Yoga for…
What helps, what to leave alone, and a week you can actually follow.
15 pages here so far, with more added as they are taught and photographed.
Beginners over 40
Starting yoga after 40: what changes in the body, the poses to leave out for now, a first four weeks, a weekly plan, and when to see a doctor first.
Back pain
What the Cochrane evidence really shows for yoga and back pain, the deep forward bends to leave out at first, seven practices that help and a weekly plan.
Neck and shoulder pain
Yoga for neck and shoulder pain: what the trials really found, the inversions to avoid with spondylosis, seven practices that help and a desk based week.
Weight loss
An honest look at yoga for weight loss: what the trials found, why the waist moves before the scale, poses to avoid at a higher weight and a workable week.
PCOS
Yoga for PCOS and hormonal imbalance: what the trials actually found, the poses and breathing to avoid, a weekly plan and what to track instead of weight.
Thyroid
Yoga for thyroid conditions: what the hypothyroid trials really show, why sarvangasana is on the avoid list here, safer alternatives and a weekly plan.
Anxiety
Yoga for anxiety and overthinking: what the trials show against therapy, the breathing practices that can trigger panic, and a calm week you can follow.
Diabetes
Yoga for diabetes control: how much HbA1c actually moves, what to avoid with retinopathy or neuropathy, hypo precautions and a practical weekly plan.
High blood pressure
Yoga for high blood pressure control: how many mmHg it really moves, why headstand and kapalbhati are out, the slow breathing that helps, and a weekly plan.
Balance and preventing falls
What the balance and falls evidence really shows, including the trial that went the wrong way, six poses that help, four to avoid and the numbers to track.
Knee pain
The four poses to skip with knee pain, deep squats, lotus, hero pose and unpadded kneeling, what the trial evidence shows, seven that help and a weekly plan.
Periods
Is yoga safe during your period? The inversion taboo, what the physiology and the trials actually show, what the Iyengar tradition teaches, and a day one plan.
Height
Can yoga increase your height? No, not after the growth plates close. What can change is how tall you stand, by about a centimetre, and here is exactly how.
Sciatica
Disc or piriformis, and why it changes everything. The forward bends to leave out in a flare, seven practices that help, the trial numbers and the red flags.
Insomnia
Yoga improved sleep quality in 19 trials and did nothing for insomnia severity in three. The bedtime practices, the breathing to skip at night, and a plan.
How these pages are written
These are the pages people arrive at with a diagnosis in their hand or a knee that has stopped cooperating. They are written accordingly: the disclaimer sits at the top rather than in a footnote, the list of practices to avoid comes before the list of practices that help, and every claim about the body is either linked to a study or written plainly as what the teacher has seen in his own classes.
None of them promises a cure, and none of them will tell you that a posture fixes an endocrine condition. What a well-chosen practice genuinely does is more modest and more useful: it makes a stiff morning shorter, it makes sleep easier to fall into, it gives a back something to do other than brace, and it gets somebody moving again who had quietly decided that movement was over for them.
Nine pages, and the six that most people arrive on are yoga for back pain, yoga for weight loss, yoga for PCOS, yoga for thyroid, yoga for anxiety and yoga for beginners over 40. The other three are yoga for high blood pressure, yoga for diabetes and yoga for neck and shoulder pain, and those three between them carry most of the warnings on this site, because they are the conditions where the poses people are usually sent to are the ones to leave alone.
Each page ends where it should: with a way to be taught it by a person. A sequence written for a condition is exactly the kind of thing worth being corrected on, in the hall in north Bangalore or live over video, and the free class is the cheapest way to find out whether the teaching suits you.
Start here
If you are not sure where to begin, these three are the ones the teacher sends new students to first, in this order.
It is not too late. What changes after forty, what to start with, and the five things not to start with.
Bhramari, the humming bee breath
The practice most often given to people arriving with anxiety or broken sleep.
Tell the teacher what hurts and the sequence is adapted for you on the spot.
Questions people ask
Can yoga treat my condition?
No page here claims a cure, and any page that did would be lying to you. Yoga supports treatment and often makes daily life with a condition easier. It does not replace what a doctor has prescribed, and where a movement has been ruled out for you by a clinician, that instruction outranks anything written here.
Why does every page have a list of poses to avoid?
Because it is the half that gets left out everywhere else, and it is the half that keeps people safe. A page that lists ten poses for your back and none to avoid has told you only the pleasant part. The avoid list on each page is the one the teacher spends longest writing.
Are these pages written by a doctor?
No. They are written by a yoga teacher of about forty years, and they say so plainly. Where a claim about the body is made, a study is linked so you can read it yourself. Where the claim is only what the teacher has observed in his own classes, the page says that instead of dressing it up.
How soon should I expect a difference?
It varies, and nobody can promise a date. In the teacher's experience of his own classes, people practising most days tend to notice stiffness and sleep shifting within the first few weeks, while pain that has been there for years takes longer and rarely improves in a straight line. That is an observation from class, not a study. If something is worse after a session and stays worse the next day, that is information, not weakness. Stop and tell somebody.
Should I tell the teacher about my condition?
Yes, before the first class rather than after the first twinge. The sequence is adapted to the person in the room, and it can only be adapted for something the teacher knows about. A blood pressure reading, a disc, a knee replacement, a pregnancy: all of it changes what you should be asked to do.
Is online practice safe if I have a condition?
Often yes, and sometimes a one to one is the better answer. Over video the teacher can see you and correct you by name, but he cannot put a hand on your shoulder. For a recent injury or surgery, start one to one, get your own sequence written down, and join the group once it is steady.
Come to one class before you decide anything
Your first class is free, in any batch, on any day. No card, nothing to cancel. Come once and see whether the teaching suits you before you pay for anything. You will be asked your age and whether anything hurts, and the sequence will be adapted for you on the spot.
You message on WhatsApp, we send the link. No card, and nothing to cancel afterwards.