someone else during a poorly controlled inversion practice than yourself, because our bodies are typically quite good at managing falling over. So, whenever I have multiple students inverting in a room I will either set them up with a wall to catch falls, or be firm about personal space awareness (i.e. could you fall on someone else?).
Not offering over-simplified solutions to complex physical and mental challenges.
Bodies are complex and everyone is unique. This means that disease, injury and recovery are all complex. What is healthy and safe for one student will not necessarily be so for another. This complexity and nuance can be quite overwhelming, and it is incredibly tempting to opt for simple, straightforward ‘hack’-type solutions: both on and off the yoga mat. Whilst yoga absolutely can be used very successfully to support people managing certain serious diseases or conditions, it is always a red flag when anyone — especially anyone who is not a medical professional who is treating you in person — offers a simple solution to a complex medical problem. It can also create a very inaccurate idea of how certain conditions work or are managed, which can be damaging to students who are dealing with these conditions. Sometimes these oversimplified claims can show up in teacher trainings, which means that they can come up in yoga classes.
Over-simplified solutions can take the form of offering simple, black-and-white rules that — if followed — will enable someone to either treat, cure or avoid a certain condition or complaint. As someone who’s internet algorithms have worked out that I am interested in yoga, I regularly see articles recommended to me along the lines of ‘Here’s 5 yoga poses that will cure your back pain’ or ‘Here’s 1 yoga pose to avoid if you have tight hamstrings’. These types of claim are also wildly popular on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. It is easy to see why — they are simple to understand, quick to read, punchy, and presents simple solutions. The issue is that they tend to be very inaccurate. Sometimes this inaccuracy is quite benign. For example, whilst back pain is a complex problem (that actually correlates very poorly with tissue damage), doing a set of five manageable yoga poses is probably unlikely to have very adverse affects, and might indeed help some people. Sometimes, however, these claims can be far more serious: for example that specific yoga poses or techniques can cure or treat serious medical conditions (such as depression or asthma). These claims can also work the other way: the assertion that avoiding certain yoga poses or techniques will be able to straightforwardly avert certain negative health outcomes. Unfortunately, this shows up a lot in pregnancy yoga circles, especially the (completely baseless) claim that avoiding twists in the first trimester will help avoid miscarriage.
What I try to do is to avoid making statements like ‘do this to cure this’ or ‘do not to this to avoid this’. I do encourage students to try certain things, or to consider avoiding or adapting certain things, but from the standpoint of encouraging them to check in with their own bodies and to remain curious about what they are feeling themselves.
I also always strongly try to avoid giving any advice that could pass for medical information, which means that I do not offer suggestions for cures, treatments or diagnoses. This does not mean that I never give students advice, but I try and keep that advice strictly related to my area of expertise: namely, their movement practice! For example, if a student approached be asking which yoga poses could cure their back pain, I would instead ry and find out how back pain is affecting their yoga practice, and offer some options for mitigating it. I might also offer broad advice about management of back pain in the context of keeping moving: to move in varied ways, to seek help from a physio or doctor if the pain is distressing, not to over-engage the core muscles but to use them in a rounded way (both engaging when necessary but also relaxing when possible).
In practice, I am familiar with ‘red flag’ symptoms for certain medical conditions, especially those relating to pregnancy and the postpartum period, which is my real area of expertise. But I would never offer a student a diagnosis, I would use that knowledge to make a judgement call on whether I should advice them to reach out to their midwife or doctor for medical advice.
I hope this gives a bit more of an idea of what ‘evidence-based’ teaching can look like! Always feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.
Note: page still in development. Further information and citations incoming!