Safety In practice

By Amitabha Deb

More than 14 million people practice yoga in the US alone, up 136% since 2000. Over 13,000 American for the past 3 years have been treated for yoga related injuries according to the consumer product safety commission.

Safety should be a major issue while practicing yoga. One has to be really cautious and pay attention to one's body while doing yoga (Last issue we briefly mentioned that a peaceful room is a good place to practice as it will help us to concentrate). Practicing yoga definitely makes us feel better, but doing it wrong can be dangerous too. For kids, it is the responsibility of the parents to make sure they perform exercises with supervision. The rule of thumb for home practice is yoga should not cause any pain. We should stop immediately when it causes discomfort. It is better to use 90% of the maximum stretching ability while doing postures. Each of us is anatomically different to some extent and we have to respect that limitation.