Stretch your body, stretch your life...
My journey to Iyengar yoga and pain free living
Iyengar yoga is a system that has healed me and made me stronger, longer and pain free. Every day I practise I feel like I’m getting physically younger. I’ve done every yoga, most sports and lots of martial arts. Many of them are fun, get your heart rate pumping but, in terms of pure wellness, most of them don’t come close. This is PhD exercise. It’s not a hack. It’s not a quick fix (although it WILL fix you quickly).
I’ve always been obsessed with exercise. I think it all stems down to being convinced I was Mr Fatty Blobby Man as a nine-year old. Looking back, I was a spot on pudge side for about a year, but photos show I really didn’t have that much to worry about. Oh, the joys of dysmorphia.
As a kid, it turned out I was decent at squash, so I ran myself into oblivion around a four-walled white room, chasing a tiny ball for ten years and playing in three national championships. Finally, at nineteen, my back gave out and I ruptured a spinal disc. Cue, two years of intense pain, sleeping on bare wood floors and learning to contort myself into the strangest positions to massage my back (believe me when I say I know why cats and dogs spend so much time rubbing themselves against door frames).
I was meant to have surgery but then my father found this strange doctor who was also a Homeopath. He injected some natural anti-inflammatory solution into my disc, and it instantly reduced the pain by about 70%. I could live again.
I still had pain but at least now I could exercise. I discovered Aikido – a wonderful Japanese martial art. And then by chance, found I was living close to one of the greatest living exponents in the world. The late, great Minoru Kanetsuka. He was incredible. The head teacher for the UK, Poland, France and Russia, I traipsed about all over the place being thrown, pinned and generally battered into submission by him for ten more years. My back hurt. Everything hurt. The man was a genius and like a tiny, highly dangerous, grandfather to me. Five grown men could do nothing to contain him.
It was with Sensei I learned how to stretch properly. He often referenced yoga and BKS Iyengar for that matter. And that’s where my understanding of its benefits began. 50% of every class we did was stretching.
I then discovered Iyengar yoga for real. A friend of mine suggested I might try a class with Alaric Newcombe – one of the most senior Iyengar yoga teachers in the UK. I emailed him asking if I could drop in and try a class in his home (which consisted entirely of long-time students, most of whom were teachers in their own right). The atmosphere was both serious and light. Jokes flowed but the nature of the work was highly focussed and the dedication to the understanding of the body total.
I had found my home. Alaric kindly let me stay and I began a journey that thirteen years later is still going strong. I’m pain free, my back is strong and I’m empowered to look after my own health. BKS Iyengar developed his own approach system to yoga that meant everyone could access it (that was his brilliance).
Mr and Mrs Blobby Fat are always welcome to come and join in and change their lives. Forever. All they need to do is turn up to class a few times a week and the rest will take care of itself.
Like Kantesuka Sensei used to say, “Stretch your body, stretch your life.” He was so right.
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