Yoga & Breath
Breath practice for anxiety: the specific thing to do
Of everything discussed on this site, slow breathing has the best combination of evidence, accessibility and safety. Here is the practical version.
Yoga & Breath
Asana and pranayama as Ayurveda uses them.
Yoga & Breath
Yoga injuries and how to practise without acquiring one
Yoga is generally safe and injury rates are not zero. The pattern of injuries is well enough documented that most of them are avoidable.
Yoga & Breath
Conduct as part of the regimen: the ethical prescriptions
Both classical Ayurveda and the yogic system include behavioural and ethical prescriptions as part of health practice, which is a framing modern health advice has largely lost.
Yoga & Breath
Practice in later life: what actually helps
Classical texts treat older age as requiring specific adjustment. Contemporary evidence about what preserves function with age points in a particular and consistent direction.
Yoga & Breath
Yoga for back pain: the evidence that made it into guidelines
Low back pain is one of the few areas where yoga has enough trial evidence to appear in clinical guidance, and the reasons are worth understanding.
Yoga & Breath
The cleansing practices: which are reasonable and which are not
Hatha yoga texts describe six categories of cleansing practice. They range from ordinary nasal irrigation to procedures that carry real risk and should not be attempted from a book.
Yoga & Breath
Mantra, chanting and what the research finds
Repetitive vocalisation appears across religious traditions and has attracted physiological research, most of which points at breathing rather than at anything specific to the sounds.
Yoga & Breath
Surya namaskar: what the sequence does and who should modify it
The sun salutation is the most widely practised sequence in modern yoga, it is more demanding than it appears, and several of its components need adapting for a lot of people.
Yoga & Breath
Yoga nidra and structured relaxation
A guided practice performed lying down, with a defined structure, and a small but reasonably consistent research literature.
Yoga & Breath
Meditation: the evidence, sorted by how well it holds up
A large research literature with real findings, substantial methodological problems, and a set of claims that range from well supported to entirely unsupported.
Yoga & Breath
Asana in Ayurveda is not the same thing as a yoga class
The physical postures most people associate with yoga occupy a smaller place in classical texts than in modern practice, and the way Ayurveda uses them has a different emphasis.
Yoga & Breath
Pranayama: what the breathing practices do, as far as anyone can tell
Controlled breathing has measurable physiological effects, a reasonable body of trial evidence for some outcomes, and a set of specific safety considerations that are rarely mentioned.