Ever been told strengthening your core will help your bad back ?
Correcting your posture will solve that stiff neck or even working on your pelvic tilt will help your pain?
These are all well disproven, old fashioned movement myths with no supporting evidence. In fact red flags should pop up when ever we hear anything as reductionist as ‘do xyz to fix xyz’.
We simply cannot manipulate the innately strong structures of the tissues of the body to begin with, let alone decrease resting muscle stiffness, so fixes that describe loosening hip flexors or back muscles so they don’t pull on other areas sadly just doesn’t happen.
Using hands on corrections or intricate precision alignment techniques really isn’t fixing anything other than arbitrary aesthetics and they certainly don’t protect you from danger. The human body is extremely robust and any adjustments we chose are fine to feel more comfort in our movement modalities but we don’t really need them chosen for us. Chiropractic adjustments and manual therapy are all undergoing the same revelations in their industries, we simply are not affecting the body in the way we once believed we could.
Static stretches in the gym, drills or yoga do not decrease risk of injury, create more mobility, or reduce soreness. That feeling of reduced stiffness or increased flexibility comes from the all important nervous system increasing your stretch tolerance over time as it learns to feel safe and familiar with movements. Static stretches of more than a minute can cause fatigue lasting up to 20 mins after which is why yin yoga or slow stretchy classes can leave us feeling calm, well and rested. Static stretches sedate our nervous system, calm it and dial it down which can be why an evening class or a few stretches at home can feel like they have really set us up for bed.
So where does that leave us in yoga? As a quick take I would say don’t bother with wild anatomy claims, hands on adjustments or old beliefs around stretching or even our more recent ones around affecting fascia which are way less clear than once thought. Instead think philosophy first: no outcome driven goals just gentle observation of how we react and interact with ourselves in class, focus on finding a feeling not a shape and how we can find the thermostat to the nervous system.Think less posture hacks and biomechanic mumbo jumbo and more being ok if things happen and ok if they don’t. Now that’s the real correction and protection yoga can gift us.