Lily Silverton, founder of allbodyyoga.com, first discovered yoga in her early teens. She suffered from scoliosis – curvature of the spine – which gave her chronic back pain, but discovered that practising the activity helped ease her symptoms. “It was transformative,” she says. “I decided to become a teacher and help others like me.”
Today, Silverton teaches across London and abroad, including free classes with the charity OurParksUK and workshops for upmarket members’ club Soho House. She teaches principally a combination of hatha yoga, a form that prioritises breathing and stretching, and vinyasa, a challenging practice that demands continuous movement, as well as yin, involving slow holds that work on the joints and connective tissue.
Some 20 years after her own introduction to yoga, Silverton finds people much like her younger self in her classes. “Lots of people arrive at yoga with aches and pains,” she explains. “A lot of my students have demanding desk jobs, which leave them with painful shoulders, or they cycle, which means tight calves that can be uncomfortable.” Doctors are increasingly recommending yoga and Pilates to those struggling with back pain or muscular tightness, she adds.
To make sure no one in the class pushes themselves too far, Silverton starts every session by asking if anyone has injuries. “I ask while everyone is lying down, and people just have to put a hand on their belly to show me they need to be careful of a problem,” she says. “They don’t have to let everyone else know in the class by putting their hand up.”
Newcomers to yoga often don’t understand the difference between the discomfort of stretching a muscle and the pain of damaging one, so Silverton pays close attention to the faces in her class. “If someone is really grimacing or looks very uncomfortable, then they’ve probably gone too far. At which point I’ll gently suggest they adjust their position,” she reveals.
In fact, one of Silverton’s toughest jobs is preventing ambitious would-be yogis from pushing themselves beyond a sensible limit. “Everyone’s bodies are different and even some people who have been doing yoga for 10 years still won’t be able to get into certain positions,” she says. “And bodies even change from day to day, you can’t always push a movement as far.”
One student recently insisted on trying to do a testing back bend, known as “wheel pose” despite having wrists that would not bend that way. “I kept saying this is not the pose for you, but she kept trying to do it anyway,” Silverton says. “It’s nothing to do with flexibility or strength, sometimes it’s about small differences in the skeleton. I think injuries can occur when teachers – or practitioners – are too dogmatic about a posture and its alignment. If you force yourself to do something that doesn’t feel right, you end up doing more harm than good.”
It is a worry that students may hurt themselves in class, she admits: “But as a yoga instructor you have to expect that this may happen at some point.”
Yoga instructors also have to be mindful that not all aches and pains are physical. “You’re dealing with physical health, but mental health, too,” Silverton says. “As a yoga teacher you need to be aware of that. Some people might cry in your class. You hold a lot of emotion in your joints and body so as you stretch, things can come out. People may arrive on the mat after having a bad day at work or other emotional upheaval.”
Silverton is used to seeing her students show emotion in her classes, but it needs to be handled delicately. “They may not want to tell you what’s wrong so I would never try and pry,” she says. “But you can take them a tissue and ask if they want to rest in child’s pose [one of the most relaxing in yoga].”
Silverton, who practises yoga every day and sees an osteopath regularly, accepts that the frequency and intensity of the exercise she does could result in her own injuries. “I do my level best not to push myself too far and take care of my energy levels,” she says, adding that using a foam roller to massage sore muscles each week has been key to staying injury free.
While you give advice and guidance to help students undertake activities safely, and try to keep yourself safe from injury as well, there’s still a chance these things could happen. “A student could injure themselves and make a claim against you as a result,” says Sean Carney, Training Profession Underwriter from Hiscox. “A professional indemnity policy could help protect you if a claim is made against you. Similarly, a personal accident policy could help protect any loss of income if you’re unable to work due to an injury of your own. A good insurance plan can help fitness instructors from across all disciplines to protect their livelihoods.”
Silverton has yet to experience an injury in her class, despite welcoming students with health complaints. “This was why I became a yoga teacher, because I had such a beneficial experience when I was in pain,” she says. “My experience really taught me that everyone needs to find their own pace, and flow, and that no two people are the same.”
“I really love it,” she adds. “I feel truly lucky that I get to teach it every day.”
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Hiscox, sponsor of the Adventures in Business hub on the Guardian Small Business Network.
