In the future, your top will give you your yoga adjustment

In the Brave New World of yoga, you may not need a guru.

I just came across a little piece in the NY Daily News on a new “smart shirt” that’s being developed. The goal is a stretchy top that “is linked to a mobile app that lets you assess, manage, and track your performance in real-time. Added bonus: the prototype smart shirt is also part of a cloud-based platform that features a database of movements — not only Pilates and yoga but sports such as golf and baseball — for you to research and save.”

Via the NY Daily News

Things go even further: “The garment features stretchable, bendable sensors in the front, back, and sides of the tank top, along with haptic-feedback components located in the hips and shoulders. Out of alignment? The tank will give you a physical “nudge” where you need correcting.”

Physical nudge = adjustment, right?

Now, I suppose my initial reaction is to recoil from this, but as I try to reflect in a slightly more sober manner, I realize that for all the home practitioners out there, this perhaps could add to their practices. A video instruction is one thing. But what if David Swenson could load into an app the “proper” (and, perhaps “modified”) asana alignments for Ashtanga? Would that be a little like getting an adjustment from him?

Perhaps that’s a logical and reasonable step forward, a natural evolution from the VCR to DVD to online video.

Of course, to really get the full effect, one would need a full body suit. I can imagine myself getting away with a lot of bent legs (and bent arms, if it is a strapless number) without sensors running down to my calves.

I also can imagine, given Ashtanga’s reputation as a militant and harsh practice, someone coming up with the bright idea to add a little, mild electric jolt to those adjustments. “Bad man!” takes on a shocking new meaning.

Of course, with the way Ashtanga makes us at the Confluence Countdown sweat, I can’t help but suspect that the whole thing might short out.

And then it is back to the shala, for face-to-face time with the teacher.

Posted by Steve