On a cold Saturday in early 2009, Glenn Black, a yoga teacher of nearly four decades, whose devoted clientele includes a number of celebrities and prominent gurus, was giving a master class at Sankalpah Yoga in Manhattan. Black is, in many ways, a classic yogi: he studied in Pune, India, at the institute founded by the legendary B. K. S. Iyengar, and spent years in solitude and meditation. He now lives in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and often teaches at the nearby Omega Institute, a New Age emporium spread over nearly 200 acres of woods and gardens. He is known for his rigor and his down-to-earth style. But this was not why I sought him out: Black, I’d been told, was the person to speak with if you wanted to know not about the virtues of yoga but rather about the damage it could do. read more

_One cool evening in a high-ceilinged dining hall in Novato, California, an unlikely yoga class is getting under way. Fourteen men wearing blue jeans, work boots or running shoes roll out yoga mats and get settled on sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows.

The instructor, Kelly Boys, smiles as she surveys her students, residents at Henry Ohlhoff North, a substance abuse recovery center. She asks if anyone wants to discuss their experiences in the previous week’s session. A trim 52-year old named Charles volunteers that he struggles with feelings of lonliness. read more

So you have some nagging, persistent low-back pain. You've heard that your tight legs are probably part of the problem and that stretching them is a good idea. Since forward bends mightily stretch the backs of your legs, you decide to add some to your home practice a few times a week. Good idea?

Actually, it depends. While forward bends can be wonderfully relaxing and introspective, they can also strain or injure your low back—especially if the backs of your legs are tight. read more
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_In the yoga tradition, the lowly foot paradoxically has an almost transcendent status. Students touch or kiss the feet of beloved teachers as an act of reverence. Similarly, the first phrase of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga invocation, vande gurunam charanaravinde ("I honor the lotus-flower feet of all the gurus"), acknowledges that yoga teachings have stepped down through time on the feet of the learned ones.

This veneration of the foot reflects its importance as the foundation of the temple of the body. Just as the foundation of a temple must be level to support all the structures above, so the feet must be balanced and sturdy to support the legs, spine, arms, and head. read more

_Cows and guns loom large in Guy Duffner's memories of his childhood. The son of a Montana cattle rancher, he recalls the excitement of getting his first hunting rifle when he turned 10. "I hunted with my dad's rifle as a child and had no qualms about killing things because everybody did it," he recalls.

Now a hospital corpsman in the military, Duffner says he wants nothing to do with guns. He credits the change in his attitude to his yoga practice and its emphasis on ahimsa, or nonviolence. "The more I discovered yoga, the more I began to view the world in a peaceful, loving way," he says. "I've come full circle to the ahimsic way of life." read more

_People with chronic back pain might benefit from hitting the yoga mat. Three months of weekly yoga classes eased back pain more than the usual course of care — an informative back pain booklet, according to a new study.
 
Even a year later, patients with chronic back pain who had participated in yoga classes reported less pain than those who hadn't been assigned the classes. The study, conducted in the United Kingdom, followed 313 adults with nonspecific chronic back pain — in other words, ongoing back pain with no known physical cause. read more