Injury Pain and Healing


  • Yoga as Prevention of Injury: 
    • Practicing yoga on a regular basis improves the health of your bones while strengthening your spine and muscles. 
    • It also works the tendons and ligaments, making them less susceptible to breakdown. 
    • Yoga improves your flexibility. 
      • These yoga benefits work together to protect your body from injury.
  • The three most common types of injuries:
    •  sprains, strains and tears in their muscles, ligaments, and tendons. 
      • A strain occurs when a muscle or tendon has been overstretched 
        • most common in the lower back and hamstrings. 
      • Sprains occur in ligaments which connect two bones together in a joint. 
      • Pulls or tears in muscles are caused by overloading a muscle and extending it beyond its functional capacity.
        • muscle pulls and tears occur most commonly in the hamstrings, quadriceps, calf back and groin, but still are able to occur in any part of the body.
  • Stages of Healing: (physiology)
1. Acute Stage: During the first stage, the acute period, rest the injured area for 4-6 days. 
  • Do not perform any movements that require strength, aggravate the injury, or produce any pain. 
  • At the beginning of this stage inflammation is usually present, and elevating the affected area will help to control any swelling to help reduce any throbbing or discomfort. 
  • Inversion poses may be very helpful to reduce inflammation by activating the lymphatic system, and will also provide elevation if the injury is located in the lower body. 
  • Using ice and compression (wrapping with an ace bandage) on the injured area during the first 2-3 days after the injury is also recommended to help relieve inflammation and pain, and to expedite the recovery process. 
  • After the swelling has subsided (usually after the first 48 to 72 hours), very gentle and slow range of motion movements can be performed, but do not stretch the muscles that trigger the pain. 
  • Even though the area may feel like it needs a stretch, stretching will not help with the healing process and most likely will re-injure the area to prevent further healing.
2. Subacute Stage: The subacute stage of injury follows the acute stage and lasts between 1-3 weeks. 
  • During this time the injured tissue is very fragile and susceptible to re-injury. 
  • Very gentle stretching is the first step of rehabilitation. 
  • Stay focused on the breath and the sensations of the stretch, but do not stretch to the point of pain. 
  • The next step of rehabilitation is to slowly and gently strengthen the muscles involved in the injury. 
  • Begin with slow, gentle non-weight bearing movements and gradually increase the amount of motion and number of repetitions. 
  • As symptoms resolve, gradually resume using weight-bearing movements. An adequate warm-up before and correct alignment during yoga is essential in this healing stage.



3. Chronic Stage: The chronic stage of injury follows the subacute stage and may take up to 12-18 months for complete healing to occur. 
  • During this time the injured site may feel healed but it is still susceptible to a re-injury and/or chronic inflammation if excessive force is used on the area. 
  • It is important to know that care must be taken during this stage and that the injury will not be 100% healed until after this stage has passed.
  • Move into the poses slowly and gently; use long hold times and practice slow deep breathing in the poses. Any movements that increase your symptoms should be avoided. 
  • If a yoga pose causes any pain, tingling, or numbness, stop immediately.


  • Pain
    • pain is your friend
      • pain tells you when there is something that is wrong
      • pain-radiating pain-numbness (the triad of increasing impingement)
      • Pain versus intense sensation
      • good "pain" and bad "pain
    • there is no such thing as pain
      • pain is a neurological response and is very personal, individuals experience pain in very unique ways.
      • no pain/no gain? (not in yoga)
  • Working with Injuries
    • RICES (rest, ice, compression, elevations, support)
    • moving from stupid
      • making stupid intelligent
      • the spread of stupid
      • proximal toward distal (the directionality of pain radiation)
  • Healing
    • patience/time/expectations
    • counter indications
      • what never to do
      • better safe than sorry
      • practicing non-attachment
        • rest (taking a break)
        • accepting changing ability
        • accepting disability
        • understanding advancement outside of postural achievement
Recommendations:

(1) CAUTION AND SAFETY:

Yoga is safe after an acute injury to soft tissue in muscles, tendons and ligaments as long as the student is not recreating the injury. 
  • For example, if you injured your knee stepping into a hole and it tore the ligament or ACL it is recommended to avoid pigeon pose or baddha konasana, or any posture that would twist the meniscus, patella or create a twisting motion in the knee. 
    • knees and elbows are hinge joints (they do not twist)
    • shoulders are semi-joints and are highly flexible/therefore easily injured (strengthen)
    • ankles and writs are made up of small groups of flexible joints and are easily injured (strengthened)
  • Another example is if you injured your hamstring bending over with locked out knees in a forward fold. To keep yourself safe after an injury during a yoga practice you would want to avoid deep forward folds and bend your knees so there is no pressure on the hamstring attachments. (large muscle groups need to be opened with intelligence)
  • Gracile muscles like the groins are difficult to stretch and take longer to heal (create resistance)
  • Spine needs to maintain its shape
  • All joints should work to maintain a maximal range of motion along with stability
 (2) CREATE SAFE AND STABLE MOVEMENT
When practicing yoga after an injury the optimal way to reduce the risk of pain or re-injuring the damaged location is to practice safe and stable movements. 
  • Avoid fast, power or vinyasa style classes. GO SLOW
    • Swift movements increase the risk of damaging or lowering the healing time for an injury in yoga. 
    • Instead, move slowing, safely and focus on proper placement of your body in each yoga pose. 
    • Modify every pose to create stability in the injured area.
    • Use alternative postures and props
(3) ENCOURAGE REST AND IMMOBILIZATION
  • Try to encourage movement in the localized area as stiffness can lead to pain and loss of circulation to the injured area. 
    • Yoga is safe to practice after an injury as long as you rest when needed, stop as soon as you feel pain and create stability around the injury. 
    • Consult your doctor, physical therapist or health care professional about using ace bandages and other stabilizing medical devices to immobilize the affected injury during your practice.
(4) PRACTICE PATIENCE
  • As with any injury patience is the key to practicing yoga safely. 
    • Injuries take time and care to heal. 
    • Trust your bodies’ ability to heal and listen for any signs of pain, inflammation or overexertion.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Internal Alchemy of Practice

Image
USING YOUR BREATH What does breath do? breath moves the body Vayus inhalation and prana and udana vayus:  exhalation and apana and samana vayus Mula (root) moves forward (I) and backward (B) with breath breath is the communication between your mind and your body GRACE What is grace? using just the right amount of effort to complete a task/movement/posture only what is essential moving with your breathing breath leads movement (starts just before the movement does) spiritual grace and physical grace...are they connected? imagining your essential self/nothing that isn't you = self-realization evenness of breath coupled with evenness of movement equals evenness of mind FLOW Flow (inner focus)  is a state where the right amount of effort is applied, no more or less, creating a single minded focus (eka grata) so that the body moves as one coalesced piece. (peak experience) needs a certain amount of challenge to maintain interest ...
Read more

Five Week Home Practice Plan

This course is designed to allow you to progress your home practice (and practice from home) using tools and techniques from both traditional and scientific perspectives. Each week we will learn a concept for practice and address each topic specifically from the perspective of you who are taking the course, so get your questions ready! On of the beauties of Hatha Yoga is that as a somatic practice, it acknowledges the interrelationship of BODY, MIND, and SPIRIT and explores the interactions and relationships along the body-mind continuum. The practice of Hatha Yoga has grown substantially in its contemporary form incorporating much from modern western science. This epitomizes the evolutionary nature of yoga and the IMPORTANCE OF CONSTANT QUESTIONING, VIGILANCE AND FEEDBACK in the process. We grow from constant attunement to the flow of our lives and our living embodied selves. Our bodies constantly adjust to our internal and external states...so a meaningful practice is a constant...
Read more

What to Practice: Energy and Matter

Image
Week #4 The Play of Matter and Energy What to practice There are a number of ways to think about structuring your home practice. Today we are going to talk about ways that you can structure a home practice so that you might practice "every day." Generally speaking, practice come in two types: Structured and Free Sequences. Structured Flow : are sequences which are set. This means that you do the same practice everyday. Advantages:  If you learn the sequences, you do not have to think! Then you can focus on whatever you are trying to access, learn, develop focus in as you practice.  Even if you like to vary your practice, it's nice to have a structured BASE that you can riff off of and that has different DURATIONS this way you can start you practice without thinking and end your practice when you are "finished" Disadvantages you may risk repetitive movement you may become complacent in your experimentation Intuitive Flow : Sequences are ...
Read more