Not all poses are created equal

You’re interested in practicing yoga for your health. Maybe you’re recovering or preserving your mobility as you age. Maybe you’re interested in losing weight. Maybe you hope yoga is going to help resolve some chronic muscle pain. If you’re here to support the health of your body and stay active you should know that not all yoga poses are created equal. Some poses are essential human movements necessary for long term health. Some can be beneficial, but are so difficult to do well it’s better to find alternatives. And some poses only exist for the sake of getting better at practicing yoga poses.

Three Kinds of Poses That Will Waste Your Time

Too Much of a Good Thing. Eg. Plank Pose

Plank pose is important. No argument. Holding the body rigid is essential for many other kinds of poses and movements. The problem with plank poses and poses like it is the trap of thinking that if one minute of plank is good then five minutes or longer must be even better. It’s not. Just because something is hard doesn’t make it good training. Holding longer and longer planks only makes you better at holding planks. Once you can hold a plank for a minute, start exploring dynamic movements like push-ups or rows or more challenging poses. You’ll build more muscle, burn more calories and more effectively improve your posture. Don’t get stuck practicing too much of a good thing.

Easy to Miss Eg. Paschimottanasana

Some poses look good in theory, but in practice are so difficult to do well that it’s almost always better to start with an alternative. Paschimottanasana or a seated forward fold is one such example. It seems like it would be ideal for building flexibility in the hamstrings, and ideally it does stretch the whole back of the body. But in practice, lack of hamstring flexibility prevents many beginners from rotating the pelvis forward and ends up putting more strain on the low back. Poses like this often DEMONSTRATE flexibility or strength but are not especially effective in TRAINING them. If you’re working on flexibility in the hamstrings I recommend doing a hamstring stretch while lying down on your back. Keeping the back on the floor maintains a straight spine and focuses the stretch into the back of the leg.

Yoga Poses for Their Own Sake Eg Headstand

BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga, the seminal work on yoga poses of the last century, calls headstand ‘the king of yoga poses’ and lists numerous benefits including ‘supplying blood to the brain, improving cardiovascular capacity, curing colds and tonsillitis and improving thinking’. I’m calling BS. We have no evidence for any of it and making unsupported health claims has unfortunately set the tone for much of the yoga community. 

Headstand is one pose that falls firmly into the category of ‘useful for its own sake’. If you like yoga and want to develop your skill in yoga poses, then yes, headstand is an important pose. It’s a stepping stone to a more advanced curriculum. But its actual health benefits are limited and could just as easily, if not more effectively be had with other poses. Inversions have some real benefits for the circulatory and immune system. But, my recommendation is to rest with the legs up the wall.