Ashtanga and Gender: A New Study Begins

Arielle Nash is a kinesiologist. She’s also an Ashtanga teacher and student, currently practicing in Mysore. She wants to know what effect your gender has on your Ashtanga practice.

To find out, she’s conducting a world-wide research study, and she’s looking for practitioners and teachers from the global Ashtanga community to participate. The study is starting October 15, and so she needs some eager and curious volunteers. If you’re interested, you’ll be participating in a totally anonymous on line survey. When she has the results, she’ll share them. What does she want to know? Glad you asked.

• Is there a relationship between occurrence of injury in Ashtanga yoga and gender?
• Is the type of injury experienced through Ashtanga vinyasa (if any) related to gender?
• Does additional physical activity increase or decrease the incidence of injury?

In the second stage of her study, she’ll just be focusing on women—the ones from the initial survey who are interested in continuing, and who are regular practioners (still of child-bearing age). This portion will examine how a woman’s hormones affect, and affected by, a regular Asthanga practice. Areille writes,

Women who participate will gain valuable insight into their personal practice and be able to use their new knowledge to develop a deeper understanding of their body.

If you’re interested, you can sign up to participate in the study here.

Posted by Bobbie