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YOGA & Physical
Therapy
Yoga is the oldest form of exercise and movement awareness, having been practiced in India for thousands of years. It was finally brought
to the United States in the 1920's for its meditative and spiritual effects, which were new and interesting to the west. At that time, the modern dance community,
including Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, embraced these spiritual aspects of yoga and Indian culture. Again in the 1960's, the meditative and spiritual aspects of yoga
were popularized by the Beatles. However, it was not until the 1990's that the physical, or Hatha, component of the study of yoga began to gain interest in this country
after the aerobics boom of the 1980's. This new look at yoga, primarily for exercise, has brought us an Americanization of yoga with Bikram or hot box yoga, Yogalaties,
and numerous other variations on the theme, which have made yoga a generic term. Many of these "new and so called improved" versions have simplified and extracted aspects
of the two major, comprehensive, true to form, yoga systems that came from India, which are BKS Iyengar Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga.
Both of these systems incorporate and explore all facets of yoga into their practice for full body, mind and spiritual awareness.
Mr. Gallagher began studying yoga in 1982 while dancing in Philadelphia. There were few yoga studios in that area at that time, so he purchased B.K.S.
Iyengar's book Light on Yoga and began independent daily practice of the asanas from the book. In 1987 after graduating from physical therapy school, Mr. Gallagher made a
pilgrimage to B.K.S. Iyengar's school in India to study from the source, where he discovered that he was practicing many of the asanas poorly or wrong. As a performer himself,
he exhibited many of the common imbalances seen in dancers, and Mr. Iyengar stressed to him the need for balance in the body. He found the Iyengar system to be very specific
about placement and alignment and began to consider its particular benefits for performers. As with many of the systems that Mr. Gallagher has studied, he has incorporated yoga
principles into his physical therapy exercises and stretches that are specific to performers as well as non performers. He has integrated the placement, alignment and balance
principles learned practicing Iyengar yoga into his manual therapy as well. He continues to practice yoga personally.
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