Hi.
Ive started to do a few yoga sessions @ home with my girlfriend using well-known & reputable DVD’s. my question is that we seem to launch straight into some fairly serious stretching without any kind of warm-up first?
i know from the western exercise approach any hard stretching without appropraite warm up is a big no-no, so i was wondering how / why this approach is acceptable in yoga?
any thoughts?
thanks for your time.
In the classes I teach I begin with less intensity, warming the focal muscle groups and encouraging increased sensitivity in students so that when the deeper work begins, the mind and body are both present. I cannot speak for the unnamed dvds’ approach or tell you if the dvd you selected is appropriate for your level of practice. Generally speaking, however, a yoga stretch has a different approach from the standard athletic stretch in that it is static, sustained by conscious awareness and relaxation breath so that the stretch is not painful or harmful to the body. Athletes tend to stretch “dynamically”, that is, with shorter, less sustained periods of time, with goal oriented intensity and occaisionally impatience or bouncing. These qualities are opposite of the surrender and relaxation, tuning in and observing which are a hallmark of a yoga stretch.
Hope this response is helpful.
Namaste,
Chandra
The direct answer to your question is “it’s not!”.
The question you pose however begs opinion. And there’s nothing wrong with opinion. But discernment means that we look more deeply than the surface of information for something more substantial. It’s the difference between discernment and judgment.
But I digress.
It is appropriate, as it relates anatomically to the human being (yoga classes for reptiles might be completely different. I am not trained in it so I do not know) to warm the body first. Heat in the body should come from the inside out. Room temperature, initially, does little to provide this sort of thing unless the temperature is outrageously intense.
Again, from an anatomical perspective warming the body first. Building to more muscular (and mental) effort (assuming you are not doing restoratives), creating a peak in the curriculum, then bringing the rhythm back down toward Savasana (parasympathetic) is what is appropriate for the musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
I suspect that DVD’s cater to the wants, needs, and whims of a demographic market. therefore it is not too suprising that they get right into it as their throng (not thong) would be pissy if the DVD started with some centering and warming.
Surya Namaskar, classically, is a warming sequence (not exclusively) but there are other ways to prepaare the body for asana.
Hope this helps you.
I agree Innerathlete about using Surya Namaskara as a prepratory sequence to the general asanas. I always begin my yoga practice with 3 rounds of the sun salutation(along with mantra / chakra awareness) and then 3 rounds with simple body/breath awareness at a faster pace to prepare the body suitably for the traditional static hatha yogasanas. A “warmup” is most certainly useful before any yogasana practice, I alwo find that after going on a 15-20 minute jog/run is a good warmup for asana practice.
Salutations,
CJRS
Agreement is always lovely 
So as not to be misunderstood, I am not saying Surya Namaskar cannot be used in a variety of ways in one’s asana practice. It is not “just” for warming the body. there are, in the classical Surya Namaskar, nine lovely poses each with it’s own fabric.
And let me toss in one other morsel relative to running as a warm up. Running does increase the heart raet, body temperature, and it does enlist the use of several muscles but it is not a complete warming of the body despite one’s sense or feeling of bodily warmth after.
If it’s good for you, then continue, of course. But to assert it prepares the body completely for asana practice would be careless of me.