YOGA Poses that HURT!!!

You wake up the next morning after your Yoga class and can’t get out of bed because your lower back hurts . When you do , crawl out of the bed, perhaps sliding your butt to the floor then rolling over and using the bed to help you stand, you realize your butt feels like it is sticking out and you are unable to fully stand erect.

Wow, what was that class!!!  During class you felt so freaking awesome! You pushed yourself to hold that standing pose longer than you ever have, you know the one where both your legs are completely straight with one leg back like a scissor, then bending the trunk forward and oh my god, then both arms completely extended straight like I was reaching for and holding a ball in front of my head . Hmm, I think it’s an extended version of Pandayamana Bibhaktapada Janashirasana.   Hahaha, what!!!???

No knee to my chin but holding my trunk straight for that long was gnarly!!!

What happened and how do I get myself out of this mess??

For some reason, no one ever wants to talk about a yoga asana playing any role in injury.  However, we freely talk about head injuries in football and ACL injuries in skiing and basketball.  So, what’s up?

Perhaps, it’s because some of us have attached to the yogic practice as a spiritual experience and therefore, we place our minds in a different relationship to yogic asana than we would football.

I am challenging the reader to always question everything and to be open to re evaluating ones relationship to yoga.  How do you currently describe your relationship to yoga?  Do you participate in the asana practice as if it is primarily a spiritual practice?  Do you participate as if it is primarily an exercise? Do you participate as if it is mainly a mindfulness practice?

Regardless of your answer, because we can celebrate any and all relationships, we are asked to not leave our brains at the door of the yogic studio.

Yes, yogic practices can directly lead to injuries just like running, sky diving, skiing, snowboarding, gymnastics and having sex. The asana practice is primarily movement oriented therefore, the physical body can be pushed into its physical limits both flexibility and strength.

So, the caution is to enter a relationship with your body and your asana practice that empowers you reaching your fullest physical potential.  Perhaps, just like football evolved to wearing helmets because of the physical acknowledgement of traumatic head injury, perhaps, let’s let our asana practices Evolve to acknowledge the year 2018 and how we as humans functionally move and our own individual body needs and limitations.

Not everybody is created equal. Meaning, some bodies are super tight and strong while others are super flexible.  Depending on the type of body one has, one may benefit from a very different asana practice than one’s friend.

Its my belief that my asana practice can be very spiritual yet my spiritual needs do not at all, dismiss my physical needs and limitations.  I no longer use my yogic asana practice to change my emotional and sense of wellbeing without acknowledging what my physical goals and needs should be.  I can’t afford to do this anymore. Ashtanga just doesn’t fit my body anymore especially after sustaining 4 spinal herniations.

Often times, our yogic asana is a practice that we push our physical bodies to our limitations just like a rockclimber may spend 3 nights on the wall, pushing his climbing limbs so hard that post climb, his hands are so swollen from the rock, he can’t even hold his spoon.  Ok, so if that is how you want to practice your asana, celebrate it.  Go for it!!!  However, if you are looking to use asana to strengthen and not tear down and to educate yourself in regards to becoming more knowledgeable about your body, then let’s examine another way.

Either or, after the climb, the climber still needs to do some self care so he/she can have sustainability to keep doing what they love as long as they physically are able. The body is our vehicle.  We must start to treat our bodies as if they are ONE with our spiritual being.  So, to honor the needs, the limitations and cultivate a special loving relationship to US!!!!

As an example, let’s look at the standing pose that started this mess.  Poses such as trikonasana or the standing poses where the legs are straight and the trunk is flexed forward, drawing the center of gravity of the body outside of the base of support, starts to place a huge torsion on the lumbar spine especially around L3/4 . Then when the pose evolves to extending the arms forward as if reaching further away from the head and feet, this brings added torsion on this area of the spine because of the direct fascial connection from the elongation of the latissimus dorsi and it’s fascial connections to the pelvis/sacrum.

Now, you are like, what is she talking about. Well, it’s time you started to examine this new knowledge that has been presented to you. This one pose, has the potential of directly herniating the lumbar disc at l/3/4 if the time is right. Giving you symptoms of back pain, stiffness in the back, stuckness in the back and if it’s super impinged, causing neural pain radiating down the butt and back of the legs.

Just like all other knowledge, we do not use knowledge to create fear nor suffering. We offer knowledge, to empower, to inspire examination and to ask what is true for me.  The physical body is your vehicle to express and manifest your divinity here with mother earth and the rest of us, humans. To deny our humanity, our physical presence and push forward only acting as if we are spiritual beings, is not valuing the gift of this body and life we have in this moment.

The inspiration is to challenge you to cultivate a relationship with your asana practice that is specifically honoring to your physical body and needs. Utilize asana to gain more knowledge about how you function in this physical world and what your physical needs are in this moment. Asana, is a tool. Use it wisely and you will grow tremendously as a human.

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