The Science of Yoga – review

The New York Times article How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body sent journalist Willam J. Broad’s new book, The Science of Yoga, racing up Amazon’s list of best-selling yoga books – even before it was published. My copy has arrived and I’ve been reading his assessment of the “risks and rewards” of yoga this weekend.

Yoga can wreck your body – so should we give up?

An article in the New York Times, How Yoga can Wreck Your Body, has been causing a stir. Science journalist William J. Broad tells horror stories of yoga teachers who have snapped their Achilles tendons by forcing heels to the floor in downward dog; brain injuries, nerve damage and even strokes caused by neck injuries in yoga poses, such as upward bow, shoulder stand or headstand. It’s scary stuff.

Sun salutation – a gentle version

Six weeks of training starts on Monday for the Brixton Yogathon – 108 sun salutations in aid of the Prison Phoenix Trust, supporting yoga and meditation in prisons. I first learnt sun salutations 30 years ago when I did yoga at school and I love them. But for older, creaky bodies, like mine – or anyone with back issues – they need to be treated with caution. All the up and down into forward bends and downward dogs can cause damage.

Meet Nick – drug smuggler turned yoga teacher

Yoga saved Nick Brewer’s life. It was when he was serving a ten-year sentence for drug smuggling in the notoriously brutal Devoto jail in Argentina that he got hold of a yoga book. The book was in Spanish and took him six months to translate with a dictionary in one hand; but it was the start of a transformation.

Nick the flashy smuggler and money-launderer, who had acquired nightclubs, restaurants and boats and had trafficked everything from cannabis to cocaine between South America and Europe for 15 years, became a man of spirit. His prison cell became a place of spiritual retreat. For the next five years he meditated, read every yoga book he could find, and practised yoga, day in, day out.

Yoga to help back pain

This week there was news that research by York University found a 12-week yoga programme did more to help people manage their back pain than the conventional care offered by their GP. This resonates very much with my own experience of teaching yoga – and also having suffered back pain.

Solar panels are go (almost)

As I write this, roofers and an electrician from JoJu Solar are clambering about above my head connecting our new solar panels to the national grid. Here are pictures of these beautiful things….

How to make every day a retreat

It’s less than a week since I returned from my yoga retreat in France. It was a fantastic break with great weather and excellent company. We all said we’d try to keep the chilled-out, relaxed and peaceful vibe going once we were back in the swing of our normal lives. As the title of a great book puts it, “After the ecstasy, the laundry”. But how? Here’s what I’ve been doing to make every day a retreat since I’ve been home: