Yoga integrated into a full body workout

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My wife and daughter have been doing a subscription workout series for gym class since we homeschool. Today, the workout was mostly aimed at stretching. Most of the postures were clearly yoga position inspired though they never used the actual names. Is this morally problematic? The goal of the program is fitness and has nothing to do with a spiritual practice. Any thoughts on this or how you explain to an 8 year old that certain body postures could be bad spiritually?
 
I am not sure what the problem is or why you need to explain any stretching poses to your 8 year old if they are not being done with any sort of spiritual component. There are only so many ways one can move. If it coincides with a yoga pose, so what? As long as your are not doing yoga as meditation, I wouldn’t worry about it.
 
Yoga stretching is just stretching if you don’t get involved in the spiritual aspects of it.

If running or swimming was a form of worship in some religion, do you think you would be commiting idolatry by doing the backstroke?
 
We had a Priest friend that said all yoga is opening yourself up to the demonic. That is why I am asking for opinions. It felt a bit confusing…
 
Your priest friend is right but are you practicing yoga?
 
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Greetings,

As a convert Catholic who was raised in a spiritually mixed household I will tell you this. Both my parents identified as Christians but my father came from India and had some Hindu/Vedic influence which is were Yoga comes from. So essentially I grew up with Yoga a bits of the Hindu/Vedic traditions.

Yoga is sourced from a variety of Sanskrit texts but mostly the Vedas which simply mean “knowledge.” Later on a man by the name of Patanjali distilled all these texts and traditions and codified them into the practices of Yoga which is known as the Yoga Sutras. So while Yoga does have a Hindu influence, yoga itself is more so a science of spirituality. The pioneers of yoga essentially studied the effects that living a healthy spiritual life has on human body, mind and spirit. “Yoga” itself means “union” which is the aim of yoga, to synchronize the body, mind and spirit and gain a mastery over each of these. While doing the poses will do no harm, there are Hindu components to Yogic practice that will be spiritually negative if you are Catholic or a non-Hindu such as the recitation of certain mantras, chants and prayers. These should be avoided. Thankfully, our Holy Mother Church has provided us with alternatives to these such as the Rosary, and the various Chaplets and Novenas which are essentially Catholic mantras and can be recited accordingly. You can recite these to meditate while sitting crossed legged or the “Lotus” position and reap the spiritual benefit. Yoga is designed not to be a substitute of any religion but rather give an added dimension and understanding to it. So any person from any religious tradition can practice Yoga while remaining true to their faith so long as they do not partake in certain rituals and the recitation of certain mantras, chants, etc. These should be substituted with the Sacraments and Catholic prayers.

I apologize for going into this issue at length but I see a lot of well intended Christians practice yoga without proper guidance to the point they do make themselves spiritually vulnerable as well as a lot of other Christians who oppose yoga without really understanding what it is. I highly recommend reading this edition Yoga Sutras by Patanjali which I listed below. It will help you practice Yoga without compromising your faith.


Hope this helps.

In Christ,

Luke
 
I would inquire as to how much and how well does your priest know about Yoga. Unfortunately what they teach in the seminary is often very insufficient.
 
TepeyacTraveler said:
certain body postures could be bad spiritually
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Body postures in and of themselves are not “bad spiritually”. You do not expose yourself to some demon by simply posing your body in a certain way. That’s superstition.

As someone else said, bodies have a limited range of movement, and certain so-called “yoga poses” are going to come up in a lot of contexts, such as stretching before you run, taking dance or gymnastics classes, or even just laying on your back in bed. If we had to monitor our physical position to eliminate everything ever used in yoga, we’d be unable to move normally.

Any moral wrong in the case of yoga would come from something beyond just bodily stretching, such as saying prayers or phrases, or having a belief or intent to engage in some non-Catholic spiritual activity with your stretching.

There’s no need to discuss this with your daughter. She wasn’t doing yoga.
 
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I really appreciate the well thought out response. I don’t think we were/are doing anything wrong. These are basic stretching exercises that are healthy for mind and body. I can see where chanting and such could cross a line. We are nowhere near that and never will be. I just wanted some clarification and other viewpoints.
 
Well, it looks like you got it in spades! 😂

The problem comes in what I call “casual thinking”, Way, way back in time I attended a Jesuit run high school. They - the Jesuits - were seriously demanding that we be clear; I can’t even think of recalling how often I heard the phrase “define your terms” from one teacher or another. And given that high school students were inclined to bounce around, mentally, it slowed most of us down enough to try (often to our own embarrassment) to clarify our own questions.

So. Someone uses the term “yoga” and one individual thinks “stretching exercises using certain long-taught postures” and another thinks “Hindu based religious exercise”. It is not the speaker, but the listener who has not clarified with the speaker what is being referred to by the word. And clearly, there is more than one meaning of the word.
 
To be fair no one has said anything bad about just doing poses.
 
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Traditionally the physical branch of yoga was practiced with the recitation of certain mantras while doing certain poses such as Surya Namaskar. As this branch of yoga was spread throughout the West, emphasis has been placed on solely the physical postures and movements. These movements and postures have tremendous health benefits which are medically supported and have often successfully treated a myriad of health issues. So the postures and movements are just that. There’s nothing demonic about the postures and movements themselves. In yogic tradition these are used simply to properly regulate and enhance the functions of the body so that it is more conducive to being synchronized with one’s mind and spirit. Again, yoga means “union” in Sanskrit. That’s the purpose of yoga. You may find it helpful to recite a Latin prayer of choosing while doing Yoga. Personally, it’s a dream of mine to have the Catholic prayers translated into Sanskrit because one of the reasons the Vedic mantras are recited in Sanskrit is because the auditory value that the language has. The sound vibrations derived from reciting Sanskrit have a significant effect on the human person, and can be used both negatively and positively but nonetheless powerful.
 
Augustine-More said:
e reasons the Vedic mantras are recited in Sanskrit is because the auditory value that the language has. The sound vibrations derived from reciting Sanskrit have a significant effect on the human person, and can be used both negatively and positively but nonetheless powerful.
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This is very interesting. I never knew this.

Thank you.
 
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