There has been a lot of noise in the UK yoga community recently (and the press more widely) around creating a 'national standard' for yoga teacher training. The British Wheel of Yoga (the organisation I trained under and I am currently registered with) is the governing body* pushing for this change, with the aim to 'safeguard' students from 'dangerous' teachers.
Disappointingly, what is essentially a healthy debate about inexperience and potential injuries has centred around anecdotal evidence and inflammatory language quoted in tabloid articles. So far, I'm failing to see how this approach can serve to do anything but encourage people to be scared of yoga, scared of yoga teachers, as well as making yoga teachers themselves, scared to teach.
Read moreIn comparison to a painful but restful week 0 and a slower than expected week 1, this week saw the healing of my collarbone injury catapult. Over the course of week 1, I was able to start moving my shoulder and slowly regain my ability to do some normal activities like brushing my teeth and washing my hair. By the start of week 2, I felt sufficiently comfortable (and confident that I wasn't going to break myself further) to begin some self-directed physiotherapy, following the exercises recommended by the good people at the John Radcliffe Hospital - you can find these exercises in the hospital's extremely good 'Helping your clavicle to recover after a fracture' leaflet by following the link.
If you have broken your clavicle and have been able to take off your sling, I can't stress enough how important it is to start moving your shoulder in order to redress muscular tightness. It is amazing how quickly the muscles of the shoulder girdle start to stiffen up, how painful this can be and how long it will take to return back to normal. From talking to many other people who have had the same injury as me (let's just say I know A LOT of cyclists...), those who left their sling on for a prolonged amount of time (2+ weeks) not only took the longest time to recover, but suffered from discomfort on the side of their injury years (and in more than one case, decades) later. From my own experience, the muscular pain I felt when starting to move my shoulder after a fortnight was already quite enough. However, by diligently following the physio exercises prescribed, not only did the pain reduce by half each day, but my range of pain-free movement increased by half each day too.
Read moreAll about the 'C' words [17]
For anyone who has never broken their collarbone before, it is an odd thing to break. I don't know about you, but I've certainly never given my clavicle a second thought. To be honest, I'm not even sure I realised I had one, let alone two. If I had to stab a guess at it, I think I've said, heard and written the words 'clavicle' and 'collarbone' more than one billion times over the last 10 days. [In case you're wondering, the number in the square brackets above is the clavicle/collarbone word count for this blog post alone.]
As if that wasn't enough, an odder thing about breaking your collarbone is that it can't be immobilised completely. You just have to rest, limit any movement (by wearing a sling or, a brace) and to try not to displace the bone as it begins to heal. In the early days, however, this means that you can hear the bone ends rubbing as you move (a gross and superfluous detail I know, but perhaps of some comfort to readers coming to this with a fresh break themselves: "Thank goodness! This is normal!"). It's an off-putting clicking sound that, at best, makes you regret being able to hear.
Read moreAs my regular yoga students will already know, I have cancelled all of my classes for the next few weeks as a result of breaking my clavicle in a competitive cycling accident.
Having recently convened a 'yoga for cyclists' course to supplement the Cowley Road Condors' Winter training regime, I'm no stranger to combining my newly found love of two wheels with my long term yoga practice.
A broken collarbone is a common injury for cyclists, so now that I suddenly find myself with a lot more time than usual, I thought it would be a good idea to document how I am dealing with my injury, both on and off the yoga mat, and on and off the bike.
N.B. If you are coming to this post because you have similarly broken your collarbone, please note that this is not intended as a guide for 'how to fix yourself' - what is good for me in these circumstances, may not be good for you. Having never had this type of injury before, this is also an experiment; what I think will be helpful in week 1, may still prove to be unhelpful in week 3. You'll have to stick with me to find out what works (and what doesn't!).
Read moreThe benefits of taking time to breathe are common sense, yet taking time to do so is counter-intuitive for most of us. When experiencing stress or feelings of panic, we instinctively know that slowing down our breath might help. We say, ‘calm down… take deep breaths…’ but for a process that happens automatically, controlling our breath can feel like a chore in comparison.
If you are new to yoga and have recently begun a class, you will notice that your teacher constantly instructs you to breathe. To begin with, it’s likely that you will ignore the instruction (intentionally or unintentionally) as you will have much to concentrate on besides when and how to inhale or exhale. How you breathe will be the least of your worries, although you will still benefit from a reminder every now and again. Holding our breath is very common when we are concentrating and it may come as a surprise that your teacher notices you doing this before you do. (Without wishing to give away all the yoga-teaching-circle secrets - your purple-blue face is a good hint!)
Once you have settled into the class routine and have become familiar with some postures, it’s likely that you will have the space to add some breath work into your practice. In the early stages, this is likely to feel unnatural (because it is) and uncomfortable (because it is). You might even feel that breathing is just another aspect of the yoga class that you are getting wrong. As you become more practiced however, this will pass. Learning to breathe (like learning anything new) is difficult – so go ahead and let yourself off the hook.
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