Contents
Guide
Pagebreaks of the print version
Adaptive Yoga
Ingrid Yang
MD, JD, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
Kyle Fahey
DPT, PT
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Yang, Ingrid, 1979- author.
Title: Adaptive Yoga / Ingrid Yang (MD, JD, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT), Kyle Fahey (DPT, PT).
Description: Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020017943 (print) | LCCN 2020017944 (ebook) | ISBN 9781492596646 (paperback) | ISBN 9781492596653 (epub) | ISBN 9781492596660 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Yoga--Therapeutic use.
Classification: LCC RM727.Y64 Y36 2021 (print) | LCC RM727.Y64 (ebook) | DDC 613.7/046--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017943
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017944
ISBN: 978-1-4925-9664-6 (print)
Copyright 2021 by Ingrid Yang and Kyle Fahey
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This book is dedicated to Mom and Dad. Thank you for teaching me that we all have the potential to do something great. It is with this belief that I teach my students and patients, to help them fulfill their potential. This ones for you.
Ingrid Yang
I dedicate this work to my patients, from whom I have learned so much. It is because of them that I am the clinician I am today. Also, to my coworkers, many of whom have provided immeasurable amounts of mentorship and support. Finally, to my parents, who taught me at a young age to strive to put others needs before my own.
Kyle Fahey
Contents
Foreword
Yoga is for every body. Thats a truism that many yoga teachers, myself included, like to say. But when we say it, were generally thinking of bodies at different sizes or different ages, not different abilities. Adaptive Yoga is here to expand the definition of every body in ways that will benefit individual practitioners as well as the field of yoga as a whole. Its a brilliant addition to the yoga and physical therapy literature, and it speaks to teachers and therapists as well as directly to yoga students.
What strikes me most about this wonderful book is that in its exquisitely specific detail of exactly how and why to use yoga to ease the symptoms of a broad range of medical conditions, it winds up pointing to the universal truths of yoga. This is fitting, because the word yoga itself means union or connectiona connection of the individual and mortal (the specific) with the collective and eternal (the universal). This connection is especially important when we are faced with a diagnosis or disability that defines a new way of being in our bodies and the world. Its also why most yoga practices end with savasana, corpse pose, as the ultimate practice of surrender and a reminder that theres more to existence than the individual ego.
If you are coming to this book to learn to adapt yoga to your own body or your students needs, youll pick up detailed, clearly explained, customizable ideas for how to perform yoga poses, breath exercises, and guided relaxations. But youll also be led toward the universal truths yoga can teach us. Here are some of the main lessons that Dr. Yang and Dr. Fahey offer.
Yoga teaches its students to love and trust their bodies. It does this by allowing us to experience our strength and resilience in each moment. Yoga builds self-awareness that showcases all the things that are going right in our bodies, even when they feel less than perfect. At its most basic level, yoga teaches us to appreciate every breath.
Remember that the spine is strong and safe to move. Many yoga studentsnot just those suffering from low back painpractice tentatively, in fear of doing a movement the wrong way, exacerbating an injury, or even drawing the teachers attention and hence a correction. The more we can remember that bodies are made to move in all kinds of ways, the better we are able to move them and to strengthen the mindbody connection.
Promote hope, optimism, and positive expectations when practicing yoga. Metaphorically, hope and optimism are muscles. We must train them so that they become strong and capable. The more we learn to adopt positive expectations and attitudes, the easier it becomes to deploy them, even in difficult situations.