Recently the yoga injuries have become very common.We should know how to rectify it for ourselves and others
Injury:
Any damage to physical or internal part of body like joints, muscles, nerves especially sadica
(the part where nerves seperates from back spine to legs) nerve etc
Types of injuries:
1.Repetitive Strain Injury – Doing an aasan for a prolonged time(like sarvaangaasan where we feel pain at wrists) or doing an aasan in an incorrect manner
2.Sprain(Suluku) – Injury to the ligaments in the joints.May take some months to heel accordingly
3.Strain – Injury to the muscle when muscle fibre tears of overstrecting(like bending forward than our limit).Takes a day or two to heal
Higher Risk Areas:
1.Knee(cross legpose, sitting aasanas and some standing aasanas) as most people have knee pain already
2.Ankle(sitting and standing aasanas), Neck(halasan, sarvangasan, cat pose), elbow, shoulders and wrists(plank
position)
3.Weak muscle(cobra pose).When we are doing bujangaasan, some may feel pain at lower back, some at neck, some
at wrists etc.So we shouldnt compare to others
4.Ligaments in the joints
5.Nerves especially sadica nerves and nerve that is coming to the hand
6.Bone fracture (hip stand, hand stand).When we fall, we may fracture our bone
Causes of injury:
1.Accident in yoga pose – When we fall down or on the wall from any yoga pose.eg) Head stand or sirasaasan
2.Forcing to a pose volantarily or by teacher – When we see our teacher doing a pose and feel we should do it in the same way without knowing our body limit like any past injuries
3.No or less awareness of our body – When a new student comes for yoga, they are less aware of their body
4.Not paying attention to aasan – Half spinal twist – We shouldnt hunch our back and should keep the spine straight than trying to do it in the exact way like holding our legs
Yogic Principles of Aasanas:
1.Slow and controlled movements with correct breath.eg) We shouldnt fall uncontrollably when coming out from chakraasan
2.Stable and comfortable position is a must
Reflexes:
What is reflex action?
The action that is controlled by spinal card and not by brain is called reflex action.The time taken by spinal card is very less than brain.
Flexion Reflex:
eg) When we touch any hot item, we jerk and immediately move our hands from it which is a reflex action.But in reflex action, the muscles are shortened which is not a good sign and it causes mental and physical tension.In Hatha Yoga, we shouldnt get reflexes when moving in and out of any pose
Clasp Knife Reflex:
We want our muscle to relax than contract.This can be acheived only if we do an aasan for atlease 15 to 20 sec
Injury Prevention:
This is the area where evryone should concentrate especially yoga teacher
1.Caring the body – We should know our body limit an stretch accordingly
2.Avoiding competation with others – We shouldnt force ourself to a pose
3.Paying attention to the pain – We should feel the pain after doing each aasan so that we can do it in a comfortable manner next time.To acheive this, there should be proper break in between poses
4.Warm up for at least 5 to 10 minutes for a pose.Eg) We did not do Halaasan in a single day.We did one leg stand(eka paadhaasan), then 2 leg stand, then inverted pose, then sarvangaasan and finally halaasan
5.Use variations for difficult aasanas – If we are not comfortable in an aasan say sarvaangasan, we may have pillows for it or take wall support
6.Use counter positions – eg) When we do matchi aasan (fish pose), pavanamuthaasan is a mandatory next pose which is a counter pose for it
7.Slow and steady with controlled breath – When we are holding a position, we shouldnt be shaky but steady with controlled breath
8.Yoga teacher should know the medical conditions of her students for better training
9.Initially try a difficult aasan with 70% accuracy rather than 100%
10.Basic alignment of aasan – If an aasan requires to keep the spine straight, it is of much priority than 100% accuracy of aasan
Healing injuries:
Not necessarily only from your yoga class might be else where also
1.RICE Principle – Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation to the damaged part
2.Proper Relaxation
3.Gentle and slow movements thus allowing blood circulations to heal
4.Massage
5.Give time to heal itself
