International Yoga Day is celebrated across the world on June 21. When it was commemorated for the first time in 2015, around 36,000 yoga enthusiasts, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and dignitaries from 84 countries, gathered in New Delhi for the world’s largest yoga session.
Yoga sessions have also taken place along the banks of the Thames in London and beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Last year, Prime Minister Modi hosted a yoga session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. And last year, the Indian city of Surat hosted the world’s largest yoga session, with more than 150,000 participants.
Yoga has completely permeated consumer culture around the world, with daily news coverage ranging from fascinating to ridiculous. The Louvre announced that it will host yoga classes for visitors to coincide with the Olympics in Paris in June. Italy recently banned “puppy yoga” on animal welfare grounds, allowing only adult dogs to participate.
Universal appeal
According to some estimates, around 300 million people practice yoga worldwide. Yoga has come a long way in Pakistan over the past decade; a quick search in major cities will reveal a wealth of programs and studios.
The ancient practice of yoga has become a global phenomenon, touted for its many mental and physical health benefits – but do these claims stand up to scientific scrutiny?
Many of these options are backed up by glamorous Instagram posts of models contorting into once-fanciful, now-familiar trademark poses. In May, Islamabad’s Capital Development Authority started offering free classes for residents of F-9 Park.
But beyond the glamour and buzz, ordinary people are wondering: what’s all the fuss about? How is it different from yoga?
How does it compare to other fitness routines? Is it truly special?
From a scientific perspective
Some of the scientifically proven benefits of yoga come as no surprise: Studies show that yoga can significantly improve flexibility, help prevent arthritis, combat carpal tunnel syndrome, relieve chronic back pain, and show promising effects for weight loss.
Yoga has a significant meditative component and studies have shown it to significantly reduce stress, which may have a knock-on effect of reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, chronic disease, and more.
But dig deeper and things quickly get interesting.
Consider an intriguing early study from Duke University that compared the health benefits of yoga and aerobics in about 100 adults.
Back in the 1989 study, the magic secret to fitness was increasing your maximal oxygen uptake, or VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen you can consume during intense exercise. Decades of science and research had proven that aerobic exercise did just that, and it quickly became a mainstream fitness staple. The results were crystal clear: Over the course of the four-month study, subjects who participated in aerobic exercise saw a significant increase in VO2 max. Yoga participants saw no increase at all.
But when the researchers looked at the participants’ quality of life, the responses were overwhelmingly positive in both groups. At the end of the study, the yoga practitioners reported feeling healthier and had increased energy levels, endurance, and flexibility, and they slept better. Their social lives also improved significantly. Their memory and concentration improved. They felt less lonely and their self-confidence and life satisfaction increased. They even felt better about how they looked.
Fountain of youth?
The yoga literature is full of such counterintuitive findings. Another interesting study published in 2008 refutes the common claim that yoga is restorative and has anti-aging effects. Can yoga really help humans live longer?
Biological aging has to do with telomeres, the strands of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, these ends shorten, acting as a kind of clock that marks the cell’s lifespan. This discovery, another way to count biological age, was significant enough to earn a Nobel Prize.
In their study, the researchers looked at a group of 30 men with low-risk cancer and introduced them to a “comprehensive” lifestyle changes that included a low-fat diet, a walking routine, and “yoga-based stretching, breathing, and meditation.”
After three months, participants reported significant health improvements, including lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI. The researchers also found a 30 percent increase in telomerase activity, an enzyme that prevents telomeres from shortening.
A follow-up study of the same 10 subjects five years later found a significant increase in telomere length.
The authors suggest that these findings could lead to cell longevity, tissue regeneration, disease prevention and “lifespan extension.” Even in modest scientific terms, this is bold new territory for the fountain of youth.
Spiritual Aura
There has always been an air of mysticism around yoga, of the exotic and the supernatural.
In 1965, BKS Iyengar, the man who did more to popularize yoga in the West than anyone else, wrote in his classic book, Light on Yoga, about how the practice of yoga can bring people to “a crossroads of their destiny.”
I remember coming across an old book in a library abroad with the intriguing title “Christian Yoga.” Written in the 1960s by French priest JM Deschanes, it was an intimate and moving memoir about his attempts to reconcile yoga with Christian traditions.
Early in the book, he writes that when he reads the Bible, the contemplative lives of the prophets seem far removed from the noisy modern life, and later, to his surprise, he discovers that practicing yoga has helped him experience some of the serene serenity he had been reading about.
These are very interesting claims. We see subtle echoes of them in the science. For example, a review paper that looked at about 30 studies states:[yoga] It may be positively associated with some aspects of spirituality.”
In his book, A Life Worth Breathing, author Max Strom mentions the complaints that many of us are familiar with: “I can’t get up in the morning, I’m bored during the day, I’m tired in the evening, I can’t sleep at night.”
Yoga can be a great antidote, and even after just a few weeks of practice you’ll find that it promotes a meditative state.
Several studies conducted in different countries have shown that although most people start yoga for the physical benefits, many continue practicing yoga primarily for the psychological side effects.
“More intense than sports”
But for anyone who’s planning on jumping on the mat right away, it’s important to urge caution: The good news is that the statistics on yoga injuries are generally reassuring and low.
A Danish study of nearly 3,500 participants reported a 1 percent injury rate from yoga (compared to 38 percent for soccer players, 19 percent for runners, and 9 percent for strength trainers), but unfortunately, reports of injuries and damage are numerous.
Journalist William Broad, author of the acclaimed book The Science of Yoga, comments:[yoga] It makes most other sports and athletics seem like child’s play.”
There have been reports of students pushing their bodies past their limits in challenging poses, resulting in torn tendons, torn ribs, and blood clots. When these incidents are examined in detail, two main causes emerge:
The first is basic common sense. In an extensive survey of yoga teachers, therapists, and clinicians, the most commonly cited cause was:[p]This can occur due to incorrect technique or alignment, previous injuries, overexertion, and improper or insufficient instruction.”
The second cause of injury is deeper and more subtle: ego. Some people bring materialism and competitiveness into yoga, rushing into advanced poses out of a sense of accomplishment. But the poses are always part of the journey, not the goal. Listening carefully to your body is essential.
To quote author Max Strom again on the transformational magic of yoga: “Remember, it doesn’t matter how deep you go in a pose; what matters is who you are when you get there.”
Like most quotes about yoga, this one is mind-blowingly arcane to the outsider. After all, the secrets of yoga cannot be explained. Like many of the truly great things in life, yoga has to be experienced to be understood.
The author is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, NUST, Islamabad. He can be contacted at taha.ali@gmail.com.
Published in Dawn, EOS, June 23, 2024
