Yoga and injury

[puglogic]

Am I the only person on the planet who gets hurt doing yoga? I thought it was going to be a great supplement to my fitness program, but in the first few weeks I've woken up the next morning with spine issues....and now I'm afraid to go back (I'm sure I just overstretched....but it still hurts, and now it's not going away)

To the yoga-folks out there: Should I wait until I'm pain-free before going back, do you think, and then be sure I don't overdo it?

[Rosemary]

I have a lower back problem that I have to really watch when I'm doing yoga. I've definitely overdone it before and every time that happens, it takes weeks to months for me to be able to move normally again. The Yoga Journal website is pretty good - I think there is an area where you can look for poses that are recommended or not for particular musculoskeletal issues.

[herbgeek]

No, you aren't the only one. I took this vinyasa yoga class at work, and pulled my piriformis muscle (in my butt) because the instructor was transitioning too fast, and I tried to keep up. It plagued me for a year later, and still bothers me from time to time and that was 6 years ago. Now I look for gentle, yin or svaroopa yoga classes.

[loosechickens]

Do really be careful. Yoga is wonderful exercise, and the stretching and strength building is tremendous for your body, but like any other athletic endeavor (and yoga IS an athletic endeavor, which people sometimes don't realize), injury is not only possible, but fairly common.

Muscle strain certainly, poor instructors sometimes, people who push too fast, getting competitive (a big no-no), etc.

I was once a fairly serious yoga practitioner, but more than half a dozen years ago, it came to a crashing halt, with no one to blame but myself. I violated cardinal rules of yoga, not to push your body further than it wants to go, and worst of all, allowing ego to creep in and drive the bus.

They were doing a new brochure for the yoga school I was attending, and they asked me if I would pose for the cover photo. I was quite carried away, as at the time I was over 60, and felt really honored, when they could have chosen someone younger, slimmer and more visually appealing. Of course, they probably wanted a subtle message sent "Yoga is not just for the young, flexible and slim", but nonetheless, I let my ego get ahead of me, because I wanted the picture to be perfect.

I did a Dancer's Pose for the photographer, and stretched my body and pushed it further than I had ever pushed it before, very much a victim/perpetrator of letting ego drive the bus, so that the picture would be really good and I would look great.

I did it so well that I seriously damaged three vertebrae in my back, and ended up in the emergency room, and not only did it really end my career at any kind of serious yoga, my sweetie still refers to that photo as the "Ten thousand dollar yoga pose", because it was before I was on Medicare, had a very high deductible health insurance policy, and the resulting x-rays, MRIs, visits to neurosurgeons, epidurals, several trips to emergency rooms over the next months, because a byproduct of the damaged vertebra was terrible muscle spasms where the muscles next to my spine would spasm to a hard lump the size of a fist, and only demerol in the emergency room offered relief from the intense pain, cost us that much and more. What a mess.....it took several years to recover, and I still have sciatic problems......

SO.....a cautionary tale......listen to your body, don't overdo, never get competitive in yoga, and most of all, don't let your ego drive the bus. ;-) If you overuse muscles, back off, stretch gently, allow your body to set the pace.

[puglogic]

Thanks, everyone!

And thanks, LC, for the cautionary tale. I've always loved your sweetie's sense of humor :) $10K yoga pose indeed.

For more than 2 weeks now I have been suffering from some fearsome muscle spasms on one side of my lower back, and it's as you say: it's like a hard little fist (an alien baby fist) under my skin, a perpetual kidney punch. I can't sit down for very long, and so spend my days either working standing up (I work on a computer) or lying down (thank heavens for laptops) I went from superwoman to wimpywoman in 24 hours. All my fault, too.

Take good care of yourselves!

[loosechickens]

Those muscle spasms SUCK, don't they, puglogic? One was so bad that every time I tried to move, I gagged and retched from the pain. My sweetie finally managed to get me into the car and to an emergency room. The doctor took one look and said, "boy, that's the MOTHER of all muscle spasms.....I'm going to be your new best friend", and shot me up with Demerol.....oh, what relief.....it was the worst pain I think I've ever had, right up there with childbirth, and way worse than when I was lying in the street with a broken leg after a motorcycle accident long ago...

Hope you get some relief soon.........