When I opened my Physiotherapy practice, I knew I wanted to incorporate yoga as part of treatment for our clients. I loved that yoga increases strength and mobility to help prevent injuries, and that it has the power to decrease risk factors for disease and chronic health conditions.
What I soon came to realize, though, is that many of my clients got injured while practicing yoga. How could this be? How could a practice that’s meant to strengthen the body be hurting, instead?
To answer these questions, I had to look at the risk factors that can contribute to injuries in yoga.
Risk Factors
1. Previous Injuries
If you have a pre-existing injury that has not been addressed properly or at all, participating in a vinyasa-type flow may hinder healing or make symptoms worse. Whenever you sustain an injury and do not receive treatment for it, by repetitively stressing that area that may be inflamed or have underlying tissue damage, you will cause further inflammation and prolong the natural healing process for those tissues.
1. Previous Injuries
If you have a pre-existing injury that has not been addressed properly or at all, participating in a vinyasa-type flow may hinder healing or make symptoms worse. Whenever you sustain an injury and do not receive treatment for it, by repetitively stressing that area that may be inflamed or have underlying tissue damage, you will cause further inflammation and prolong the natural healing process for those tissues.
Many of my clients have sought treatment in the past but have not had success in ridding their bodies of pain or the injuries continue to come back. You have to find the right health care practitioner, one that listens to what your goals are, is familiar with yoga asanas, is specific with what they are treating and goes one step further in trying to ensure that this injured area becomes more resilient to forces that may cause re-injury. I believe it’s not good enough to get someone back to the state they were in prior to injury— that is how they got injured.
It’s also important to note that your body is very good at creating compensations to achieve your desired movement. This patterning can become a habit, which gets translated into any similar movement pattern. Whenever there is compensation, the areas that have to compensate may get over-worked or take on stress they are not used to. This, within itself, can lead to injury.
2. Lack of mobility
Mobility is not to be confused with flexibility. Flexibility is the ability to passively achieve range of motion, whereas mobility is the ability to move actively to achieve range of motion. In order to achieve active range of motion, the joints responsible for creating that movement have to be able to reach that range, and the tissues that surround that joint have to be able to control that movement. This becomes very important for yoga practitioners.
Mobility is not to be confused with flexibility. Flexibility is the ability to passively achieve range of motion, whereas mobility is the ability to move actively to achieve range of motion. In order to achieve active range of motion, the joints responsible for creating that movement have to be able to reach that range, and the tissues that surround that joint have to be able to control that movement. This becomes very important for yoga practitioners.
Let’s focus on the wrist, for an example. What do you think your wrists need to be able to do for you to successfully get into a handstand? Hint: it’s not practicing against a wall. In truth, your wrists need to be able to extend to at least 90 degrees. In order for your wrists to have the proper mobility to extend to 90 degrees, your wrist joint has to be able to move into 90 degrees of extension, and all the tissues surrounding your radiocarpal joint have to be able to control this movement without weight. If you do not have these pre-requisites, and try going into handstand, you will be putting your full body weight onto a joint that really does not support this movement — another precursor of injury.
3. Pain
Let pain be an indicator that something may be wrong. You have to distinguish between what is “good vs. bad” pain. What’s “bad” pain? Well, it’s not the burning sensation you get in your muscles from pushing through one more second of Utkatasana. I’m talking about the pain that brings you to a 7-10 on a pain scale of 10 — the kind of pain that is disabling and lingers, forcing you to stop doing what you love doing.
Let pain be an indicator that something may be wrong. You have to distinguish between what is “good vs. bad” pain. What’s “bad” pain? Well, it’s not the burning sensation you get in your muscles from pushing through one more second of Utkatasana. I’m talking about the pain that brings you to a 7-10 on a pain scale of 10 — the kind of pain that is disabling and lingers, forcing you to stop doing what you love doing.
4. Muscular Imbalances
Imbalances in musculature may be great for elite athletes, such as pitchers and paddlers. However, imbalances in the average person may not serve us well. We all have led different lives that have contributed to these imbalances, such as sport, having children or poor posture.
Imbalances in musculature may be great for elite athletes, such as pitchers and paddlers. However, imbalances in the average person may not serve us well. We all have led different lives that have contributed to these imbalances, such as sport, having children or poor posture.
Imbalances show up in our bodies as tight muscles vs. elongated ones, knots or adhesions in our muscles or fascia (band/sheet of connective tissue), postural changes and/or pain. If, for example, you are participating in a vinyasa flow that’s asking for repetitive Chaturangas and your posture is such that your shoulders round forward and you cannot integrate your shoulder blades onto your back, over time you could end up with a repetitive strain/sprain to your rotator cuff.
5. Ego
Yes I said it! Ego can cause injury. How? Because it is the voice that compares you to the person beside you or your teacher. It is the voice that may tell you to push through that pain. It is the voice that tells you to twist your body even further to get that “perfect” picture for Instagram. It’s also the voice that can lead you to long-term and very preventable pain.
Yes I said it! Ego can cause injury. How? Because it is the voice that compares you to the person beside you or your teacher. It is the voice that may tell you to push through that pain. It is the voice that tells you to twist your body even further to get that “perfect” picture for Instagram. It’s also the voice that can lead you to long-term and very preventable pain.
Decreasing your Risk Factors for Yoga Injuries
- Seek out a Physiotherapist or health care practitioner who is familiar with yoga and injury prevention. They will be able to assess your body and give you an individualized program based on their findings and the goals you wish to attain.
- Attain your pre-requisites for a particular asana you would like to achieve.
- Participate in workshops/classes that ensure you are working on the mobility of your joints as well as building foundational strength and balance in your core muscles and stabilizers, so you are then able to build and strength train your larger prime mover muscles. Your core is the center point of functional movement. When engaged and trained properly, it prevents injury to your back and pelvis, and it also allows you to use the rest of your body more efficiently.
- Practice SMART! Listen to your body’s cues. Your intuition is always right. If something feels off, and/or you’re in 7-10/10 pain, stop or modify immediately.
Let’s set our intention on building the foundations in our bodies to prevent injury from occurring so we can live our most powerful lives, without having to live with pain.
Christina Drew