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Hi everybody, Sara Hauber here. I'm just going through several questions that I have had
members submit over the past few months. And this one is from Ms. Lopez, and I'm just going
to read the question because I think a lot of you can probably relate to some of what's
written here. Hi Sara, I've been using the Hauber Method for a few months now and have begun
to return to a bit of a yoga practice as well. [Congratulations.] I'm confused though around
forward bends. In the sun salutations, there is so much forward bending and my back doesn't
like that at all. I don't think toe touching is an option for me any more in any position.
What should or could I do instead to substitute these forward bends? Why do yoga instructors
emphasize them so much? I would love to hear what you think about standing forward bends
and the back. Excellent, excellent questions, and I will try to go through them systematically.
But I do want to let you know, first off, I never recommend, actually, anyone with back
pain, anyone with an unstable lower back and tight hips and hamstrings, I never recommend
that you do flow yoga, which is where you're going to find Sun Salutations. Um, any time
you're moving that quickly through a series of poses, that really requires flexibility
in the hip joint and stability in the back, and you're going to put yourself in danger.
So, um, my first recommendation is actually not to do flow or Sun Salutations. OK, so
if you are going to implement a yoga practice again, after going through the Hauber Method
or in the course of using the Hauber Method, I would recommend using a more table practice,
or going to a more stable practice if you're not doing one at home. Ah, this would include
alignment-based classes, beginners' classes, right, that are not called flow or vinyasa
yoga. So that's my first recommendation. Ah, but this question brought up an interesting
point that I was thinking about doing and now I'm inspired to do, and that is, I will
actually be recording myself going through a couple of different variations of Sun Salutations
and, um, releasing each segment of the Sun Salutations as a video clip, with my commentary
and pointing out where on the body, ah, you might be exacerbating your back pain. So,
because really Sun Salutations, honestly, I hate to say it, are impossible to do without
a lot of forward bending. And this brings up another point that I really want to reiterate,
and that is that while yoga is a wonderful practice and I absolutely adore it, um, it
was not designed to fix your back. OK, I can't state this clearly enough. Yoga was not designed
to fix your back pain. OK. The moves in yoga, the moves in sun salutations, those moves
assume a healthy body. Um, so that's why this trend of you know even primary care doctors
are recommending to their patients, if you have back pain, go to a yoga class. But that's
really false advertising, in my view, because again, yoga poses were not designed to fix
your back. The Hauber Method was. That was intentional. I put those moves together because
they stop back pain. Uh, yoga moves, no. [laughs] OK? So, while I love the fact that you're
getting back into a yoga practice, I think it's wonderful for um emotional health, psychology,
breathing, it can be great for your physical health, too, but, um, all those forward bends
are definitely detrimental to your back. And I explain a lot about this in the Hauber Method
handbook, but I am releasing now more and more video clips to try to get people to understand
that because we sit all the time and because you know we're driving all the time, we're
not up on our feet walking around, forward bending actually exacerbates this back flexion
that we've already got too much of. OK? So, let me get back to the point of the question.
[laughs] I tend to do that. Uh, so, as far as doing sun salutations, number one I would
recommend don't do them. If you are going to do them, I will be releasing these upcoming
video clips in a series showing each step on the sun salutations, where they might hurt
you, how you may be able to modify them slightly. If you are able to do a sun salutation with
the modifications, and without pain, fantastic! If you're not, please don't do them. Ah, it's
all I can say. There are plenty of other yoga asanas that are gonna be comfortable for you.
And as far as stopping back pain, you already know how to do that: you gotta do the exercises
in the Hauber Method. Cuz those were designed to help stop your pain. Um, another corollary
question you have here is, "Why do yoga instructors emphasize them [forward bends] so much?" Again,
it's because that's what people are taught when they teach yoga. They're not taught to
stop pain, they're taught these are the yoga poses, and this is how you teach them. So
it makes absolute sense. I mean, when I went through training, I was taught as a flow instructor,
and my back hurt the entire time. Um, but you know, again, yoga poses are not designed
around proper posture, they are designed around yoga poses. So that's why yoga teachers emphasize
them forward bends] so much. And it's also probably why I know a lot of yoga teachers
with back pain. So anyway, thank you again so much for your question. And any of you
out there after watching my answer to this question, if you have additional questions,
please don't hesitate to submit them. You can always send them to my tech team at info@haubermethod.com
and they always forward me interesting member questions. And I'll address them as frequently
as I can. All right, thank you so much, and happy practicing.