October 4, 2023 • 41 mins
In this solo episode I share invaluable insights that will empower both teachers and practitioners to deepen their understanding of Yin Yoga, as well as underscore the importance of employing research-backed knowledge for the betterment of physical and mental health.
I'll share the top reasons why Yin Yoga is the perfect canvas for evidence informed practice and teaching. I'll also teach you how to find research that is relevant to your needs as a student or your niche as a teacher.
By the end of this episode you will know the main types of research that will be useful to you as a Yin-thusiast and some handy use cases for each. My intent is to make the transition to evidence informed practice as simple as possible.
In our exploration, we also delve into the realm of anatomy and pain care in relation to Yin Yoga and the critical role randomized control trials (RCTs) play. But I don't just leave you with the theory, I show you how to practically apply this knowledge, addressing topics like exercise recovery, research bias, and the significance of lifestyle changes for those with chronic pain. To demonstrate how vital understanding where to find research and read it really is, I expose some truths about knee arthroscopy and spinal surgery.
So, buckle up! Whether you're a yoga teacher seeking to expand your knowledge, or a student looking to deepen your practice, this eye-opening episode is a must-listen. Let's be seekers of truth in the world of Yin Yoga together!
Become an evidence informed Yin teacher or student, enroll in my Yin Yoga Teacher Training Module I: https://yoga.mandyryle.com/yin-teacher-training-module-i/
Join the conversation in my FREE Facebook group, Movement for Healing https://www.facebook.com/groups/710104050217437/
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March 3-10, 2023
Join me for a 7 day Caribbean wellness retreat. Each day we will focus on a pillar of self care. By the end of the week you will have a group of new friends, some unforgettable memories and a personal self care strategy to enhance your life back at home. Learn More
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Free Resources:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Yin Yoga podcast.
I'm your host, mandy Ryle, andtoday I am doing a solo episode
where we get to dive intosomething that I am really,
really passionate about, whichis evidence informed teaching.
I get a lot of questions frommy training groups and students,
clients and other teachersabout how to incorporate more
(00:23):
evidence into their teaching,but I think that this topic is
also really relevant for peoplewho are just very, very
passionate about yoga practice,as so many of us come to yoga
practice because we have aproblem that we're trying to
solve whether it's anxiety ordepression or maybe a pain issue
(00:44):
and so learning how to applyevidence to practice can be
really incredibly empowering.
So I will be discussing todaysome of the reasons why I think
that Yin Yoga especially lendsitself to being a perfect canvas
(01:07):
for evidence informed practice,and I'm also going to give you
a high level overview of how tostart to read research.
This is going to be a multiepisode series about becoming an
evidence informed Yin Yogateacher or student, so in
(01:28):
following episodes, we're goingto kind of dig in a little bit
deeper with each successiveepisode.
So I really recommend, as youare today, starting with this
episode so that you can get alittle bit more comfortable, one
tiny baby step at a time.
I really hope that thisinformation is useful to you,
(01:51):
but I think that there is a lotof information here.
So if you end up having anyquestions or you would just like
to join the discussion aboutthis, I would recommend that you
join my free Facebook group.
It's called Movement forHealing.
I'm in that group all the time,so if you have questions, you
can certainly pop them in thereand just join the conversation.
(02:12):
I'll leave a link to Movementfor Healing in the show notes On
this podcast.
All the time you hear me talkabout being evidence informed.
In my opinion, evidence informedteaching is the future of yoga.
(02:38):
Why?
Because our students, more thanever, are needing sustainable,
inexpensive and accessible toolsto lean on for reducing stress
and improving mental andphysical health.
And, by the way, there isevidence that Yin Yoga can be
effective for all of those.
(02:59):
A more comprehensive system toaddress the needs of the whole
self simply does not exist.
Yoga includes all of the thingsthat modern humans need but
currently lack.
It contains movement that isscalable and novel mindfulness
(03:20):
practice that helps us to reducestress and its pernicious
effects, like inflammation, andawareness practice that
facilitates an enhancedsensitivity to the body and its
needs, which ultimatelyencourages the adoption of
important health enhancinglifestyle changes.
Yoga also provides a communityaspect which improves longevity,
(03:45):
overall health and even reducesinflammation.
And, by the way, there arestudies to cite all of these
great benefits.
So the other reason why I thinkevidence informed teaching is so
important is because many ofyou yoga teachers out there are
learning how important it is tofocus on a niche.
(04:06):
This is such a vital strategy,not just for staying inspired in
your teaching and being surethat you present yourself with
the most possible skill, butalso for improving your earning
capacity as a teacher.
Our students need teachers whohave the skills, tools and
(04:29):
curiosity to provide these aseffectively as possible, and
that is where evidence comes in.
For those of you who aren'tteachers, more and more students
of Yin are finding the practiceon the recommendation of a
health professional, whether itbe for a pain issue, recovery
(04:50):
from illness, sports recovery or, probably most importantly,
just stress relief.
Yin yoga ticks so many boxes.
So knowing where to findevidence that is relevant to you
and your needs and how to readit can enhance your personal
practice inestimably.
So there are a few things thatI think make Yin a perfect
(05:15):
canvas for an evidence informedapproach, maybe more so than
traditional Hatha yoga styles.
For those of you who kind ofknow the history of Yin yoga,
the founders of the practiceteachers like Paul Grilly and
Bernie Clark have alwaysendorsed a more informed
(05:35):
practice perspective.
That's one of the things thatreally attracted me to the
practice initially.
So just the initial concept ofYin, which that it is
influencing our connectivetissue, led to a need for a more
informed practice perspectiveto confirm or disprove this
right, which led to a hugeinterest in not just the yin
(05:59):
yoga community but the yogacommunity in general in fascia
and connective tissue.
And so, all of a sudden, youhave this army of people who are
consuming all kinds of evidenceabout connective tissue.
One of my most popular episodeson the podcast is called
understanding yin yoga andfascia.
This was just a tiny piece ofwhat we know about yin yoga and
(06:23):
fascia and people loved it.
I mean, it is still one of themost popular episodes that I've
ever published, which, by theway, if you want to go back and
check that out, it's in seasonfour, so this same season,
episode 11.
Teachers and students alike areincredibly engaged right now in
learning about connective tissue.
(06:44):
What makes connective tissueunique, how we can train it,
what goes wrong with it?
That seems to be most of whatwe're talking about, and this,
unfortunately, has also led to agreat deal of misinformation,
which makes it even moreimperative that we learn to find
, read and understand research,so that we can be truth tellers,
truth followers.
If we're going to be makingclaims that yin yoga impacts or
(07:12):
targets connective tissue, don'tyou think we should probably
know first of all what even isconnective tissue, how would one
target it and what does thatmean?
In general, holistically for aself, I would argue that a lot
of us are getting a lot ofpseudoscience about this, a lot
(07:34):
of misinformation, which to meseems pretty unfortunate,
because there actually is a fairamount of data out there, if
only we know how to access it.
Likewise, if we are going toclaim which I see all the time,
by the way that yin yoga canhelp with posture which is good,
because bad posture causes painthen we should probably verify
(08:02):
that with the best and mostrecent data, because if all of
the people who are claiming thishad the ability to find, read
and understand research, theywould know that there is no
credible evidence that quote badposture causes pain.
They would know that there'sreally no good evidence that we
(08:22):
can change posture permanently.
And they would also know thateven when we do manage to make
some small changes to someone'sresting posture, that does not
reliably eliminate their pain.
So yin yoga can be amazing forbeing more comfortable in your
(08:42):
body, but that doesn't mean thatwe should be saying that yin
yoga fixes your posture andthat's good, because bad posture
causes pain.
This is misinformation, and sowhen we don't really understand
evidence, then we really becomesusceptible to becoming part of
the misinformation problem.
And then the second reason why Ithink yin is really the perfect
(09:05):
canvas for evidence-informedteaching is that yin really
attracts a certain kind ofstudent due to its gentleness
and to the amount of time wespend in the poses.
It is attractive to athletes,for example on recovery days.
It's attractive to people whohave anxiety, who may find other
(09:26):
forms of mindfulness difficultto understand and so on,
difficult to well, in my casenearly impossible.
It attracts people with painconditions, like we talked about
, a lot of people's doctors arerecommending yin yoga to them
these days, people who have painconditions.
It's attractive to agingpopulations because it's gentle.
(09:47):
So if we can learn to apply theevidence to each of these
populations, just think of howmuch good you can do for your
students and also then for yourown income needs as a teacher.
Finally, I think that theduration component of yin lends
(10:09):
itself to the exploration ofdeeper concepts during practice.
So I'm not advocating a sciencelecture, rather an experiential
practice model where anevidence-informed teacher can
present discrete concepts forthe student to explore in a body
(10:33):
, in a breath, in the nervoussystem, the brain, the mind, the
social self.
And if you're wondering whatthis looks like, just hit play
on any of the pod practices inthe Yin Yoga podcast.
This is what I'm doing everysingle time I publish a pod
practice.
And when we can employ thispractice model, it opens up so
(11:01):
much opportunity for us teachersto explore the stuff about
practice that really lights usup.
Having a deeper understandingof the data around our passions
or our target populationsenhances our ability to guide
our students in meaningful,transformative experiences.
(11:21):
So you're probably wonderinghow you might become a little
bit more evidence informed.
Hopefully I've convinced youthat it's a good way to spend
your time and effort as astudent or teacher of Yin.
So I'd like to give you a fewtips on both finding and reading
(11:42):
research, but I want to let youknow that this is a multi-part
series of episodes, so in thefuture episodes in this little
series, I'll be discussing sometips on getting started reading
and understanding research, andthen I'm also going to be
talking about some of the papersthat have heavily influenced my
(12:06):
teaching or that I think areparticularly important for
understanding how to applyevidence specifically to
teaching Yin Yoga.
But for today, let's keep it alittle bit smaller.
Remember discrete concepts.
So today we're just going tobreak down some of the basics,
(12:28):
just like the most high levelstuff that you need to start in
your evidence informed teaching.
So let's start with this, thesimplest thing finding evidence.
When this episode is over notright now, because I want you to
keep listening, but when youfinish this episode I'd like for
(12:51):
you to just go into Google andtype quote scholarly articles,
yin Yoga into the Google searchbar, and immediately you will
see a number of papers, and soyou'll know.
Okay, this is a pretty goodplace to start, by the way, all
of the evidence that I includedin the introduction talking
(13:14):
about how Yin Yoga is sobeneficial for anxiety, chronic
stress, physical health, mentalhealth.
Those articles will give you agreat place to start on learning
more about that.
Okay, so anytime you want tosee if there is specific data on
something that you'reinterested in, you can just add
(13:37):
the words quote scholarlyarticles to your Google search
term.
So that's my first quick hackfor finding out number one, if
there is evidence, and thenstarting to sort of determine
what articles you might like toread to see if you can broaden
your understanding and knowledgeof what's available.
(13:58):
Another great option is just togo right to pub med P-U-B-M-E-D
all one word.
This is a huge, huge library ofpublished research.
So the problem with both ofthese is that and you may have
encountered this before if youtried to look up research a lot
(14:19):
of research is behind a paywall,and that is definitely a bummer
, although of course, we try tounderstand that research is very
expensive and somehow thosecosts need to be recouped or at
least minimized.
But I'll let you know thatsometimes it's okay, because you
(14:42):
can just read the quickabstract, which is going to tell
you what the study was about,and then you can read the
conclusions, and so that's agood place for you to say is
this even relevant for me?
Because sometimes you read thatabstract and you're like that's
not a question that needsanswering for me, that's not
going to be applicable to mystudents or to my personal needs
(15:02):
, and so that can really behelpful, just to know if it's
even useful to you.
But the other part of that is,if the conclusions are there, it
might just add to your body ofknowledge about the topic,
because just reading one studyon something is not going to
make you evidence informed.
It's having a great deal ofstudies that you can draw from
(15:26):
to help your students or toimprove the quality of your
practice.
However, if you really, really,really would like to view that
whole article and that happensquite a bit there's a couple of
options that you could use.
If you have any access toinstitutions of higher learning
(15:48):
so say, you're currently incollege, right?
Or maybe you have a friendwho's a college professor, maybe
your kid is in university rightnow they might be able to
access the study for you throughtheir academic institution.
If they'd be nice enough tojust call the librarian and see
(16:10):
what they have access to andthen, of course, send it to you
via email.
I've done that several times.
I find that very useful, sothat's a really good option.
Another place that might havesome access to different
research publications would beyour public library.
So you can call your librarianand see what they have and see
(16:34):
if maybe they could provide youwith the article.
And then there's one otheroption for them the more brave
among you and that is to justemail the author and ask for
access.
So generally, the author'semail is included in that
abstract.
In conclusion, so that could bea really great option and
(16:58):
hopefully, with all of thoseoptions, you can find a way to
get the articles that you reallyreally need to read.
And sometimes that is extremelyimportant, right.
Sometimes the conclusion is a12 week yoga program,
significantly reduced cortisolor something.
I don't know if that's a thing,right.
(17:19):
But you're like oh great, itworked.
Okay, but what was the yogaprogram?
What did they do?
What was the control?
So sometimes you really justhave to have your hands on that
whole paper.
So now that you know where tofind relevant research, let's
(17:40):
talk about what to do onceyou've found it.
I'm just going to be real withyou, and you may already know
this If you've kind of delvedinto this already.
Research can be very difficultto read, so I want to make it
clear that this is also a workin progress for me.
I am by no means completelycomfortable with every aspect of
reading research, mostly thestatistics.
(18:03):
I still really struggle withthat and, if I'm honest, I
actually don't see myselfgetting a whole lot better at
that In this lifetime.
I just I am not a numbersperson, I just have a block
around numbers.
So I'll let you know that evenif you don't understand all of
the statistical terminology, youcan do just fine.
(18:24):
You can learn quite a bit andthen, as you're reading, you'll
start to learn what those termsmean and it won't be quite such
a chore to try to decipher allof those numbers.
But that should not be thething that scares you.
So if you're seeing all ofthose weird symbols and numbers
and you're like I have no ideawhat that means, it's okay, just
(18:44):
keep reading.
I promise it will get easierover time.
And the other part of that isthat Google is right there,
right At any time.
You can just copy and pastethat term into Google and it
will explain it to you.
And while this may be kind oftime consuming at the beginning.
Over time, you'll find that youare so much more skilled and so
(19:06):
much more efficient at readingresearch.
So the first thing that I thinkyou need to understand to read
research is that there are lotsof different kinds of research.
Each of them has its particularuse case, but there are a few
types of research that I thinkare probably the most applicable
(19:28):
to us as enthusiasts, and sowe're going to focus on those,
because I'm trying to make thisreally simple and accessible for
you.
So let's talk about where thesethree types of research might
be the most useful, and for eachof the three types of research
I want to introduce you to, Iwill also provide some context
(19:48):
about how they might be appliedby us as teachers or students of
YIN.
So make sure to keep your earsperked for that, because that's,
I think, where this reallystarts to take shape.
So the first type of research isknown as observational research
.
If you're interested inlearning about connective tissue
(20:09):
, for example, or you want tolearn about the respiratory and
pelvic diaphragms, or you wantto learn about any other
component of human anatomy, saythe gastrocnemius muscle, the
rotator cuff, the splinuscapitis, whatever it is, if
you're going to find research onthese things, it's going to be
(20:31):
observational.
It's basically going to beresearchers talking about all of
the different aspects of thisparticular part of the anatomy,
so things like their origin andtheir insertion and the angle of
panation.
It's going to be talking aboutthe innervation and how they get
their blood supply, thesetissues, and it can be pretty
(20:56):
dense but also really incrediblyinformative if anatomy is your
thing.
So in observational research,the research's task is to
observe something in its naturalenvironment and report on that.
So it's sort of like you've gotthe benefit of being in the
cadaver lab without actuallyhaving to be in the cadaver lab.
(21:16):
And I will say that a lot oftimes this can be challenging
because the terminology willprobably be pretty unfamiliar,
even for somebody who's beenstudying anatomy for a long time
, like me.
My recommendation is that youprint the article and you keep
your phone or your tablet nearbyso you can just Google the
(21:38):
stuff you don't know and goright to the image search,
because most of us learn bestwhen we have multiple forms of
input.
So having that image to pairwith what you're reading, and
then maybe if you've gotsomebody, you can kind of poke
and prod that place on them oron yourself.
All of these different wayswill help to increase your
(22:01):
capacity to learn thesedifferent anatomical points over
time, which means that you willeventually get better at it.
You'll be able to get throughthat research in a more
efficient way in the future.
And my other recommendation isthat you give yourself a good
long time to get through yourfirst few studies and that you
(22:25):
do a mindset check every timeyou sit down to read this type
of research.
Remember that you're not justreading to learn about the
conclusions or observations ofthe paper, but you're also here
to learn more about reading thiskind of paper.
You won't understand everything, but you will definitely know
more than you did each time youtake the time to practice.
(22:48):
So that's observationalresearch.
And for those of you who areinterested in anatomy and you
know you've got like a group ofstudents who are really, really
struggling with tight hamstringsfind some articles about the
hamstrings.
Learn all about the hamstrings.
Okay, you will not regret thetime you spend.
(23:08):
And especially for those of youwho are really interested in
connective tissue, that's a bigpart of your teaching.
You need to start reading dataabout connective tissue as soon
as possible.
So the next type of research Iwant to introduce you to is the
randomized control trial.
(23:29):
This is the gold standard forresearch and probably what you
think of when you think ofresearch.
So a randomized control trial,rct, is a quantitative,
comparative controlledexperiment, and in RCT,
participants are randomlyassigned to one of two groups
(23:51):
the experimental group, whichwill be the one that receives
the intervention being tested,and the control group, which
receives an alternativetreatment or sometimes nothing
at all.
So the randomization ensuresthat the intervention and the
control groups are comparable atthe beginning of the study.
(24:11):
The only expected differencebetween the groups is the
outcome variable being studied,which I'll talk a little bit
more about in a second.
So honestly, I just love tosnuggle up to a relevant RCT on
a lazy Sunday morning.
I think it's really funactually to see how the
(24:33):
researchers set up theexperiment and if their
hypothesis will be confirmed ornot.
I also really like to thinkabout what was missing from the
methods which would have madethe results more conclusive, or
generally it's more selfish.
So sometimes all the methodsand everything and it's like
(24:54):
great, that was their hypothesis.
But if they had just tested forone other thing, it would be
like the perfect study for me.
I'll give you an example A lotof my pain care clients are also
suffering from metabolic issuesand overweight or obesity, and
especially over the last yearI've seen quite a few of my
(25:15):
clients go onsemi-gluteide-based weight loss
drugs like Osympic or Wagovi orManjaro.
So the research around thesedrugs obviously shows that they
work.
They work really, really well.
(25:35):
But the problem with thisresearch from my perspective, as
someone who also specializes instrength training and provides
that for my clients is that sofar, none of the studies that
I'm aware of also test for bodycomposition.
So we know that the drugs canhelp people to lose weight.
(25:59):
What we don't necessarily knowyet is what is the proportion of
fat to lean mass loss, and thisis really stinking important
because lean mass is so vitalfor overall metabolic health,
quality of life and even theability to keep the weight off
(26:23):
should the person stop takingthe drug.
So I always wish this waspresent.
So that's kind of what I meanby.
Sometimes you're like, oh, ifonly they put that in there.
So RCTs are also fun in thesense that, as yoga people, our
paradigm starts and ends withthis comprehensive wholeness,
(26:45):
but RCTs can only ever addressone discrete data point.
Otherwise the data would beuseless.
So I like to think of thefindings as one of many
potential strategies that I cansuggest to my client or student
as part of a holistic approachand depending on their personal
(27:06):
needs and preferences, becausereally all true healing is just
a consequence of many smallactions, many small variables
that over time and withdedication, combined to create a
huge shift.
(27:26):
So knowing how one smallintervention can contribute to
overall health can be veryvaluable.
It's that 10% rule right.
I'm never going to get 100%,but if I can add something to
someone's program that will helpthem improve 10% and I can do
that 10 times, it's the sameright.
(27:48):
So how would a yoga teacher, ayen teacher, use an RCT to
support their students or theirpopulation?
So let's say you work mostlywith college students, for
example, and your studentspractice yen yoga to reduce
anxiety, to help improveattention, for studying and for
(28:09):
testing.
Is there a randomized controltrial about this?
Yes, there is.
Though the paper currently isnot public, it does appear that
yoga, when combined with aninteroception focus, can help
with mood and attention incommunity dwelling adult
(28:31):
participants.
So your college students areliving in communities, typically
dorms, right?
A lot of college students aremanaging some depressive
symptoms, and so this paperreally is very well correlated
with their needs, because theywant to improve their mood,
their stress level and, ofcourse, their attention.
(28:54):
So the final type of researchthat I would like to present to
you that I think is reallyuseful, especially for us yoga
yen teachers and students, isthe systematic review.
So a systematic review is apiece of research that pulls
together a whole lot of studiesthat are similar and tested for
(29:16):
the same variables, right?
So if we're looking how yenyoga can improve attention in
community dwelling individuals,then one study is great.
It's like, oh, that's reallygood to know, but if you had 10
studies that looked at this,that would be a much more
(29:36):
compelling data set, would itnot?
So that's what the systematicreview does, because even though
an individual study might onlyhave like 20 or 80 subjects,
when you multiply many studies,you can make extrapolations
based on a much larger data set,sometimes thousands of subjects
.
Systematic reviews are typicallycompilations of randomized
(30:00):
control trials, so the idea isvery much the same and how you
would read it and potentiallyuse it.
So the nice thing about thesystematic review is that you'll
have access to tons of chartsto show you how each of the
included studies contributed tothe overall conclusions, right?
So you can sort of quickly gothrough all of the different
(30:22):
studies that the researchersincluded, which, by the way, is
usually a fairly rigorousprocess, so they've already
vetted out for the very bestdata and you can go through and
you can read that chart and youcan see, oh okay, this did this,
this did this, this did thisand you can get a lot of
information about a lot ofdifferent studies very quickly.
(30:42):
And, of course, all of thecitations will have links to
those studies.
So if you want to read moreright and really truly increase
your body of knowledge, it's allright there.
All you have to do is click thelink, right?
So how would you use thesystematic review and your
(31:02):
practice and teaching?
So maybe you work with athletes, for example, or weekend
warriors, or maybe you work in ayoga studio that's like mostly
power-based, right and mostlyhot yoga-based.
It's very, very young and youwould like to recommend a
certain type of practice orstretches or a recovery routine,
(31:26):
if you will, as Yen Yogapractice.
So ask Google for scholarlyarticles related to work out
recovery and static stretching.
And I will let you know that Ihave already done this because
I'm a Yen Yoga teacher and I amalso a strength coach, right?
(31:48):
So in the case of workoutrecovery, I can tell you, based
on a recent systematic review,that there is not sufficient
evidence that static stretchingcan help with exercise recovery
as compared to passive oralternative recovery methods.
I'm sorry, but it's true.
(32:09):
It's not.
It's really not that effective,at least when your recovery
markers are things like recoveryof range of motion, right.
So it's not going to help withthat stiffness after a big
workout, it's not going todiminish delayed onset, muscle
soreness, the dreaded domes, andit's not going to help to
(32:30):
recover peak strength any betterthan just resting or
alternative recovery methods.
So this is a really good exampleof how sometimes we're looking
up research so that we canconfirm our bias, right.
But sometimes we actually findthat we were wrong.
(32:52):
Our bias was wrong, and this issuper valuable, because the
best way to search for andconsume research should not be
to validate your current bias.
It should be to simply learnmore about the topic, increase
your body of knowledge, becauseto be evidence informed does not
(33:13):
only mean that we have onestudy to back up all of our
tools and strategies, althoughif you had a systematic review,
that would be pretty good.
It means that we retire stuffthat isn't validated, like
recommending static stretchingfor athletes with the promise
that they will recover faster.
(33:38):
So those are the three types ofstudies that I think are most
important for you to know aboutas a Yen yoga teacher, and I
hope that you have been able tosee how you might be able to
apply that informationspecifically to boots on the
(34:01):
ground Yen yoga teaching orpractice.
I've also let you know how youcan find this research.
Now there are so many morequestions about research, like
what do you do once you've foundit?
How do you even know it's agood article and it's not
completely bogus.
(34:21):
So these are huge questions,which is why this is a multi
part series, because in the nextpart we're actually going to
talk about reading thescientific literature and some
tips on how to make sure that itis a reputable study.
(34:42):
I want to give one more notehere in this introduction to
becoming an evidence informantteacher or student, and that is
really specifically to thepopulation that I love to work
with, which is people who arehealing chronic pain.
Now, what's really cool aboutthis, about this particular
population, is that we actuallyhave quite a bit of evidence
(35:05):
which is not specifically aboutYen yoga for chronic pain, but
is peripheral and includesthings like diet, exercise,
mindfulness, interoception right, so I can apply all of those to
my work and blend Yen in aswell.
But honestly to me, I justcan't help but think if all
(35:28):
adults, not just us yogateachers in the US had the
ability to find and readresearch, we may not even
actually have a chronic painepidemic, right, because we have
such good information and somany more strategies than we
have ever had before, which arelargely based on lifestyle
(35:50):
changes.
Right, what I just talked aboutdiet, exercise, mindfulness,
interoception, having a strongsupport system and community
bonds.
But the other part of this isthat I encounter people all the
time probably you do too familymembers, friends or the students
in your classes, if you're ateacher who are struggling with
(36:13):
a pain issue, and they are notmy clients, right?
They don't believe that myapproach can help them, and so
they're usually going down thesurgical route.
And it is not my place, right?
I am not a doctor, I'm not aphysical therapist.
It's not my place to say ifthis is good or bad or what, and
I certainly will support anyonein making healthcare decisions
(36:36):
for themselves with thecollaboration of a skilled and
hopefully evidence informedphysician.
But I do find frequently that mystudents are doing procedures
and surgeries and drugs thatactually are not evidence
informed.
So here's just a couple ofexamples.
(36:57):
A common procedure that peoplehave maybe you've had this all
the time for knee issues whichhave been attributed to a
damaged meniscus this is theknee arthroscopy.
Multiple studies show that kneearthroscopy is no more
effective than a sham surgery.
(37:18):
So in your randomized controltrial, the intervention group
will receive the actualmeniskectomy or arthroscopy of
their meniscus right.
The control group will simplygo in under anesthesia, the
(37:40):
surgeon will make a cut and thenwe'll sew it back up, and in
the research both groups doabout the same.
I think if people understoodthis, they could save themselves
a lot of partake in time andmoney and it would open them up
(38:02):
to what does that actually meanto heal this part of my body?
And are there other things thatI could be doing that would be
just as effective and not quiteso invasive?
Right?
Or?
This is when I hear a lot too,people who are having back pain
and they go in for some kind ofspinal surgery.
I don't know if people are wellprepared for the fact that
(38:26):
spinal surgeries have not only ahuge risk of major
complications.
I think people are informedabout this, but I don't know if
people understand that spinalsurgeries have a very high risk
of failure.
So the success rate for backsurgery is only about 50%.
The risk of failure is 10 to40%.
So I think if people understoodthe numbers and of course, we
(38:54):
could get more granular and talkabout each different type of
spinal surgery some slightlymore effective, some way less
effective, right but I think ifpeople knew how to read the
research, then they could bemuch, much more empowered to
make good health decisions,which would save so much time
and so much suffering, so muchsuffering.
(39:15):
So this was part one of how tobecome an evidence-informed Yin
teacher or student.
Next week I'm going to be givingyou some time-saving tips on
how to read research.
If you have had your interestpeaked and you are ready to
(39:38):
become a more evidence-informedteacher, I recommend that you
check out module one of my YinYoga teacher training.
There is information aboutteaching in module one, but it's
actually mostly the science ofYin which, if you really dug
(39:59):
this episode, you will love.
If you would like moreinformation about enrolling in
module one, I will put a link inthe show notes.
I'll let you know that for thecohort that's joining here in
October and November of 2023,I'll be doing a couple of cohort
(40:19):
calls in November, which is notusually something that I offer.
It's usually completelyself-guided, so if you want to
opt in now, you could get alittle bit of extra content and
have an opportunity to pick mybrain on those two cohort calls
in November.
Welcome to the Yin Yoga podcast.
I'm your host, mandy Ryle, andtoday I am doing a solo episode
where we get to dive intosomething that I am really,
really passionate about, whichis evidence informed teaching.
I get a lot of questions frommy training groups and students,
clients and other teachersabout how to incorporate more
(00:23):
evidence into their teaching,but I think that this topic is
also really relevant for peoplewho are just very, very
passionate about yoga practice,as so many of us come to yoga
practice because we have aproblem that we're trying to
solve whether it's anxiety ordepression or maybe a pain issue
(00:44):
and so learning how to applyevidence to practice can be
really incredibly empowering.
So I will be discussing todaysome of the reasons why I think
that Yin Yoga especially lendsitself to being a perfect canvas
(01:07):
for evidence informed practice,and I'm also going to give you
a high level overview of how tostart to read research.
This is going to be a multiepisode series about becoming an
evidence informed Yin Yogateacher or student, so in
(01:28):
following episodes, we're goingto kind of dig in a little bit
deeper with each successiveepisode.
So I really recommend, as youare today, starting with this
episode so that you can get alittle bit more comfortable, one
tiny baby step at a time.
I really hope that thisinformation is useful to you,
(01:51):
but I think that there is a lotof information here.
So if you end up having anyquestions or you would just like
to join the discussion aboutthis, I would recommend that you
join my free Facebook group.
It's called Movement forHealing.
I'm in that group all the time,so if you have questions, you
can certainly pop them in thereand just join the conversation.
(02:12):
I'll leave a link to Movementfor Healing in the show notes On
this podcast.
All the time you hear me talkabout being evidence informed.
In my opinion, evidence informedteaching is the future of yoga.
(02:38):
Why?
Because our students, more thanever, are needing sustainable,
inexpensive and accessible toolsto lean on for reducing stress
and improving mental andphysical health.
And, by the way, there isevidence that Yin Yoga can be
effective for all of those.
(02:59):
A more comprehensive system toaddress the needs of the whole
self simply does not exist.
Yoga includes all of the thingsthat modern humans need but
currently lack.
It contains movement that isscalable and novel mindfulness
(03:20):
practice that helps us to reducestress and its pernicious
effects, like inflammation, andawareness practice that
facilitates an enhancedsensitivity to the body and its
needs, which ultimatelyencourages the adoption of
important health enhancinglifestyle changes.
Yoga also provides a communityaspect which improves longevity,
(03:45):
overall health and even reducesinflammation.
And, by the way, there arestudies to cite all of these
great benefits.
So the other reason why I thinkevidence informed teaching is so
important is because many ofyou yoga teachers out there are
learning how important it is tofocus on a niche.
(04:06):
This is such a vital strategy,not just for staying inspired in
your teaching and being surethat you present yourself with
the most possible skill, butalso for improving your earning
capacity as a teacher.
Our students need teachers whohave the skills, tools and
(04:29):
curiosity to provide these aseffectively as possible, and
that is where evidence comes in.
For those of you who aren'tteachers, more and more students
of Yin are finding the practiceon the recommendation of a
health professional, whether itbe for a pain issue, recovery
(04:50):
from illness, sports recovery or, probably most importantly,
just stress relief.
Yin yoga ticks so many boxes.
So knowing where to findevidence that is relevant to you
and your needs and how to readit can enhance your personal
practice inestimably.
So there are a few things thatI think make Yin a perfect
(05:15):
canvas for an evidence informedapproach, maybe more so than
traditional Hatha yoga styles.
For those of you who kind ofknow the history of Yin yoga,
the founders of the practiceteachers like Paul Grilly and
Bernie Clark have alwaysendorsed a more informed
(05:35):
practice perspective.
That's one of the things thatreally attracted me to the
practice initially.
So just the initial concept ofYin, which that it is
influencing our connectivetissue, led to a need for a more
informed practice perspectiveto confirm or disprove this
right, which led to a hugeinterest in not just the yin
(05:59):
yoga community but the yogacommunity in general in fascia
and connective tissue.
And so, all of a sudden, youhave this army of people who are
consuming all kinds of evidenceabout connective tissue.
One of my most popular episodeson the podcast is called
understanding yin yoga andfascia.
This was just a tiny piece ofwhat we know about yin yoga and
(06:23):
fascia and people loved it.
I mean, it is still one of themost popular episodes that I've
ever published, which, by theway, if you want to go back and
check that out, it's in seasonfour, so this same season,
episode 11.
Teachers and students alike areincredibly engaged right now in
learning about connective tissue.
(06:44):
What makes connective tissueunique, how we can train it,
what goes wrong with it?
That seems to be most of whatwe're talking about, and this,
unfortunately, has also led to agreat deal of misinformation,
which makes it even moreimperative that we learn to find
, read and understand research,so that we can be truth tellers,
truth followers.
If we're going to be makingclaims that yin yoga impacts or
(07:12):
targets connective tissue, don'tyou think we should probably
know first of all what even isconnective tissue, how would one
target it and what does thatmean?
In general, holistically for aself, I would argue that a lot
of us are getting a lot ofpseudoscience about this, a lot
(07:34):
of misinformation, which to meseems pretty unfortunate,
because there actually is a fairamount of data out there, if
only we know how to access it.
Likewise, if we are going toclaim which I see all the time,
by the way that yin yoga canhelp with posture which is good,
because bad posture causes painthen we should probably verify
(08:02):
that with the best and mostrecent data, because if all of
the people who are claiming thishad the ability to find, read
and understand research, theywould know that there is no
credible evidence that quote badposture causes pain.
They would know that there'sreally no good evidence that we
(08:22):
can change posture permanently.
And they would also know thateven when we do manage to make
some small changes to someone'sresting posture, that does not
reliably eliminate their pain.
So yin yoga can be amazing forbeing more comfortable in your
(08:42):
body, but that doesn't mean thatwe should be saying that yin
yoga fixes your posture andthat's good, because bad posture
causes pain.
This is misinformation, and sowhen we don't really understand
evidence, then we really becomesusceptible to becoming part of
the misinformation problem.
And then the second reason why Ithink yin is really the perfect
(09:05):
canvas for evidence-informedteaching is that yin really
attracts a certain kind ofstudent due to its gentleness
and to the amount of time wespend in the poses.
It is attractive to athletes,for example on recovery days.
It's attractive to people whohave anxiety, who may find other
(09:26):
forms of mindfulness difficultto understand and so on,
difficult to well, in my casenearly impossible.
It attracts people with painconditions, like we talked about
, a lot of people's doctors arerecommending yin yoga to them
these days, people who have painconditions.
It's attractive to agingpopulations because it's gentle.
(09:47):
So if we can learn to apply theevidence to each of these
populations, just think of howmuch good you can do for your
students and also then for yourown income needs as a teacher.
Finally, I think that theduration component of yin lends
(10:09):
itself to the exploration ofdeeper concepts during practice.
So I'm not advocating a sciencelecture, rather an experiential
practice model where anevidence-informed teacher can
present discrete concepts forthe student to explore in a body
(10:33):
, in a breath, in the nervoussystem, the brain, the mind, the
social self.
And if you're wondering whatthis looks like, just hit play
on any of the pod practices inthe Yin Yoga podcast.
This is what I'm doing everysingle time I publish a pod
practice.
And when we can employ thispractice model, it opens up so
(11:01):
much opportunity for us teachersto explore the stuff about
practice that really lights usup.
Having a deeper understandingof the data around our passions
or our target populationsenhances our ability to guide
our students in meaningful,transformative experiences.
(11:21):
So you're probably wonderinghow you might become a little
bit more evidence informed.
Hopefully I've convinced youthat it's a good way to spend
your time and effort as astudent or teacher of Yin.
So I'd like to give you a fewtips on both finding and reading
(11:42):
research, but I want to let youknow that this is a multi-part
series of episodes, so in thefuture episodes in this little
series, I'll be discussing sometips on getting started reading
and understanding research, andthen I'm also going to be
talking about some of the papersthat have heavily influenced my
(12:06):
teaching or that I think areparticularly important for
understanding how to applyevidence specifically to
teaching Yin Yoga.
But for today, let's keep it alittle bit smaller.
Remember discrete concepts.
So today we're just going tobreak down some of the basics,
(12:28):
just like the most high levelstuff that you need to start in
your evidence informed teaching.
So let's start with this, thesimplest thing finding evidence.
When this episode is over notright now, because I want you to
keep listening, but when youfinish this episode I'd like for
(12:51):
you to just go into Google andtype quote scholarly articles,
yin Yoga into the Google searchbar, and immediately you will
see a number of papers, and soyou'll know.
Okay, this is a pretty goodplace to start, by the way, all
of the evidence that I includedin the introduction talking
(13:14):
about how Yin Yoga is sobeneficial for anxiety, chronic
stress, physical health, mentalhealth.
Those articles will give you agreat place to start on learning
more about that.
Okay, so anytime you want tosee if there is specific data on
something that you'reinterested in, you can just add
(13:37):
the words quote scholarlyarticles to your Google search
term.
So that's my first quick hackfor finding out number one, if
there is evidence, and thenstarting to sort of determine
what articles you might like toread to see if you can broaden
your understanding and knowledgeof what's available.
(13:58):
Another great option is just togo right to pub med P-U-B-M-E-D
all one word.
This is a huge, huge library ofpublished research.
So the problem with both ofthese is that and you may have
encountered this before if youtried to look up research a lot
(14:19):
of research is behind a paywall,and that is definitely a bummer
, although of course, we try tounderstand that research is very
expensive and somehow thosecosts need to be recouped or at
least minimized.
But I'll let you know thatsometimes it's okay, because you
(14:42):
can just read the quickabstract, which is going to tell
you what the study was about,and then you can read the
conclusions, and so that's agood place for you to say is
this even relevant for me?
Because sometimes you read thatabstract and you're like that's
not a question that needsanswering for me, that's not
going to be applicable to mystudents or to my personal needs
(15:02):
, and so that can really behelpful, just to know if it's
even useful to you.
But the other part of that is,if the conclusions are there, it
might just add to your body ofknowledge about the topic,
because just reading one studyon something is not going to
make you evidence informed.
It's having a great deal ofstudies that you can draw from
(15:26):
to help your students or toimprove the quality of your
practice.
However, if you really, really,really would like to view that
whole article and that happensquite a bit there's a couple of
options that you could use.
If you have any access toinstitutions of higher learning
(15:48):
so say, you're currently incollege, right?
Or maybe you have a friendwho's a college professor, maybe
your kid is in university rightnow they might be able to
access the study for you throughtheir academic institution.
If they'd be nice enough tojust call the librarian and see
(16:10):
what they have access to andthen, of course, send it to you
via email.
I've done that several times.
I find that very useful, sothat's a really good option.
Another place that might havesome access to different
research publications would beyour public library.
So you can call your librarianand see what they have and see
(16:34):
if maybe they could provide youwith the article.
And then there's one otheroption for them the more brave
among you and that is to justemail the author and ask for
access.
So generally, the author'semail is included in that
abstract.
In conclusion, so that could bea really great option and
(16:58):
hopefully, with all of thoseoptions, you can find a way to
get the articles that you reallyreally need to read.
And sometimes that is extremelyimportant, right.
Sometimes the conclusion is a12 week yoga program,
significantly reduced cortisolor something.
I don't know if that's a thing,right.
(17:19):
But you're like oh great, itworked.
Okay, but what was the yogaprogram?
What did they do?
What was the control?
So sometimes you really justhave to have your hands on that
whole paper.
So now that you know where tofind relevant research, let's
(17:40):
talk about what to do onceyou've found it.
I'm just going to be real withyou, and you may already know
this If you've kind of delvedinto this already.
Research can be very difficultto read, so I want to make it
clear that this is also a workin progress for me.
I am by no means completelycomfortable with every aspect of
reading research, mostly thestatistics.
(18:03):
I still really struggle withthat and, if I'm honest, I
actually don't see myselfgetting a whole lot better at
that In this lifetime.
I just I am not a numbersperson, I just have a block
around numbers.
So I'll let you know that evenif you don't understand all of
the statistical terminology, youcan do just fine.
(18:24):
You can learn quite a bit andthen, as you're reading, you'll
start to learn what those termsmean and it won't be quite such
a chore to try to decipher allof those numbers.
But that should not be thething that scares you.
So if you're seeing all ofthose weird symbols and numbers
and you're like I have no ideawhat that means, it's okay, just
(18:44):
keep reading.
I promise it will get easierover time.
And the other part of that isthat Google is right there,
right At any time.
You can just copy and pastethat term into Google and it
will explain it to you.
And while this may be kind oftime consuming at the beginning.
Over time, you'll find that youare so much more skilled and so
(19:06):
much more efficient at readingresearch.
So the first thing that I thinkyou need to understand to read
research is that there are lotsof different kinds of research.
Each of them has its particularuse case, but there are a few
types of research that I thinkare probably the most applicable
(19:28):
to us as enthusiasts, and sowe're going to focus on those,
because I'm trying to make thisreally simple and accessible for
you.
So let's talk about where thesethree types of research might
be the most useful, and for eachof the three types of research
I want to introduce you to, Iwill also provide some context
(19:48):
about how they might be appliedby us as teachers or students of
YIN.
So make sure to keep your earsperked for that, because that's,
I think, where this reallystarts to take shape.
So the first type of research isknown as observational research
.
If you're interested inlearning about connective tissue
(20:09):
, for example, or you want tolearn about the respiratory and
pelvic diaphragms, or you wantto learn about any other
component of human anatomy, saythe gastrocnemius muscle, the
rotator cuff, the splinuscapitis, whatever it is, if
you're going to find research onthese things, it's going to be
(20:31):
observational.
It's basically going to beresearchers talking about all of
the different aspects of thisparticular part of the anatomy,
so things like their origin andtheir insertion and the angle of
panation.
It's going to be talking aboutthe innervation and how they get
their blood supply, thesetissues, and it can be pretty
(20:56):
dense but also really incrediblyinformative if anatomy is your
thing.
So in observational research,the research's task is to
observe something in its naturalenvironment and report on that.
So it's sort of like you've gotthe benefit of being in the
cadaver lab without actuallyhaving to be in the cadaver lab.
(21:16):
And I will say that a lot oftimes this can be challenging
because the terminology willprobably be pretty unfamiliar,
even for somebody who's beenstudying anatomy for a long time
, like me.
My recommendation is that youprint the article and you keep
your phone or your tablet nearbyso you can just Google the
(21:38):
stuff you don't know and goright to the image search,
because most of us learn bestwhen we have multiple forms of
input.
So having that image to pairwith what you're reading, and
then maybe if you've gotsomebody, you can kind of poke
and prod that place on them oron yourself.
All of these different wayswill help to increase your
(22:01):
capacity to learn thesedifferent anatomical points over
time, which means that you willeventually get better at it.
You'll be able to get throughthat research in a more
efficient way in the future.
And my other recommendation isthat you give yourself a good
long time to get through yourfirst few studies and that you
(22:25):
do a mindset check every timeyou sit down to read this type
of research.
Remember that you're not justreading to learn about the
conclusions or observations ofthe paper, but you're also here
to learn more about reading thiskind of paper.
You won't understand everything, but you will definitely know
more than you did each time youtake the time to practice.
(22:48):
So that's observationalresearch.
And for those of you who areinterested in anatomy and you
know you've got like a group ofstudents who are really, really
struggling with tight hamstringsfind some articles about the
hamstrings.
Learn all about the hamstrings.
Okay, you will not regret thetime you spend.
(23:08):
And especially for those of youwho are really interested in
connective tissue, that's a bigpart of your teaching.
You need to start reading dataabout connective tissue as soon
as possible.
So the next type of research Iwant to introduce you to is the
randomized control trial.
(23:29):
This is the gold standard forresearch and probably what you
think of when you think ofresearch.
So a randomized control trial,rct, is a quantitative,
comparative controlledexperiment, and in RCT,
participants are randomlyassigned to one of two groups
(23:51):
the experimental group, whichwill be the one that receives
the intervention being tested,and the control group, which
receives an alternativetreatment or sometimes nothing
at all.
So the randomization ensuresthat the intervention and the
control groups are comparable atthe beginning of the study.
(24:11):
The only expected differencebetween the groups is the
outcome variable being studied,which I'll talk a little bit
more about in a second.
So honestly, I just love tosnuggle up to a relevant RCT on
a lazy Sunday morning.
I think it's really funactually to see how the
(24:33):
researchers set up theexperiment and if their
hypothesis will be confirmed ornot.
I also really like to thinkabout what was missing from the
methods which would have madethe results more conclusive, or
generally it's more selfish.
So sometimes all the methodsand everything and it's like
(24:54):
great, that was their hypothesis.
But if they had just tested forone other thing, it would be
like the perfect study for me.
I'll give you an example A lotof my pain care clients are also
suffering from metabolic issuesand overweight or obesity, and
especially over the last yearI've seen quite a few of my
(25:15):
clients go onsemi-gluteide-based weight loss
drugs like Osympic or Wagovi orManjaro.
So the research around thesedrugs obviously shows that they
work.
They work really, really well.
(25:35):
But the problem with thisresearch from my perspective, as
someone who also specializes instrength training and provides
that for my clients is that sofar, none of the studies that
I'm aware of also test for bodycomposition.
So we know that the drugs canhelp people to lose weight.
(25:59):
What we don't necessarily knowyet is what is the proportion of
fat to lean mass loss, and thisis really stinking important
because lean mass is so vitalfor overall metabolic health,
quality of life and even theability to keep the weight off
(26:23):
should the person stop takingthe drug.
So I always wish this waspresent.
So that's kind of what I meanby.
Sometimes you're like, oh, ifonly they put that in there.
So RCTs are also fun in thesense that, as yoga people, our
paradigm starts and ends withthis comprehensive wholeness,
(26:45):
but RCTs can only ever addressone discrete data point.
Otherwise the data would beuseless.
So I like to think of thefindings as one of many
potential strategies that I cansuggest to my client or student
as part of a holistic approachand depending on their personal
(27:06):
needs and preferences, becausereally all true healing is just
a consequence of many smallactions, many small variables
that over time and withdedication, combined to create a
huge shift.
(27:26):
So knowing how one smallintervention can contribute to
overall health can be veryvaluable.
It's that 10% rule right.
I'm never going to get 100%,but if I can add something to
someone's program that will helpthem improve 10% and I can do
that 10 times, it's the sameright.
(27:48):
So how would a yoga teacher, ayen teacher, use an RCT to
support their students or theirpopulation?
So let's say you work mostlywith college students, for
example, and your studentspractice yen yoga to reduce
anxiety, to help improveattention, for studying and for
(28:09):
testing.
Is there a randomized controltrial about this?
Yes, there is.
Though the paper currently isnot public, it does appear that
yoga, when combined with aninteroception focus, can help
with mood and attention incommunity dwelling adult
(28:31):
participants.
So your college students areliving in communities, typically
dorms, right?
A lot of college students aremanaging some depressive
symptoms, and so this paperreally is very well correlated
with their needs, because theywant to improve their mood,
their stress level and, ofcourse, their attention.
(28:54):
So the final type of researchthat I would like to present to
you that I think is reallyuseful, especially for us yoga
yen teachers and students, isthe systematic review.
So a systematic review is apiece of research that pulls
together a whole lot of studiesthat are similar and tested for
(29:16):
the same variables, right?
So if we're looking how yenyoga can improve attention in
community dwelling individuals,then one study is great.
It's like, oh, that's reallygood to know, but if you had 10
studies that looked at this,that would be a much more
(29:36):
compelling data set, would itnot?
So that's what the systematicreview does, because even though
an individual study might onlyhave like 20 or 80 subjects,
when you multiply many studies,you can make extrapolations
based on a much larger data set,sometimes thousands of subjects
.
Systematic reviews are typicallycompilations of randomized
(30:00):
control trials, so the idea isvery much the same and how you
would read it and potentiallyuse it.
So the nice thing about thesystematic review is that you'll
have access to tons of chartsto show you how each of the
included studies contributed tothe overall conclusions, right?
So you can sort of quickly gothrough all of the different
(30:22):
studies that the researchersincluded, which, by the way, is
usually a fairly rigorousprocess, so they've already
vetted out for the very bestdata and you can go through and
you can read that chart and youcan see, oh okay, this did this,
this did this, this did thisand you can get a lot of
information about a lot ofdifferent studies very quickly.
(30:42):
And, of course, all of thecitations will have links to
those studies.
So if you want to read moreright and really truly increase
your body of knowledge, it's allright there.
All you have to do is click thelink, right?
So how would you use thesystematic review and your
(31:02):
practice and teaching?
So maybe you work with athletes, for example, or weekend
warriors, or maybe you work in ayoga studio that's like mostly
power-based, right and mostlyhot yoga-based.
It's very, very young and youwould like to recommend a
certain type of practice orstretches or a recovery routine,
(31:26):
if you will, as Yen Yogapractice.
So ask Google for scholarlyarticles related to work out
recovery and static stretching.
And I will let you know that Ihave already done this because
I'm a Yen Yoga teacher and I amalso a strength coach, right?
(31:48):
So in the case of workoutrecovery, I can tell you, based
on a recent systematic review,that there is not sufficient
evidence that static stretchingcan help with exercise recovery
as compared to passive oralternative recovery methods.
I'm sorry, but it's true.
(32:09):
It's not.
It's really not that effective,at least when your recovery
markers are things like recoveryof range of motion, right.
So it's not going to help withthat stiffness after a big
workout, it's not going todiminish delayed onset, muscle
soreness, the dreaded domes, andit's not going to help to
(32:30):
recover peak strength any betterthan just resting or
alternative recovery methods.
So this is a really good exampleof how sometimes we're looking
up research so that we canconfirm our bias, right.
But sometimes we actually findthat we were wrong.
(32:52):
Our bias was wrong, and this issuper valuable, because the
best way to search for andconsume research should not be
to validate your current bias.
It should be to simply learnmore about the topic, increase
your body of knowledge, becauseto be evidence informed does not
(33:13):
only mean that we have onestudy to back up all of our
tools and strategies, althoughif you had a systematic review,
that would be pretty good.
It means that we retire stuffthat isn't validated, like
recommending static stretchingfor athletes with the promise
that they will recover faster.
(33:38):
So those are the three types ofstudies that I think are most
important for you to know aboutas a Yen yoga teacher, and I
hope that you have been able tosee how you might be able to
apply that informationspecifically to boots on the
(34:01):
ground Yen yoga teaching orpractice.
I've also let you know how youcan find this research.
Now there are so many morequestions about research, like
what do you do once you've foundit?
How do you even know it's agood article and it's not
completely bogus.
(34:21):
So these are huge questions,which is why this is a multi
part series, because in the nextpart we're actually going to
talk about reading thescientific literature and some
tips on how to make sure that itis a reputable study.
(34:42):
I want to give one more notehere in this introduction to
becoming an evidence informantteacher or student, and that is
really specifically to thepopulation that I love to work
with, which is people who arehealing chronic pain.
Now, what's really cool aboutthis, about this particular
population, is that we actuallyhave quite a bit of evidence
(35:05):
which is not specifically aboutYen yoga for chronic pain, but
is peripheral and includesthings like diet, exercise,
mindfulness, interoception right, so I can apply all of those to
my work and blend Yen in aswell.
But honestly to me, I justcan't help but think if all
(35:28):
adults, not just us yogateachers in the US had the
ability to find and readresearch, we may not even
actually have a chronic painepidemic, right, because we have
such good information and somany more strategies than we
have ever had before, which arelargely based on lifestyle
(35:50):
changes.
Right, what I just talked aboutdiet, exercise, mindfulness,
interoception, having a strongsupport system and community
bonds.
But the other part of this isthat I encounter people all the
time probably you do too familymembers, friends or the students
in your classes, if you're ateacher who are struggling with
(36:13):
a pain issue, and they are notmy clients, right?
They don't believe that myapproach can help them, and so
they're usually going down thesurgical route.
And it is not my place, right?
I am not a doctor, I'm not aphysical therapist.
It's not my place to say ifthis is good or bad or what, and
I certainly will support anyonein making healthcare decisions
(36:36):
for themselves with thecollaboration of a skilled and
hopefully evidence informedphysician.
But I do find frequently that mystudents are doing procedures
and surgeries and drugs thatactually are not evidence
informed.
So here's just a couple ofexamples.
(36:57):
A common procedure that peoplehave maybe you've had this all
the time for knee issues whichhave been attributed to a
damaged meniscus this is theknee arthroscopy.
Multiple studies show that kneearthroscopy is no more
effective than a sham surgery.
(37:18):
So in your randomized controltrial, the intervention group
will receive the actualmeniskectomy or arthroscopy of
their meniscus right.
The control group will simplygo in under anesthesia, the
(37:40):
surgeon will make a cut and thenwe'll sew it back up, and in
the research both groups doabout the same.
I think if people understoodthis, they could save themselves
a lot of partake in time andmoney and it would open them up
(38:02):
to what does that actually meanto heal this part of my body?
And are there other things thatI could be doing that would be
just as effective and not quiteso invasive?
Right?
Or?
This is when I hear a lot too,people who are having back pain
and they go in for some kind ofspinal surgery.
I don't know if people are wellprepared for the fact that
(38:26):
spinal surgeries have not only ahuge risk of major
complications.
I think people are informedabout this, but I don't know if
people understand that spinalsurgeries have a very high risk
of failure.
So the success rate for backsurgery is only about 50%.
The risk of failure is 10 to40%.
So I think if people understoodthe numbers and of course, we
(38:54):
could get more granular and talkabout each different type of
spinal surgery some slightlymore effective, some way less
effective, right but I think ifpeople knew how to read the
research, then they could bemuch, much more empowered to
make good health decisions,which would save so much time
and so much suffering, so muchsuffering.
(39:15):
So this was part one of how tobecome an evidence-informed Yin
teacher or student.
Next week I'm going to be givingyou some time-saving tips on
how to read research.
If you have had your interestpeaked and you are ready to
(39:38):
become a more evidence-informedteacher, I recommend that you
check out module one of my YinYoga teacher training.
There is information aboutteaching in module one, but it's
actually mostly the science ofYin which, if you really dug
(39:59):
this episode, you will love.
If you would like moreinformation about enrolling in
module one, I will put a link inthe show notes.
I'll let you know that for thecohort that's joining here in
October and November of 2023,I'll be doing a couple of cohort
(40:19):
calls in November, which is notusually something that I offer.
It's usually completelyself-guided, so if you want to
opt in now, you could get alittle bit of extra content and
have an opportunity to pick mybrain on those two cohort calls
in November.
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