Yoga has exploded as a business across America over the past decade and does not seem to be slowing down. On the other hand, the number of injuries inflicted on those who practice is also on the rise, according to
Yoga has exploded as a business across America over the past decade and does not seem to be slowing down. On the other hand, the number of injuries inflicted on those who practice is also on the rise, according to Michaelle Edwards of The YogAlign Method.
“There’s an epidemic of yoga injuries now,” Edwards said in an interview Monday. “I feel the body is designed to be effortless and it’s just that we’ve imposed chair sitting and rigid ways of moving and so we’ve trained our body to move in ways that aren’t natural.”
Edwards, a certified yoga instructor on the North Shore, has developed an innovative and safer approach to the practice, which combines the body’s natural spinal alignments with proper breathing techniques and self-massage, all while allowing for more three-dimensional movement.
Edwards, who developed her system more than 10 years ago in Hawai‘i, said she believes conventional yoga practice is often comprised of linear, right angles that are unnatural for the body.
“I call it the right angle template,” she said. “I’ve just seen many people so discouraged that they can’t do yoga or so discouraged because they’ve been injured by yoga. I’ve helped a lot of people reconstruct their yoga practice because a lot of the commonly adopted postural systems that people have been using now, wind up re-enforcing the problems they are having.”
Edwards has
been studying yoga for more than 35 years and once had the misfortune of injuring herself while practicing Ashtanga yoga. She proceeded to become a professional body worker and massage therapist and believed that people could benefit more from yoga. She eventually created a way to mold all three businesses into one.
“You don’t have to try to be flexible, you just have to get out of the way and understand how it happens,” she said, pointing out that almost anyone has the ability to practice her style of yoga. “Most people have this idea that the muscle is doing something when really, it’s the brain telling the muscle.”
Edwards said breathing plays an essential role in YogAlign. She said rather than breathing through pain and staying with an uncomfortable pose that forces flexibility, it’s more important to feel as if a position is effortless.
“You have to be able to take a very deep breath in the pose, otherwise it’s not beneficial,” she said. “Breathing is the most frequent move you do and how you breathe defines your movement.”
In her classes, she suggests students breathe from the “inside out,” combining the business of physical therapy into her practice as well, re-training a person’s nervous system.
“It’s exciting to show people that the concept of tightening your abs is something we really need to be careful of,” she said. “You can’t walk very well, or move and breathe very well if the tone of your outer abdomen is to be pulled in, so, I teach abdominal stability from the inside out through breathing.”
Edwards also helps individuals “decode their breathing patterns” and “reboot.”
Another important facet that makes her yoga business unique is the strengthening of an individual’s Psoas muscle, which connects the spine and diaphragm to the legs. Edwards said this is the body’s “core of your core.”
“They are the most important muscles of the body and many don’t even know where they are, they are too focused on six-pack abs and obliques,” she said. “In reality, the Psoas is really what dictates the quality of our movements and the curve of our spine.”
Her business has helped many individuals on the island release chronic pain accumulated in their bodies and has even assisted surfers in addressing their joint pain and alleviating tension in their muscles.
She said a DVD, slated to be released in May, will demonstrate to surfers a way in which to practice yoga using natural alignment while on their surfboards in order to find balance and center in their bodies.
“I’m happy to say I’ve helped a lot of surfers get back in the water when they didn’t think they’d ever surf again,” she said.
Edwards is expecting the release of her book, “YogAlign, Painfree Yoga from the Core,” to be hitting book stands in the next three months.
Anyone interested in starting their own business and becoming a certified yoga instructor can be approved through Yoga Alliance for 200 hours, after training with her from April 6 to May 15, she added.
“It’s open to anyone who’s healthy that wants to do it. You don’t have to have previous experience,” she said.
Visit www.manayoga.com for more information.
