Yoga — in all its forms — has an incredibly long history of practice and use across the globe. Depending on your goals or interests, the chances are pretty high that you will find a type of yoga best suited for you. For instance, DDP Yoga (DDPY) is a popular form of yoga among people with limited mobility or disabilities. What is DDPY? What makes this form the go-to yoga for people with disabilities?
The History of DDPY
DDPY was developed by professional wrestler Dallas Page, known as Diamond Dallas Page, as a way to treat his own sports-related injuries. During his career, Page suffered multiple injuries, culminating in the rupture of two discs in his spine. To minimize the effects of his injury, Page mixed different low-impact training with rehabilitation methods and traditional yoga movements.
After a few different iterations, DDPY was developed. In addition to yoga-based exercises, this training program uses calisthenics and cardiovascular exercise. Participants can increase their strength and balance while also potentially losing weight.
Is Yoga for Disabled People Effective?
What makes DDPY a particularly useful form of yoga for people with disabilities? As mentioned, DDPY was specifically created with injured athletes in mind. It purposely excludes anything that might irritate or worsen injuries, including high-impact movements. By effectively reducing the amount of stress placed on your joints, you can protect them from further injury. However, it's also important to find a way to stay active and correct the weaknesses or imbalances associated with your existing injuries.
The DDPY program is scalable, which means that workouts can — and should be — adjusted to fit individual strengths, weakness and limitations. The exercises also increase in difficulty to ensure continued progress. The DDPY websites boasts several pages of success stories from individuals who have overcome a variety of different challenges with truly impressive results. Of course, there is a disclaimer that these results are "not typical or guaranteed." Still, it is encouraging to see others who have successfully done DDPY despite various physical and emotional limitations.
Important Considerations
So, is DDPY a suitable and effective yoga for disabled individuals? Based on it's low-impact design, inclusion of other rehabilitation methods and scalability, you would assume the answer to be "yes." Of course, this largely depends on your goals and adherence to the overall program. Exercise is all about regularity. It's also important to consult with your doctor before beginning a new exercise regime and understand that diet is much more influential to weight loss than exercise. So, if part of your goal in using DDPY is to lose weight, keep in mind that you will also need to reevaluate your diet.