"Try not to drink any water during class"

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#24

[QUOTE=amz155;53683]I’ll have to think about this a bit more. I know that what you sare saying is that way that yoga was traditionally practiced in India but I’m just not sure how I feel about it. On one hand a yoga teacher will say “listen to your body” and pull out of a pose if you feel pain but other the other hand they could say “don’t listen to your body” and don’t drink even if you feel thirst. So which one is it? Listen to your body’s cues or don’t. Struggle through the pain or thirst? Or make the practice positive?[/QUOTE]

I believe that the answer is not mutually exclusive.

Either ALWAYS listen to your body, or Don’t ever get distracted by habitual thoughts coming from your body/mind.

It is very good advice by a teacher that in order to avoid injury or strain to 'listen to your body, and if you feel pain or strain, to come out of it.

It is also very good advice to watch one’s thoughts and feelings and don’t necessarily react to them. As in, 'please do not drink water during your asana class, and keep your awareness on every single thing you can notice going on in the present, try not to get distracted by anything outside your practice, and try not to do anything that will impinge on your from the outside other than through your practice.

It is not that either of them are saying “Never listen to your body” or “Always listen to your body”

And yes i am talking about the full body of yoga knowledge which has developed over thousands of years, and am not referring to any forms of yoga who’s primary focus it to improve fitness, health, well being, feeling good… without being concerned with the deeper trans-formative of our more subtle layers that i believe the more traditional form of yoga primarily deals with.

It one is only interested in fitness, health, well being, feeling good, by all means drink water during your practice… don’t worry about you mind being distracted, don’t worry about your focus of attention, or whether you may affect the flow of prana through ida or pingala.

I guess it all depends on why each person’s feels they are practicing yoga.

And hopefully we can all learn to respect each other, and allow each other to gain whatever benefits are right for us at this moment in life.

Best Wishes,
Dave

#25

It’s more about losing focus and breaking my rhythm. And my asana practice is one great opportunity to practice disengagement. I’m easily distracted as it is without adding sipping water between postures to the mix :wink:

But, I am also a supporter of ‘to each his own’.

PS - I do drink water between sets at the gym. I’m off to that place right now.

#26

[QUOTE=FlexPenguin;53697]It’s more about losing focus and breaking my rhythm. And my asana practice is one great opportunity to practice disengagement. I’m easily distracted as it is without adding sipping water between postures to the mix :wink:

But, I am also a supporter of ‘to each his own’.

PS - I do drink water between sets at the gym. I’m off to that place right now.[/QUOTE]

oh nice one.

If I could give you ‘Rep’ points I would.

High FIVE!

#27

[QUOTE=amz155;53580] “Try not to drink water during your practice. It goes against what we are trying to do here.”[/QUOTE]

That sounds like some mumbo jumbo to me. Just the vagueness of the bit about “what we are trying to do” suggests to me that the instructor doesn’t quite know what the reason is or doesn’t know well enough to replace that vague explanation with something useful and concise. Why not make it clear to students instead of leaving everyone in confusion? I don’t mean that this teacher isn’t knowledgeable and doesn’t deserve respect, but ultimately, when you do yogasanas, you are working on developing your own body awareness. To me, that says that the best thing an instructor can do is empower you by reminding you how to listen to your own body. When teachers give these confusing tidbits of information without explanation, they seem to be empowering themselves instead by leaving you in the dark, hanging on to them for more rules to follow blindly.

It makes sense that you shouldn’t drink a huge amount of water, as it would slosh around in your stomach, but I don’t see the harm in taking a sip to wet your throat. I don’t think that prana can be ‘cooled down’, although I’d love to hear what people believe that means. It’s possible that this idea is a bit mixed up with the Ayurvedic thought that the digestive fire, agni, can be ‘put out’ when a lot of cold water is thrown on it.

#28

I just came across this little explanation: http://www.fitsugar.com/Ashtanga-Yoga-Why-Avoid-Drinking-Water-442306

The actual website is kind of icky, but the basic points are:
1- The movement creates body heat that loosens up your muscles. A lot of water would lower your body heat.
2- Frequent sips would interrupt the flow.

Finally the writer/instructor says that you should know what your body needs.

I say, taking a sip (not a gulp) once or twice will not cool down your body, and such a minor interruption would not be detrimental to your practice.

#29

I don?t drink during my practice because that?s the way I learned, besides I have no desire to do so. Some of the reasoning I?ve heard makes logical sense however if it?s only the temperature drop you?re concerned with drinking water @ 99 degrees would solve that problem, it may be more involved than that.

#30

I think we Westerners are too damn hung up on needing to know the reason why. It reminds me of my children - they always wanted to know why, and as I thought being a good parent meant making sure they understood why on every decision I made for them, the undesireable side effect of this was that my children began second guessing everything I tried to teach them, and since I gave them reasons they felt they could judge for themselves if the reasons were sound. This made for some very difficult times and I learned the extreme value of the term “because I said so!”

“Because I said so” leaves the child to observe and begin to understand for themselves just why their parent told them they must (or must not) do a certain thing. Through the doing, they learn and make their own decision, instead of deciding parent is wrong so they will refuse or argue. In this case, they do not learn anything other than techniques of manipulation to get their way.

In the same sense, I would say, follow the direction of the teacher. You may find that by abstaining from even taking sips of water during practice, you truly DO notice a very subtle difference in the feel, the focus, etc. Or you may not! How will you know if you don’t just do it?
Besides, not following this direction would be disrespectful to the teacher and the class as well. Take every opportunity to make every experience something to learn from.

#31

Question all convention.

If you have enough time.

#32

The convention is becoming drink water when you like , maybe.

We need branded yoga water , special bottles , make us feel good .

#33

Also all the corporations and governmental agencies who look out for each other thank you for ridding your children of the the propensity to question ‘authority.’

Makes things much easier.

Right?

#34

Thanks for all the replies.

A few posters have explained why drinking water is not advised during an asana practice. Then, what is your opinion of those teachers that encourage water drinking during practice and stop the class for water sip breaks? If find this depends on the teacher and more often with hatha or hot yoga classes. Does that make the teacher any less informed? Are they ill advising their students if traditional teachings say drink no water during practice?

#35

amz,

“Then, what is your opinion of those teachers that encourage water drinking during practice and stop the class for water sip breaks?”

Then the chances are that their understanding of the process is likely just something superficial, scratching the surface of the experience. Otherwise, the sadhana should never be interrupted for such a thing, unless it is a life threatening or dangerous matter. If one wants to drink water - there should be no problem in drinking either before or after the class - but when one is involved in sadhana, one is doing nothing else except involved in sadhana.

Already in life, one’s attention and energy is scattered in a million different directions, one is rarely living even here, for most of the time one is living in the dreams of one’s imagination. At least with sadhana, one should be absolutely present, consider it as an excuse to seize the opportunity.

#36

Just to add here with being too repetitious.

To go deeper into sadhana one would’nt be drinking during or mid-way like as a break(unless one was really thirsty or dry). But that’s up to you.Also one can try to impose too many conditions or rules with the result that no sadhana gets done or they get in the way. Best thing is not too get too rigid or strict about it as we can invent excuses that way so no sadhana gets done at all.We can always find a good enough reason we think to not do sadhana whether that imvolves asana,meditation or helping an infirm lady across the road.So some sadhan without there being all ideal codtions satisfied is often better than none at all.Also i think It could affect the prana and the belly.I hear it said that it probably disrupts the flow of prana. You’ll likely also to maybe just get a cramp too.The best way of course to find out for yourself .

Sometimes it’s just an attention-seeking ploy of the mind, any diversion cn be created. BUT with asana no you’re not meant to. Does’nt mean you should’nt.Again that is up to you.

Already in life, one’s attention and energy is scattered in a million different directions, one is rarely living even here, for most of the time one is living in the dreams of one’s imagination.
Amir makes a good point.Very true.

If you want a drink have one but best done before or after sadhana/asana…I’ve heard it said that in Ashtanga vinyasa the sweat may well be actually rubbed back into the skin in at least in those who have had a certain amount of purification already( or say advanced) by the practice afterwards in order to conserve minerals etc.

Encouragiing water drinking during ashtanga vinyasa does’nt sound right . But if you are thristy then i guess you need to quench the thirst. But in my experience the moment you reach for that bottle, there you’ve got disruption and your pranic level believe will take a bit of a nose-dive at that point. But there are no rigid rules either that you MUST follow.It’s often a cunning way for us to divert our attentiions away from practice.The mind will create all kinds of excuses such as this or diversions especially if we’re hanging there in down-dog sweat dripping off our brow and we are finding the going challenging and difficult.

If you plotted it on a graph of pranic cultivation i reckon you’d see majoor troughs at those points where you grabbed for the water.And then it might take you a while to regain it again. So it might be a bit like cycling backwards now & again.

#37

[QUOTE=The Scales;53796]Also all the corporations and governmental agencies who look out for each other thank you for ridding your children of the the propensity to question ‘authority.’

Makes things much easier.

Right?[/QUOTE]

Well said.:cool:

#38

For me the primary reason is the necessity of maintaining focus. I don’t stop to adjust my clothes between asanas. I don’t stop to redo my hair the moment I get into dandasana (the usual place to fidget). I don’t stop to scratch my mosquito bite. Just for that 90 minutes, I try to focus on my breathing and being aware of what’s going on in my body. There will always to reasons to stop. But Ashtanga vinyasa is a moving meditation, so I try to see it through, applying all the same rules I’d apply in my seated meditation practise. Getting up and sipping water just breaks the flow, breaks my focus.

Best to drink or pee before practise. But if you’re really very thirsty, take a drink. What’s the worst that can happen? The Ashtanga police aren’t going to lock you up right?

#39

Some schools instruct you to leave food and water outside the asana hall. If you disregarded that instruction you would be told to leave.

#40

[QUOTE=core789;53933]Well said.:cool:[/QUOTE]

Thank you.

#41

[QUOTE=patanjali’s babe;53993]But Ashtanga vinyasa is a moving meditation, The Ashtanga police aren’t going to lock you up right?[/QUOTE]

Somewhere along the line that?s what my practice has also become; moving meditation, it was ingrained, practiced and now second nature (right or wrong I did have Ashtanga police watching me), I?m glad the clutter has mostly cleared my head during practice, now if it would just be as easy off my mat.

#42

You obviously have no children, Scales. Wait until you do, and allow them to question your every decision. They are children. There are other ways to teach your children to question authority when they believe it may be wrong than to turn them into selfish little tyrants. They are not small adults. They are children with undeveloped brains, nervous systems, and also need to be taught to control their emotions so they aren’t totally at the whim of their every mood.

And yes, we need to learn when to shut up and just do it, and when it is important to question.

#43

[QUOTE=Joanna63;54239]You obviously have no children, Scales. Wait until you do, and allow them to question your every decision. They are children. There are other ways to teach your children to question authority when they believe it may be wrong than to turn them into selfish little tyrants. They are not small adults. They are children with undeveloped brains, nervous systems, and also need to be taught to control their emotions so they aren’t totally at the whim of their every mood.

And yes, we need to learn when to shut up and just do it, and when it is important to question.[/QUOTE]

I would always turn it around the truth.

“I say these things for your wellbeing because I love you and want to see you grow up strong and smart.”

and anyway - the scales wouldn’t be blessed with tyrants.

For he wasn’t that way - when a wee babe - the Scales was the most lovely child.