"Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth" - Ludwig Borne, and upon realizing the depth of that quote as it applies inwardly, remember this quote and apply it outwardly, "Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers." - Voltaire. (Just my opinion)
Hey, you could learn physiotherapy. That would give a solid basis to do and teach funcional and safe yoga. Plus it's a legit healthcare profession where you can earn money AND help people at the same time.
That's a great point! And it's something I would definitely do if I would continue to pursue this career/path, but there's only so much you can do at one time and currently I am investing all my time in different projects. But who knows, maybe in the future :) 🙏
petrairene I am studying physical therapy at the moment and I would say Yoga and Pilates both share that issues. They might be corrected by a proper physical therapist, of course, but I don’t think it is a method that will benefit most of the people that do it. Not only some movements are universally dangerous, but also most people that practices yoga tai chi or pilates have some underlying issues that will worse due to it. (In my country, such disciplines are practiced by old or pregnant females, and most instructors are too much into spiritual concepts). Before the pandemic issue we have, an old woman came to my gym instructor telling him that his son was brutally beaten outside of a nightclub in spite of practicing tai chi. It is just an example that has come to my mind
In order to get an Iyengar Yoga certification, one needs to practice at least three years and then the formation itself takes at least another two years, sometimes up to five. It is probably the most rigorous yoga certification (as far as asana and pranayama go) there is. It's probably the yoga style most prominent in scientific literature, papers and such. My teachers are very scientific minded and there's no spiritual soft-voiced bullshit. They had a look at my x-rays and had a very individualized teaching style, and would defer to a physician when in doubt. I'm pretty sure you would enjoy a restaurative Iyengar Yoga Class. I'm sorry you had such an awful experience. Funnily enough, I had a similar experience with aikido (teacher pushing too hard, forcing into injurious effort, etc), and we all know that the physical activities industry has lots of bad apples (CrossFit and personal training come to mind). I'm not sure central authorities are the best solution to that (nutrition has central authorities and universities and it's mostly crap too), but I respect your position. As for the video in general, I wish it was shorter and more edited, but maybe I'm biased against vlogs. Good luck on your journey
Thanks man! These are great insights and I love your open minded exploration. Also, than you very much for educating me about Iyengar Yoga certification. I didn't know that and now I will be more humble and correct about that subject :) I also agree with pretty much everything you said. Last thing to offer an opinion about: I understand these type of vlogs are not for everyone and I accept that. At the same time, the vision of them is to promote being yourself and not trying to be perfect. I am disturbed that so many people are presenting themselves (especially on social media) in "perfect" ways where everything is edited and presented to perfection and then many of us subconsciously start to develop a belief that they are amazing and we suck (to put it simply). With this format I want to show that it's OK to sometimes slip, that no one is perfect in the way they present things (without editing) and I just want to have a heart to heart conversation same way I would if you and me would be sitting in the same room. Sure, maybe a clean cut video would reach more people, but it's a sacrifice I have to consciously chose, in order to promote a different approach and trust that it will reach the right people :) I could go on more, but that's more or less the point.
@@Rokasleo hey, just wanted to tell you I loved your "justification" for the more relaxed editing and vlog-style content. Indeed, your honesty and humility are probably the reason why I started following your content to begin with. So, keep on doing what you do. I appreciate the video even more now.
It think people's experiences depend strongly on what kind of yoga and teachers they practice with. The person I watch on TH-cam and the teachers I've got when I tried actual lessons for two months, were all great. They always are about talking boundaries and not pushing yourself. That's it's not about getting in a pose perfectly or stretching far. Taking a break is encouraged if you feel you need one. I remember in the physical classes that all teachers at that studio always asked for consent very specifically before touching you. And no one would blink even an eye when someone said they preferred not to be touched. That was normal and okay. It was a very safe environment. Sadly, due to the corona lock downs it had to close and now it's an online studio.
I love Yoga. It is the only exercise I've done where I feel good and want to keep practicing. In my experience, public classes are always careful and aware of different body types and they do not pressure you. Patient, flexible, welcoming. They will say "if you can't do X, try Y; or if that's too much, just relax and wait for the next pose" You will even commonly see classes aimed at old people which offer sitting yoga. I want to get into tai chi, but tai chi is way harder to learn correctly and safely. Tai chi does not have nearly as many resources in english, and many of them are taught in a damaging, wrong way like you are describing in this talk. Yoga is easy as long as you follow the balance and lines and know the reasons for a position, you won't mess up your body. I've never flipped around doing handstands or whatever. Just basic positions, slow movement, mindfulness, breathing is enough for me. It's a kind of movng meditation.
I'm really glad to hear you had such a positive experience with Yoga. And I agree that a lot of it can be very good. It's just too bad that there are still plenty of schools which are not as careful as the one's you've encountered. Hopefully more and more of them will be as this subject is more widely spoken of! 😊
You do have to listen to your body and know when to pull back or change ... that is easier to say than it is to do.. a lot of activities become "addictive" and hard to change once you really get into it. BJJ is a great example, you just want to train even if your body is telling you not to.
Rokas, you should do a video covering common exercises that are actually dangerous to do! Ironically at the point when you mention about a fitness certification and learning about mechanics of the body, there was a clip of the Russian twist! This is actually (to my understanding) scientifically proven to be damaging for spinal discs. I think there are many fitness classes and martial arts that are just as guilty as yoga! You mention a lot of good points, I also like the scienfic approach and listening to the body. That why I question things I was taught, particularly asymmetric training.
That's a great point. I agree with you very much so, that in my perception too many fitness and martial arts schools suffer from the same ill approach. It would maybe be good to address that too with time. In regards to making a video about dangerous Yoga exercises, it's a great idea, but I don't feel qualified to do it. I will consider and look into asking someone to help me out with that though :) 🙏
Not a lot of people realize that yoga isn’t just an exercise routine, but a spiritual and mystical practice that is the basis for many religious and spiritual traditions in India. Sure, you can practice the purely physical exercise aspect of yoga, get all the benefits you need out of it, and never even have to be aware of the mystical and magical side of it. Indeed when it comes to Yoga the saying, “I have no need of that hypothesis,” comes to mind in regards to the mystical aspects of it. For example, I have no need of channeling “energy” through my (non-existant) crown chakra to connect with the (non-existant) goddess Shakti. I have no need of that mumbo jumbo, I just need the stretching and the isometric exercises. That said we should treat exercise as exercise, know our limits, and not overdo it.
Doesn't that simply destroy the idea? If you simply need an exercise, get an exercise under a person who has sport and medical background. Why should you make postures designed for some non existent godess? As Rokas said, some of the postures physically don't make sense, it's not clear why people should do it specifically that way...
Gintaras Sungaila While it’s true that some of the postures don’t makes sense, it’s also true that some of them do. If you strip away the woo and look at it from a pure physical therapy and exercise point of view, there are several ones that are good isometric exercises and stone that are good for stretching and improving range of motion flexibility. Just because you accept the parts that work, it doesn’t mean that you have to accept the parts that don’t. Experiment, test, and verify. People and systems are capable of being right about some things and wrong about others.
@@kurtlangberg6143 the thing is, there are many science-based medical physical culture systems in West. They are used in therapy and they are evidence based. There is no need to re-invent it based on yoga. Yoga is for moksha, Western physical culture is for health
Gintaras Sungaila Interestingly enough, some of the yoga poses are used in Western stretching routines and physical therapy because of their pragmatic value. This is a case in which I’m reminded of Seneca, when he was asked why he quoted Epicurius even though he disagreed with Epicurian philosophy his response was “I shall never be ashamed of quoting a bad author if the line is good.” There’s no shame in poaching an old system of exercise for good moves and discarding what doesn’t work out as useless. And it’s not a waste of time either. You never know what gems you may find in the rubbish, so long as you have an eye for what is rubbish and what’s not. Besides, how can we tell that a system is rubbish if we don’t evaluate it critically, and just assume it’s bad based on flawed, subjective bias. As long as something is popular it is worth being investigated.
Oh now I remember my physical therapist saying something about her yoga. Sje was pretty hardcore with it for a while and she actually harmed herself with it a few times. She said the teacher even 'pushed' people into the correct pose. That horrified me. She is a well education physical therapist and even she made those mistakes once in her life. Yes exactly, 13:45! Made me aware to always keep my boundaries in check and not push into crazy poses. Now I never had the aspiration to go into crazy moves, but still it's good to keep this in mind.
I am from South India 🇮🇳 and we have many doctors here who speak out against Yoga on talks and discussions. Stillness does not make you lose weight; Yoga caused injury, strokes, oxygen deficiency (especially Pranayama) etc.
Awesome video! I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for the last decade (maybe a little less) and I started an at home practice after I was too afraid to go back to a class (or too lazy to get up early.) I have been doing yoga videos on TH-cam because I didn’t like or want to be pushed. I knew that meant that I would probably never look as cool as real yogis but I didn’t see a point in doing yoga in an environment I didn’t like, or practices that weren’t at the level I needed. Thank you for sharing that book, I will track it down and add it to my reading list.
Yoga can be an awesome tool and practice (I actually think I didn't stress that enough in the video 😅), but it's so important to find the right teacher/school. Training at home with care can definitely be a solution :)
When you say "I hope the process of my failure helps you", don't think of it as a failure!, you chose a path and now you can share your experience of having transitioned along it. I would never see that as a failure. Failure is not even trying or not questioning yourself!
Thank you for this video. I was a dedicated Ashtanga yogi for 4years but unfortunately I faced shoulder pain and doctor told me to quit practicing immediately. The last 10 months went on for healing & I moved on with Qigong practices for light movement.
Yoga is just a sport and sport is beneficial for human health but at the same time doesn't mean that you can not get injuries while you are doing it. Please don't take Yoga as spiritual as many people believe but just as a usual sport. All sports are beneficial but at the same time can cause injuries.
Well, yoga originally started as Hindu meditation. If you’re a Hindu incorporating yoga into your prayer routine, that’s definitely spiritual and rightfully so. Weirdo spiritualist non-Hindus co-opting the religious side while not being Hindu is just bizarre to me.
I agree with everything in this video. I think that most yoga teachers don't know what they are doing and that teachers should not push people past where the body wants to go. I always advise people to listen to their bodies. I have left and never gone back to every yoga teacher who has advised me against it. I always suggest positions and suggest positioning. I elected to take anatomy and kinesiology on my own because I felt the lack of knowledge in the industry. A yoga teacher that doesn't know anatomy scares me, not for me, I would take their class but for beginners. I think beginners are best 1 on 1 or in a small group of beginners.
I'm really glad to know that you are taking a serious approach on your own studies. Indeed, when an instructor is teaching a group of beginners - so many things could go wrong. It's important to know the medical background of each person and to shape the exercises exactly to each person's needs. If a beginner's class is made with a big group and little personal guidance, many things can go wrong.
* As many people blindly following a teaching, as you did for Aikido (and maybe for yoga too), you're following in the opposite mistake, negating everything based on your limited experience (even 20 years with a bad teacher aren't such a great experience). I'm not an extreme yoga fan, but looks like you're confusing it with stretching or fitness. In fact, there are countless different kind of yoga, most of them have little to do with physical wellbeing, and much with spiritual/mind states, which you have no experience with to talk about them. So the goal of mma is not wellbeing, and many people get injured (also: I met many MMA practitioners you could easily beat their ass down with a good boxing training, due to their different guard), and that doesn't mean mma sucks. The purpose of yoga is not (mainly) wellbeing too, apart from the fact that a well-taught yoga is highly beneficial to the elasticity of the body and the calmness of the mind. Your enemy is not this or that teaching, but the tendency to reason by ABSOLUTES in a relative world, tendency you are still not free from.
I see your point and it makes sense in the limited context of this video :) But you should meet me live and get to talk to me and you'd get a very different experience. In person-to-person I am very diplomatic and I always speak humbly about every practice. Some months ago I met someone who was excited about their Aikido (and didn't know who I am) and I kept trying to talk about the good sides of Aikido with him for an hour to respect his enthusiasm and to encourage his journey, just gently mentioning some downsides. You are also not correct in saying I have no experience in spiritual Yoga. It's just in this video that I spoke about the physical aspect of it, because that's the type of yoga majority of people practice (at least in the West) and that's the most dangerous side of yoga. I made a separate video on my spiritual experience and observations learned from being a devoted spirituality practitioner. Most people don't understand that if I want to deliver value through videos and to make people reflect, just sitting there and talking nicely about things does not cut it. There are enough people talking about benefits of yoga, but few are talking about it's dark side, especially from personal experience (same situation back in the day was with Aikido). I take it upon myself to dive into an emotional place that I've went through when I discovered those dark sides and share my story from that place, to make sure people hear the important message and hopefully to warn people early enough before they will make the same mistakes like I did. The best path is the one which works (I'm talking about the delivery method of a video)
PS: I see where you are coming from and understand you in this context of the video, but also I would like to advise you to consider there are usually always two sides of the picture, before writing such a comment. In the end your comment and expression ended up being very absolute and not free, since it did not present any doubts or considerations, just a clear belief (judgement) of "how I am"
@@Rokasleo Yes, actually I felt a bit judgemental myself writing this comment and I apologize if it felt like that for you. I didn't want to judge you as a person, but related to what you are expressing in this video, entitled "why yoga sucks" and examining just a part of it. Probably you wanted (legitimately) to attract more traffic and/or discussion voluntarily directly challenging people's beliefs, so you probably expected also divergent comments. Even in in general, I very much agree with your journey towards the truth in the martial arts field. P.S. Of course, you're right saying that I can't judge you as a person from your channel, and even less you can judge me from this single comment and or TH-cam account, as you probably didn't really wanted to do 😉
Thanks for your reply :) Oh yeah, you are right, I am quite used to this and I can't really blame anyone much aside from myself. As you said, such a style of presenting footage does create controversy and bring up various emotions in people too and I get to be on the receiving end of that 😁 But it's the path I chose myself, so I can't complain. Also, thank you for listening in to what I said too :) I appreciate it. And no worries, trust me, I didn't judge you at all and I saw that you are coming from a good place provoked by my method of conduct and I only did my best to reflect about the comment you wrote specifically and not to try to evaluate you as a person :) By the way, I do say that not all Yoga is bad and some of it is really good, but somewhere at a later part of the video 😂 I think next time I'll need to say it earlier, since some people don't get to that part 😂 Cheers 🙏
One difficulty with gauging movements by whether they cause pain or not is that people are very different in how they interpret pain. Some people will simply not feel pain in poses that any orthopedic could tell are dangerous for them from a mile away. And some people will feel any physical discomfort as pain. Every individual has to learn for themselves what really is harmful to them and what not. I'm not saying that people should do things that are like, clearly hurting them badly, but sometimes you got to push through discomfort and sometimes you got to know that you need to stop doing something early, before it starts to actually hurt you. If we use BJJ as an example (since I am more familiar with that by now than yoga), you can't wait in a toe hold until you're really hurting or it's already too late and you're gonna be skipping the next week or worse, next few months or even worse, next nine months. On the other hand, many freshcomers will feel pain when they are being pressure passed; when they are in various not-actually-threatening holds; when they are being crossfaced; etc, things that really don't fuck you up once you know what you're doing even if they hurt a little bit. But what is definitely true is that forcibly applying external pressure to push one further than their flexibility allows is not a good thing, at all.
I started doing yoga for 30 min every morning, following yoga with Adriene, just because it is not so intense for me as a beginner and it makes me feel more relaxed and streched, even with no previous experience I'm doing everything slowly and focusing on my breath, if I cannot do some pose then I just don't do it or I adjust it i hope it's not wrong, because my only motive is to get me moving and energizing, I'm not the gym type so intense trainings don't fit me
Hi Rokas hope you r doing well as well as your family (by the way say hi to them from me) There is a lot to say from the content of your video so i'll stay focus on making a link btw professional cooks and yoga One of the thing that cooks forget is that you are here to feed the world and from there there is something very dangerous that If you give some food to somebody you can feed people or making them sick : What made me think about one old Greek word witch is Pharmakoi who means the poison or the remedy. By giving food to somebody, by beeing the instructor of somebody you can help them to stay alive or poison them. I remember when i first start to teach my first big fear was that i was concern to teach something bad for the body of my student And when i started to teach cooking i was often afraid of teaching something not really true. But this had a very positive impact on me in the sense that i really started to question everything that i studied and it opened actually a lot of new perspectives in my fields. Anyway i just wanted to share that, and there will be a endless talk not about the fact that Yoga or this or that sucks but more into some kind of people who would like to teach should teach to themself first before trying to teach to others. It s a little bit like witch martial arts or combat sport is the best i really trully think that it s more the martial artist or the sports fighters witch is behind who could make the difference but again we could have a long nights talk about this kind of topic. Take care man
Hi Antony! Great to hear from you. First of all I wanted to say that I really appreciate your comments and the way you present them. I find relating information to our own experience and our area of expertise to be a great way to navigate and analyze information. It's also awesome to connect up with you too 🙂 Second, I really agree with your point. It's a great one. And I also think that being responsible and cautious in our chosen path can lead to great discoveries. PS: Will pass on the regards, thank you. Best regards to Mitchy too!
You mostly exposed physical dangers of yoga, which is great coz I haven't heard anyone did it before. However, you briefly mentioned how yoga can mess you up spiritually/psychologically. I've read tons of bad experiences, or to put it better, bad consequences after dealing with yoga after certain amount of time. What is your opinion on that and did you have some bad experiences on that ''other side of yoga''? Also did you experience kundalini? Perhaps you will make video about it in the future. Awesome and beneficial story as always and thank you for your answer!
Thank you! There is definitely the 'dark side' of the spirituality of Yoga. I personally did notice that people with mental issues tend be drawn by it and I witnessed cases where the whole non-dual meditation type of approach would worsen the conditions of these people which would lead them all the way to the psychiatric ward. I am considering to make a video about it in the future :) I was never deeply focusing on Kundalini. Since I was studying various practices from various cultures Ki or Chi was more on my mind, but even so, I think I lost interest in all types of energies early enough and simply focused more on my personal development as a human being. What bad experiences did you have with Yoga as a spiritual/psychological practice?
@@Rokasleo None. I've never engaged in yoga personally, so I haven't experienced any effect good or bad. I've simply studied it a lot because of my interest in subject and I've read tons of experience from people who did it and later had terrible mental issues which some of it went on for years, specially after engaging with kundalini. Even great C.G. Jung warned about severe consequences after doing it. Not all I presume of course. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the future video about it. Thank you!
During yoga I was incouraged to pay attention to the feelings in the body and respect it, keep balance and do slow growth. I never felt sore after yoga and I could continue trainings without pressure. But when I was going to different fitness trainings and dance classes there has always been a concept of pushing yourself to the limit and people where getting injuries. I heard idea about balance only on yoga classes, I will continue this way. Everything can bring harm and I like critical videos on spirituality. I just can't agree on this about yoga from my experience
Response to the first comment: thank you! I do feel I could have emphasized more that Yoga is not all bad in the video 😁 But I'm glad to hear we see eye to eye. Second: Haha, you might be right 😂 Still though, I am far behind being capable in the standards that I would see to be appropriate to teach Yoga 😊
That was exactly my experience. Though I would add that even this supposedly scientific places should be taken with a lot of skepticism. When I was studying to become a teacher in India (which was also my 6th time there, spent years altogether in it) I already had enough knowledge and experience to be cautious, aware of a lot of injuries in that world etc. So I went for a therapy oriented viniyoga based instruction with the head instructor being a licensed medical doctor with a lot of experience in Yoga therapy. I was also seemingly an above average student, probably mostly because I spent a year before that studying physiology, anatomy etc on my own. Still, I came home with a permanent neck injury and still not feeling qualified enough. I felt I would need to be have a degree in physiotherapy and have experience as a gymnastics coach to make it work and feel confident in what I was doing. And mind you I had 20yrs experience by that time too (my interest in all the eastern mystical mumbo-jumbo started early in childhood). I also attended some scientific conferences in India dedicated to yoga-research and in my view a lot of it was bad science. -------------------------------- Also to go deeper into the subject: - religious aspects of yoga are often questionable. Hatha as done today can not be followed back in time for more than a couple of centuries. The source of what is considered "classical hatha" today starts in late colonial period with neohindu revival and teachers like Sivananda. They tried to blend and mix a lot of different hitherto separate and even conflicting Hindu traditions within the more general desire to develop a nation-state and identity. They did succeed in a social sense, but the philosophical background of their approach is usually very bad and internally inconsistent (being religion it is always fundamentally epistemologically questionable anyway, but that is a different discussion). That ideological blend than got mixed with a modernised hatha with much more asana than in any existing literal source, possibly through Iyengar's indirect influence at a later stage too. As a sidenote - the 4 yogas is also a fairly late concept, popularised primarily by Vivekananda. Combining the classical Yoga of Patanjali's sutra with hatha yoga, by expanding the asana in YS/ashtanga into hatha yoga asana exercise and retaining the rest is also fairly new - in the YS there is no indication asana means anything besides a sitting position for meditation, and traditional Hatha sources like HathaYoga Pradipika, or even some more exotic ones like Thirumantiram have their own conceptual systems. - the other big source of more dynamic and les overtly religious stiles comes from Krisynamacharya (and his disciples like Jois, Iyengar, Desikachar and others), but if you dig there things become sketchy again. A lot of what he did can not be found in older sources. Part of that critique is dismissed by claiming a secret oral transmission, which is always a questionable and unprovable claim. But even worse, he has written books that are claimed to be traditional lost scriptures' that he retrieved through spiritual trances, dictated by ancient sages. With the content, curiously, reflecting the needs of the changing social environment (like insisting on teaching females etc) and not looking like anything you would find in known ancient sources. Call me skeptical. - more skeptical authors even dare to speculate that, being developed in later colonial times, western callisthenic exercises very popular at the time might have had a lot of influence, as might some martial, wrestling etc warming up exercises. So summing it all up I would consider it just bad gymnastics today. Too much passive long stretching without enough strength can easily create injuries. If someone realy insists on doing yoga I would cautiously suggest a more physical and dynamic style, with less static positions and more strength, more gymnastic like movement, and if possible with the instructor having a background in medical or similar (kinesiology etc) fields.
Very interesting. How do you currently use your yoga experience? Do you daily train your skills by listening your body and being responsible for you only, or you preferred to leave any activity connected with the exersices learnt during the Yoga journey?
Great question. I actually do a stretch here and there once in a while (although these days a prefer a foam roller mostly). But my practice is mainly about listening to the body, feeling what body parts are tense or have limited flexibility and working with them when I have the opportunity or feel inspired. Some of those stretches are somewhat Yoga inspired, but I definitely don't see myself as a yoga practitioner, where I would focus on doing specifically what I was taught in yoga 😶
@@RokasleoI see. I unluckily experienced some injuries connected with yoga and this is an aspect that made me stop my practice some years ago. In the last year I noticed that because of thai boxe class and gym, my body was getting stiffened and I started to feel back pain. I've then started again some yoga sequences on my own with low benefit. The school I was following was more related to the static positions derived by hatha. I finally recently felt comfortable by trying some dynamic yoga styles (like vinyasa) and I started to work again a little bit with it. I am appreciating the benefits deriving from such a practise, my back is getting better and my mobility and flexibility is improving without pushing. Let us see in the future. :)
I think the state of mind and dogmas about something are generally big problem in nowadays society. For example: there are many martial arts instructors in my country that want to be "hardcore" and end up fucking up themselves and their students. As i heard many times, train hard but more importantly train smart. Dont fuck up your body.
Great point! It is actually one of the problems I am doing (and will do my best) to keep addressing in this channel. I already recorded (but didn't publish yet) a story about how my first martial arts instructor was like that (hardcore) and because of his training methods and mentality I fucked up my body and still have problems with it since my teen years 😑 Maybe it's a more common problem than I thought. What is your country by the way, if I can ask?
Can you do a video on quantum physics?? Real vs the pop spirituality version? Much appreciated. I found this video very helpful and I’m looking forward to doing more anatomically correct stretching/mobility/strength exercises.
I had a similar problem after I did a 2 month yoga course they gave me a certificate saying I can teach yoga and aruyvedic medicine when I felt like I really didnt know much about either and most of it was not backed by anything scientific anyways so I more or less left it behind, at most I take the odd stretch from it if I can find a use for it
I'm really glad to hear that you were honest about it and respected the doubt about this type of limitation. I think many people have that doubt after such a course, but too few choose to respect it. Obviously, the worst ones are the ones who have no doubt and full conviction they know what they need to know, but that's a whole different subject :) Interestingly, I actually did a number of other courses including a Shiatsu course and Tai Chi course where I was given a certificate to apply it on others/teach, but the situation was the same - it was so little that I was actually given! I'm happy that at that time I was already smart to understand that too and didn't go on spreading what I learned around 😌
I actually agree with everything you are saying here. I simply don’t agree with your conclusion, that “Yoga sucks.” Yes, I agree, there are people who suck, and who use yoga in a negative or selfish way. However, that is true in every aspect of life. There are bad doctors in the world that hurt or even kill people, but I don’t go around saying Western Medicine Sucks. The fact is Yoga, like any other physical activity, can be dangerous if done incorrectly. However, if you do your research, and find a good Instructor it can be perfectly safe and beneficial.
You know what, maybe you could help me out Mr. Rokas. I'm a bigger guy, 6 feet tall and weigh 230. When I was younger I was overweight and was very sedentary. I then got into powerlifting and never stretched. I am now into bjj and muay thai. Long story short I am extremely tight, particularly in my lower body. I was looking at yoga as a way to gain more flexibilty. Any suggestions? Even a good stretch routine would be nice.
Hi man! I don't consider myself to be a well qualified Yoga instructor, but I would like to introduce you to Salome Thornton who is both a very well qualified Yoga instructor and BJJ practitioner. She is also very open in giving advice and helping people out. I'd recommend writing to her and asking your question. You can find her here: facebook.com/salomeas Don't hesitate to write to her. And if you won't get an answer (although I'm sure you will), let me know and I'll connect you directly to her :) All the best!
What would you say is the difference between pushing yourself in a good way and pushing yourself in a bad way? I often worry that I’m not exercising intensely enough.
That's a great question! And also want I have to make a disclaimer and say ahead that I don't have enough expertise to answer well :) I'll just share my opinion from personal experience, but do take it with a grain of salt please. What first comes to my mind is pushing yourself in psychological way. In other words: being hard on yourself and giving yourself challenged that are difficult overcome, which can lead to greater growth. Thing is, in my experience you need to balance failure and success. If you have too much success - you will become sloppy, probably your arrogance will grow and progress will hinder. But if you experience too much failure - that's a very quick way to lose your motivation and a sense of self worth. So there needs to be a balance. When I look at personal training, I personally apply similar principles. Based on my gathered knowledge, you do need to give enough of a workout to your muscles so that they would get (damaged enough) and the impulse to grow. But I'm personally also a believer of consistency vs intensity. If I go to the very limit of my capacity each time, not only the next day I'm exhausted and can do little, also when I think about the next training - it becomes difficult to motivate myself to do it again, since I know how hard the training will be. Yet if I train to a degree where I feel challenged (aka. the last pull up is difficult to do) I know that the muscles got enough input to grow. And if I will stop now, it will still feel fun to do and not only will I be able to do it soon enough again, I will also want to do it more, since I know I won't have to torture myself to the end. There is a great video about consistency vs intensity which you can watch here, if you want: th-cam.com/video/3dKJzSvm6FI/w-d-xo.html And the last thing I'd like to say here, is that if you push yourself too much, too often, your muscles don't get enough time to recover and while psychologically you feel like you are achieving more, in reality not only can you injure yourself, which will push back your training a mile back while you recover, also you might even experience a lack of progress, because the muscles get overworked. That's why I personally also love these two philosophies: hard training = hard rest, and, train smart - not hard. I hope this helps :)
The Journey that’s pretty helpful. My old music teacher echoed a similar sentiment. Practicing for a half hour 4-6 days a week is better than practicing for three hours at a time and not doing that again for a long time.
Now you need to make a third channel called, “my yoga journey,” where you travel around the world studying yoga and establish a scientific institution to certify yoga instructors 😂
That’s not far off my goal. I trained as a personal trainer and yoga instructor but I aim to actually look at strength, connective tissue help, anatomy and physiology and apply it to yoga. It’s bonkers how much stuff I have to throw out before I bring it to classes because I don’t drink the kool-aid
Are you familiar with Yin Yoga? It is newer and incorporates a lot of modern scientific knowledge on the body like fascia and anatomical variation. It is very much (at least how I teach it) about listening to the body in the ways you describe rather than the teacher. It is also more of a mixture of methodologies, a hybrid, of Taoism and Yogic traditions that actually originates in Kung Fu (oddly enough). You may find it appealing, happy to chat about it if you are ever interested, I like your open/seeking approach to learning in this modern world where all traditions are available to us :D
I've bumped into a Yin Yoga instructor once and tried it out then too. I really liked the session and also the instructor too :) Thank you for the offer. Right now I have a list of subjects that I am planning to interview people on already, but once I come back to exploring Yoga if you're offer will still be available, I might take it up! :) 🙏
@@Rokasleo sounds good, always interested to chat about this stuff and have been curious to learn more about how Aikido can blend with things so I look forward to it when you have time, you can find me through my site anytime: www.yujmu.com
Thank you! Very informative video. I would like to know more about yoga is related to martial arts. Did yoga help you in your martial arts? Should martial artists do some kind of "good" yoga?
Thanks! Some of the (bad) martial arts training I did mess up my body quite a bit and Yoga definitely helped me gain back some balance and heal up some injuries. I think it can definitely go hand in hand with martial arts. I keep hearing that Yoga is becoming more and more popular between BJJ practitioners for example. But if it gives direct advantages to the practitioner... Well, maybe mobility and balance does, it would make sense. But I wouldn't go to Yoga primarily to become a better martial artist. I would think of it more as a supplement. Of course, that's just my opinion :)
So this has been my concern as well. The lack of critical questioning and lack of a scientific basis has always bothered me, even though I've been doing certain yoga techniques for over ten years. Speaking of pressure tests and mma, are you familiar with "yoga for bjj" by this Scandinavian dude (Sebastian B.) who applies it to mma and bjj? He seems legit, maybe he pressure tests yoga, and one of his pupils is a top bjj athlete. But maybe he's also just lucky in winging it and not hurting himself and others.
I do think there are people who are more than capable of teaching Yoga well. People with MD degrees or anyone who invested the proper amount of time and energy in the right direction (studying the science of it all) and who teaches with honest care. I will be having a recorded conversation this week with an MD who is a Yoga instructor and I am interested in the future to talk with more well educated people to learn what they think about the whole subject and how they approach it. Sebastian B might be a good person to talk to! Thanks :)
Haha 🤣 I hate when that happens. These days I talk about gurus pretending to know it all and teaching people things they shouldn't teach and during these videos I get ads of self help gurus promoting their shit 😂😂🤯
mate I hope that this message is well translated since I speak Spanish and it is difficult for me to write in English properly. Some time ago I met your channel watching the first videos in which you tested aikido against a real sparring. And a couple of days ago I found your channel again and I saw a lot of your content, I really like it and I highly respect your journey. I feel very reflected in your journey and that gave me the courage to write a message. I completely disagree with what you say and at the same time completely agree. Everything you say about the risk of "posture classes" (what you call yoga, not even yoga class) is totally true. In that I completely agree. But I completely disagree that you present it as yoga. uff I would love to be able to explain myself much more in that aspect but it is difficult to write in English. So I will do it in short sentences to make the google translator more accurate. When I talk about yoga it is about knowledge, a map that helps us understand our structure and I am referring more to the mental structure than to the physical structure. (When I say this I think of the text "the yogasutras of Patanjali") That knowledge helps us understand our structure and from there we can understand the potential that it has. in the same way that anatomical knowledge helps us understand the potentials of our body. it is not magic, it is not mystical, it is not about peace and love it is about continuous work with destroying misconceptions. it is not a question of defining the truth but of destroying the illusion. It seems to me that this is something with which you can be identified. In this video you did not criticize yoga, you only criticized the idea that you adopted about what yoga is. and it seems to me that it would be more honest to expose it like this. It is very fallacious to go from personal experience to such a general and emphatic definition. This is precisely why I liked your videos on aikido because you contextualized your thoughts and criticism very well. I really like your content and I thank you
Hey man! Thank you, that is an awesome comment (and you also did a great job with google translate!). When I hear someone saying: " I completely disagree with what you say and at the same time completely agree." it makes me already respect whoever said it very much. I never think we need to all agree, but I think we need to do our best to understand each other and try to lift up / improve each other's understandings and I think that's what you do :) As I said I enjoyed your comment a lot and I agree almost 100% with. Language is a funny thing and if we say something is black, it automatically means it is not white, although in reality sometimes things are white and black at the same time. By saying one thing about Yoga (or Aikido/Martial Arts for the matter) it doesn't always mean I don't disagree with myself (or that I don't see another perspective), but sometimes in order to portray a message / idea, I am forced to sacrifice one side of the picture. I do my best to balance things, but inevitably sometimes I stress one side more than the other. Basically though, what I wanted to say is that again, I agree with most of what you said, even if I wasn't able to say it in the video and I also appreciate comments like yours, since it expands my thinking too and makes me reflect even more ;) All the best! 🙏
@@Rokasleo Thanks for answering me, I like that you could understand the purpose of my comment and appreciate it, although it does not surprise me because your content talks about you being a seeker of truth and also that you are trying to improve yourself. As I said in the comment before, what I dared to point out is that you could have given context to the experience you describe or at least a better context. As you say above "Language is a funny thing and if we say something is black, it automatically means it is not white, although in reality sometimes things are white and black at the same time. By saying one thing about Yoga (or Aikido / Martial Arts for the matter) it doesn't always mean I don't disagree with myself (or that I don't see another perspective) " I agree that this can happen, but I do not think it is a characteristic of the language, but rather a possible error in communication, and for this reason, the language gives us the tools to give a better context to our message and reduce that cut (or noise) in communication (and in this case it would be more the responsibility of the sender of the message than of the receiver to better use these tools in favor of delivering a truthful one). Now, because of the context that you gave this video "I've been a professional Yoga instructor and devoted student for over 12 years" I assumed that you did know the philosophy (path, journey or practice) behind the asana classes and also I believe you when you say that you want people to learn from your experiences, I think it would be more truthful and beneficial to share that great difference between the "yoga classes" and the vast knowledge behind. As you did with aikido, claiming to be a functional martial art but it is not, and you did a beautiful job that allowed those who were looking for something functional to find a more suitable practice and for those people who were looking for the philosophy behind aikido they knew maybe they could find it. Uff I hope that written above is understandable in English, it is a difficult and long job for me to translate my words and that they also have coherence. So my words may sound more vehement than they really are. Finally to give a little context to my words, for me the study and practice of the knowledge that comes from some eastern schools of thought has given me a lot, or rather it has taken away a lot of unnecessary suffering giving me a perspective and clarity that before I did not had about my psyche. Especially through the improvement of discernment (Besides, of course, more corporal well-being with a good instructor of iyengar, beautiful philosophical concepts, tranquility, etc. all that seems secondary to me) that is why I would hate for someone to miss that possibility of improving the discernment that free from unnecessary suffering. Although of course I understand that a title like this attracts more attention and therefore more views.
Well my friend again thanks for your video and your response to my comment. It a shame that my message sounds so serious but I'm already very tired, and also joking in another language seems impossible to me now hahaha PD 1: I know that the philosophy and all the mystique of Yoga and other schools is also very distorted to be profitable, both in the West and in the East itself with all the new age movement, leadership, coaching, self help, etc. . So I don't idealize it either, but still the reality to which all that knowledge points is still relevant today. So if anyone is interested in that at least try to read some of the classic texts. example: Yoga sutras of patanjali (version of desikachar that one of which I read) The sutra of Benares (buddhism version of ado parakranabahu) to name a pair. Remember that all classic text is the translation of both the language and the cultural context, so it is very important to know who is the translator and his background (spiritual or scholarship) to better understand the meaning it gives to texts.
You go into the importance of proper training and regulation for yoga instructors, but the physical trainer market is just as unregulated, and any half decent PT instructor will readily tell you about all the awful injuries you can give yourself in the gym, and help you adjust your workout if you have an injury that should be worked around. IMO it's more of a culture thing.
hey ! thanks for ur great information .im interested in yoga mostly bcuz of flexibility and streachings could u plz recommend me a safer way for that or sort of a sport ? thank you again 🙏
Funny cause some of the issues you had with yoga I had in Aikido. I was more used to listening to my body from Karate but in Aikido my instructors mainly had a dogma(a non spiritual Aikido we take pain/physical based). Anyway very fun but back damaging Aikido. So I went back to Karate.
I chose as a yoga instructor to reject the spiritual teaching side. Meditation and practice of asana sure but it’s not my place to tell others who to be or how to live their life
Yoga does do good though. There have been a couple viral stories about people who overcame very steep health issues with practical yoga. The whole "don't question" thing with spiritual yoga sounds like the bullshido no touch shit
"There have been a couple viral stories about people who overcame very steep health issues with practical yoga." - 100%, good Yoga can be amazing :) "The whole "don't question" thing with spiritual yoga sounds like the bullshido no touch shit" - one more time a 100%. It is a very similar situation. Can be found in some other similar areas too
Yoga can be good however there are certianly some poses especially some preaty extreme poses that look preaty good but can potentially mess up your body especially depending who you are or if your'e not doing it right.
Sir asanas and pranayama should be practiced with proper intent and not all asanas are for everyone. People should be taught specific asanas according to their needs and limitations. To do this, teachers should be properly informed and taught which is very difficult in todays world .And plz stop calling people who just do the physical postures "yogis".
I practice knowledge of my body with everything jujitsu yoga weight training and running. Even at my job work overtime or go home. We have to balance everything.
What you are saying can be said about many sports or activities. Have you considered what bjj does to your body? Most the claims are that it is great for your health, but I would naturally doubt aspects of that. Surely it is common sense to listen to what your body is capable of and what it's not! If a personal trainer told you it is good for you to squat 300kg would you blindly try and do it?! Yoga, bjj weight training and countless other activities do not inherently suck just because of the mindset of some practitioners!
I tend to agree with what you are saying, but the issue still is that Yoga claims to be almost a medical practice there to fix people's bodies and health, while BJJ doesn't inherently claim that. Most people with injuries will stay away from combat sports such as BJJ, but they will go to Yoga, because of the former mentioned claims and many will believe in what is offered to them, because yet again: it is their official claim that it will help, while in reality it may end up damaging the body and health. That's what the video was more about.
@@Rokasleo I get what you mean in the video, and I have questioned whether yoga teachers actually understands how these postures improve health and can they back it up. However the title to the video was; 'This is why yoga sucks, hard lessons'. Which implies that you have learnt that in general yoga is useless. I believe that yoga has probably helped countless more people than it has harmed. I don't have statistics on this but it is logical to think that not many people would stick with an activity that causes them pain, as it is in our nature to avoid pain, and to be drawn to activities that make us feel pleasure. In the UK our NHS recommends yoga to help with many ailments like high blood pressure sore joints, and stress relief, check out this link: www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-fitness-studio/yoga-with-lj/.
Sir one more thing there are no different types of yoga. You need proper knowledge with proper action to attain bhakti, which can roughly be translated as love and oness with the universe. Sir, understanding the subtle part of yoga is very important which people dont want to dive in .🙏🙏🙏🙏
Sooo, do you think that bjj instructors should have an extensive certification process and universal standards? You can definitely mess up your health with that. Or is it enough that their sensei awarded them a belt, and their school produces competitive fighters?
That's a great question! And I tend to lean on, not necessarily universal standards, but High standards. For example SBG International, which I respect a lot and I'm also a part of it, has an in-depth instructor training program which covers a lot of important subjects about teaching and I think that's a great way to go. Meanwhile a great practitioner doesn't necessarily mean that he's a great teacher, but too many people confuse that. What do you think?
@@Rokasleo All I have is conjecture based on what usually results in good governance, increased democratic involvement in policy making. However, as we see around the world today, that is not fool-proof. It doesn't address the inability to to discern convincing BS from the truth that exists in people to varying degrees and for varying subjects. It also doesn't address the different levels of development in people's views. I wish I had a better answer.
"Woman would pay million dollar for 1 drop of my sperm!" - Bikram . Lol Bikram yoga as well as Iyengar very culty like Lol. Seriously though we've talked about this b4 the school/ teacher training I went to was not like this at all . The program (a vinyasa focused YTT) I went through focused on both the spiritual self development side, the history, and the physical hatha asana side was very much focused on science /anatomy & mobility as well I mean several of the lectures were done by physical therapists so Rokas the experiences ur talking about aren't a guarantee. I mean anything can be good or bad positive or negative. I think ppl that are yoga specialist man bun sporting ,culty, folks make the rest of us look bad
I agree and appreciate you saying that. It is definitely not all bad, but I did wanted to make sure that in this video I stress what "evils" can be out there so that people would be more cautious. I did say in the video once that not all Yoga is bad and that it can be great, but I guess I could have stressed it a bit more 😂
Occassionally I do some yoga poses to maintain my flexibility and reduce stress and I think it works for those reasons but I think you would have to be pretty deluded to believe half of the claims that yoga lore makes.
I also think overly long yoga sessions are a terrible idea. No animal on this planet stretches for 90 minutes straight yet we put ourselves through this and wonder why our shoulders hurt or our neck hurts after.
You're cutting through the delusion and I think that is excellent. We're urged to swallow all this stuff with no evidence. Of course there are huge benefits to stretching and Yoga and breathing and all these things, but there's a whole lot of bullshit and charlatan type activity attached to these things too. Blind faith. This can be seen in religions, it was huge in martial arts up until recently too. It's everywhere in our world. Why would you put the health of your body in the hands of someone who has no medical background is the question you are asking. Especially when you are going to that person to SPECIFICALLY heal or cure your body. You could argue the same about a martial arts instructor or gym instructor but they are not selling thenselves as healers or curers.
I am sorry you had a bad experience with Yoga. There are undoubtedly bad instructors out there. However, Yoga has transformed my life for the better, and I know I am not the only person that feels that way. You spoke very briefly about spirituality and inner energy aspects of yoga. In fact you seemed pretty dismissive of it (9:12)..To me, and other serious practitioners, that is Yoga. You tried skipping the most important part. In my opinion you weren’t even doing Yoga. You were just stretching until you hurt yourself.
I can agree with some parts you say and disagree with others. Part of my "curse" is that by making a video that I am passionate about, I am bound to focus on expressing more one side than the other. By no means my intention was to say that all Yoga is bad. I agree it can offer many great things too, but it is a dangerous tool to wield/share/use and should be regarded as such with responsibility. In regards to the spiritual side of it: well, first of all, would you disagree that most Yoga schools at least in the West (where I presume we are both from) are based on the physical aspect? And I think it is common to refer to the majority in a general way. Also, you do not really know the depth of my spiritual experience and training and you made a judgment about what I did and what I did not do by watching a single video where I talk about a specific subject. Trust me, I've been down the spiritual path as a very devoted student and I would like you not to make a complete statement without investigating further. In discussion about the spiritual side, I just release a video where I talk more about it: th-cam.com/video/aRjmP64W1uY/w-d-xo.html And in this video I say that esoteric teachings can be good, as long as they make better people. In my experience the mystical, spiritual and esoteric have a tendency to make subtly arrogant and self centered individuals (not always, but it does happen way too commonly). And another mistake by this community is to state their beliefs as facts. Until there is evidence of chakras, kundalini and so forth, I would suggest to speak humbly about it and not to claim that it is a cure for all, but that it rather works for some individual and may be partly effective due to the placebo effect. Unfortunately most spiritual people I've met talk about these things are universal truths applicable to everyone and that is not a healthy way to go. If it makes you better - congratulations, but humility should go hand in hand with it.
The thing is why you soul chouse that's karmic lesson with that instructor that's the reason that's happened to you and with martial art are the same are karmic lesson with a energy veil that's the confusion or lesson for you to work on
sorry, you learned the wrong way, it has nothing to do with Yoga but with the one you learned. i can see that on the technical errors of your asanas with many technical lacks leading to dead ends. But truly competent yoga guides are only a handful, alas.
Yoga is demonic. I appreciate this video. Pilates made an exercise system which is simply 34 mat exercises that sort of poke fun at yoga. I have demonstration and teaching videos on my channel for people who want to discontinue yoga, but want to stay on their mats in a non-demonic way.
Well, I mean, my first guess would be you are a type of person who can't stand many things in life. I think it is common when we are sensitive and irritated that we blame the small things, versus asking ourselves if we are adequate on how we take them. At the same time, I understand why you could be frustrated because of that, but TBH you are the first person to really say anything about it from hundreds, showing that it may be more your thing than a universal criticism. Who knows though, maybe more people are upset, but I am yet to hear from them to listen in to it :) What is important to say too: the vision of this channel (this series) is to promote not trying to be perfect, accepting ourselves with our flaws and still working our ass off to provide value. That's why they are in one take, that's why slurping is included. We sometimes expect each other way too much to be perfect, but in the end, that's not the point. Sure, a few people might turn the video off because of it, but hopefully more will be inspired to accept themselves and their work and to focus on what is being said more, than on how it is being said. I could go on and on and I lack a bit clarity in this comment, but I hope you (and anyone else who tunes into this discussion) see my point :) Good luck
People, at least the serious ones especially in India, have dedicated - not just spent - their lifetimes, in the study and practice of Yoga. Those knowledge have been handed down over centuries, thru true, real, Gurus, not just the self-professed ones. That is HOW Yoga has survived so many centuries and will survive centuries. There is bound to be some distortions, but that also had led to many new ways of practicing Yoga. It is half-witted Westerners like you, who have commercialized it. Lululemon made billions of dollars just by selling Yoga pants. You became a Yoga “instructor” by doing a certificate course!! And you have the balls to criticize it. Yoga is a philosophy, not just twisting your torso around. The very word Yoga, translated from original Sanskrit, means “union”. An “union” of body and SOUL, to reach Almighty. Read dude, understand first, clear your mind. The basic tenets of Yoga starts with “I am no one, I don’t understand, Oh Almighty lead me into enlightenment”. Learn first, teach later. My 2 cents.
First of all, these are not "2 cents", this is a full on, heavy criticism with a sense of self righteousness and no desire to see or try to understand where I come from or what I wanted to convey with this video. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even watch the full video and decided to judge me solely based on your first impressions. Secondly, if you ever want someone to listen to your feedback, don't include expressions such as "It is half witted Westerners like you". You show zero respect towards me and zero desire to understand or listen to what I really said and so I have zero respect to you and no desire to hear your opinion. If you are all about becoming enlightened through the use of yoga, I would suggest you to first learn some humility and compassion. People such as yourself continue to give yoga a bad name.
The Journey Sir, with all due respect and utmost humility, I come from that venerable land called India, which happens to be the birthplace of Yoga, hence my self-righteousness. Sure, I was a little over-the-top, but I feel my comments are quite restrained, given your falsehoods peppered with generous profanity. Talking softly is not forced by Yoga, it naturally comes out of the humility within. Punishing your body is part of cleansing and toughening. Try that argument when you are in Navy Seals training. Even today many Yogis do unbelievable things with their bodies, which will blow you off. The very fact you cared about my opinion has compelled you to respond. Can I be more humble? You bet. Can I be more respectful? I won’t even try for folks like you, who perpetuate such lies about a an ancient philosophy and the path to God. Anyone can be a teacher, but all teachers ain’t a Guru. There is a difference b/w a teacher and Guru. Choose the right Guru and he will have an answer to all your idiotic questions. B.K. Iyengar is a true Yoga Guru. Good luck and stay safe.
I was about to respond to you to debate and discuss in search of truth, but then I read: "Can I be more respectful? I won’t even try for folks like you, who perpetuate such lies about a an ancient philosophy and the path to God." If there is no mutual respect, there is no use for a discussion between such two people. You just end up throwing your words to the wall :) Good luck to you too and I'm sorry you wasted your time writing these comments. PS: Or I guess you just made yourself feel better by venting your emotions. Too bad you are not interested to seek for truth through a discussion
The Journey “Respect” is a two-way street. Your choice of profanity gave that away. So, that has been chipped away. I have an open mind for a healthy discussion, but you should be willing to listen as well. India is an ancient culture where respect is taken very seriously and given to those who deserve.
My profanity was not driven towards you :) If profanity is enough for you to disrespect someone, instead of listening what value they offer in their perspective, then I think most Westerners are not up to your standards for discussion
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"Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth" - Ludwig Borne, and upon realizing the depth of that quote as it applies inwardly, remember this quote and apply it outwardly, "Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers." - Voltaire. (Just my opinion)
Oh, I really like that! Thanks for sharing 🙏
Yeah! Great ones!
Hey, you could learn physiotherapy. That would give a solid basis to do and teach funcional and safe yoga. Plus it's a legit healthcare profession where you can earn money AND help people at the same time.
That's a great point! And it's something I would definitely do if I would continue to pursue this career/path, but there's only so much you can do at one time and currently I am investing all my time in different projects. But who knows, maybe in the future :) 🙏
I agree completely. Physiotherapy rehabilitation and Yoga have many overlap. Too bad no one in the world is offering such a thing at the moment.
Physical therapy is the Brazilian jiu jitsu of homeopathic medicine
@@shinobi-no-bueno I have the impression that PT is based on science and homeopathy isn't.
petrairene I am studying physical therapy at the moment and I would say Yoga and Pilates both share that issues. They might be corrected by a proper physical therapist, of course, but I don’t think it is a method that will benefit most of the people that do it. Not only some movements are universally dangerous, but also most people that practices yoga tai chi or pilates have some underlying issues that will worse due to it. (In my country, such disciplines are practiced by old or pregnant females, and most instructors are too much into spiritual concepts). Before the pandemic issue we have, an old woman came to my gym instructor telling him that his son was brutally beaten outside of a nightclub in spite of practicing tai chi. It is just an example that has come to my mind
Awesome video. So far, all your videos I've watched have been great. Subbed, notifications on.
In order to get an Iyengar Yoga certification, one needs to practice at least three years and then the formation itself takes at least another two years, sometimes up to five. It is probably the most rigorous yoga certification (as far as asana and pranayama go) there is. It's probably the yoga style most prominent in scientific literature, papers and such. My teachers are very scientific minded and there's no spiritual soft-voiced bullshit. They had a look at my x-rays and had a very individualized teaching style, and would defer to a physician when in doubt. I'm pretty sure you would enjoy a restaurative Iyengar Yoga Class.
I'm sorry you had such an awful experience. Funnily enough, I had a similar experience with aikido (teacher pushing too hard, forcing into injurious effort, etc), and we all know that the physical activities industry has lots of bad apples (CrossFit and personal training come to mind). I'm not sure central authorities are the best solution to that (nutrition has central authorities and universities and it's mostly crap too), but I respect your position.
As for the video in general, I wish it was shorter and more edited, but maybe I'm biased against vlogs. Good luck on your journey
Thanks man! These are great insights and I love your open minded exploration.
Also, than you very much for educating me about Iyengar Yoga certification. I didn't know that and now I will be more humble and correct about that subject :)
I also agree with pretty much everything you said.
Last thing to offer an opinion about: I understand these type of vlogs are not for everyone and I accept that. At the same time, the vision of them is to promote being yourself and not trying to be perfect. I am disturbed that so many people are presenting themselves (especially on social media) in "perfect" ways where everything is edited and presented to perfection and then many of us subconsciously start to develop a belief that they are amazing and we suck (to put it simply). With this format I want to show that it's OK to sometimes slip, that no one is perfect in the way they present things (without editing) and I just want to have a heart to heart conversation same way I would if you and me would be sitting in the same room. Sure, maybe a clean cut video would reach more people, but it's a sacrifice I have to consciously chose, in order to promote a different approach and trust that it will reach the right people :) I could go on more, but that's more or less the point.
Oh, and PS: that's why the video is timed with subjects. I'm hoping that for people who want to save time, they can skip through in that way :)
@@Rokasleo hey, just wanted to tell you I loved your "justification" for the more relaxed editing and vlog-style content. Indeed, your honesty and humility are probably the reason why I started following your content to begin with. So, keep on doing what you do. I appreciate the video even more now.
Iyengar yoga can still do a lot of damage to the body.
It think people's experiences depend strongly on what kind of yoga and teachers they practice with.
The person I watch on TH-cam and the teachers I've got when I tried actual lessons for two months, were all great. They always are about talking boundaries and not pushing yourself. That's it's not about getting in a pose perfectly or stretching far. Taking a break is encouraged if you feel you need one.
I remember in the physical classes that all teachers at that studio always asked for consent very specifically before touching you. And no one would blink even an eye when someone said they preferred not to be touched. That was normal and okay. It was a very safe environment. Sadly, due to the corona lock downs it had to close and now it's an online studio.
I love Yoga. It is the only exercise I've done where I feel good and want to keep practicing. In my experience, public classes are always careful and aware of different body types and they do not pressure you. Patient, flexible, welcoming. They will say "if you can't do X, try Y; or if that's too much, just relax and wait for the next pose" You will even commonly see classes aimed at old people which offer sitting yoga.
I want to get into tai chi, but tai chi is way harder to learn correctly and safely. Tai chi does not have nearly as many resources in english, and many of them are taught in a damaging, wrong way like you are describing in this talk. Yoga is easy as long as you follow the balance and lines and know the reasons for a position, you won't mess up your body. I've never flipped around doing handstands or whatever. Just basic positions, slow movement, mindfulness, breathing is enough for me. It's a kind of movng meditation.
I'm really glad to hear you had such a positive experience with Yoga. And I agree that a lot of it can be very good. It's just too bad that there are still plenty of schools which are not as careful as the one's you've encountered. Hopefully more and more of them will be as this subject is more widely spoken of! 😊
You do have to listen to your body and know when to pull back or change ... that is easier to say than it is to do.. a lot of activities become "addictive" and hard to change once you really get into it. BJJ is a great example, you just want to train even if your body is telling you not to.
Rokas, you should do a video covering common exercises that are actually dangerous to do!
Ironically at the point when you mention about a fitness certification and learning about mechanics of the body, there was a clip of the Russian twist! This is actually (to my understanding) scientifically proven to be damaging for spinal discs. I think there are many fitness classes and martial arts that are just as guilty as yoga!
You mention a lot of good points, I also like the scienfic approach and listening to the body. That why I question things I was taught, particularly asymmetric training.
That's a great point. I agree with you very much so, that in my perception too many fitness and martial arts schools suffer from the same ill approach. It would maybe be good to address that too with time.
In regards to making a video about dangerous Yoga exercises, it's a great idea, but I don't feel qualified to do it. I will consider and look into asking someone to help me out with that though :) 🙏
I agree with you to some extent...yoga must be done wisely
Not a lot of people realize that yoga isn’t just an exercise routine, but a spiritual and mystical practice that is the basis for many religious and spiritual traditions in India.
Sure, you can practice the purely physical exercise aspect of yoga, get all the benefits you need out of it, and never even have to be aware of the mystical and magical side of it. Indeed when it comes to Yoga the saying, “I have no need of that hypothesis,” comes to mind in regards to the mystical aspects of it. For example, I have no need of channeling “energy” through my (non-existant) crown chakra to connect with the (non-existant) goddess Shakti. I have no need of that mumbo jumbo, I just need the stretching and the isometric exercises.
That said we should treat exercise as exercise, know our limits, and not overdo it.
Doesn't that simply destroy the idea? If you simply need an exercise, get an exercise under a person who has sport and medical background. Why should you make postures designed for some non existent godess? As Rokas said, some of the postures physically don't make sense, it's not clear why people should do it specifically that way...
Gintaras Sungaila While it’s true that some of the postures don’t makes sense, it’s also true that some of them do. If you strip away the woo and look at it from a pure physical therapy and exercise point of view, there are several ones that are good isometric exercises and stone that are good for stretching and improving range of motion flexibility.
Just because you accept the parts that work, it doesn’t mean that you have to accept the parts that don’t. Experiment, test, and verify. People and systems are capable of being right about some things and wrong about others.
@@kurtlangberg6143 the thing is, there are many science-based medical physical culture systems in West. They are used in therapy and they are evidence based. There is no need to re-invent it based on yoga. Yoga is for moksha, Western physical culture is for health
Gintaras Sungaila Interestingly enough, some of the yoga poses are used in Western stretching routines and physical therapy because of their pragmatic value. This is a case in which I’m reminded of Seneca, when he was asked why he quoted Epicurius even though he disagreed with Epicurian philosophy his response was “I shall never be ashamed of quoting a bad author if the line is good.”
There’s no shame in poaching an old system of exercise for good moves and discarding what doesn’t work out as useless.
And it’s not a waste of time either. You never know what gems you may find in the rubbish, so long as you have an eye for what is rubbish and what’s not. Besides, how can we tell that a system is rubbish if we don’t evaluate it critically, and just assume it’s bad based on flawed, subjective bias. As long as something is popular it is worth being investigated.
@@kurtlangberg6143 I see your point
Oh now I remember my physical therapist saying something about her yoga. Sje was pretty hardcore with it for a while and she actually harmed herself with it a few times. She said the teacher even 'pushed' people into the correct pose. That horrified me. She is a well education physical therapist and even she made those mistakes once in her life. Yes exactly, 13:45!
Made me aware to always keep my boundaries in check and not push into crazy poses. Now I never had the aspiration to go into crazy moves, but still it's good to keep this in mind.
I am from South India 🇮🇳 and we have many doctors here who speak out against Yoga on talks and discussions. Stillness does not make you lose weight; Yoga caused injury, strokes, oxygen deficiency (especially Pranayama) etc.
Awesome video! I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for the last decade (maybe a little less) and I started an at home practice after I was too afraid to go back to a class (or too lazy to get up early.) I have been doing yoga videos on
TH-cam because I didn’t like or want to be pushed. I knew that meant that I would probably never look as cool as real yogis but I didn’t see a point in doing yoga in an environment I didn’t like, or practices that weren’t at the level I needed. Thank you for sharing that book, I will track it down and add it to my reading list.
Yoga can be an awesome tool and practice (I actually think I didn't stress that enough in the video 😅), but it's so important to find the right teacher/school. Training at home with care can definitely be a solution :)
When you say "I hope the process of my failure helps you", don't think of it as a failure!, you chose a path and now you can share your experience of having transitioned along it. I would never see that as a failure. Failure is not even trying or not questioning yourself!
🙏
Thank you for this video. I was a dedicated Ashtanga yogi for 4years but unfortunately I faced shoulder pain and doctor told me to quit practicing immediately. The last 10 months went on for healing & I moved on with Qigong practices for light movement.
Yoga is just a sport and sport is beneficial for human health but at the same time doesn't mean that you can not get injuries while you are doing it. Please don't take Yoga as spiritual as many people believe but just as a usual sport. All sports are beneficial but at the same time can cause injuries.
How does one become a yoga champion?
Well, yoga originally started as Hindu meditation. If you’re a Hindu incorporating yoga into your prayer routine, that’s definitely spiritual and rightfully so. Weirdo spiritualist non-Hindus co-opting the religious side while not being Hindu is just bizarre to me.
I agree with everything in this video. I think that most yoga teachers don't know what they are doing and that teachers should not push people past where the body wants to go. I always advise people to listen to their bodies. I have left and never gone back to every yoga teacher who has advised me against it. I always suggest positions and suggest positioning. I elected to take anatomy and kinesiology on my own because I felt the lack of knowledge in the industry. A yoga teacher that doesn't know anatomy scares me, not for me, I would take their class but for beginners. I think beginners are best 1 on 1 or in a small group of beginners.
I'm really glad to know that you are taking a serious approach on your own studies.
Indeed, when an instructor is teaching a group of beginners - so many things could go wrong. It's important to know the medical background of each person and to shape the exercises exactly to each person's needs. If a beginner's class is made with a big group and little personal guidance, many things can go wrong.
* As many people blindly following a teaching, as you did for Aikido (and maybe for yoga too), you're following in the opposite mistake, negating everything based on your limited experience (even 20 years with a bad teacher aren't such a great experience).
I'm not an extreme yoga fan, but looks like you're confusing it with stretching or fitness.
In fact, there are countless different kind of yoga, most of them have little to do with physical wellbeing, and much with spiritual/mind states, which you have no experience with to talk about them.
So the goal of mma is not wellbeing, and many people get injured (also: I met many MMA practitioners you could easily beat their ass down with a good boxing training, due to their different guard), and that doesn't mean mma sucks.
The purpose of yoga is not (mainly) wellbeing too, apart from the fact that a well-taught yoga is highly beneficial to the elasticity of the body and the calmness of the mind.
Your enemy is not this or that teaching, but the tendency to reason by ABSOLUTES in a relative world, tendency you are still not free from.
I see your point and it makes sense in the limited context of this video :) But you should meet me live and get to talk to me and you'd get a very different experience. In person-to-person I am very diplomatic and I always speak humbly about every practice. Some months ago I met someone who was excited about their Aikido (and didn't know who I am) and I kept trying to talk about the good sides of Aikido with him for an hour to respect his enthusiasm and to encourage his journey, just gently mentioning some downsides.
You are also not correct in saying I have no experience in spiritual Yoga. It's just in this video that I spoke about the physical aspect of it, because that's the type of yoga majority of people practice (at least in the West) and that's the most dangerous side of yoga. I made a separate video on my spiritual experience and observations learned from being a devoted spirituality practitioner.
Most people don't understand that if I want to deliver value through videos and to make people reflect, just sitting there and talking nicely about things does not cut it. There are enough people talking about benefits of yoga, but few are talking about it's dark side, especially from personal experience (same situation back in the day was with Aikido). I take it upon myself to dive into an emotional place that I've went through when I discovered those dark sides and share my story from that place, to make sure people hear the important message and hopefully to warn people early enough before they will make the same mistakes like I did. The best path is the one which works (I'm talking about the delivery method of a video)
PS: I see where you are coming from and understand you in this context of the video, but also I would like to advise you to consider there are usually always two sides of the picture, before writing such a comment. In the end your comment and expression ended up being very absolute and not free, since it did not present any doubts or considerations, just a clear belief (judgement) of "how I am"
@@Rokasleo Yes, actually I felt a bit judgemental myself writing this comment and I apologize if it felt like that for you.
I didn't want to judge you as a person, but related to what you are expressing in this video, entitled "why yoga sucks" and examining just a part of it.
Probably you wanted (legitimately) to attract more traffic and/or discussion voluntarily directly challenging people's beliefs, so you probably expected also divergent comments.
Even in in general, I very much agree with your journey towards the truth in the martial arts field.
P.S. Of course, you're right saying that I can't judge you as a person from your channel, and even less you can judge me from this single comment and or TH-cam account, as you probably didn't really wanted to do 😉
Thanks for your reply :) Oh yeah, you are right, I am quite used to this and I can't really blame anyone much aside from myself. As you said, such a style of presenting footage does create controversy and bring up various emotions in people too and I get to be on the receiving end of that 😁 But it's the path I chose myself, so I can't complain.
Also, thank you for listening in to what I said too :) I appreciate it. And no worries, trust me, I didn't judge you at all and I saw that you are coming from a good place provoked by my method of conduct and I only did my best to reflect about the comment you wrote specifically and not to try to evaluate you as a person :)
By the way, I do say that not all Yoga is bad and some of it is really good, but somewhere at a later part of the video 😂 I think next time I'll need to say it earlier, since some people don't get to that part 😂
Cheers 🙏
One difficulty with gauging movements by whether they cause pain or not is that people are very different in how they interpret pain. Some people will simply not feel pain in poses that any orthopedic could tell are dangerous for them from a mile away. And some people will feel any physical discomfort as pain. Every individual has to learn for themselves what really is harmful to them and what not. I'm not saying that people should do things that are like, clearly hurting them badly, but sometimes you got to push through discomfort and sometimes you got to know that you need to stop doing something early, before it starts to actually hurt you.
If we use BJJ as an example (since I am more familiar with that by now than yoga), you can't wait in a toe hold until you're really hurting or it's already too late and you're gonna be skipping the next week or worse, next few months or even worse, next nine months. On the other hand, many freshcomers will feel pain when they are being pressure passed; when they are in various not-actually-threatening holds; when they are being crossfaced; etc, things that really don't fuck you up once you know what you're doing even if they hurt a little bit.
But what is definitely true is that forcibly applying external pressure to push one further than their flexibility allows is not a good thing, at all.
Good point
I started doing yoga for 30 min every morning, following yoga with Adriene, just because it is not so intense for me as a beginner and it makes me feel more relaxed and streched, even with no previous experience
I'm doing everything slowly and focusing on my breath, if I cannot do some pose then I just don't do it or I adjust it
i hope it's not wrong, because my only motive is to get me moving and energizing, I'm not the gym type so intense trainings don't fit me
Hi Rokas hope you r doing well as well as your family (by the way say hi to them from me)
There is a lot to say from the content of your video so i'll stay focus on making a link btw professional cooks and yoga
One of the thing that cooks forget is that you are here to feed the world and from there there is something very dangerous that
If you give some food to somebody you can feed people or making them sick :
What made me think about one old Greek word witch is Pharmakoi who means the poison or the remedy.
By giving food to somebody, by beeing the instructor of somebody you can help them to stay alive or poison them.
I remember when i first start to teach my first big fear was that i was concern to teach something bad for the body of my student
And when i started to teach cooking i was often afraid of teaching something not really true.
But this had a very positive impact on me in the sense that i really started to question everything that i studied and it opened actually a lot of new perspectives in my fields.
Anyway i just wanted to share that, and there will be a endless talk not about the fact that Yoga or this or that sucks but more into some kind of people who would like to teach should teach to themself first before trying to teach to others.
It s a little bit like witch martial arts or combat sport is the best i really trully think that it s more the martial artist or the sports fighters witch is behind who could make the difference but again we could have a long nights talk about this kind of topic.
Take care man
Hi Antony! Great to hear from you. First of all I wanted to say that I really appreciate your comments and the way you present them. I find relating information to our own experience and our area of expertise to be a great way to navigate and analyze information. It's also awesome to connect up with you too 🙂
Second, I really agree with your point. It's a great one. And I also think that being responsible and cautious in our chosen path can lead to great discoveries.
PS: Will pass on the regards, thank you. Best regards to Mitchy too!
You mostly exposed physical dangers of yoga, which is great coz I haven't heard anyone did it before. However, you briefly mentioned how yoga can mess you up spiritually/psychologically. I've read tons of bad experiences, or to put it better, bad consequences after dealing with yoga after certain amount of time. What is your opinion on that and did you have some bad experiences on that ''other side of yoga''? Also did you experience kundalini? Perhaps you will make video about it in the future. Awesome and beneficial story as always and thank you for your answer!
Thank you!
There is definitely the 'dark side' of the spirituality of Yoga. I personally did notice that people with mental issues tend be drawn by it and I witnessed cases where the whole non-dual meditation type of approach would worsen the conditions of these people which would lead them all the way to the psychiatric ward. I am considering to make a video about it in the future :)
I was never deeply focusing on Kundalini. Since I was studying various practices from various cultures Ki or Chi was more on my mind, but even so, I think I lost interest in all types of energies early enough and simply focused more on my personal development as a human being.
What bad experiences did you have with Yoga as a spiritual/psychological practice?
@@Rokasleo None. I've never engaged in yoga personally, so I haven't experienced any effect good or bad. I've simply studied it a lot because of my interest in subject and I've read tons of experience from people who did it and later had terrible mental issues which some of it went on for years, specially after engaging with kundalini. Even great C.G. Jung warned about severe consequences after doing it. Not all I presume of course.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the future video about it. Thank you!
🙏
During yoga I was incouraged to pay attention to the feelings in the body and respect it, keep balance and do slow growth. I never felt sore after yoga and I could continue trainings without pressure. But when I was going to different fitness trainings and dance classes there has always been a concept of pushing yourself to the limit and people where getting injuries. I heard idea about balance only on yoga classes, I will continue this way. Everything can bring harm and I like critical videos on spirituality. I just can't agree on this about yoga from my experience
You are so very correct on all of your points in this video!
I think you were probably a better yoga instructor than you realize.
Response to the first comment: thank you! I do feel I could have emphasized more that Yoga is not all bad in the video 😁 But I'm glad to hear we see eye to eye.
Second: Haha, you might be right 😂 Still though, I am far behind being capable in the standards that I would see to be appropriate to teach Yoga 😊
That was exactly my experience.
Though I would add that even this supposedly scientific places should be taken with a lot of skepticism. When I was studying to become a teacher in India (which was also my 6th time there, spent years altogether in it) I already had enough knowledge and experience to be cautious, aware of a lot of injuries in that world etc. So I went for a therapy oriented viniyoga based instruction with the head instructor being a licensed medical doctor with a lot of experience in Yoga therapy. I was also seemingly an above average student, probably mostly because I spent a year before that studying physiology, anatomy etc on my own.
Still, I came home with a permanent neck injury and still not feeling qualified enough.
I felt I would need to be have a degree in physiotherapy and have experience as a gymnastics coach to make it work and feel confident in what I was doing. And mind you I had 20yrs experience by that time too (my interest in all the eastern mystical mumbo-jumbo started early in childhood).
I also attended some scientific conferences in India dedicated to yoga-research and in my view a lot of it was bad science.
--------------------------------
Also to go deeper into the subject:
- religious aspects of yoga are often questionable. Hatha as done today can not be followed back in time for more than a couple of centuries. The source of what is considered "classical hatha" today starts in late colonial period with neohindu revival and teachers like Sivananda. They tried to blend and mix a lot of different hitherto separate and even conflicting Hindu traditions within the more general desire to develop a nation-state and identity. They did succeed in a social sense, but the philosophical background of their approach is usually very bad and internally inconsistent (being religion it is always fundamentally epistemologically questionable anyway, but that is a different discussion). That ideological blend than got mixed with a modernised hatha with much more asana than in any existing literal source, possibly through Iyengar's indirect influence at a later stage too.
As a sidenote - the 4 yogas is also a fairly late concept, popularised primarily by Vivekananda. Combining the classical Yoga of Patanjali's sutra with hatha yoga, by expanding the asana in YS/ashtanga into hatha yoga asana exercise and retaining the rest is also fairly new - in the YS there is no indication asana means anything besides a sitting position for meditation, and traditional Hatha sources like HathaYoga Pradipika, or even some more exotic ones like Thirumantiram have their own conceptual systems.
- the other big source of more dynamic and les overtly religious stiles comes from Krisynamacharya (and his disciples like Jois, Iyengar, Desikachar and others), but if you dig there things become sketchy again. A lot of what he did can not be found in older sources. Part of that critique is dismissed by claiming a secret oral transmission, which is always a questionable and unprovable claim. But even worse, he has written books that are claimed to be traditional lost scriptures' that he retrieved through spiritual trances, dictated by ancient sages. With the content, curiously, reflecting the needs of the changing social environment (like insisting on teaching females etc) and not looking like anything you would find in known ancient sources. Call me skeptical.
- more skeptical authors even dare to speculate that, being developed in later colonial times, western callisthenic exercises very popular at the time might have had a lot of influence, as might some martial, wrestling etc warming up exercises.
So summing it all up I would consider it just bad gymnastics today. Too much passive long stretching without enough strength can easily create injuries.
If someone realy insists on doing yoga I would cautiously suggest a more physical and dynamic style, with less static positions and more strength, more gymnastic like movement, and if possible with the instructor having a background in medical or similar (kinesiology etc) fields.
Very interesting. How do you currently use your yoga experience? Do you daily train your skills by listening your body and being responsible for you only, or you preferred to leave any activity connected with the exersices learnt during the Yoga journey?
Great question. I actually do a stretch here and there once in a while (although these days a prefer a foam roller mostly). But my practice is mainly about listening to the body, feeling what body parts are tense or have limited flexibility and working with them when I have the opportunity or feel inspired. Some of those stretches are somewhat Yoga inspired, but I definitely don't see myself as a yoga practitioner, where I would focus on doing specifically what I was taught in yoga 😶
@@RokasleoI see. I unluckily experienced some injuries connected with yoga and this is an aspect that made me stop my practice some years ago. In the last year I noticed that because of thai boxe class and gym, my body was getting stiffened and I started to feel back pain. I've then started again some yoga sequences on my own with low benefit. The school I was following was more related to the static positions derived by hatha. I finally recently felt comfortable by trying some dynamic yoga styles (like vinyasa) and I started to work again a little bit with it. I am appreciating the benefits deriving from such a practise, my back is getting better and my mobility and flexibility is improving without pushing. Let us see in the future. :)
Really glad to hear it :)
I think the state of mind and dogmas about something are generally big problem in nowadays society. For example: there are many martial arts instructors in my country that want to be "hardcore" and end up fucking up themselves and their students. As i heard many times, train hard but more importantly train smart. Dont fuck up your body.
Great point! It is actually one of the problems I am doing (and will do my best) to keep addressing in this channel.
I already recorded (but didn't publish yet) a story about how my first martial arts instructor was like that (hardcore) and because of his training methods and mentality I fucked up my body and still have problems with it since my teen years 😑 Maybe it's a more common problem than I thought.
What is your country by the way, if I can ask?
Can you do a video on quantum physics?? Real vs the pop spirituality version? Much appreciated. I found this video very helpful and I’m looking forward to doing more anatomically correct stretching/mobility/strength exercises.
Also you may like the podcast “Conspirituality.”
I had a similar problem after I did a 2 month yoga course they gave me a certificate saying I can teach yoga and aruyvedic medicine when I felt like I really didnt know much about either and most of it was not backed by anything scientific anyways so I more or less left it behind, at most I take the odd stretch from it if I can find a use for it
I'm really glad to hear that you were honest about it and respected the doubt about this type of limitation. I think many people have that doubt after such a course, but too few choose to respect it. Obviously, the worst ones are the ones who have no doubt and full conviction they know what they need to know, but that's a whole different subject :)
Interestingly, I actually did a number of other courses including a Shiatsu course and Tai Chi course where I was given a certificate to apply it on others/teach, but the situation was the same - it was so little that I was actually given! I'm happy that at that time I was already smart to understand that too and didn't go on spreading what I learned around 😌
Well done, man. Respect.
Thank you 😊🙏
I actually agree with everything you are saying here. I simply don’t agree with your conclusion, that “Yoga sucks.” Yes, I agree, there are people who suck, and who use yoga in a negative or selfish way. However, that is true in every aspect of life. There are bad doctors in the world that hurt or even kill people, but I don’t go around saying Western Medicine Sucks. The fact is Yoga, like any other physical activity, can be dangerous if done incorrectly. However, if you do your research, and find a good Instructor it can be perfectly safe and beneficial.
I agree a 100% :) I'm sorry I wasn't able to express clearly enough in the video that I don't think that all Yoga is bad.
I did yoga for meditation purposes and I fucked up my psyche so much that it wasn’t funny
Can you share what happened?
@@Rokasleo I had a severe panic attack and was howling like a howler monkey.
You know what, maybe you could help me out Mr. Rokas. I'm a bigger guy, 6 feet tall and weigh 230. When I was younger I was overweight and was very sedentary. I then got into powerlifting and never stretched. I am now into bjj and muay thai. Long story short I am extremely tight, particularly in my lower body. I was looking at yoga as a way to gain more flexibilty. Any suggestions? Even a good stretch routine would be nice.
Hi man! I don't consider myself to be a well qualified Yoga instructor, but I would like to introduce you to Salome Thornton who is both a very well qualified Yoga instructor and BJJ practitioner. She is also very open in giving advice and helping people out. I'd recommend writing to her and asking your question. You can find her here: facebook.com/salomeas Don't hesitate to write to her. And if you won't get an answer (although I'm sure you will), let me know and I'll connect you directly to her :) All the best!
What would you say is the difference between pushing yourself in a good way and pushing yourself in a bad way? I often worry that I’m not exercising intensely enough.
That's a great question! And also want I have to make a disclaimer and say ahead that I don't have enough expertise to answer well :) I'll just share my opinion from personal experience, but do take it with a grain of salt please.
What first comes to my mind is pushing yourself in psychological way. In other words: being hard on yourself and giving yourself challenged that are difficult overcome, which can lead to greater growth. Thing is, in my experience you need to balance failure and success. If you have too much success - you will become sloppy, probably your arrogance will grow and progress will hinder. But if you experience too much failure - that's a very quick way to lose your motivation and a sense of self worth. So there needs to be a balance.
When I look at personal training, I personally apply similar principles. Based on my gathered knowledge, you do need to give enough of a workout to your muscles so that they would get (damaged enough) and the impulse to grow. But I'm personally also a believer of consistency vs intensity. If I go to the very limit of my capacity each time, not only the next day I'm exhausted and can do little, also when I think about the next training - it becomes difficult to motivate myself to do it again, since I know how hard the training will be. Yet if I train to a degree where I feel challenged (aka. the last pull up is difficult to do) I know that the muscles got enough input to grow. And if I will stop now, it will still feel fun to do and not only will I be able to do it soon enough again, I will also want to do it more, since I know I won't have to torture myself to the end. There is a great video about consistency vs intensity which you can watch here, if you want: th-cam.com/video/3dKJzSvm6FI/w-d-xo.html
And the last thing I'd like to say here, is that if you push yourself too much, too often, your muscles don't get enough time to recover and while psychologically you feel like you are achieving more, in reality not only can you injure yourself, which will push back your training a mile back while you recover, also you might even experience a lack of progress, because the muscles get overworked. That's why I personally also love these two philosophies: hard training = hard rest, and, train smart - not hard.
I hope this helps :)
The Journey that’s pretty helpful. My old music teacher echoed a similar sentiment. Practicing for a half hour 4-6 days a week is better than practicing for three hours at a time and not doing that again for a long time.
Now you need to make a third channel called, “my yoga journey,” where you travel around the world studying yoga and establish a scientific institution to certify yoga instructors 😂
Haha, nice idea 😀
Dude, no- I JUST found this channel after watching Martial Arts Journey since the beginning
That’s not far off my goal. I trained as a personal trainer and yoga instructor but I aim to actually look at strength, connective tissue help, anatomy and physiology and apply it to yoga. It’s bonkers how much stuff I have to throw out before I bring it to classes because I don’t drink the kool-aid
Like in the martial arts you need to listen to your body. It is always better to be less skilled than to damage your body. Great video.
Are you familiar with Yin Yoga? It is newer and incorporates a lot of modern scientific knowledge on the body like fascia and anatomical variation. It is very much (at least how I teach it) about listening to the body in the ways you describe rather than the teacher. It is also more of a mixture of methodologies, a hybrid, of Taoism and Yogic traditions that actually originates in Kung Fu (oddly enough). You may find it appealing, happy to chat about it if you are ever interested, I like your open/seeking approach to learning in this modern world where all traditions are available to us :D
I've bumped into a Yin Yoga instructor once and tried it out then too. I really liked the session and also the instructor too :)
Thank you for the offer. Right now I have a list of subjects that I am planning to interview people on already, but once I come back to exploring Yoga if you're offer will still be available, I might take it up! :) 🙏
@@Rokasleo sounds good, always interested to chat about this stuff and have been curious to learn more about how Aikido can blend with things so I look forward to it when you have time, you can find me through my site anytime: www.yujmu.com
Thank you! Very informative video. I would like to know more about yoga is related to martial arts. Did yoga help you in your martial arts? Should martial artists do some kind of "good" yoga?
Thanks! Some of the (bad) martial arts training I did mess up my body quite a bit and Yoga definitely helped me gain back some balance and heal up some injuries. I think it can definitely go hand in hand with martial arts. I keep hearing that Yoga is becoming more and more popular between BJJ practitioners for example. But if it gives direct advantages to the practitioner... Well, maybe mobility and balance does, it would make sense. But I wouldn't go to Yoga primarily to become a better martial artist. I would think of it more as a supplement. Of course, that's just my opinion :)
So this has been my concern as well. The lack of critical questioning and lack of a scientific basis has always bothered me, even though I've been doing certain yoga techniques for over ten years. Speaking of pressure tests and mma, are you familiar with "yoga for bjj" by this Scandinavian dude (Sebastian B.) who applies it to mma and bjj? He seems legit, maybe he pressure tests yoga, and one of his pupils is a top bjj athlete. But maybe he's also just lucky in winging it and not hurting himself and others.
I do think there are people who are more than capable of teaching Yoga well. People with MD degrees or anyone who invested the proper amount of time and energy in the right direction (studying the science of it all) and who teaches with honest care. I will be having a recorded conversation this week with an MD who is a Yoga instructor and I am interested in the future to talk with more well educated people to learn what they think about the whole subject and how they approach it. Sebastian B might be a good person to talk to! Thanks :)
Watching this, and got 2 yoga ad interruptions before the end :D
Haha 🤣 I hate when that happens. These days I talk about gurus pretending to know it all and teaching people things they shouldn't teach and during these videos I get ads of self help gurus promoting their shit 😂😂🤯
mate
I hope that this message is well translated since I speak Spanish and it is difficult for me to write in English properly.
Some time ago I met your channel watching the first videos in which you tested aikido against a real sparring. And a couple of days ago I found your channel again and I saw a lot of your content, I really like it and I highly respect your journey. I feel very reflected in your journey and that gave me the courage to write a message.
I completely disagree with what you say and at the same time completely agree.
Everything you say about the risk of "posture classes" (what you call yoga, not even yoga class) is totally true. In that I completely agree.
But I completely disagree that you present it as yoga. uff I would love to be able to explain myself much more in that aspect but it is difficult to write in English. So I will do it in short sentences to make the google translator more accurate.
When I talk about yoga it is about knowledge, a map that helps us understand our structure and I am referring more to the mental structure than to the physical structure. (When I say this I think of the text "the yogasutras of Patanjali") That knowledge helps us understand our structure and from there we can understand the potential that it has. in the same way that anatomical knowledge helps us understand the potentials of our body. it is not magic, it is not mystical, it is not about peace and love it is about continuous work with destroying misconceptions. it is not a question of defining the truth but of destroying the illusion. It seems to me that this is something with which you can be identified.
In this video you did not criticize yoga, you only criticized the idea that you adopted about what yoga is. and it seems to me that it would be more honest to expose it like this. It is very fallacious to go from personal experience to such a general and emphatic definition. This is precisely why I liked your videos on aikido because you contextualized your thoughts and criticism very well.
I really like your content and I thank you
Hey man! Thank you, that is an awesome comment (and you also did a great job with google translate!).
When I hear someone saying: " I completely disagree with what you say and at the same time completely agree." it makes me already respect whoever said it very much. I never think we need to all agree, but I think we need to do our best to understand each other and try to lift up / improve each other's understandings and I think that's what you do :)
As I said I enjoyed your comment a lot and I agree almost 100% with. Language is a funny thing and if we say something is black, it automatically means it is not white, although in reality sometimes things are white and black at the same time. By saying one thing about Yoga (or Aikido/Martial Arts for the matter) it doesn't always mean I don't disagree with myself (or that I don't see another perspective), but sometimes in order to portray a message / idea, I am forced to sacrifice one side of the picture. I do my best to balance things, but inevitably sometimes I stress one side more than the other. Basically though, what I wanted to say is that again, I agree with most of what you said, even if I wasn't able to say it in the video and I also appreciate comments like yours, since it expands my thinking too and makes me reflect even more ;)
All the best! 🙏
If the general population addresses the act as yoga then it makes sense to say that rather than posture classes.
@@Rokasleo Thanks for answering me, I like that you could understand the purpose of my comment and appreciate it, although it does not surprise me because your content talks about you being a seeker of truth and also that you are trying to improve yourself.
As I said in the comment before, what I dared to point out is that you could have given context to the experience you describe or at least a better context. As you say above
"Language is a funny thing and if we say something is black, it automatically means it is not white, although in reality sometimes things are white and black at the same time. By saying one thing about Yoga (or Aikido / Martial Arts for the matter) it doesn't always mean I don't disagree with myself (or that I don't see another perspective) "
I agree that this can happen, but I do not think it is a characteristic of the language, but rather a possible error in communication, and for this reason, the language gives us the tools to give a better context to our message and reduce that cut (or noise) in communication (and in this case it would be more the responsibility of the sender of the message than of the receiver to better use these tools in favor of delivering a truthful one).
Now, because of the context that you gave this video "I've been a professional Yoga instructor and devoted student for over 12 years" I assumed that you did know the philosophy (path, journey or practice) behind the asana classes and also I believe you when you say that you want people to learn from your experiences, I think it would be more truthful and beneficial to share that great difference between the "yoga classes" and the vast knowledge behind.
As you did with aikido, claiming to be a functional martial art but it is not, and you did a beautiful job that allowed those who were looking for something functional to find a more suitable practice and for those people who were looking for the philosophy behind aikido they knew maybe they could find it.
Uff I hope that written above is understandable in English, it is a difficult and long job for me to translate my words and that they also have coherence. So my words may sound more vehement than they really are.
Finally to give a little context to my words, for me the study and practice of the knowledge that comes from some eastern schools of thought has given me a lot, or rather it has taken away a lot of unnecessary suffering giving me a perspective and clarity that before I did not had about my psyche. Especially through the improvement of discernment (Besides, of course, more corporal well-being with a good instructor of iyengar, beautiful philosophical concepts, tranquility, etc. all that seems secondary to me) that is why I would hate for someone to miss that possibility of improving the discernment that free from unnecessary suffering. Although of course I understand that a title like this attracts more attention and therefore more views.
Well my friend again thanks for your video and your response to my comment.
It a shame that my message sounds so serious but I'm already very tired, and also joking in another language seems impossible to me now hahaha
PD 1: I know that the philosophy and all the mystique of Yoga and other schools is also very distorted to be profitable, both in the West and in the East itself with all the new age movement, leadership, coaching, self help, etc. . So I don't idealize it either, but still the reality to which all that knowledge points is still relevant today.
So if anyone is interested in that at least try to read some of the classic texts. example: Yoga sutras of patanjali (version of desikachar that one of which I read) The sutra of Benares (buddhism version of ado parakranabahu) to name a pair. Remember that all classic text is the translation of both the language and the cultural context, so it is very important to know who is the translator and his background (spiritual or scholarship) to better understand the meaning it gives to texts.
ok, that's a very helpful knowledge, thank you
Thank you, I'm very glad to hear it was useful 🙏
You go into the importance of proper training and regulation for yoga instructors, but the physical trainer market is just as unregulated, and any half decent PT instructor will readily tell you about all the awful injuries you can give yourself in the gym, and help you adjust your workout if you have an injury that should be worked around. IMO it's more of a culture thing.
hey ! thanks for ur great information .im interested in yoga mostly bcuz of flexibility and streachings could u plz recommend me a safer way for that or sort of a sport ? thank you again 🙏
Funny cause some of the issues you had with yoga I had in Aikido. I was more used to listening to my body from Karate but in Aikido my instructors mainly had a dogma(a non spiritual Aikido we take pain/physical based). Anyway very fun but back damaging Aikido. So I went back to Karate.
Good point. I found a lot of similarities between the dark side of Yoga and Aikido. It was interesting to see how they both related in that regard
I chose as a yoga instructor to reject the spiritual teaching side. Meditation and practice of asana sure but it’s not my place to tell others who to be or how to live their life
Yoga does do good though. There have been a couple viral stories about people who overcame very steep health issues with practical yoga. The whole "don't question" thing with spiritual yoga sounds like the bullshido no touch shit
"There have been a couple viral stories about people who overcame very steep health issues with practical yoga." - 100%, good Yoga can be amazing :)
"The whole "don't question" thing with spiritual yoga sounds like the bullshido no touch shit" - one more time a 100%. It is a very similar situation. Can be found in some other similar areas too
Yoga can be good however there are certianly some poses especially some preaty extreme poses that look preaty good but can potentially mess up your body especially depending who you are or if your'e not doing it right.
Sir asanas and pranayama should be practiced with proper intent and not all asanas are for everyone. People should be taught specific asanas according to their needs and limitations. To do this, teachers should be properly informed and taught which is very difficult in todays world .And plz stop calling people who just do the physical postures "yogis".
I practice knowledge of my body with everything jujitsu yoga weight training and running. Even at my job work overtime or go home. We have to balance everything.
Nice
What you are saying can be said about many sports or activities. Have you considered what bjj does to your body? Most the claims are that it is great for your health, but I would naturally doubt aspects of that. Surely it is common sense to listen to what your body is capable of and what it's not! If a personal trainer told you it is good for you to squat 300kg would you blindly try and do it?! Yoga, bjj weight training and countless other activities do not inherently suck just because of the mindset of some practitioners!
I tend to agree with what you are saying, but the issue still is that Yoga claims to be almost a medical practice there to fix people's bodies and health, while BJJ doesn't inherently claim that. Most people with injuries will stay away from combat sports such as BJJ, but they will go to Yoga, because of the former mentioned claims and many will believe in what is offered to them, because yet again: it is their official claim that it will help, while in reality it may end up damaging the body and health. That's what the video was more about.
@@Rokasleo I get what you mean in the video, and I have questioned whether yoga teachers actually understands how these postures improve health and can they back it up. However the title to the video was; 'This is why yoga sucks, hard lessons'. Which implies that you have learnt that in general yoga is useless. I believe that yoga has probably helped countless more people than it has harmed. I don't have statistics on this but it is logical to think that not many people would stick with an activity that causes them pain, as it is in our nature to avoid pain, and to be drawn to activities that make us feel pleasure. In the UK our NHS recommends yoga to help with many ailments like high blood pressure sore joints, and stress relief, check out this link: www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-fitness-studio/yoga-with-lj/.
Sir one more thing there are no different types of yoga. You need proper knowledge with proper action to attain bhakti, which can roughly be translated as love and oness with the universe. Sir, understanding the subtle part of yoga is very important which people dont want to dive in .🙏🙏🙏🙏
Sooo, do you think that bjj instructors should have an extensive certification process and universal standards? You can definitely mess up your health with that. Or is it enough that their sensei awarded them a belt, and their school produces competitive fighters?
That's a great question! And I tend to lean on, not necessarily universal standards, but High standards. For example SBG International, which I respect a lot and I'm also a part of it, has an in-depth instructor training program which covers a lot of important subjects about teaching and I think that's a great way to go. Meanwhile a great practitioner doesn't necessarily mean that he's a great teacher, but too many people confuse that.
What do you think?
@@Rokasleo All I have is conjecture based on what usually results in good governance, increased democratic involvement in policy making. However, as we see around the world today, that is not fool-proof. It doesn't address the inability to to discern convincing BS from the truth that exists in people to varying degrees and for varying subjects. It also doesn't address the different levels of development in people's views. I wish I had a better answer.
"Woman would pay million dollar for 1 drop of my sperm!" - Bikram . Lol Bikram yoga as well as Iyengar very culty like Lol. Seriously though we've talked about this b4 the school/ teacher training I went to was not like this at all . The program (a vinyasa focused YTT) I went through focused on both the spiritual self development side, the history, and the physical hatha asana side was very much focused on science /anatomy & mobility as well I mean several of the lectures were done by physical therapists so Rokas the experiences ur talking about aren't a guarantee. I mean anything can be good or bad positive or negative. I think ppl that are yoga specialist man bun sporting ,culty, folks make the rest of us look bad
I agree and appreciate you saying that. It is definitely not all bad, but I did wanted to make sure that in this video I stress what "evils" can be out there so that people would be more cautious. I did say in the video once that not all Yoga is bad and that it can be great, but I guess I could have stressed it a bit more 😂
Ted-ed channel make new video about yoga can you look it and comment? That video just says positive things.
Can you send a link? 🙂
Occassionally I do some yoga poses to maintain my flexibility and reduce stress and I think it works for those reasons but I think you would have to be pretty deluded to believe half of the claims that yoga lore makes.
Unfortunately many people get caught by that delusion, even generally intelligent ones
I also think overly long yoga sessions are a terrible idea. No animal on this planet stretches for 90 minutes straight yet we put ourselves through this and wonder why our shoulders hurt or our neck hurts after.
When yoga was not calling u ....u tried to become teacher...dats the end
You're cutting through the delusion and I think that is excellent. We're urged to swallow all this stuff with no evidence. Of course there are huge benefits to stretching and Yoga and breathing and all these things, but there's a whole lot of bullshit and charlatan type activity attached to these things too. Blind faith. This can be seen in religions, it was huge in martial arts up until recently too. It's everywhere in our world. Why would you put the health of your body in the hands of someone who has no medical background is the question you are asking. Especially when you are going to that person to SPECIFICALLY heal or cure your body. You could argue the same about a martial arts instructor or gym instructor but they are not selling thenselves as healers or curers.
Great point. Thank you for sharing
I am sorry you had a bad experience with Yoga. There are undoubtedly bad instructors out there. However, Yoga has transformed my life for the better, and I know I am not the only person that feels that way. You spoke very briefly about spirituality and inner energy aspects of yoga. In fact you seemed pretty dismissive of it (9:12)..To me, and other serious practitioners, that is Yoga. You tried skipping the most important part. In my opinion you weren’t even doing Yoga. You were just stretching until you hurt yourself.
I can agree with some parts you say and disagree with others. Part of my "curse" is that by making a video that I am passionate about, I am bound to focus on expressing more one side than the other. By no means my intention was to say that all Yoga is bad. I agree it can offer many great things too, but it is a dangerous tool to wield/share/use and should be regarded as such with responsibility. In regards to the spiritual side of it: well, first of all, would you disagree that most Yoga schools at least in the West (where I presume we are both from) are based on the physical aspect? And I think it is common to refer to the majority in a general way. Also, you do not really know the depth of my spiritual experience and training and you made a judgment about what I did and what I did not do by watching a single video where I talk about a specific subject. Trust me, I've been down the spiritual path as a very devoted student and I would like you not to make a complete statement without investigating further.
In discussion about the spiritual side, I just release a video where I talk more about it: th-cam.com/video/aRjmP64W1uY/w-d-xo.html And in this video I say that esoteric teachings can be good, as long as they make better people. In my experience the mystical, spiritual and esoteric have a tendency to make subtly arrogant and self centered individuals (not always, but it does happen way too commonly). And another mistake by this community is to state their beliefs as facts. Until there is evidence of chakras, kundalini and so forth, I would suggest to speak humbly about it and not to claim that it is a cure for all, but that it rather works for some individual and may be partly effective due to the placebo effect. Unfortunately most spiritual people I've met talk about these things are universal truths applicable to everyone and that is not a healthy way to go. If it makes you better - congratulations, but humility should go hand in hand with it.
The thing is why you soul chouse that's karmic lesson with that instructor that's the reason that's happened to you and with martial art are the same are karmic lesson with a energy veil that's the confusion or lesson for you to work on
sorry, you learned the wrong way, it has nothing to do with Yoga but with the one you learned. i can see that on the technical errors of your asanas with many technical lacks leading to dead ends. But truly competent yoga guides are only a handful, alas.
This happens with most of the westerners.
Yoga is demonic. I appreciate this video. Pilates made an exercise system which is simply 34 mat exercises that sort of poke fun at yoga. I have demonstration and teaching videos on my channel for people who want to discontinue yoga, but want to stay on their mats in a non-demonic way.
Demonic is a strong word. What do you mean exactly by saying demonic?
So you became an atheist!
Good for you man ;) always question what you learn! we are born learning and die without knowing a thing.
After watching 5 mins, i just cant stand the constant loud gulping and lip smacking...
Well, I mean, my first guess would be you are a type of person who can't stand many things in life. I think it is common when we are sensitive and irritated that we blame the small things, versus asking ourselves if we are adequate on how we take them.
At the same time, I understand why you could be frustrated because of that, but TBH you are the first person to really say anything about it from hundreds, showing that it may be more your thing than a universal criticism. Who knows though, maybe more people are upset, but I am yet to hear from them to listen in to it :)
What is important to say too: the vision of this channel (this series) is to promote not trying to be perfect, accepting ourselves with our flaws and still working our ass off to provide value. That's why they are in one take, that's why slurping is included. We sometimes expect each other way too much to be perfect, but in the end, that's not the point. Sure, a few people might turn the video off because of it, but hopefully more will be inspired to accept themselves and their work and to focus on what is being said more, than on how it is being said.
I could go on and on and I lack a bit clarity in this comment, but I hope you (and anyone else who tunes into this discussion) see my point :)
Good luck
People, at least the serious ones especially in India, have dedicated - not just spent - their lifetimes, in the study and practice of Yoga. Those knowledge have been handed down over centuries, thru true, real, Gurus, not just the self-professed ones. That is HOW Yoga has survived so many centuries and will survive centuries. There is bound to be some distortions, but that also had led to many new ways of practicing Yoga. It is half-witted Westerners like you, who have commercialized it. Lululemon made billions of dollars just by selling Yoga pants. You became a Yoga “instructor” by doing a certificate course!! And you have the balls to criticize it. Yoga is a philosophy, not just twisting your torso around. The very word Yoga, translated from original Sanskrit, means “union”. An “union” of body and SOUL, to reach Almighty. Read dude, understand first, clear your mind. The basic tenets of Yoga starts with “I am no one, I don’t understand, Oh Almighty lead me into enlightenment”. Learn first, teach later. My 2 cents.
First of all, these are not "2 cents", this is a full on, heavy criticism with a sense of self righteousness and no desire to see or try to understand where I come from or what I wanted to convey with this video. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even watch the full video and decided to judge me solely based on your first impressions. Secondly, if you ever want someone to listen to your feedback, don't include expressions such as "It is half witted Westerners like you". You show zero respect towards me and zero desire to understand or listen to what I really said and so I have zero respect to you and no desire to hear your opinion. If you are all about becoming enlightened through the use of yoga, I would suggest you to first learn some humility and compassion. People such as yourself continue to give yoga a bad name.
The Journey Sir, with all due respect and utmost humility, I come from that venerable land called India, which happens to be the birthplace of Yoga, hence my self-righteousness. Sure, I was a little over-the-top, but I feel my comments are quite restrained, given your falsehoods peppered with generous profanity. Talking softly is not forced by Yoga, it naturally comes out of the humility within. Punishing your body is part of cleansing and toughening. Try that argument when you are in Navy Seals training. Even today many Yogis do unbelievable things with their bodies, which will blow you off. The very fact you cared about my opinion has compelled you to respond. Can I be more humble? You bet. Can I be more respectful? I won’t even try for folks like you, who perpetuate such lies about a an ancient philosophy and the path to God. Anyone can be a teacher, but all teachers ain’t a Guru. There is a difference b/w a teacher and Guru. Choose the right Guru and he will have an answer to all your idiotic questions. B.K. Iyengar is a true Yoga Guru. Good luck and stay safe.
I was about to respond to you to debate and discuss in search of truth, but then I read: "Can I be more respectful? I won’t even try for folks like you, who perpetuate such lies about a an ancient philosophy and the path to God."
If there is no mutual respect, there is no use for a discussion between such two people. You just end up throwing your words to the wall :) Good luck to you too and I'm sorry you wasted your time writing these comments.
PS: Or I guess you just made yourself feel better by venting your emotions. Too bad you are not interested to seek for truth through a discussion
The Journey “Respect” is a two-way street. Your choice of profanity gave that away. So, that has been chipped away. I have an open mind for a healthy discussion, but you should be willing to listen as well. India is an ancient culture where respect is taken very seriously and given to those who deserve.
My profanity was not driven towards you :) If profanity is enough for you to disrespect someone, instead of listening what value they offer in their perspective, then I think most Westerners are not up to your standards for discussion
When yoga was not calling u ....u tried to become teacher...dats the end