Fight the Patriarchy!

I am always in favor of listening to the body.  Sometimes what is generally true is not true for us, personally.  Sometimes we have to consider the source of the advice and we need to delve into research.

I’ve been doing a lot of yoga reading over the last while (no kidding!).  I found myself continually struck with the advice about what women should and should not do while menstruating.  (People with male bodies or who identify as male or who are upset at the whole idea of menstruating can tune out now.)  Since most of the advice was just that, no explanation offered, I was curious.  I also suspected that it might be historical bias rather than actual science.

I poked around a bit myself, looking for data, but then sicced the family librarian on the problem (turns out that when you send your kid to graduate school, you get to ask him research questions for the rest of his life!!!).  He found this link for me.  The short version:  most of the bias against various poses in yoga is a manifestation of the patriarchy.

Bottom line is, in yoga as in every other kind of exercise, don’t do it if it makes you feel worse.  Common sense does not cease to apply just because we are working out!