The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Injuries, Restrictions, Ailments, Pose Modifications › Injuries › Backproblem worse from Bikram Yoga
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Injuries, Restrictions, Ailments, Pose Modifications › Injuries › Backproblem worse from Bikram Yoga
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I’m a professional skateboarder and have backproblems off and on. I love Bikram Yoga as it it has helped my back and also builds strength, muscles and endurance and helps with balance and coordination.
I’ve been doing Bikram Yoga for 8 years and my back problem got better, but 2 years ago I got backproblem again. Stiffness and pain, especially in the mornings. Bikram Yoga did not help, chiropractic gave some relief, and Tahitian Noni helped with the inflammation. I get stiffness after exersice or yoga poses that works the back muscles and from all backbends. I x-rayed my back and it is slightly compressed and my back is a bit flat, no real s-curve.
Recently I tried another Yoga, called Svaroopa Yoga, and their sequence “Yoga for Your back”, and it felt good. Sun salutations before my skateboarding and Svaroopa after. But this is “furniture yoga”, done partly on a chair and to a wall, and does not feel like “real” hatha yoga… And I miss the balancing standing postures and the strenght and endurance benefits.
But the backbends in Bikram Yoga makes my back stiff and painful, yet many say backbends is very important when healing backproblems… the only backbend that feels good is the shortly held cobra in the classic sun salutation.
Bikram Yoga helps me a lot with my skateboarding as it builds strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, builds muscles, increase the cardiovscular fitness, tones my whole body. And I really love the athletic approach. But it causes me stiffness and pain in my back on no yoga teacher really knows why.
Any tips and suggestions I might not have heard yet? Should I modify my Bikram Yoga by no doing any backbends whatsover? Not in the halfmoon, no cobra, no Locust Pose, no Full Locust Pose, no Bow Pose, no Fixed Firm Pose, no Camel Pose?
I even get lots of stiffness and pain from Savasana. But not when I put my legs on a chair, as in Svaroopa Yoga…
Hi Stefan,
I’m not an instructor, but I just wanted to point out that I see you writing that you get pain FROM backbends/savasana. Are you sure this is the case? Might it be that you feel the pain IN the poses? I see a huge diffrence there. Sometimes the poses bring out pain that is already there that your body is working through.Just a thought. Once again, take it with a grain of salt, as I’m not a trained instructor or physician 🙂 Happy skateboarding!
Hi Stefan,
I’m not an instructor, but I just wanted to point out that I see you writing that you get pain FROM backbends/savasana. Are you sure this is the case? Might it be that you feel the pain IN the poses? I see a huge diffrence there. Sometimes the poses bring out pain that is already there that your body is working through.!
Yes, I get pain FROM it. And also stiffness.Hi Stefan
This is a problem that has been going on for a long time. You have posted many times about it and your solutions don’t ever seem to be permanent.
I would like to ask you what the x rays have shown is going on with your spine. Your sport is obviously a factor in the health of your spine. I would like to know when your most recent rays were taken and what they showed. What bony damage, if any is evident? What else can you tell us?
I don’t think anyone can advise for or against backbends at this stage without knowing more. I would logically assume that they are required for balancing out your forward bending life (like everyone else’s). I wonder what it is about the supported Cobra in the sun salutation that makes it feel good compared to the Bikram style one. There are still many unanswered questions!!!
The other thing one tends to assume when reading posts is that you are doing the poses correctly. You have my manual and you’ve been around the forum for a long time. I still have a niggling feeling that there could be some elements of your practice that we can look at.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Stefan
This is a problem that has been going on for a long time. You have posted many times about it and your solutions don’t ever seem to be permanent.
I would like to ask you what the x rays have shown is going on with your spine. Your sport is obviously a factor in the health of your spine. I would like to know when your most recent rays were taken and what they showed. What bony damage, if any is evident? What else can you tell us?
I wonder what it is about the supported Cobra in the sun salutation that makes it feel good compared to the Bikram style one.
The other thing one tends to assume when reading posts is that you are doing the poses correctly. You have my manual and you’ve been around the forum for a long time. I still have a niggling feeling that there could be some elements of your practice that we can look at.
This has been a journey since 1982 when I first got my problem from pulling a backmuscle slightly when skating.
The X-rays show a slight compressed disc in the lower spine, don’t remember exactly the name of the disc, but one of the last ones. My doctor says it is a very little compression and my spine looks better than many in my age. he also says when we get older many discs get compressed.
The x-ray also show that the lower part my spine is “flattened out”. The doctor do not know exaclty why, and my chiropractor told me this even 10 years ago. My doctor say it could be muscles making the spine flattened out, and all he can help me with is anti-inflammatory and pain killers. My chiropractor beleive it could be something I am born with.
I always get very much releif when I stand against a wall with heels and head towards the wall, and press the lower back towards the wall, like a pelvic tilt.
If I wasn’t skateboarding, or into sports, I would be someone that have some backproblems, but not make a big deal out of it, but as an athlete I feel problems like this very much and it affects my performance a lot. I have changed parts of my skateboarding to make it less strenous on my back. But most pain and stiffness comes from Bikram Yoga…
When I do the cobra in the Sun Salutation, I do it the Bikram way, and that is how I learned it from ayurveda many years ago.
The Svaroopa Yoga was a great relief. It is more about releasing than stretching. I will now try to do BIkram Yoga much more gentle as I am not giving up Bikram Yoga… very gentle, only take each pose to a very light and gentel stretch.
In backbends I will only only stretch upwatd and maybe have my head back only, especially in Camel. In Supta vajrasana I will not lean backwards until I can sit with butt on the ground. 8 years of Bikram Yoga and I can still not sit with my butt on the ground…
Neverending story… 😉
This is interestering: When I am setting up for Camel, the front of my things and higher up is very tight and my back feels stiff. It is hard to push my hips forward. I don’t bend backwards, but maybe I shouldn’t bend at all, just stand and gentel puch my hips forward? I might be onto something here…
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