Dear Friends,
I'm speaking with Abi Carver today, author of the course 15-Minute Yoga for Aches and Pains. Many of you told us you wanted this type of program. We delivered and you are becoming more flexible and pain-free after taking it! I'm also happy to hear you are enjoying this Sunday interview series. I find them so interesting, and I'm glad you do as well.
Madisyn Taylor: Hello Abi. Please tell me, how do we all end up with aches and pains?
Abi Carver: Hi Madisyn. It's an honor to be speaking with you. The way we move--our favorite activities and the positions we spend the most time in--shape our bodies for good and bad. When we repeat the same movements over and over, using certain muscle groups more than others, or maintain the same position for sustained periods, our bodies adapt to make those activities as easy as possible. Over time, this process of adaptation sets up muscular imbalances. The muscles that are underused become weak and less responsive, and those that are overworked become short and tight. Pain is a sign that these imbalances are starting to cause damage to the body and you are at increased risk of injury. Furthermore, pain and a lack of mobility often go together. If you suffer from lower back pain, part of the issue is likely to be a lack of mobility (tightness) in the hips and/or thoracic spine (mid-back). Likewise, knee pain is often associated with poor ankle mobility. In each of these scenarios, joints that are designed to be relatively stable--the lumbar spine (lower back) in the first example and the knees in the second--are forced to compensate for a lack of mobility in the adjacent structures (the mid-back, hips, and ankles). When the lower back and knees become less stable from overuse, they send a distress signal to the brain, and this is perceived as pain.
MT: Over 18,000 people have taken your course already. Why do you think it is so popular?
AC: I think the reason this course has attracted so many students is that yoga is an incredibly powerful tool for easing many of the ways we suffer in our modern world. Physically, most of us experience aches and pains caused by our work and/or favorite sports, and mentally, we struggle with having our attention drawn in a million different directions. Yoga works on the body, mind, and spirit simultaneously. It releases tension from tight muscles, focuses the mind, and fills us with a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation. It is an integrative and holistic practice that has helped millions of people ease their suffering.
Although yoga is an incontrovertible phenomenon in the West, unfortunately most modern studios slant toward a specific demographic that excludes many people from reaping the benefits of the practice. The beauty of this course is that you don't have to join an expensive, fancy studio to establish your own deeply personal yoga habit. You also don't have to accept any spiritual beliefs that don't resonate with you or feel embarrassed if you struggle initially with the unfamiliar postures and techniques.
MT: You pack a lot into this 21-day course: flexibility, balance, strength, mobility, relaxation, and mental training. Talk to me about this.
AC: This course is designed to cover many of the tools yoga has stashed in its tool belt. From one day to the next, we switch between focusing on increasing flexibility in tight muscles, building strength in underused and weak muscles, increasing range of motion at the joints, relaxing breathing and meditation techniques, and specific skills like balance, coordination, and postural alignment. Yoga literally means "to yoke," and in this context you could understand it to refer to the yoking of multiple different ways of easing suffering and empowering you to feel strong in your body, mind, and spirit.
MT: You state that by the end of the course students will be free from chronic pain, be more flexible, have better posture and balance and coordination skills, greater core strength, and feel more calm and centered. How can all of that be accomplished through your yoga course?
AC: One of the reasons that many people experience pain relief in yoga is that the poses and sequences are incredibly varied. We twist, bend sideways, fold forward, bend over backward, balance on one leg, turn upside down, and support our entire body weight on our hands. This movement diversity helps to counteract habitual patterns and relieve the pain that stems from muscular imbalances. This diversity of movement is also great for joint health. And whether you are a cyclist, runner, swimmer, dancer, gardener, skier, bird-watcher, sailor, trainspotter, or pilot, the health of your joints is paramount. A consistent yoga practice can increase your range of motion, slow joint degeneration, relieve areas of stiffness, increase your agility, improve your coordination, reduce your risk of injury, and eliminate that early morning snap, crackle, and pop.
Experiencing physical pain--most commonly in the neck, shoulders, lower back, or as recurring headaches--is something that we have learned to accept. We take painkillers when the pain gets really bad and otherwise find ways to distance ourselves from the discomfort. We have busy lives to live, people depend on us, and treatment can be time-consuming and expensive. Unfortunately, when it comes to physical pain, burying your head in the sand is rarely the smartest play. Pain is a clear signal from your body that damage has either already occurred or is likely to occur soon, and urgent attention may be required. Serious issues arise when you find a way to block out the uncomfortable sensations and still continue to repeat patterns that exacerbate the injury. For example, continuing to ride your bike even though your lower back always flares up after a long ride, or running every weekend even though it consistently triggers pain in your left knee. Although it's not hard to understand why we try to tune out painful sensations in the body, it is often not a good long-term solution. And that is where yoga comes in.
MT: Tell me a bit about your background and how you became a yoga instructor?
AC: Like many people who find themselves working within a therapeutic field, my path initially took me in a different direction entirely. I studied English literature and philosophy at university, followed by an MA in book publishing, and was lucky enough to land my first proper job. Unfortunately, like so many others, I burned out after four years on the job. I was living completely out of alignment with my values. In 2009 I made the decision to leave my job and move to Mexico. As I didn't speak Spanish, it seemed unlikely that I was going to be able to land a job related to my love of the written word, so I turned to one of my other great passions--sports--and quickly earned my certificate as a personal trainer before buying a one-way ticket.
Even though I loved working as a PT, I never felt truly fulfilled. It turned out not to be a sustainable or empowering model for me, and I wanted to offer my clients more. Around the same time, I started going to yoga classes and I loved the way the practice made me feel. It was the perfect antidote to my own high-intensity training program and incredibly demanding work schedule. I walked into the class full of stress and tension and floated out in a state of bliss and serenity. I went to Guatemala to complete my first Yoga Alliance yoga-teaching certificate and never looked back.
MT: Abi, who should take this course?
AC: This course is suitable for beginner and intermediate yogis looking for a highly targeted, non-spiritual yoga program to help you feel strong and supple in your body and calm and clear in your mind. We have so few opportunities in our lives to focus inward, without distraction, and reconnect with what is going on inside. Yoga is different from other physical disciplines in that it requires your undivided attention and an intention to be aware of everything that is going on in your body and mind. In yoga, we try to feel everything. It's a tool to bring you back into balance--to strengthen you where you feel weak, stretch you where you feel tight, focus you when you feel scattered, ease your aches and pains, and bring you peace where you are experiencing struggle.
One of the reasons yoga is so effective at alleviating pain in the lower back, neck and shoulders is that it works on a number of different levels simultaneously--loosening up joint restrictions, stretching tight muscles, re-activating weak muscles, adjusting alignment, relaxing the body and calming the mind. Yoga--along with a few other simple techniques--can be really effective at relieving the pain. We can release tension, restore range of motion and re-activate weakened muscles. A regular yoga practice has the potential to prevent and heal injury, to make you stronger, fitter, more supple, to enhance your physical performance and to sharpen your mental focus. However, with everything you have to do, we know that you don't have time to find a 90-minute yoga for recovery class to attend every week. That's why Abi Carver put together this course to distill and simplify this crucial aspect of your wellbeing into 15-minute guided video practices.
Starting today, you will receive a new lesson every day for 3 weeks (total of 21 lessons). Each lesson is yours to keep and you'll be able to refer back to it whenever you want. And if you miss a lesson or are too busy to get to it that day, each lesson will conveniently remain in your account so you won't have to search for it when you're ready to get back to it.
We are offering this course with the option of selecting how much you want to pay. No matter how much you pay, you'll be getting the same course as everybody else. We simply trust that people are honest and will support the author of the course with whatever they can afford. And if you are not 100% satisfied, we will refund your money.
Thank you, Abi, for taking the time to talk with us today about your healing work. I can see it is tremendously rewarding for you, and we all get to benefit from your process. I'm really looking forward to staying flexible and free from aches and pains! Until next time.
Be well,
Madisyn Taylor
Cofounder, Editor-in-Chief
DailyOM
