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I used to attend Bernie's classes when he was teaching Yin Yoga near UBC. I then moved to London and began taking Bikram Yoga classes. I had to stop after about 3 months because I started experiencing bad back pains. I went to an oestheopath. He told me that a couple of vertebreas were stuck in my back, and that all the yoga I had been doing had caused the joints (?) between other vertebreas to extend "more" than my body could support. This, in turn, was causing my back muscles to be contracted in permanence as a way to support my vertebreas.
(** ok i am not a doctor so apologies if the explanation is a bit silly)
Several oestheopaths at the clinic told me that an important part of their clientele was ex-yoga teachers trying to fix problems similar to the one i was facing. They told me yoga was one of the most damaging 'sports' they had witnessed...
Now I am not saying that yoga initiated the problem (stuck vertebreas from doing something else) BUT i am suggesting that Yoga might have made matters much worse.
Originally, in India, a person went to Krishnamacharya (lineage holder for Hatha Yoga) in the same manner a person might go to a physician in the US. Krishnamacharya developed a hatha yoga program specific for the individual's personal needs. This is still true for those who travel to India to see Desikachar...Krishnamacharya's son.
However, in the US, yoga is rarely seen as a 'personalized' program ... personalized to an individual's specific health needs or circumstances. The same may be true in England. In a class setting, the individual student's past medical/health history is unknown to the teacher. Even if it were known, it is unlikely the teacher would know how to accomodate it. Most 'modern' styles of Hatha Yoga do not allow for such individualization and the teachers are not trained to provide such individualization. Therefore, in the west, it is up to the student to increase his/her understanding of yoga asanas and how these asanas will impact personal health problems!
Yoga is NOT the problem any more than guns are the problem! If I am to benefit from Yoga asanas, I must take the time understand what the asana is suppose to accomplish in my body and how my body will respond to such action! I cannot depend upon any one style of yoga or any yoga teacher to do this for me...unless I can afford to travel to India for a personal consultation with Desikachar!
Although I have read many yoga books, one which I found to be of great value is BANDHA YOGA. The book's title is THE KEY MUSCLES OF HATHA YOGA by Ray Long
I also have many yoga DVDs (that I will NEVER actually do!) for the sole purpose of WATCHING how the various 'experts' do various asanas. I listen to what these experts (30+ years of teaching yoga) have to say and then watch how they teach the asana. This allows me to test various approaches and find the one that works best for me. Through this approach, I have learned a great deal about my own body. This has allowed me to modify asanas as needed.
Hi Alexandra - I am not sure what your osteopaths may have meant when they said that your vertebrae were extending more than your body could support but there is no doubt at all that yoga CAN create problems for us. David Williams likes to say that "Yoga can cure anything except problems caused by Yoga."
Paul Grilley has noticed that many dedicated students and teachers, by the time they reach about their 3rd or 4th year of practice, they start to get a lot of injuries. It is about that time that their bodies are as open as they are going to get, but their ego keeps expecting them to get even more open - so they push and push, and end up damaging themselves severly. These may be the people your osteopaths are getting as patients.
So definitely, yoga can cause us problems - which is why it is so important to pay attention to our body while we do our yoga. Remember to honour little tweaks before they become big tweaks and definitely before they become visits to osteopaths who will then prescribe - stop doing yoga! You should only stop doing yoga that hurts you.
David Swenson likes to say yoga is like dance: if someone says they like to dance ... well ... which kind of dancing? Ballroom? Hiphop? Latin Funk? Square dancing? There are as many kinds of yoga as there are kinds of dance. All yoga is great for some bodies. All yoga is bad for some bodies. Bikrams is great for some people: I know many students and teachers who thrive and thoroughly enjoy that style of yoga. But I also know of others for whom Bikrams is the worst thing they should be doing. It is not for every body. No yoga is for every body.
You do need to find your own way. Mary's post shows an intelligent way to taste many different styles and then carefully chose the style that works for you.
Hopefully your osteopaths are not making a sweeping generalization: hopefuly they are not telling you to stop doing yoga. But I would listen to them if they are telling you what not to do in a yoga class.
Above all advice though, I would listen to your own body very carefully. Don't give up on yoga, try several other styles but really pay attention. I am sure you will find the kind of "dancing" that your body will love you for.
I think most yoga teachers have injured themselves by taking themselves too far in a yoga practice. My shining moment occurred during Samakonasana...legs REALLY wide, thighs REALLY engaged, heels pressing strongly into the floor. I actually lifted my sitting-bones off the floor, freaked out a little, clenched...
...and the loudest internal pop I ever hope to hear resonated through my body.
I never went to a doctor, because at that point I didn't have health insurance (go America!). Judging by what I was and wasn't able to do, I believe the ball of my femur snapped out and back, tearing some external rotator and hamstring tendons along with it. I was back at 95% in six months of gentler practice (it's been 15 months now), but I'm fairly sure I'll feel it in the joints for the rest of my life.
Why this long-winded story? It taught me a wonderful lesson about yoga. I could have avoided this whole thing altogether by consulting the Yoga Sutras.
<excerpt from my blog>
Sutra II.16: “The pains which are yet to come can be and are to be avoided.” This one should catch everyone’s attention, it’s pretty much a stand-alone advertisement for the Yoga Sutras. A theatrical trailer, if you will. Well, the sutra has me interested…if I’m to avoid pain, then how?
Enter sutra I.32: “Adherence to single-minded effort prevents these impediments.” This sutra references the previous two sutras, which list 13 impediments to our practice. These impediments take us further from the aim of yoga - to remove the fluctuations of consciousness (sutra I.2). They include despair and illusion, doubt and sickness. So at a very rudimentary level, my sickness (a messed up hip joint) is an impediment that could have been avoided. All I had to have was a single-minded effort.
This might seem to be extracting a lesson out of thin air, but yoga is a very powerful practice. I was sitting on the floor with my heels extended, and I lifted my sitting bones off of the floor! It was a powerful moment, but was not mindful, nor was it balanced.
</excerpt>
So Alex, don't practice too hard, and go inside to find your limits. If your back hurts, don't do it, or do it less! Yoga should spill over with common sense.
Peace.
-Richard
"And now, an exposition on the art of Yoga" -Yoga Sutra 1.1
