Yoga-averse rejoice over new book warning of injuries

January 19, 2012|By Beth Teitell

I was kind of relieved, said Tonielise Tepfer of warnings about yoga injuries. (WENDY MAEDA/GLOBE STAFF)

At 31, Leah McCarty, is, by her own description, really tense. “Everyone tells me I need to do yoga,’’ she said during a break from her job as a receptionist at a Brookline salon. “But it’s too boring, and I don’t have time.’’

For years, McCarty’s arguments have failed to silence the proselytizers. But in early January, help arrived. “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,’’ read a headline in The New York Times.

Adapted from a forthcoming book by New York Times senior writer William J. Broad, “The Science of Yoga; the Risks and Rewards,’’ the long magazine cover story warned of yoga-related injuries, some mild, and others, while rare, quite frightening. Brain and nerve damage, degenerated hips, back problems, torn Achilles’ tendons. ‘‘Many come to yoga as a gentle alternative to vigorous sports or for rehabilitation for injuries,’’ the article read. “But yoga’s exploding popularity - the number of Americans doing yoga has risen from about 4 million in 2001 to what some estimate to be as many as 20 million in 2011 - means that there is now an abundance of studios where many teachers lack the deeper training necessary to recognize when students are headed toward injury.’’

The story enraged the yogaverse. Some devotees said it lacked enough research, or lumped all kinds of yoga together, or sensationalized rare problems. And yet, for those who’ve felt guilty or lazy or out of step for avoiding the fitness trend, the report was the best yoga-related news ever.

“I’m off the hook,’’ said McCarty, at last in her Zen place. “I’m going to throw [this story] at them.’’

Finally, she and other non-practitioners got the stress relief that yoga promises actual practitioners. (From a national mental-health perspective, word that yoga may not be the cure-all it’s made out to be could be good news. A 2008 Yoga Journal study found that more people want to practice yoga than actually do practice yoga - 18.3 million wannabes compared with the 15.8 million parading around with yoga mats slung over their perfectly squared shoulders.)

Never mind that endless reports praise yoga’s psychological and physiological benefits, offering relief from everything from hot flashes to back injuries. Now that the unspoken commandment - Thou Shall Not Speak Ill of Yoga - has been broken, the yoga-free say, the shame of never having done the child’s pose has been eliminated.

Gone, too, is the need to splurge on lululemon yoga pants, to buy Groupons for yoga classes that will never be taken, the pressure to resolve, New Year after New Year, to do a downward-facing dog.