The mistakes we all make thinking yoga is a generic fix.
Below is part of an article I was reading and I agree! I have said it as, “Yoga is not a one size fits all”. Its not, and until the time and practice is taken to figure out what my body needs on any given day then mistakes can be made. Each day I feel, listen and then decide what my body wants and needs and each day that is different.
YogawithSuzi in New York City works to find the right yoga for each individual person.
Yoga in a broad sense can help with posture, but it can also be a posture killer and a pain generator. Yoga poses are therapeutic only if you do them with attention to foundational posture and with the consciousness that each individual is a unique living ecosystem. Many yoga trainings pay little attention to the importance of anatomy and physiology as they relate to poses, movement, and each individual’s structure at that point in time.
While there is definitely a standard human “structure,” the effects of daily living and each person’s postural habits create body blind spots (points of weakness and imbalance), so not every pose is possible for every body. Many yoga poses are so extreme that they will pull the body out of alignment because the architecture of the pose is not suitable for the person attempting the pose. If a yoga teacher is not well educated enough to read the variance of the bodies in the room, his or her students will pay the price.
Poses are not pills. If you do poses (or any exercise, for that matter) without knowing whether you should even be doing those particular poses, much less doing them with improper form and posture, you will eventually wear out your tissues and create pain.