An Introduction to Yoga Video Transcript
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 play videoTime: 11:58 minutes |
Participants
Ben Kligler MD, Deborah Matza RN, MPH, David Folk Thomas
Summary
Have you ever peeked into a room at your gym and seen people stretching, breathing deeply or just sitting in silence? They were probably doing yoga, an ancient practice of body work and meditation. Our panel of experts will provide an overview of yoga, addressing the different forms of yoga and their health benefits.
Webcast Transcript
DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Welcome to our webcast. I'm David Folk Thomas. If you belong to a gym, chances are you've looked through the glass at the aerobics room, and at times you've seen people in there stretching, meditating, being very quiet. What's going on in there? Chances are it's a yoga class, and if you haven't taken one before, we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what yoga is. Joining me today are a couple of experts on the subject. On my left is Dr. Ben Kligler. He's the medical director of the New Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing in New York City. Sitting next to Dr. Kligler is Deborah Matza. She's the clinical coordinator for Beth Israel Center for Cardiac and Pulmonary Health. She's also a nurse and a certified yoga instructor. Thanks for both of you joining us.
Right off the bat, what's yoga?
DR. BENJAMIN KLIGLER: Yoga is a discipline that comes from India. It's a very ancient tradition, and it basically teaches how to use positions of the body and the breath to promote health, in a nutshell. How's that?
DEBORAH MATZA: I'll just elaborate a little bit. What you talked about is there are several aspects of yoga, and you referred to what people are most familiar with, which is Hatha, which is the series of the physical poses. That's what people think of when they think of folding up into a pretzel. Then there's also breathing practices, and it also includes meditation and often deep relaxation. Some yoga styles include chanting, and there are a number of other aspects. So it's really very comprehensive, but most people, when they think of yoga, just think of the poses.
DAVID FOLK THOMAS: When I think of yoga-- and it's something I have been meaning to do-- I've never had the nerve to get in there because I always start thinking, "I'm not limber enough to do yoga." What do you say to people like myself who think you have to be able to put yourself into a pretzel?
DEBORAH MATZA: That's exactly why I was mentioning that, because yoga can be adapted for really almost any individual. There are certain conditions where it's not recommended, but they're very few, and the idea is it helps to promote flexibility in the body. So if you're not limber, it's a perfect place to start. It helps to stretch and tone the muscles of the body and it helps to align the joints and the spine, and it really is excellent for flexibility.
DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Dr. Kligler, as far as whether it's good for health, can it cure what ails you?
DR. BENJAMIN KLIGLER: The most typical place to use yoga has been, in our country, as kind of a general stress reduction strategy, physical toning, increasing your inner harmony kind of approach. It's also really useful for the treatment of specific conditions. Deborah, in particular, does something called restorative yoga, which is a particular type of yoga teaching that I think is even more suited to people with certain health problems.
DEBORAH MATZA: A lot of people don't know about restorative yoga here in the West. It's based on the work of someone named B. K. S. Ayangar, who was a very revered yogi in India, and he actually started the Yoga Therapy Institute for Healing in India. It's a style of yoga where we use bolsters and pillows and blankets to position people in poses so that they don't need to hold themselves there. So it's very gentle and very safe, and this enables people that normally couldn't participate in yoga, such as older people or people who have certain disabilities, so they can actually do some of these poses because they're very well supported and it's very, very safe.
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