Pigeon Pose is NOT for Every Body!
Jamming ourselves into shapes is not what we evolved to do
This can be a touchy subject for people, especially when we have attached so much of ourselves to a particular practice. The truth is that I am not just willing to make this statement about Yoga, but I’m willing to make this statement about many activities.
Humans did not evolve to do Bench Presses.
Humans didn’t evolve to do Power Cleans.
Humans didn’t evolve to throw pitches over and over again at 90+ miles per hour.
Humans didn’t evolve to run back and forth on a court throwing balls through a hoop, throw and catch touchdown passes, kick soccer balls, etc.
We evolved to do things that allow us to survive. That means that the traits and abilities that we have are directly related to thousands of years of trying to get away from predators, hunting prey, gathering things, and trying to put ourselves in the optimal position to guarantee our genetics are passed on.
Within the capacity to survive, we learned to do other things with our range of abilities.
The Agricultural Revolution among other great events has allowed us to redefine so much of our lives to the point where we thought up things to do for leisure and entertainment and among those things are sports.
I guarantee you our ancient ancestor hunter gatherers were not like, I need to get my Yoga in twice a week or my Chakras won’t be aligned.
I am willing to bet that no one 1000 year ago thought anyone would be paid millions of dollars for things that were once left to the gladiators and slaves.
No one sat in Pigeon Pose hundreds of thousands of years ago. Period.
And I don’t say all this to say that these things are not something that we can’t enjoy or do.
What I am saying is that although the human body is a highly adaptable organism, we are all unique and different. We have different bone structures, shapes and sizes. Person A will not look like Person B in any activity, so we need to stop trying to do that and figure out what works best for us.
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This is one of the things that I often preach to my Golf clients. Your swing won’t look like that of Tiger Woods, because you are not him. You are you. Tiger Woods has a swing that is optimal for the way in which his body organizes itself to efficiently do the task. His output is directly related to his capacity for movement and so is yours.
We can change your capacity for movement and then work on improving or changing the skill, but I’ll reiterate something I’ve said to many coaches over the years… Shouting louder at someone to get their chest up, as they Squat for example, is NOT going to get them to change if they can’t access extension of their spine in the first place.
The body organizes itself in a task based on available resources. Give it more resources to pull from to create movement and we can change the outcomes during a task.
So stop trying to jam yourself into shapes that aren’t right for you, that you aren’t ready for and that in reality isn’t helping you get better at anything in particular besides looking good in a pose.
Move Better | Feel Better | Do More
Rich Thurman is a Strength & Conditioning Coach, with an emphasis on Mobility Training, based in San Francisco, CA. With over 20 years of coaching and education experience, Rich works to improve the lives of both his In Person and Virtual Clients.
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