Comments on: How to Avoid Yoga-Related Injury

By: Sophie

Sophie — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:54:12 +0000

Thank you for this great article! As a yoga practitioner and instructor, I definitely agree that respecting your limits when doing yoga postures is incredibly important to help safeguard the body. Proper restraint also helps us connect more deeply with the breath and, as a result, the mind. If there's ever a doubt as to whether or not a pose feels correct, come out of it, realign, get a assistance from your instructor.
The patience and confidence to reassess your alignment and not rush or muscle through poses is yoga.

I did want to mention one more way to protect the body:
Understand your flexibility. So many injuries result from hyperextension (usually in the knees and elbows) and hypermobility (especially in the shoulders and spine). While a thorough instructor should point this out and help correct your alignment so you don't overtax your flexibility.

Also, while it's advantageous to drink water before and after class, drinking during class should be done sparingly especially when practicing poses, such as twists, postures on the belly, and inversions. These poses, if practiced properly and with good breathing, work massage the internals. Therefore extra fluid is contradictory.

Thanks again for a great post.

By: Barabara

Barabara — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:17:51 +0000

Cases of Yoga injury are on a rise. We are devoting this week to help answer questions on Yoga injuries. If you or a friend is suffering from yoga related injury or want to know ways of avoiding, post your questions here. We would be more than happy to answer them.
http://www.facebook.com/yogaforbeginners

By: rsp2538

rsp2538 — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:12:24 +0000

great! thanks for sharing!

By: Clara P

Clara P — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:38:49 +0000

Yes! Many people push themselves too quickly in yoga and end up with injuries, then sometimes erroneously believe that the injury was caused by yoga. A good teacher should know how to guide the student, but sometimes the student makes up his/her own mind. It's difficult in the West b/c the traditional guru/student relationship differs from yoga in a studio today - the student is really the customer and sometimes feels he/she can make the decisions as the customer, rather than listen to the teacher. At the same time, there are many teachers that have not studied for that long, and taken a quick course to become certified. The best advice is to seek out a teacher (and stick with one) qualified in the type of yoga you prefer, and ask about their history in study/teaching.