Love Yoga Anatomy | Ashtanga: Aging and Fatigue

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Ashtanga: Aging and FatiguePosted On February 23, 2014 9 Comments

By Chad HerstA friend within the Ashtanga community recently reached out to me because shehas been struggling to find a way into her practice such that it supports herfatigue and depression. She wrote, I have had chronic fatigue for many years,and used to find my practice helpful with my energy levels, but lately, Ive beenstruggling with the intensity of the practice And now that Im in my mid-40s, Ivebeen asking myself, How am I going to maintain this? I have the sense thatmany practitioners within our tradition silently struggle with these very issues:fatigue and how to maintain the practice as we age or as life changes on us, likewhen we have kids. And I do not believe that our teaching community adequatelyspeaks to these issues.

Often the instruction students receive is, Keep practicing. It will change. And somany fatigued and frustrated Ashtangis just keep doing the same practice over

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and over hoping for a dierent outcome. Many, however, quit. Ashtanga is apowerfully transformative practice, and there can be an ethos within thecommunity that is relatively unforgiving. There doesnt happen to be a lot ofspace for those who need to deviate from the standard practice. It is notuncommon for students to essentially get the message: You either do it the wayits taught in Mysore, or youre not welcome in this room.

Many within the tradition we come from, unfortunately, promote the notion that weshould be able to maintain a vigorous practice no matter what stage ofdevelopment were in, no matter how healthy or unhealthy we are. And thats justnot a viable, life-long approach to practice. Ashtanga Yogis that are lifers, so-to-speak, do not keep practicing the same way. As we change, so does ourpractice. The practice that suited me in my early 20s, for example, no longer fitsfor me in my 40s. A mature perspective on practice recognizes that yoga shouldsupport our health and well-being no matter where we are in life.

Balls-to-the-Wall in Our 20s and Early-30s

When I first started learning the practice, I was 19 years old, so it helped meimmensely to have a place to direct all of my energies, both positive and not sopositive. Without it those anxious times might have been met with a lot moreself-destructive patterns, like drinking, drugs, and self-loathing. Having thestructure to get up early each morning, to show up on that mat and practicestrongly each day was the perfect solution for all that anxiety, self-doubt, andagitation that seemed to be central to my 20s and early 30s. But as Ive gottenolder, practicing like that zaps me.

Sustaining our Energy in Our 40s

Ive recently stopped practicing Advanced A. I find that it stresses me outphysically and emotionally. As I transition into my early 40s, I notice that all of thearm balances make my neck, shoulders, and upper-back ache and tax myenergy. I am at the stage of life where I want to have enough energy to give to mywife, our family, my clients, and my community, and it is a lot to manage. At somepoint in the last few years I woke up to the fact that I did not want to keep givingall my energy to my practice. I wanted my practice to be able to support me, tosupport my life, to support my pursuits.


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I especially dont push it when I have an injury, am sick, or dont get enoughsleep. Melissa, my wife was up all night with the flu last week, which meant that Iwas up, too. When I got on my mat the next morning, my head was spinning. Iwasnt sure if I was coming down with the flu, myself. So after the AshtangaInvocation, instead of starting Suryanamaskar A, all I had the energy to do was totake padmasana; do ujjayi pranayama for about 30 minutes; and then take a45-minute savasana. Yep, that was my practice. And, yes, I still consider thatAshtanga Yoga. I did not, in fact, get sick. I had eight clients that day, and had Inot taken care of myself, I would have been a mess.

Practicing into Our 50s and Beyond

It is my sense that the practice continues to evolve as we get older. When I wasin Mysore in 2005, I was told that someone I was practicing with in the shala in hismid-50s was taking anti-inflammatory drugs in order to continue practicingAdvanced A and B. His practice looked quite acrobatic for someone his age, butwas that practice supporting him or was he supporting it? Whats clear to me isthat as the body evolves, so should we.

Sri T. Krishnamacharya, Pattabhi Jois teacher, divided yoga practice into variouscategories, called krama, which means a step used to achieve a particular goal. As we get older, our orientation moves from athletic perfection (siksasana krama)to maintaining our health and preserving our youth (raksasana krama). Eventually,our orientation moves to adhyamatya krama, or spiritual matters. (1) We tend tomove our practice in this direction in the time of life we in the West tend of think ofas retirement. It occurs in our culture when we are in our late-50s, 60s or 70s.


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Our focus turns toward questions about the meaning of life. And so theorientation is less in the way of getting and staying strong and flexible in the body.I am not suggesting that it is unimportant to maintain health and vitality as we age,but that the late-50s onward are about developing wisdom, and that comesabout primarily through stillness practices, like meditation. (2)

I cannot personally speak about this stage of development because I am notthere. I do know several Ashtanga practitioners in their late-50s and 60s who donot keep the same practice they kept when they were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s,but theyre not very public about how their practices have changed; in fact, abouta year ago, I asked an old friend who has been practicing since the 70s if hewould be willing to be interviewed for this very question, but he declined. He didnot want to expose himself to criticism. I completely understand his perspective. When someone speaks about altering the practice to even the slightest degree,some people who have elected themselves to be the yoga police within thecommunity launch in with vitriolic abuse. Nevertheless, I do sense that it would bevery healing for all of us to learn how our teachers and mentors evolved theirpractices to account for the physical, emotional, and spiritual changes that occurwith aging.

How to Modify the Practice to Meet Your Personal Needs

As far as I can tell you can take the practice were taught and break it intocomponent parts that support you energetically and spiritually. Maybe one dayyou skip all jump-backs and jump-throughs to prevent fatigue from setting in. Maybe on another, you practice only a few postures paying particular attention toyour breath and bandhas and only go as far as you can keep your attention. When you notice it flagging, you stop. Maybe on another day, you wake up feelingungrounded, so you just do the standing sequence, holding each posture for10-20 breaths. Or maybe the mood needs lifting, so you focus on back bending,chest openers, and emphasize inhales and inhale retentions. The variations areendless. Whats required is the willingness to take the dive, to experiment.

Yes, it can be helpful to have a teacher who has already walked down this path,someone who can show you the way, and it can also be extremely helpful to havea place with group support where your experimentation is welcome, but there are


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not many Mysore rooms or teachers that are ready for students to experiment oralter the practice, not yet, at least. So you have to be willing to develop a homepractice and then also be equally willing to take risks, read a lot, and just keepshowing up on your mat with curiosity.

Trusting the Need to Evolve

In closing, I recently heard about this experiment called the Asch Paradigm wherethey put 10 people in a room. 9 of the people were shills. 1 was not. Theyshowed all 10 cards with lines of dierent lengths. Two of the lines were clearly ofequal length (Exhibit 1 and B) while the other two (A and C) were not.

The researchers asked the nine shills to claim that two badly mismatched lines (Band C) were actually the same, and that the actual twins (Exhibit 1 and A) weretotal misfits. The one person who was not a shill almost always went along withthe other 9 members. Why? When they quizzed the victims of peer pressure, itturned out that many had done far more than simply go along to get along. Theyhad actually shaped their perceptions, not with the reality in front of them, but withthe consensus of the multitude. (3)

In short, what Im suggesting is that it is not weird or unusual to experience fatiguefrom the practice; in fact, it is pretty common. My question to the reader iswhether you have the guts to trust your own intuitive sense when something is oand find an approach that supports your well-being and that sustains you. Thatcan be a huge challenge, especially if youre used to the support of the Mysoreroom to carry your practice as well as the support of a teacher and friends who


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share a mutual love for the system. Its hard not only to stand on your own, but totrust your innate knowing when everyone around you is telling you that yourecrazy but, in fact, youre not.

FOOTNOTES:

(1) So for example, B.K.S. Iyengar reported that In 1978, after my 60 birthdaycelebration, my guru (Sri T. Krishnamacharya) advised me to devote time tomeditation and to reduce my physical strain. (Iyengar, B.K.S., Astadala Yogamala.New Delhi: Allied Publishers Limited. 2001)

(2) Im not suggestion just because one has reached a certain age, they shouldstop doing the Ashtanga series. If someone has the inclination, time, and energyto devote to progressing through the series and theyre no longer young, by allmeans, I think it is important to follow that urge. It can be incredibly life arming topractice advanced postures and to push the limits on whats possible in thishuman form.

Author: Chad Herst

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Visit Chads Website:http://www.herstwellness.com

Chad Herst first became hookedon the the practice on a hot andhumid Maui summer morning in1993 when David Williamsintroduced him to his first SunSalutation. One year later, he

boarded a plane at the age of 20 to meet his primary teacher, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.He received Jois blessing to teach Ashtanga and has been doing so since 1998.In addition to teaching yoga, Chad is life coach and acupuncturist in SanFrancisco.

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The So-Called Tradition of AshtangaMarch 18, 2013By Chad Herst I have noticed that as the Mysore-style Ashtangamethod becomes more popular over the years, the individualconnection between teacher and student is disintegrating. Thepractice, which was originally designed to be individualized, hasbecome increasingly supplanted by a one-size-fits-all approach. Thisis a natural outgrowth as more and more people both learn and ...

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9 Responses to Ashtanga: Aging and Fatigue

w says:February 23, 2014 at 10:20 pm

Chad, thanks for this article. I am 61 years old and practicing 3 days aweek. It has taken me a long time to get here as I had illness and fatigue.This feels like it supports my health rather than depletes it. Maybe I willget to 4 days a week occasionally..

Carmela says:February 24, 2014 at 12:47 am

Hi Chad, thankyou so much for writing this article. I have been anAshtanga Yoga practitioner since 1997 and teaching since 2000. Mypractice has definitely evolved over the last 4 years. I am 44 now andhave had to make modifications to my practice depending on how mybody is feeling and aging. I am fortunate enough to have my teacher whois in her 50s experience the same, so having support and guidancecertainly helps. I am fortunate to also teach and pass on my experience


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to my students, giving them modification when needed. I do feel there isa shift happening around the traditional Ashtanga asana practice. Notevery BODY is designed to contort themselves into some of thoseadvanced postures and we need to be open and accepting of that. Thecommitment and dedication to the practice is not only about asana, thereare so many other facets to explore and en JOY. NAMASTE

Heike Katharina says:April 13, 2014 at 11:36 am

I only started my practice in my early 40s and it felt great to get flexibleand strong as never before in my life. For quite some years I practicedvigorously though probably never like a twenty year old would and itfelt good. Now I am in my mid 50s and yes my practice changed alsodue to menopause. There is not a lot of public talk about this either. I triedHormon Yoga but not fullhearted because it didnt feel right. I do love myashtanga practice and I felt that this practice can as well support theseyears of a woman. So I started experimenting and yes some mornings itsonly the standing postures and some finishing asanas but it feels good tokeep connected to the practice. Also the breath became even moreimportant to me as did Chanting. Interestingly enough practicing this way Iam not only counterbalancing the eects of ageing but still keepprogressing in the practice at my very own pace and that feels wonderful.

Chad Herst says:May 8, 2014 at 8:12 pm

Hi Heike, It sounds like you are finding your way, taking theessence of the practice and modifying it for yourcircumstances. And in so doing, it seems that youre stilldiscovering progress. Bravo!

yogasanas says:May 7, 2014 at 11:27 pm


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Hi Chad, I think you are spot on. I practiced from 99 at age 35 to 2013age 48 up to 4th series kapilasana. I had to quit all postures last year after3- 4 years of trying to manage the resultant low back pain. Essentially, myback is mangled for life now. Good news is I have a better sitting andpranayama practice than ever. Letting go of the postures has been veryhard and I have gone through (and then back again and again) all ofKubler Rosss stages: denial, bargaining, anger, depression andacceptance. Thanks for putting out there the reality for some of us who ingood faith followed these teachings fastidiously for many, many years.


Wow, yogasanas, my heart goes out to you. It must really besomething to have progressed so far and then to have tocome to the point where you have to drop it altogether. Thatsounds painful, physically and emotionally. But it also soundslike injury is opening up a doorway for you. Not only are youconnected to the essence of the practice, breath andstillness, but youre also learning the art of dying, which isessentially, the art of letting go of all the ways we become egoidentified. It must be really challenging to have made it all theway to 4th series and then to have to drop it. We cant helpbut wear the series on our sleeves like a badge of honor. Andyet the real work, as you acknowledge, is letting go. Hats oto you, my friend.


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Nicolas says:May 8, 2014 at 2:55 pm

Hi, Im 38 , and I started my practice at 33, the practice have helped meto have flexibility and feel vigorous ! But I think its important what to doout of your mat, I mean .. Food ! Good sleep !, practice its important butif you wanna feel an integral benefits you should be care what you eatand sleep good. Im 38 and I feel like if I was 28 years

yogamom says:May 8, 2014 at 3:48 pm

as someone practicing the seventh series i appreciate the perspectiveon modified practice. just a pointer on the Asch paradigm though. theway you describe it sounds unbelievable, as though the studyparticipants reported that B and C were the same length as each other.that is not what the studies showed. the task was to find the line fromexhibit 2 that matched the line in exhibit 1. so even though A is the rightmatch, the shills were saying that B matched exhibit 1, or that Cmatched exhibit 1 (not that B and C were the same length, which isobviously false since they are right next to each other). it still makes yourpoint, but isnt so crazy to believe! also its important that before giving thewrong answers to mislead the participants, the shills first gave thecorrect answers for a while, to build the necessary trust.


Thank you, yoga mom, for that clarification.

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