Special do's and don'ts(finer points) of Yoga

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I came across this by somebody from Iyenger yoga :-

A quickened heart beat may be the result of the specific asanas you’re referring to. Backbends (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana/upward facing dog pose, Ustrasana/camel pose, etc.) have an invigorating affect on the body which may increase your heart beat. Forward bends have the opposite affect, slowing the heart beat, and making them the ideal counter pose for backbends. ; If you suffer from anxiety, or are generally quite hyper, using yoga to increase your heart beat may worsen these conditions. If you suffer from fatigue or depression, an increased heart beat may be helpful.

This probably implies that one should rest between the increasing heart beat asanas and probably the reason behind doing one counterpose after a pose. Is it all right to do three backward bending poses and then do three forward bending posesI? I only do 3-4 minutes of savasan after a 15 minute asana session and have never been particular about resting between asanas.

I googled for Do;s and don’ts of yoga but the results revealed general guidelines like when to do and when not to do, what to ear and things like that. What about some special do’s and don’ts like the one above. From what I remember, Inversions like Sarvangasana should not be done by people with high blood pressure, People with slip disc or spinal problems should not do forward or backward bending asanas(I am not too sure). If somebody can contribute to more specific and special do’s and don’ts of Asana and Pranayam,especially what not to do for different medical problems(better to know at one place), I would appreciate that greatly.

#2

Your question, Hiren, is best posed to your teacher and best answered by them over the period of time you are studying with them, which should be about ten years.

#3

I am not studying with anybody. I am a practitioner and not a student of yoga in the conventional sense. I read about this somewhere else on the net.

Five years back, a yoga teacher came to demonstrate at my house for a very short while but he did not tell me about this heart beat thing. I thought that something like this would come under precautions to be taken for people with different medical problems and that is why I asked. In yoga books this would probably be given at different places under different asanas(not problem wise) and so I thought better to know at one place.

My apologies if it was a wrong question.

#4

Not at all, completely appropriate question and concern for one doing their practice. But appropriate for their teacher. It is like someone asking me "can you please tell me all the poses and their contraindications to repair a slipped disc. And that is akin to asking a medical doctor to “please show me how to use a butter knife to do open heart surgery on myself”.

There are many elements to the practice, many ways to go awry, especially for those without a keenly developed inner teacher, and that is why my studies, even after ten years, continue on. I am always learning from Aadil as I hope my students are from me.

I personally use backbends as the close of my practice, obviously followed by savasana and rarely, if ever, follow them with forward bends.

#5

Thanks for replying, Inner Athelete

I think there is some misunderstanding.

What I meant was something like this:-

If you suffer from high blood pressure, don’t to sarvangasana

If you suffer from anxiety/are hyper, don’t do backward bends.

If you suffer from slip disc, don’t do.

I feel that these are preventive measures and should be told in advance. What to do is also important but what not to do for a medical condition is even more important. I just felt strongly that a yoga practitioner should be aware in general. If it is irrelevant, it can be ignored. Thanks again.