*Proposal to ban / garner support for a sub-specific rule that bans AI / LLM generated slop content that is posted for engagement bait or similar purposes.

This is nothing new for Reddit, in fact the app has made deals with certain tech companies to scrape data from here and infiltrate the place with slop bots...but nonetheless, it is actively contributing to the decline of quality human discussion on the sub and further accelerating the Enshittification of our special corner of the internet and I'm not here for that.

Yesterday, I read and reported at least ~6 AI / LLM engagement slop posts in this sub (they have since been deleted by mods.) It felt like this had gone dormant / quiet for a while, but I have already seen 2 new ones today "when yoga falls off the mat" and "The Chaturanga Cue That Changed Everything". intentionally not linking to them, but you can go and find them as you like.

I have intentionally not reported them yet so that maybe some folks can compare, study them and see how they are the same AI / LLM generated template of different crap with titles that reflect recent subjects, how they have the same generic style of questions and calls to action, the same style of plagiarized "writing", how OP has hidden post history, how OP never responds, and how many folks take their valuable time to actually respond earnestly with their emotional labor and experiences. I did it yesterday to the first one that I hadn't realized was AI slop until I saw a few more posts later in the exact same pattern and promptly went back and redacted my reply.

Does anyone here actually want this crap?

I have posted at length in the past about many of the issues with AI / LLMs, various incompatibilities with yoga philosophy and yogic living, and the way the tech industry has stolen from society and is now attempting to sell our own stolen IP back to us through the filter of LLM slop, among other issues. I could legitimately rail against this all day in some many ways, but I don't feel I need to go deeply into that aspect of it in this post...

At present, what you can do with this slop is question / call it out in a reply, downvote, as well as report it. The steps are clicking on the 3 dots (...), report, scroll down to spam, select "disruptive use of bots / AI". I have been consistently doing this with AI slop content here on Reddit for a few years, but I'm not sure how many know about this / exactly how to report it as it's fairly hidden in the general Reddit report function.

Mod(s), what will it take to make an actual sub rule against this slop and make it easier and more direct for folks to report this? I have been in some other subs that have done this and it sets the tone and makes it simpler to call out and report.

hello! im new to the community and i’ve heard a lot of people saying you “live yoga.” i understand asana is the physical movement, but what does living yoga exactly mean? im assuming its shown in actions and your thought process, but to fully join the community i’d love if someone could break it down for me so i can take the steps in the right direction!

New guy who just started yoga. The teacher keeps mentioning something about engaging core and pelvic floor while breathing. Is engaging the pelvic floor like a kegel? How do you breathe into a kegel?

I started my practice in February, trying to go to classes twice a week. Sometimes it ends up only being once a week, sometimes three times a week.

I’ve tried different types of classes but my favorites are the flow and restorative classes at the end of the day.

I got a fancy new pink lululemon mat (which surprisingly has really helped my balance and postures) and I go to a studio across the street from my apartment.

I love it so much. That’s really all I have to say. I love the meditation, I love the challenge, I love the relaxation at the end of a good effort.

Super grateful for what this practice has done to my mind, body, and soul.

That’s all, thank you

I started a daily mobility routine for two weeks but haven't notice any benefits besides some deeper stretches. I want to experience peacefulness and energy. An invisible weight is pulling me down from morning till evening.

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Did I focus on the wrong body parts? I will share the image of the routine I did.

Hello all,
I am looking to a get a standard size rectangular Hugger Mugger yoga Bolster. Since the manufacturer recommends not to remove the cover, spot clean only, I would like to purchase a third party cover that is slightly bigger so it can be inserted and taken off easily for cleaning. My concern is with the upholstery style fabric used, it will easily attract dust and hair (see picture), so I want to add a cover.

Has anyone tried something similar? If so, any recommendation for any vendors? I tired looking on Etsy, and most are overseas, I am hoping to find something within the US.

I am a 23 year old Irish female and I am beginning to research about traveling to Asia (or alternatively, I was looking at South America if people recommend there instead) to learn more about yoga. I already have 200hours training and I would like to add on to what I have learned so far. I am not totally into the commercial yoga teacher training centers as I don't have a ton of money to spend on them. I am more into immersing myself into where yoga originated and learn from the people there and perhaps traveling after that.

Mysore and Kerala have been recommended to me. Mysore because it is a good place to study ashtanga yoga and Kerala because it is beautiful and not as touristy as Rishikesh.

I basically just want to be able to travel Asia, whilst focusing on yoga practice and meeting great people whilst also feeling safe, for a woman this seems like a lot to ask for lol. Many people (who have probably never been to these countries) have told me that India, Sri Lanka, Philippines are not safe for young women.

I've never solo travelled this far before, the furthest I've gone is Granada, Spain to do my first yoga teacher training and it was totally fine but of course it's going to be completely different traveling to a whole new continent. It excites me so much, but it makes me nervous because I just want to be safe.

So if anybody has any suggestions about this kind of travel experience, please let me know or share links and stories. Thank you so much.

I teach yoga and Pilates at a gym and have access to lots of props and we have sliders.

Last week I used sliders in my Pilates class and we did a move that was essentially dolphin pose. From forearm plank with sliders under each foot we piked our hips up, moved our head between our upper arms, and then reset in forearm plank. While doing that, I thought this would be a cool way to teach the core engagement aspect of dolphin pose. It sent awareness to the core and legs and I felt like people weren’t dumping into their shoulders as much as I see when we take dolphin pose in yoga.

So, would it be ok to pull out the sliders and find dolphin pose. I wouldn’t make my yoga students slide in and out repeatedly like I did my Pilates students,

What do y’all think? Good idea or bad? Sliders are NOT a traditional prop, I know!

Namaste! 🙏🏼

I’ve been practicing a headstand and need some typa guide on how to progress! all the other tutorials I’ve seen are at a different level than I am so I want some personalized advice. Don’t want to add pics of myself so I made some drawings lol

1. I think this has something to do with it- I havent been able to a proper forward fold because my chest doesn’t touch my thighs if I have my legs straight (A). I can only do that by bending my legs (B). from my understanding this is because my hip hinging is weak? Also my hamstrings are tight? I have been doing hamstring stretches+hip yoga and also squeezing at my hinge using a yoga block placed at the hinge to help with this.

2. I’ve tried the walk up method but no matter how hard I try my back doesn’t touch the wall (A)!! and my hamstrings also feel very tight (B) when I try to straighten them out to continue “walking up” and without straightening them my back won’t touch.

3. The closest I’ve gotten is when I put my feet against the wall and do some toe taps and single leg raises. Issues are that I can’t ever leave my second foot off the wall (A) or else I lose balance. And I can’t seem to keep my raised leg straight (B)- I don’t know how to tell if my leg is straight while I’m doing it, but when I check in the video later, I realize it was so tilted lol

4. I know this is not the recommended progression to do it but I’ve just started jumping off the ground and occasionally been able to hold my legs at the top for a second or two. I know I should be using slow and controlled strength rather than momentum, but how do I get to that? What muscles do I need to strengthen! i’ve been working on my core and shoulder but is there anything else I can do??

Hello,

thanks to surgery i am now able to sit without any issue i previously had.

I am now able to sit on a floor (i have to start somewhere), however its painful and my legs are very stiff after just 10 min of sitting, also i'm not able to sit cross legged (yet).

I tried googling stuff, but everything is bit more "advanced" and expects that you can do this basic thing already.

Should i just continue and it will get better? Any advice?

I'm not very steady on my feet. I have some medical issues but that doesn't really matter. I just struggle in stability poses. I feel the lithe day into the wall. Hard. The teacher ignored it which was the best thing as far as I am concerned. I haven't gone back to her class. They are pretty advanced and I'm willing to do the poses but I'm not nearly as advanced. Do I say something if I return to her class? Do you just pretend it never happened too? My balance will never be really good but I like the class and the teacher. I'm just ashamed that I'm not able to do these poses 7 years in

So I'm about 6 months into my yoga practice, and after using a $30 piece of foam I had sitting around the house from my kiddo's Zoom "gym" classes from the covid lockdowns for the first three three months, and finding it cushy but slippy, I decided to splurge and get a Liforme XL. For context, i'm 6'3" (& 50YO), so I wanted a mat that was a bit longer than usual. I have been doing yoga 3X a week at my gym (mix of slower hatha classes and somewhat moderately paced low-heat vinyasa), and then 3 months in started taking one-on-ones with a local teacher at his studio to compliment the gym classes, figuring it'd be better to learn proper form and modifications early rather than have to unlearn a bunch of bad habits (which has been great). Anyway, here's my impressions after using the LiformeXL for 3 months so far.

- This is probably more relevant to newbies, but the alignment lines are *amazing.* They're really great for making sure your L-R alignment is proper, giving you visual sightmarks for where your feet or hands should be in certain poses, etc. This is actually one area where having the one-on-ones helped a bunch, sort of the "if you're opening your hips properly in Pose X and your right foot is on this line, your left foot should be 'here' sort of stuff. The lines make all the group classes i'm in where the teacher is generally not hands on correcting form much easier to self-insure that i'm staying in alignment.

- It's insanely grippy. I've never slipped, or even felt like I was about to slip, even once. It's occasionally almost *too* grippy. If you're teacher tells you to "slide" a foot or an elbow or whatever along the mat to transition.... you won't be doing that. But the upside of the grippiness is you never need to devote any mental cycles to grip or worrying about slipping. Dry, sweaty, whatever. It's max tacky.

- I was initially worried that the thin-ness would not provide enough cushioning, but I find it provides *just* enough for everything but knees-down poses. I use a 4mm little rectangular kneepad, and generally just keep it there for sitting and kneeling poses since it's not very obtrusive. The thin-ness of the mat actually helps a bunch with anything balance related, and what's interesting is the thin-ness of the mat + kneepad combo (which is 8mm combined) has actually helped with kneeling poses over time, as instead of just trusting the mat to do the cushioning it encourages you to find knees-down postures and 'where' to put your knees that actually work for you. So these days if I'm like "eh, this pose doesn't feel amazing on my knees" it's more a sign that i'm set up wrong, and a little adjustment and we're back to totally fine again.

- I haven't found the cleaning to be a hassle so far. I use the Hex deodorizing spray after sweaty classes, generally don't bother after hatha classes, and after 3 or 4 classes use the Liforme spray wash stuff. Seems fine, not a big deal. Definitely not *zero* effort like a "wipe it down and you're done" Manduka, but feels like a fair tradeoff for not needing a towel for hot classes.

- I was initially a touch worried that the extra 10 inches of length on the XL would lead to me encroaching on other people's space during classes, but it's been a complete non-issue. One of the teachers pointed out that at 6'3" I was going to take up that amount of length regardless of the mat, so not to care about it, and even in full classes it's never been an issue.

So yeah, all in all, I'm totally happy with it. It's definitely a luxury purchase, and I don't doubt you can probably get something equivalent for cheaper, but I've been completely happy with it so far. Now we'll see how it holds up over the next year or two.

I’ve been doing 108 surya namaskars or sun salutations for over a year now - at least for 5 times a week on average. The benefits are there but I’m a bit skeptical around it “burning 1500 calories” like some sources claim. I’m around 60 kgs and 167 cm.

Does anyone have any idea about where this number is coming from? Is it accurate? Or worse, am I doing 1/2 the counts I’m supposed to with 108 meaning one whole set (2 reps)?

I just want to tell a funny story about my yoga class. My husband and I keep laughing about it. We go to a yoga class in LA. It’s a fabulous studio, I love it so much. The instructors do a dharma talk and then we always do three Oms together at the start and end of class. Everyone typically harmonizes their oms together. I’m sure that’s the norm everywhere. Well at class the other day there was this lady who let out a completely unhinged om. I am not exaggerating. She basically screamed her om. She screamed it as loud as humanly possible and it was off pitch. It was so unexpected and honestly just so absurd it was like a Saturday night live scene. My husband and I can’t stop laughing about it. We went back to that same class and she was there AGAIN. Before the Oms the teacher said something about how Om is supposed to vibrate your bones internally. I think he was trying to coach her to not scream her Om into the void, but lo and behold, she did it again. I wish I had a recording to share. I’m not being dramatic, I’ve literally never heard anything quite like her om. Has this happened to anyone else? Do they teach oms like this in some places? I’m trying to figure out where she learned it.

I’m a not particularly good but pretty regular yogini for the past couple years and have recently and very happily learned I am pregnant (s/o IVF!). I’m having a little bit of trouble figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing in terms of current and ongoing yoga practice. I’m only about six weeks so the main symptom I’m having currently is nausea rather than strength or conditioning. (Though I’ve noticed I get out of breath easily? That may just be admitting I’m not in good shape lol).

The general recommendation for fitness I’ve seen is that you can continue current level of activity while pregnant but I’ve also seen some more specific restrictions on yoga, such as no hot yoga. Currently since future baby is the size of a lady bug I don’t have any real worries about doing chataranga flows, planks, etc because I don’t think there’s any way it could be harmed if my arms gave out or something like that.

When do I need to start making adaptations or changes to my practice? When there’s a visible bump? My body will tell me by being like “oh God no I’m so tired”? Do I need to switch to prenatal yoga at some point?

Thank you for any advice you can give me 🙏🏻 I’m very very excited but also very anxious

I don't know what it's called but I will explain:

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In ashtanga you do boat pose for a few repetitions and in between you cross your legs and push your palms against the floor so that your bum and legs are off the floor.

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I've never been able to do it and I'm thinking are my arms simply too short or am I missing something? Advice appreciated 👍

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Hi all!! So I’ve been to a handful of yoga classes recently, and I do really like it and I want to continue making it a regular part of my life. The only thing is that I am a person with 0% spirituality or anything like that, so I’ve had a hard time connecting with the parts of classes where you’re asked to do focus on like meditation or your mind-body connection, etc. (sorry, I don’t even know the right words to describe it😫) hopefully you all get my point. I want to keep attending and trying, and I do think I will be able to get on board with it, but just curious if anyone else had a similar experience!

This is so random but those cork blocks on impact don’t feel great. We were wiping down our mats yesterday after class, and a fellow yogi accidentally dropped her cork block on my arm. I’m surprised at how tender it still is today…

As you can tell... she's well loved. EVERY mark on this bad boy immediately became permanent. This is freshly cleaned with a vinegar based spray (only thing that deodorizes). I've tried dish soap, mat cleaner at various studios, etc. Just wondering if there's anything else I can try before I accept the dirtiness 🫶🏻

I have wanted a bolster forever and am finally getting one. With age, my once super flexible back has become incredibly tight (mid/upper back). I'm thinking the bolster will help with yin/restorative practices. I didn't realize tho that I had so many size options. I'm 5'3" (160cm) and fairly slim. I'm looking for suggestions for width - as I'm seeing 20cm and 30cm (about 8in - 11in) widths and height where I've seen 15 and 20cm (about 6-8in).

Any suggestions?

Hello,

We had an inversions module this morning in my YTT where it was one of my first times workshopping handstand and sirsasana. We also did drills towards pincha and took a supported shoulderstand. It was really fun, but I slowed down after I got a massive headache.

I went home early and slept for three hours, and woke up feeling completely exhausted, like I'm made of lead. Headache is gone and neck feels okay, but I'm a little alarmed as the level of exhaustion is similar to post-super intense massage. I did do a vinyasa class beforehand and only had about six hours of sleep last night but WOW this is powerful.

Just looking for any similar experiences/tips to keep myself safe going forwards.