October 11, 2023 • 36 mins
Ready to level up your Yin Yoga teaching or practice? We're back with part two of our enlightening series, and this time, we're demystifying the process of reading research. In this solo episode, I'll guide you to improve your research literacy, ensuring you can critically evaluate studies and make sure that the research you read is relevant to you or your students. We will also explore ways to ensure that the research you are reading is credible. To demonstrate how and why, we will look at an acclaimed study from a few years back that claimed that just 12 minutes of daily Yoga can reverse osteoporosis. The study was bogus but the damage is done. Many teachers and students have fallen into the trap of crappy research. I'll show you how to know if what you are reading is actually reputable!
This series is a guided journey to becoming an evidence-informed Yin Yoga teacher or student. Consider this series your essential guide.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast.
I'm your host, mandy Ryle.
Today we are moving on to parttwo of our series Becoming an
Evidence-Informed Yin YogaTeacher or Student.
I have to say that this hasactually been really fun for me
to put this series together, andit's also been actually quite
(00:25):
educational for me, because tohave to explain something that
you do all the time to otherpeople, you have to really make
it very simple, and so that'swhat I've tried to do here is
make this as accessible aspossible, and so it's been very
edifying for me to reallyconsider my own process of how I
(00:50):
find, evaluate and use evidence.
So in the first episode of thisseries, we talked about the
reasons why I think Yin Yoga isa perfect canvas for applying an
evidence-informed approach.
I explained to you how youcould find evidence and how you
(01:12):
could maybe access evidence thatis not open access, and then I
also talked to you about some ofthe most important types of
studies that you'll be using asa Yin Yoga student or a teacher,
as well as some examples anduse cases for each of those.
So if you have not listened toepisode one in this series yet,
I think that you'll be bestgoing back listening to that
(01:35):
first, and then coming to thisone.
Today I am going to help you todo two things that are so, so
important.
The first thing is I'm going tohelp you to understand the
different components of atypical research paper, and
(01:55):
we'll go through these one byone and I'll kind of help you to
understand how you're going touse each of these sections, as
well as some time saving tipsfor how you might mix and match
your reading of these sectionsso that you can get through the
research a little bit quicker,because it can be very time
consuming.
And the other thing that I'mgoing to help you with today is
(02:19):
learning how to evaluateresearch to ensure that it is
credible.
Unfortunately, we have a hugeproblem with misinformation and,
just quite honestly, there'ssome bad science out there, and
in the yoga world we are notimmune to this.
(02:41):
In fact, the yoga community hassort of been taken in by
several high profile studies inthese last many years, and we'll
actually look at one of thosetogether so that we can kind of
break down how we can be alittle bit more critically
minded to ensure that theresearch that we're looking at
(03:03):
is actually reputable.
So you might be thinking hereat the beginning of your
evidence informed practicejourney that it would just be so
much simpler if someone wouldjust hand pick a number of
studies on fascia and connectivetissue science, if someone
(03:24):
would review this data for youand then also teach you how to
apply this data either to yourpractice or your teaching.
Well, this resource actuallydoes exist.
It is the first module of my inyoga teacher training, which is
(03:44):
an awesome resource for anybodywho is interested in learning
about how to influenceconnective tissues, how to train
them better and also just to beon the right side of the
evidence.
This training is completelyself paced and if you are a yoga
teacher, I do offer yogaAlliance continuing education
(04:06):
credits.
One more thing about this greatresource is that there is a
payment plan, so it is super,super accessible to just about
everybody.
Just in case you're interestedin learning more about the first
module of my in yoga teachertraining, I will leave a link in
the show notes.
(04:31):
Welcome to the secondinstallment in this short series
how to become an evidenceinformed in teacher or student.
So if you have not yet listenedto the first installment, I do
recommend that you do that first, because it's really going to
lay the groundwork for whatwe're going to talk about today.
My goal is to present thisinformation starting from a very
(04:53):
high level, top level view andthen gradually getting a little
bit more granular.
So by the time we get toactually looking at individual
studies in future episodes,you'll already have a really
strong baseline of competency.
So starting with that episodeis going to give you those big,
(05:14):
broad strokes of beginning toapply research to your practice
and to your teaching.
In that episode we discussedwhy yen is a particularly
wonderful canvas for applyingevidence, informed practice, and
then I also introduced you tothe three types of research that
I think are most relevant forus yensters, and I also kind of
(05:39):
gave you some use case how youwould use each of those
individual types of research.
And so the next logical step isto learn how to read the
research and also how to know ifthe research that you're
reading is actually credible,which is super important.
(06:01):
It's so important for us yogateachers to critically evaluate
the quality of studies, and I'mgoing to teach you how to do all
of that, because learning howto distinguish between well
designed studies and lessreliable sources can help
teachers to make informeddecisions about incorporating
evidence, informed practices,into their teaching.
(06:22):
Okay, so let's just address theelephant in the room.
Reading scientific research isa little bit challenging, which
is probably why more peopledon't do it.
At the end of the last episodeI just introduced a little bit
of information about how havingsome research literacy could
(06:46):
really impact adults who aresuffering from chronic pain and
also our population sufferingfrom chronic pain.
Unfortunately, most of us don'tlearn how to read research, and
so it's kind of my mission toat least help us in the Yin Yoga
(07:08):
community to get a little bitbetter at deciphering what the
data actually means and findingthe data and applying it where
it can be the most useful to us.
So I'll let you know thatresearch papers generally follow
(07:29):
a standard structure.
So there will be sections in thepaper like the abstract, the
introduction, the methods,results, discussion, and then,
of course, there's going to bereferences.
Just knowing what to look forthat each of these sections will
be present as you read throughthe paper can already be helpful
(07:53):
, because you're knowing what toexpect.
You're not searching around forit.
So the best place to start isgoing to be the abstract.
That's the first thing thatyou're going to read in that
study and, by the way, theabstract is generally included
when you find a paper that hasnot yet been made publicly
available.
Usually you can at least readthe abstract, which can be
(08:16):
really helpful, because theabstract is just to find out if
the study is even examiningsomething that is relevant to
you.
So, for example, if you'relooking for some information
about yin yoga for anxiety inaging populations, right, but
(08:36):
the study you find in theabstract says that it is only
including pregnant women, forexample, that's probably not
going to be granular enough foryou to take some great
conclusions, right?
Aging populations versuspregnant women.
And so you'll say you know what?
This might be really goodinformation, but this is not
(08:58):
relevant to me right now.
You save yourself some time.
So the abstract is going toprovide a concise summary of the
study's objectives, the methods, the key results and the
conclusions, and that will helpyou to determine if this is a
paper that's worth your time.
(09:21):
The next section is going to bethe introduction, and in some
studies, the introduction can bequite long and, in my
experience, if you're alreadyreally familiar with the topic,
like yoga, for example, theintroduction might go into like
a whole lot of detail about whatyoga is, which you might kind
(09:42):
of want to skip through becauseyou're sort of an expert in yoga
, right?
However, if you're not sofamiliar with the topic, the
introduction can be extremelyhelpful, and let me kind of
reveal to you a couple of usecases for me, how I might use,
(10:05):
just simply, the introduction.
Often in the introduction,you'll find relevant statistics
about that particular topic,right?
So if it is anxiety in agingpopulations, it might actually
provide some numbers for youthat you can use to help to
educate not just yourself butalso the people that you work
(10:26):
with about why this is reallyeven important to look at, right
?
So you could potentially findsome great statistics in that
introduction.
Another thing is that for thoseof us who are educators right,
so I think all of us yinteachers in a sense are
(10:46):
educators, and many of us havetaken it even further doing, you
know, different kinds oftrainings, working with groups
on specific issues, like youknow, pelvic health, for example
that introduction can help youto enhance your vocabulary
(11:08):
because, as you know, if youtalk for a living, like a lot of
us yoga teachers, you're alwayslooking for more and better
language to help your studentsto understand concepts which can
sometimes be very difficult.
And then, of course, if you'vespent any amount of time working
with individuals, you know thatone explanation might work
(11:31):
great for one client but anothermay need a whole different
toolkit of terminology, and sothat introduction can really
help to enhance your vocabularyaround the subject matter.
So the introduction is going tooutline the research question.
(11:52):
It's going to provide thecontext and review the relevant
literature so other studies thathave already come out kind of
in the same vein and in thatintroduction you're going to
want to pay special attention tothe rationale for the study and
, in particular, the gap it aimsto fill in existing knowledge,
(12:13):
because, again, that could helpyou to determine if this is even
really something that you needto be spending your time on.
Okay, the next section isarguably the more difficult
section, and there are times inthe methods when you don't
necessarily need to dive all theway into those weeds, because
(12:34):
it can get a little weedy anddifficult to navigate.
Because the method section isreally going to describe how the
study was conducted and if itis a systematic review, it's
going to talk about how theresearchers chose the specific
studies that they decided to putinto that big pooled review of
studies.
Sometimes that information isreally helpful, especially if
(12:55):
you really want to make sure thedata is relevant to you, and
sometimes it's just a little bittoo much.
You just need to know thebasics.
So you're also going to findout about the statistical
analyses and you can check inthis section for details about
the sample size, what tools theyuse for data collection and
also maybe any potential biases.
(13:20):
So I want to kind of go back tothe first episode of this little
series.
You might remember that Imentioned a study that found
that interoception focus plusmovement focused yoga could
improve sustained attention andmood.
What this particular studyfound was that movement focus
(13:47):
yoga could help to improve moodas well as interoception focused
yoga, but that when you combineinteroception focus with
movement focus, that improvedsustained attention.
(14:08):
So here's where the methodswould be extremely useful to
have right Now.
I also mentioned that thispaper is not yet publicly
available, so we have no way ofknowing unless we really dig in.
(14:32):
What were the methods that theyused to determine if someone's
attention was better?
What were the methods that theyused to determine how the mood
had been improved?
And then even better, in themethod section.
For those of us who actuallyteach yoga and interoception
(14:53):
would be to find out what werethe interventions that they
actually used.
What was it that they did toimprove interoception.
So that's where the methodscould be extremely useful.
So sometimes you'll get thatstudy and you will be like, yes,
I have this whole paper in myhands and it'll say something
(15:15):
like practiced interoceptivefocus yoga two times a week for
eight weeks and that's all youget.
I hate this, right?
Just side note, I hate this andsometimes it'll give like the
full details about what thatpractice looked like and that is
so helpful.
So, for example, in a studyabout hatha yoga for knee
(15:37):
osteoarthritis, the completepractice that was used was
described in detail, not justfor the intervention group, but
also for the control group.
I love that and that was really, really important, as the
intervention group and thecontrol group both did
therapeutic exercises, but theyoga group also did asana and
(16:03):
breathing exercises, which wereexplained in detail in the
method section, as well as yoga,nidra, chanting and meditation.
So I just mentioned a lot ofthings, which, in my opinion,
unfortunately waters down theconclusions we can actually take
from this paper, right, becauseit's not like they just added
(16:27):
asana to the therapeuticexercises or just added chanting
Instead.
They added all of thesedifferent things under the
umbrella of yoga, but we don'treally know which one of them
really made the difference.
Right, and I'll explain that alittle bit too what the actual
(16:48):
results of this study were, eventhough we don't really know
what the data variable was thatit caused the improvement.
So just that information ishelpful, though, right, like in
that method section, you can belike whoa, they put way too much
into this and so therefore, Ireally need to take the
(17:10):
conclusions with a grain of salt.
That's the other thing that themethods can do for you is sort
of let you know how useful isthis information to me and my
students and clients.
So the next section that's goingto be present in your research
is the results section.
So you'll want to examine theresults section to understand
(17:31):
basically what the study found,like what they came up with.
So in this section you're goingto find a lot of tables,
figures, statistical analysesthat present the data.
I mentioned in the previousepisode that this is where I get
a little bit stuck.
My brain and eyes tend to swimwhen I see numbers, but you know
(17:54):
, a really nice handy chart thatsort of breaks it down can
really be invaluable.
One thing to be cautious about,though, with the results
section, is not to drawconclusions solely based on
isolated data points.
Really, a skilled researcherand research team will be
(18:18):
considering the overall trendsand patterns to actually
determine if the effect waslarge enough to be relevant or
statistically significant.
They'll say so.
I'm going to go back to thatknee osteoarthritis study.
The group that did yoga, notjust the therapeutic exercises
saw significantly better results.
(18:38):
They had reduced walking painand greater range of motion.
They also had less inflammationand swelling in the knee.
Again, that's great, but we'renot going to be taking this
study as the holy grail, becausewe don't actually know what
(18:59):
helped.
The fact that they included somuch information means that it's
not the most reputable study,unfortunately.
So this is kind of an exampleof needing to corroborate that
evidence with other studies.
We'll talk about that in asecond.
Okay, now, this next section ismy favorite.
(19:22):
So this is going to be thediscussion.
The discussion is usually morenarrative for people who just
like to read.
This is where you're going tofind the stuff that you enjoy
the most.
So in the discussion section.
The authors interpret theresults, they discuss the
implications of the results andrelate them to the research
(19:46):
question.
And this is where you kind ofget to think about, based on
what you read in the results,the authors reasoning and
whether they overstated or maybegeneralized their findings a
little bit.
And again, that's a red flag Ifyou see that unfortunately, you
(20:07):
have to take what you learnedfrom that research with a grain
of salt.
So here's my tip here for thesesections is that when you are
just starting out, read theabstract and then skip right to
(20:28):
the discussion.
This will help you immensely tocontextualize the paper,
because you'll already kind ofknow what happened.
It'll start to kind of peak alittle bit of curiosity.
They're going to make theseconclusions and you're going to
go oh, but how do they know that?
(20:48):
And so then you can kind ofstart to dig into the results
and you can dig into the methodsand you will start to develop a
picture of the research whichis more relevant and customized
to you and to your interests.
So you'll start with theabstract, you'll skip right to
(21:12):
the discussion and then fromthere see what in the discussion
kind of got your interest, andthen maybe you'll go back all
the way to the introduction,maybe you'll just check into the
methods, maybe you'll just lookfor some charts to see where
and how that data came to be.
We've zoomed through this,right, I'm making it seem so
easy and it can be.
It can, let's say, you get tothat discussion and you're like,
(21:36):
oh okay, that's kind of what Ineeded to know.
And, by the way, I got to getgoing here.
It's possible that thatdiscussion could tide you over
for some time and then maybe inthe future, when you're looking
for something that is a littlemore conclusive, you're needing
to provide a little bit morecontext.
If you are working specificallywith a client or you're working
(21:58):
with a training group, you knowwhere to find that data.
Now you can dig in when youneed it, right, so you don't
have to pour through all of thatdata the first time you open up
that study.
I have a Google Drive folderwith gazillions of studies that
I have saved over the years andI always put like a really
(22:19):
descriptive name when I save it.
And that way, when I'm lookingspecifically for something
regarding the sacroiliac joint,I have a whole folder about
research regarding thesacroiliac joint.
Right, I have it quick and atmy fingertips and I can delve
into the data as much or aslittle as I need.
So the next thing, after youhave evaluated that discussion,
(22:41):
is to check for the citationsand the references.
The citations and referencescan help you to identify related
research.
So let's say you read thatarticle about the SIJ, but then
you get to the citations and yousee four other studies which
have names which are kind ofinteresting to you.
(23:03):
Now you have a great way tofind them Just click on the
citation.
It's hyperlinked generally.
So the next two sections thatare usually in research are
really going to be mostlyoriented toward disclosing any
conflicts or biases and also anysources of funding.
(23:32):
So let's use this to kind ofspringboard our discussion about
how to make sure that the paperthat you're reading is actually
reputable.
This is not straightforward andI think that alone is
information that really empowersyou to know that, even though
XYZ may be present, that doesn'tnecessarily mean that the study
(23:56):
is credible, that there may beother things that you need to
look for that we've alreadydiscussed in this episode.
So the first thing you could dois to try to find papers that
have been published inwell-known peer-reviewed
journals.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat the study is credible, but
(24:16):
it's like a pretty good signbecause those publications like,
for example, the HarvardMedical Review they have a
strong interest in beingcredible.
So you can feel relativelyassured that they've done their
due diligence to avoid futurepotential embarrassment right.
Something about this studycould be really embarrassing,
(24:40):
not just for the researchers butalso for the publication.
Another thing that you'll wantto look at is at the very end of
this study, most of the studieswill have a disclosure about
their funding source.
So if a study is examining theeffectiveness of a product for
(25:00):
example, I remember somebreathing apparatus you blow
into this thing and it providesresistance and it's supposed to
increase diaphragmatic strength.
And I was looking upinformation about breathing
practices and I came across thisresearch right, and of course,
the research found that thisapparatus, this product, was
(25:22):
highly effective at improvingdiaphragmatic strength.
But then the only issue wasthat the study was actually
funded by the manufacturer ofthat particular product.
You may also find at the end ofthis study that the researchers
will disclose any potentialbiases.
(25:44):
So maybe they work for anorganization that has a product
like this.
Or I ran across one study whereone of the researchers actually
owned a company that taughtpeople how to teach breathing
techniques and they were atrainer of that breathing
technique.
So just make sure to look forthose biases, because one of the
(26:08):
goals of becoming evidenceinformed is that we are no
longer parroting disinformation,that we are on the good side,
the truth side.
Sometimes, unfortunately, we canfind that even studies which
are highly flawed may end upbeing highly acclaimed in the
media, which can be reallyconfusing.
(26:30):
And even in the yoga worldwe've seen some really shady
studies that got this kind oftreatment in the media.
The one that is top of mind isa study called 12 minute daily
yoga regimen reversesosteoporotic bone loss.
But really any study which isassociated with Dr Lauren
(26:51):
Fishman is probably going to bepretty shady.
So, even though you mightinitially be drawn in by all of
this great media attention thatthis study got, one way to
really immediately know if astudy is probably not worth your
(27:11):
time is if the results are justso incredible.
The effect size is justinsanely un-plausible.
So in this study, significantimprovements in bone mineral
density with just 12 minutes aday of asana practice.
(27:33):
And of course it shows this inthis handy dandy chart.
The full text article actuallyprovides the asana which are
included in the program as well,so it looks kind of reputable.
You're like, oh okay, I see it,there's a chart and it makes it
look really good.
But even when you look at theseasana that are included in the
program, none of them, accordingto the best evidence on bone
(28:03):
health, even remotely meet thecriteria for providing adaptive
stress to bones sufficient toimprove bone mineral density.
So this is why just one studyis never enough.
You're just going to keepreading research for the rest of
your life, because then you canlook at that and you already
have this body of knowledgethat's on board with you.
(28:24):
It's now implicit Understandingthat bone mineral density with
regard to movement can only beimproved through heavy heavy
resistance training or impacttraining like plyometrics or
running, and there's nothing inthis page of asana that even
comes close none of that in thisstudy.
(28:46):
So if the results look too goodto be true, or they've
disclosed some of the methodsbut they're sort of like sparse,
that's a really good sign.
It's not worth your time.
Another example is like I oftenrun across studies that come
from institutions in India withvery extreme claims and a lot of
(29:09):
these institutions that areconducting this research are
institutions that provide yogaright.
So in this case the BS detectoris going to go up twice because
there's a really high risk ofbias, because the institution
has a vested interest in makingyoga look more effective.
And then the other part is thatvery often the results are just
(29:36):
way over the top.
There's not to say that therearen't great studies coming out
of Indian institutions as well,so we shouldn't just like blank
it, throw these away.
But I'm trying to arm you withtools so you can find the good
ones, so that you can find thereal strategies that can help
you in your teaching and helpyour students and your clients.
(29:57):
So, in general, there are threedimensions one can use to
determine credibility, whichwe've already kind of discussed,
but we'll break them down herethe method and data transparency
.
The analytic reproducibility androbustness and the effect
(30:20):
replicability.
So you know, a lot of times astudy will come out which is
showing something that is reallyawesome, and all of the methods
, everything's on point, it'sjust perfect.
And we all look at it and wesay, okay, this is cool.
Now let's see if somebody canreplicate it.
So the first couple of studiescan be exciting and they can
(30:47):
certainly trigger more interestand more research into that area
, but we need to be a little bitconservative about how we take
those results in the firstcouple of studies that are
showing something really cool.
So let's break it down a littlebit.
When you pick up a paper andyou're going to give it a read,
(31:11):
what you'll want to see is aclear statement of purpose in
the abstract, which defines thestudy in detail, provides the
statistical results, discussesany correlations and can be
reproduced by other researchteams.
You will be particularlycautious of studies that may
(31:32):
gross over generalizations andyou'll want to make sure that
the conclusion is reasonable andlogical in the context of the
findings, and that's anotherreason why, if you go all the
way to the end to the discussion, sometimes you can see if
there's anything that may makethe study not worth your time.
Remember that reading andunderstanding scientific
(31:53):
research is the skill thatimproves only with practice,
just like your yoga practice.
You probably were not as adeptat it when you started as you
are today.
You have put in the time.
You have learned intellectually, emotionally, anatomically,
(32:15):
even down to a cellular level,right.
The same thing happens withreading research.
You'll become more adept atcritically evaluating and
extracting valuable insightsfrom papers the more you read
them.
As I shared at the beginning ofthis episode, I really have a
(32:38):
passion for evidence-informedpractice and I really do believe
that evidence-informed practiceis the future of yoga and yoga
teaching.
So I hope very much that thiswas helpful.
If you're looking for moreguidance on becoming an
evidence-informed yin teacher, Ireally would recommend that you
(33:00):
have a look at the module 1 ofmy yin yoga teacher training.
My yin yoga teacher training isdivided into two modules.
Module 1 is online, completelyself-paced, and it's mostly
about the science of fascia andconnective tissue and how we
might apply that science to ourpractice or our teaching.
(33:22):
In the second module, that oneis actually in-person and that's
going to be more theboots-on-the-ground nitty-gritty
aspects of teaching thepractice and using that evidence
with our students.
So if you're interested inlearning all about connective
(33:43):
tissue what it is, how itbehaves, how we could train or
influence it in yin and whatthat means for our teaching and
especially our teaching languageI really recommend that you
have a look at that module 1.
I'm going to add a link to theshow notes in case you want to
give it a gander.
(34:03):
I also want to let you know thatin November, I'm going to be
offering two live Q&A calls forthose enrolled in module 1.
This is not an option that Ialways offer.
Usually, module 1 is completelyself-guided.
You have the course forever.
You can consume the content atwhatever speed that you may like
(34:25):
, but I think to have access tome and other people who are
learning alongside with you isincredibly valuable.
So that's why I'm offering thosetwo calls.
Those are included in the pricefor your module 1.
So I highly recommend that youregister this month.
If you've been sitting on thefence, now is the best time to
(34:46):
do it.
I do offer a payment plan, soit is totally, totally doable.
Okay, so in the nextinstallment of this series on
becoming an evidence-informedyin teacher or student, we are
going to dive into some researchthat I think has been
(35:08):
particularly influential to meas a yin teacher, and I can't
wait to share some of that withyou so you can kind of see how
we use all of this stuff thatwe've been talking about in
practice.
So I hope to have you for thenext installment.
Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast.
I'm your host, mandy Ryle.
Today we are moving on to parttwo of our series Becoming an
Evidence-Informed Yin YogaTeacher or Student.
I have to say that this hasactually been really fun for me
to put this series together, andit's also been actually quite
(00:25):
educational for me, because tohave to explain something that
you do all the time to otherpeople, you have to really make
it very simple, and so that'swhat I've tried to do here is
make this as accessible aspossible, and so it's been very
edifying for me to reallyconsider my own process of how I
(00:50):
find, evaluate and use evidence.
So in the first episode of thisseries, we talked about the
reasons why I think Yin Yoga isa perfect canvas for applying an
evidence-informed approach.
I explained to you how youcould find evidence and how you
(01:12):
could maybe access evidence thatis not open access, and then I
also talked to you about some ofthe most important types of
studies that you'll be using asa Yin Yoga student or a teacher,
as well as some examples anduse cases for each of those.
So if you have not listened toepisode one in this series yet,
I think that you'll be bestgoing back listening to that
(01:35):
first, and then coming to thisone.
Today I am going to help you todo two things that are so, so
important.
The first thing is I'm going tohelp you to understand the
different components of atypical research paper, and
(01:55):
we'll go through these one byone and I'll kind of help you to
understand how you're going touse each of these sections, as
well as some time saving tipsfor how you might mix and match
your reading of these sectionsso that you can get through the
research a little bit quicker,because it can be very time
consuming.
And the other thing that I'mgoing to help you with today is
(02:19):
learning how to evaluateresearch to ensure that it is
credible.
Unfortunately, we have a hugeproblem with misinformation and,
just quite honestly, there'ssome bad science out there, and
in the yoga world we are notimmune to this.
(02:41):
In fact, the yoga community hassort of been taken in by
several high profile studies inthese last many years, and we'll
actually look at one of thosetogether so that we can kind of
break down how we can be alittle bit more critically
minded to ensure that theresearch that we're looking at
(03:03):
is actually reputable.
So you might be thinking hereat the beginning of your
evidence informed practicejourney that it would just be so
much simpler if someone wouldjust hand pick a number of
studies on fascia and connectivetissue science, if someone
(03:24):
would review this data for youand then also teach you how to
apply this data either to yourpractice or your teaching.
Well, this resource actuallydoes exist.
It is the first module of my inyoga teacher training, which is
(03:44):
an awesome resource for anybodywho is interested in learning
about how to influenceconnective tissues, how to train
them better and also just to beon the right side of the
evidence.
This training is completelyself paced and if you are a yoga
teacher, I do offer yogaAlliance continuing education
(04:06):
credits.
One more thing about this greatresource is that there is a
payment plan, so it is super,super accessible to just about
everybody.
Just in case you're interestedin learning more about the first
module of my in yoga teachertraining, I will leave a link in
the show notes.
(04:31):
Welcome to the secondinstallment in this short series
how to become an evidenceinformed in teacher or student.
So if you have not yet listenedto the first installment, I do
recommend that you do that first, because it's really going to
lay the groundwork for whatwe're going to talk about today.
My goal is to present thisinformation starting from a very
(04:53):
high level, top level view andthen gradually getting a little
bit more granular.
So by the time we get toactually looking at individual
studies in future episodes,you'll already have a really
strong baseline of competency.
So starting with that episodeis going to give you those big,
(05:14):
broad strokes of beginning toapply research to your practice
and to your teaching.
In that episode we discussedwhy yen is a particularly
wonderful canvas for applyingevidence, informed practice, and
then I also introduced you tothe three types of research that
I think are most relevant forus yensters, and I also kind of
(05:39):
gave you some use case how youwould use each of those
individual types of research.
And so the next logical step isto learn how to read the
research and also how to know ifthe research that you're
reading is actually credible,which is super important.
(06:01):
It's so important for us yogateachers to critically evaluate
the quality of studies, and I'mgoing to teach you how to do all
of that, because learning howto distinguish between well
designed studies and lessreliable sources can help
teachers to make informeddecisions about incorporating
evidence, informed practices,into their teaching.
(06:22):
Okay, so let's just address theelephant in the room.
Reading scientific research isa little bit challenging, which
is probably why more peopledon't do it.
At the end of the last episodeI just introduced a little bit
of information about how havingsome research literacy could
(06:46):
really impact adults who aresuffering from chronic pain and
also our population sufferingfrom chronic pain.
Unfortunately, most of us don'tlearn how to read research, and
so it's kind of my mission toat least help us in the Yin Yoga
(07:08):
community to get a little bitbetter at deciphering what the
data actually means and findingthe data and applying it where
it can be the most useful to us.
So I'll let you know thatresearch papers generally follow
(07:29):
a standard structure.
So there will be sections in thepaper like the abstract, the
introduction, the methods,results, discussion, and then,
of course, there's going to bereferences.
Just knowing what to look forthat each of these sections will
be present as you read throughthe paper can already be helpful
(07:53):
, because you're knowing what toexpect.
You're not searching around forit.
So the best place to start isgoing to be the abstract.
That's the first thing thatyou're going to read in that
study and, by the way, theabstract is generally included
when you find a paper that hasnot yet been made publicly
available.
Usually you can at least readthe abstract, which can be
(08:16):
really helpful, because theabstract is just to find out if
the study is even examiningsomething that is relevant to
you.
So, for example, if you'relooking for some information
about yin yoga for anxiety inaging populations, right, but
(08:36):
the study you find in theabstract says that it is only
including pregnant women, forexample, that's probably not
going to be granular enough foryou to take some great
conclusions, right?
Aging populations versuspregnant women.
And so you'll say you know what?
This might be really goodinformation, but this is not
(08:58):
relevant to me right now.
You save yourself some time.
So the abstract is going toprovide a concise summary of the
study's objectives, the methods, the key results and the
conclusions, and that will helpyou to determine if this is a
paper that's worth your time.
(09:21):
The next section is going to bethe introduction, and in some
studies, the introduction can bequite long and, in my
experience, if you're alreadyreally familiar with the topic,
like yoga, for example, theintroduction might go into like
a whole lot of detail about whatyoga is, which you might kind
(09:42):
of want to skip through becauseyou're sort of an expert in yoga
, right?
However, if you're not sofamiliar with the topic, the
introduction can be extremelyhelpful, and let me kind of
reveal to you a couple of usecases for me, how I might use,
(10:05):
just simply, the introduction.
Often in the introduction,you'll find relevant statistics
about that particular topic,right?
So if it is anxiety in agingpopulations, it might actually
provide some numbers for youthat you can use to help to
educate not just yourself butalso the people that you work
(10:26):
with about why this is reallyeven important to look at, right
?
So you could potentially findsome great statistics in that
introduction.
Another thing is that for thoseof us who are educators right,
so I think all of us yinteachers in a sense are
(10:46):
educators, and many of us havetaken it even further doing, you
know, different kinds oftrainings, working with groups
on specific issues, like youknow, pelvic health, for example
that introduction can help youto enhance your vocabulary
(11:08):
because, as you know, if youtalk for a living, like a lot of
us yoga teachers, you're alwayslooking for more and better
language to help your studentsto understand concepts which can
sometimes be very difficult.
And then, of course, if you'vespent any amount of time working
with individuals, you know thatone explanation might work
(11:31):
great for one client but anothermay need a whole different
toolkit of terminology, and sothat introduction can really
help to enhance your vocabularyaround the subject matter.
So the introduction is going tooutline the research question.
(11:52):
It's going to provide thecontext and review the relevant
literature so other studies thathave already come out kind of
in the same vein and in thatintroduction you're going to
want to pay special attention tothe rationale for the study and
, in particular, the gap it aimsto fill in existing knowledge,
(12:13):
because, again, that could helpyou to determine if this is even
really something that you needto be spending your time on.
Okay, the next section isarguably the more difficult
section, and there are times inthe methods when you don't
necessarily need to dive all theway into those weeds, because
(12:34):
it can get a little weedy anddifficult to navigate.
Because the method section isreally going to describe how the
study was conducted and if itis a systematic review, it's
going to talk about how theresearchers chose the specific
studies that they decided to putinto that big pooled review of
studies.
Sometimes that information isreally helpful, especially if
(12:55):
you really want to make sure thedata is relevant to you, and
sometimes it's just a little bittoo much.
You just need to know thebasics.
So you're also going to findout about the statistical
analyses and you can check inthis section for details about
the sample size, what tools theyuse for data collection and
also maybe any potential biases.
(13:20):
So I want to kind of go back tothe first episode of this little
series.
You might remember that Imentioned a study that found
that interoception focus plusmovement focused yoga could
improve sustained attention andmood.
What this particular studyfound was that movement focus
(13:47):
yoga could help to improve moodas well as interoception focused
yoga, but that when you combineinteroception focus with
movement focus, that improvedsustained attention.
(14:08):
So here's where the methodswould be extremely useful to
have right Now.
I also mentioned that thispaper is not yet publicly
available, so we have no way ofknowing unless we really dig in.
(14:32):
What were the methods that theyused to determine if someone's
attention was better?
What were the methods that theyused to determine how the mood
had been improved?
And then even better, in themethod section.
For those of us who actuallyteach yoga and interoception
(14:53):
would be to find out what werethe interventions that they
actually used.
What was it that they did toimprove interoception.
So that's where the methodscould be extremely useful.
So sometimes you'll get thatstudy and you will be like, yes,
I have this whole paper in myhands and it'll say something
(15:15):
like practiced interoceptivefocus yoga two times a week for
eight weeks and that's all youget.
I hate this, right?
Just side note, I hate this andsometimes it'll give like the
full details about what thatpractice looked like and that is
so helpful.
So, for example, in a studyabout hatha yoga for knee
(15:37):
osteoarthritis, the completepractice that was used was
described in detail, not justfor the intervention group, but
also for the control group.
I love that and that was really, really important, as the
intervention group and thecontrol group both did
therapeutic exercises, but theyoga group also did asana and
(16:03):
breathing exercises, which wereexplained in detail in the
method section, as well as yoga,nidra, chanting and meditation.
So I just mentioned a lot ofthings, which, in my opinion,
unfortunately waters down theconclusions we can actually take
from this paper, right, becauseit's not like they just added
(16:27):
asana to the therapeuticexercises or just added chanting
Instead.
They added all of thesedifferent things under the
umbrella of yoga, but we don'treally know which one of them
really made the difference.
Right, and I'll explain that alittle bit too what the actual
(16:48):
results of this study were, eventhough we don't really know
what the data variable was thatit caused the improvement.
So just that information ishelpful, though, right, like in
that method section, you can belike whoa, they put way too much
into this and so therefore, Ireally need to take the
(17:10):
conclusions with a grain of salt.
That's the other thing that themethods can do for you is sort
of let you know how useful isthis information to me and my
students and clients.
So the next section that's goingto be present in your research
is the results section.
So you'll want to examine theresults section to understand
(17:31):
basically what the study found,like what they came up with.
So in this section you're goingto find a lot of tables,
figures, statistical analysesthat present the data.
I mentioned in the previousepisode that this is where I get
a little bit stuck.
My brain and eyes tend to swimwhen I see numbers, but you know
(17:54):
, a really nice handy chart thatsort of breaks it down can
really be invaluable.
One thing to be cautious about,though, with the results
section, is not to drawconclusions solely based on
isolated data points.
Really, a skilled researcherand research team will be
(18:18):
considering the overall trendsand patterns to actually
determine if the effect waslarge enough to be relevant or
statistically significant.
They'll say so.
I'm going to go back to thatknee osteoarthritis study.
The group that did yoga, notjust the therapeutic exercises
saw significantly better results.
(18:38):
They had reduced walking painand greater range of motion.
They also had less inflammationand swelling in the knee.
Again, that's great, but we'renot going to be taking this
study as the holy grail, becausewe don't actually know what
(18:59):
helped.
The fact that they included somuch information means that it's
not the most reputable study,unfortunately.
So this is kind of an exampleof needing to corroborate that
evidence with other studies.
We'll talk about that in asecond.
Okay, now, this next section ismy favorite.
(19:22):
So this is going to be thediscussion.
The discussion is usually morenarrative for people who just
like to read.
This is where you're going tofind the stuff that you enjoy
the most.
So in the discussion section.
The authors interpret theresults, they discuss the
implications of the results andrelate them to the research
(19:46):
question.
And this is where you kind ofget to think about, based on
what you read in the results,the authors reasoning and
whether they overstated or maybegeneralized their findings a
little bit.
And again, that's a red flag Ifyou see that unfortunately, you
(20:07):
have to take what you learnedfrom that research with a grain
of salt.
So here's my tip here for thesesections is that when you are
just starting out, read theabstract and then skip right to
(20:28):
the discussion.
This will help you immensely tocontextualize the paper,
because you'll already kind ofknow what happened.
It'll start to kind of peak alittle bit of curiosity.
They're going to make theseconclusions and you're going to
go oh, but how do they know that?
(20:48):
And so then you can kind ofstart to dig into the results
and you can dig into the methodsand you will start to develop a
picture of the research whichis more relevant and customized
to you and to your interests.
So you'll start with theabstract, you'll skip right to
(21:12):
the discussion and then fromthere see what in the discussion
kind of got your interest, andthen maybe you'll go back all
the way to the introduction,maybe you'll just check into the
methods, maybe you'll just lookfor some charts to see where
and how that data came to be.
We've zoomed through this,right, I'm making it seem so
easy and it can be.
It can, let's say, you get tothat discussion and you're like,
(21:36):
oh okay, that's kind of what Ineeded to know.
And, by the way, I got to getgoing here.
It's possible that thatdiscussion could tide you over
for some time and then maybe inthe future, when you're looking
for something that is a littlemore conclusive, you're needing
to provide a little bit morecontext.
If you are working specificallywith a client or you're working
(21:58):
with a training group, you knowwhere to find that data.
Now you can dig in when youneed it, right, so you don't
have to pour through all of thatdata the first time you open up
that study.
I have a Google Drive folderwith gazillions of studies that
I have saved over the years andI always put like a really
(22:19):
descriptive name when I save it.
And that way, when I'm lookingspecifically for something
regarding the sacroiliac joint,I have a whole folder about
research regarding thesacroiliac joint.
Right, I have it quick and atmy fingertips and I can delve
into the data as much or aslittle as I need.
So the next thing, after youhave evaluated that discussion,
(22:41):
is to check for the citationsand the references.
The citations and referencescan help you to identify related
research.
So let's say you read thatarticle about the SIJ, but then
you get to the citations and yousee four other studies which
have names which are kind ofinteresting to you.
(23:03):
Now you have a great way tofind them Just click on the
citation.
It's hyperlinked generally.
So the next two sections thatare usually in research are
really going to be mostlyoriented toward disclosing any
conflicts or biases and also anysources of funding.
(23:32):
So let's use this to kind ofspringboard our discussion about
how to make sure that the paperthat you're reading is actually
reputable.
This is not straightforward andI think that alone is
information that really empowersyou to know that, even though
XYZ may be present, that doesn'tnecessarily mean that the study
(23:56):
is credible, that there may beother things that you need to
look for that we've alreadydiscussed in this episode.
So the first thing you could dois to try to find papers that
have been published inwell-known peer-reviewed
journals.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat the study is credible, but
(24:16):
it's like a pretty good signbecause those publications like,
for example, the HarvardMedical Review they have a
strong interest in beingcredible.
So you can feel relativelyassured that they've done their
due diligence to avoid futurepotential embarrassment right.
Something about this studycould be really embarrassing,
(24:40):
not just for the researchers butalso for the publication.
Another thing that you'll wantto look at is at the very end of
this study, most of the studieswill have a disclosure about
their funding source.
So if a study is examining theeffectiveness of a product for
(25:00):
example, I remember somebreathing apparatus you blow
into this thing and it providesresistance and it's supposed to
increase diaphragmatic strength.
And I was looking upinformation about breathing
practices and I came across thisresearch right, and of course,
the research found that thisapparatus, this product, was
(25:22):
highly effective at improvingdiaphragmatic strength.
But then the only issue wasthat the study was actually
funded by the manufacturer ofthat particular product.
You may also find at the end ofthis study that the researchers
will disclose any potentialbiases.
(25:44):
So maybe they work for anorganization that has a product
like this.
Or I ran across one study whereone of the researchers actually
owned a company that taughtpeople how to teach breathing
techniques and they were atrainer of that breathing
technique.
So just make sure to look forthose biases, because one of the
(26:08):
goals of becoming evidenceinformed is that we are no
longer parroting disinformation,that we are on the good side,
the truth side.
Sometimes, unfortunately, we canfind that even studies which
are highly flawed may end upbeing highly acclaimed in the
media, which can be reallyconfusing.
(26:30):
And even in the yoga worldwe've seen some really shady
studies that got this kind oftreatment in the media.
The one that is top of mind isa study called 12 minute daily
yoga regimen reversesosteoporotic bone loss.
But really any study which isassociated with Dr Lauren
(26:51):
Fishman is probably going to bepretty shady.
So, even though you mightinitially be drawn in by all of
this great media attention thatthis study got, one way to
really immediately know if astudy is probably not worth your
(27:11):
time is if the results are justso incredible.
The effect size is justinsanely un-plausible.
So in this study, significantimprovements in bone mineral
density with just 12 minutes aday of asana practice.
(27:33):
And of course it shows this inthis handy dandy chart.
The full text article actuallyprovides the asana which are
included in the program as well,so it looks kind of reputable.
You're like, oh okay, I see it,there's a chart and it makes it
look really good.
But even when you look at theseasana that are included in the
program, none of them, accordingto the best evidence on bone
(28:03):
health, even remotely meet thecriteria for providing adaptive
stress to bones sufficient toimprove bone mineral density.
So this is why just one studyis never enough.
You're just going to keepreading research for the rest of
your life, because then you canlook at that and you already
have this body of knowledgethat's on board with you.
(28:24):
It's now implicit Understandingthat bone mineral density with
regard to movement can only beimproved through heavy heavy
resistance training or impacttraining like plyometrics or
running, and there's nothing inthis page of asana that even
comes close none of that in thisstudy.
(28:46):
So if the results look too goodto be true, or they've
disclosed some of the methodsbut they're sort of like sparse,
that's a really good sign.
It's not worth your time.
Another example is like I oftenrun across studies that come
from institutions in India withvery extreme claims and a lot of
(29:09):
these institutions that areconducting this research are
institutions that provide yogaright.
So in this case the BS detectoris going to go up twice because
there's a really high risk ofbias, because the institution
has a vested interest in makingyoga look more effective.
And then the other part is thatvery often the results are just
(29:36):
way over the top.
There's not to say that therearen't great studies coming out
of Indian institutions as well,so we shouldn't just like blank
it, throw these away.
But I'm trying to arm you withtools so you can find the good
ones, so that you can find thereal strategies that can help
you in your teaching and helpyour students and your clients.
(29:57):
So, in general, there are threedimensions one can use to
determine credibility, whichwe've already kind of discussed,
but we'll break them down herethe method and data transparency
.
The analytic reproducibility androbustness and the effect
(30:20):
replicability.
So you know, a lot of times astudy will come out which is
showing something that is reallyawesome, and all of the methods
, everything's on point, it'sjust perfect.
And we all look at it and wesay, okay, this is cool.
Now let's see if somebody canreplicate it.
So the first couple of studiescan be exciting and they can
(30:47):
certainly trigger more interestand more research into that area
, but we need to be a little bitconservative about how we take
those results in the firstcouple of studies that are
showing something really cool.
So let's break it down a littlebit.
When you pick up a paper andyou're going to give it a read,
(31:11):
what you'll want to see is aclear statement of purpose in
the abstract, which defines thestudy in detail, provides the
statistical results, discussesany correlations and can be
reproduced by other researchteams.
You will be particularlycautious of studies that may
(31:32):
gross over generalizations andyou'll want to make sure that
the conclusion is reasonable andlogical in the context of the
findings, and that's anotherreason why, if you go all the
way to the end to the discussion, sometimes you can see if
there's anything that may makethe study not worth your time.
Remember that reading andunderstanding scientific
(31:53):
research is the skill thatimproves only with practice,
just like your yoga practice.
You probably were not as adeptat it when you started as you
are today.
You have put in the time.
You have learned intellectually, emotionally, anatomically,
(32:15):
even down to a cellular level,right.
The same thing happens withreading research.
You'll become more adept atcritically evaluating and
extracting valuable insightsfrom papers the more you read
them.
As I shared at the beginning ofthis episode, I really have a
(32:38):
passion for evidence-informedpractice and I really do believe
that evidence-informed practiceis the future of yoga and yoga
teaching.
So I hope very much that thiswas helpful.
If you're looking for moreguidance on becoming an
evidence-informed yin teacher, Ireally would recommend that you
(33:00):
have a look at the module 1 ofmy yin yoga teacher training.
My yin yoga teacher training isdivided into two modules.
Module 1 is online, completelyself-paced, and it's mostly
about the science of fascia andconnective tissue and how we
might apply that science to ourpractice or our teaching.
(33:22):
In the second module, that oneis actually in-person and that's
going to be more theboots-on-the-ground nitty-gritty
aspects of teaching thepractice and using that evidence
with our students.
So if you're interested inlearning all about connective
(33:43):
tissue what it is, how itbehaves, how we could train or
influence it in yin and whatthat means for our teaching and
especially our teaching languageI really recommend that you
have a look at that module 1.
I'm going to add a link to theshow notes in case you want to
give it a gander.
(34:03):
I also want to let you know thatin November, I'm going to be
offering two live Q&A calls forthose enrolled in module 1.
This is not an option that Ialways offer.
Usually, module 1 is completelyself-guided.
You have the course forever.
You can consume the content atwhatever speed that you may like
(34:25):
, but I think to have access tome and other people who are
learning alongside with you isincredibly valuable.
So that's why I'm offering thosetwo calls.
Those are included in the pricefor your module 1.
So I highly recommend that youregister this month.
If you've been sitting on thefence, now is the best time to
(34:46):
do it.
I do offer a payment plan, soit is totally, totally doable.
Okay, so in the nextinstallment of this series on
becoming an evidence-informedyin teacher or student, we are
going to dive into some researchthat I think has been
(35:08):
particularly influential to meas a yin teacher, and I can't
wait to share some of that withyou so you can kind of see how
we use all of this stuff thatwe've been talking about in
practice.
So I hope to have you for thenext installment.
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