Soulful meditation, quiet solitude and deep connection with the body’s core are usually what come to mind when imaging yoga; not the hip-displacing, vertebrae-popping and stroke-inducing activity that preys on fit college students and lifelong yoga masters alike. However, a recent article in The New York Times has cautioned just that.

The article, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” has caught the attention and ire of yoga enthusiasts, as well as the confusion and curiosity of readers across the country, by presenting the ancient Indian practice as inherently dangerous, with lurking injuries waiting to attack with each downward-facing dog inversion or lotus pose stretch.

Since its introduction to the western world, yoga has evolved into a booming fitness craze and lucrative industry, with an estimated 20 million Americans currently practicing it. With so many practitioners at all different levels of fitness experience trying to twist and bend like rubber-boned gurus, a certain amount of injuries are bound to occur.

While some yoga-related injuries may be severe, data comparison puts the overall danger of yoga into perspective. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, only 5,500 cases of yoga-related injuries were reported in 2007, averaging 3.5 injuries for every 10,000 practitioners.

At this rate, golfing and weight training pose more of a threat. In the same year, the CPSC reported 103,000 golfing injuries while the American Journal of Sports Medicine reports an average of 57,000 weight training-related injuries each year.

“You can get hurt doing anything,” creator of University of California, San Diego’s yoga teacher training program Arturo Galvez said. “I ride a motorcycle for fun and I’ve trained. I’ve taken classes, I wear a helmet, I wear a jacket with padding; and yet in the back of my head I know, this is a dangerous little thing I like doing. You take all your precautions … and then you enjoy it.”

Galvez has more than 25 years experience in Hatha Yoga and got his start in India studying with world-renowned teachers B.K.S. Iyengar and Indra Devi. Galvez, like most in the yoga community, does not deny the risks involved with modern-day yoga, especially for those with preexisting injuries or ailments. However, he does not support claims that most people should not practice yoga, or that it is inherently dangerous.

“I don’t recommend to them, ‘don’t do yoga.’ I recommend to them to go find a smaller class and a teacher who has the experience to handle their problem,” Galvez said. “Find someone who can give you the attention and that has the experience, and if that happens then it can be great.”

Galvez suggests the way yoga is currently marketed to Americans and the way it is increasingly practiced is the source of such risk and injury. The problem lies not in the practice of yoga itself, but in the increase of large classes taught by inadequate teachers to a constantly changing group of practitioners with the main focus of yoga as an exercise.

“I do recommend yoga to patients, but instructors need to have the knowledge and be trained properly to be able to give you the correct verbal cues,” San Diego State Director of Clinical Education Kelly Prescher said. “Otherwise, there is definite potential for injury.”

Prescher, who is also an orthopedic physical therapist, echoes Galvez’s praise and support for the values and benefits of yoga, contingent upon finding an instructor with adequate skills and experience.

In 45 years of combined experience, neither Galvez nor Prescher have knowledge of anyone who has been injured by practicing yoga. Instead, both specialists have seen numerous clients reap the rewards and benefits associated with the practice. Yoga has been associated with more than 50 well-documented medical and psychological benefits, such as stress relief, improved circulation and reduced depression and anxiety.

Yoga experts such as Galvez seem to agree that to fully benefit from yoga and avoid injury, the practice needs to be approached with more awareness by all involved. Aspiring yogis must strive for balance, take into account personal limitations and remember: Yoga may be physical, but it’s also psychological.

Galvez will be teaching a Healthy Back Yoga class at the Aztec Recreation Center every Friday from this Friday to April 13 from 11 a.m. to noon. The class is $60 with ARC membership and $70 without.