The debate on the potential risks for yoga practitioners to incur injuries is not recent and is periodically relaunched by international newspapers with more or less detailed topics.
In 2013, the book signed by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner W.J. Broad "The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards" presented some alarming statistics of injuries and incidents occurring in the United States during yoga classes. The book denounced, with intellectual honesty, the crucial problem at the origin of the wounds: that is, the quality of the teachings given and therefore of the teachers. On the other hand, Broad stressed the potential benefits (benefits) arising from the practice, stressing that where there is expertise, yoga is a resource. The tradition of B.K.S. Iyengar came out in a very favorable light, with numerous references to Iyengar teachers who have and are devoting their lives to the science of Yoga, including Mel Robin author of the book "Manual for teachers Yogasana: the incorporation of neuroscience, physiology and anatomy in practice ".

The current novelty is that, in addition to the problem of the quality of teaching and teachers, it is not practice itself that is under accusation but the vanity of teachers and practitioners. A beautiful article of 3 November in "The Telegraph", relaunched soon after by BBC News, Glamour and other newspapers, clearly denounced how yoga is practiced today mainly for aesthetic and fashion reasons, with disruptive effects (literally) on back health, hips and knees of practitioners. As we read in the article, Instagram conscious teachers - that is, aware of today’s importance of performing on Instagram to self-promote and improve themselves - are more and more victims of injuries in an attempt to be portrayed in difficult poses and thus be labeled, on and off social media, as good teachers and experts.

On the other hand, the tendency to practice sports to display later on social networks is transversal and does not only concern yoga. In the yoga community, however, the aggravating circumstance, if we can define it that way, is that the practice of Yoga should have as its central node the resolution of the cognitive problem of self-representation and egoic personification caused by the contact between the seen and the seeing person (samyoga). We are facing a paradox.

In Yoga, every effort (tapas) should have a genuine purpose (prayojana) and certainly not a purpose induced vicariously by fashion, clichés in order to achieve a given social status. It is therefore worth asking again why yoga is practiced. If the answer is "to get better", "to make my back pain go away", "to have greater awareness", "to be less stressed" we are still on the right track. Otherwise, we will soon change practice, following a latest trend, or we will try to become yoga teachers (even as beginner practitioners) because that status is socially recognized and corroborating.

Bibliografia
Mel Robin (2009). Handbook for Yogasana Teachers: the Incorporation of Neuroscience, Physiology and Anatomy into the Practice. Wheatmark Eds

William J. Broad (2013). "The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards"

The Thelegraph (2019) “Instagram is fuelling rise in injuries among yoga teachers who want perfect social media post, experts warn” - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/03/instagram-fueling-rise-injuries-among-yoga-teachers-want-perfect/?fbclid=IwAR3d0vS-NAKpOVbLwFwGHpFyqR2EMzggQThRyXes2Cd237mA8MYUKD9er6Y

BBC News (2019) “Yoga teachers 'risking serious hip problems”
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50181155?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook&ocid=socialflow_facebook&fbclid=IwAR1DvHe7xBMbd_pQ5InQVTNJ18NomkkddeVTf2dzbMQhQnfEne9ilg6Ep5g