As kids, our coaches encouraged us to: "Go for it, push to the maximum, try hard and work through the pain." As long as we didn't cheat, we were encouraged to beat the competition at any cost.

Those words helped to shape our bodies and character and are just as true today as they were then. That is, until we approached or turned 40.or became chronically ill or injured. Pushing our body to the maximum and working through pain no longer works.

When younger, we pushed hard; and when we over extended ourselves or were injured, we'd rest a few days, then continue on where we left off.

But as we aged or became injured or ill, our bodies no longer responded and recovered as they once did. After pushing hard, a price is paid the next day.and the day after that. When injured, a few days rest doesn't help. Instead, recovery takes a month or two.if we recover at all.

Ageing takes its toll upon our bodies and no longer affords us the resiliency of youth. That's the beauty of youth. Younger people can take tons of abuse, push their edges to the maximum.and still perform well.

My sole reason for taking up yoga is because I wanted to improve my basketball. The cause-and-effect of yoga was awesome; the more I aggressively pushed my yoga, the more my basketball improved.

But that was then and this is now: My body is older and I've experienced both injury and illness. Everything is different. It seems like the harder I try, the less I get. The more aggressive I become, the higher the price I pay afterwards.

The literature says that yoga reduces stress and calms the mind. But how can you calm the mind when your body is screaming from the discomfort of trying to do yoga.

I have an inquiring mind and wanted to know why if a little bit of yoga feels good, why does a lot of yoga hurt and often cause injury.

I wanted to learn how to restore both my health and athleticism with yoga. I wanted to learn how to improve my strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness all without injury.

Over the past 25 years, my study of kinesiology, anatomy, and physiology as applied to yoga-based exercise has led to some amazing concepts. For instance: Correctly minimizing stretching and strengthening actually increases flexibility, strength, and endurance; and, the harder you try, the less you get. In fact, almost everything in this yoga system is counter-intuitive to what we learned in athletics.

The above article was written by Sam Dworkis. This article and others can be seen on his webiste at www.extensionyoga.com