The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Ardha Chandrasana › feet a cause for lower back injury in this pose!
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › The Hot Yoga Poses › Ardha Chandrasana › feet a cause for lower back injury in this pose!
-
AuthorPosts
-
Hi all,
I posted on this forum last year after having injured my lower back in half moon and being forced to take 3 (!) months off yoga in order to heal. It was a pretty frustrating time, as I couldn’t really do any exercise at all other than gentle walks. One good outcome of it was that I found this forum – and I did get some excellent advice on how to improve my form, all of which has helped my practise immensely.
BUT, as I have just found out, it didn’t address the actual problem that had led to my injury! My feet!
Ever since going back to yoga I have been really careful in halfmoon, but still had a feeling of being very unstable, a “sick/weird” feeling in my lower back (which I had straight from the beginning before the pain came), even though I was only bending sideways by about 10degrees.
Then a new teacher started at my studio, who kept an eye on me after I told her about my previous injury (so I wouldn’t be scolded for not doing the sit-up…) and she noticed that I was not keeping both feet evenly on the ground. To me, in the mirror, this wasn’t even visible, but once I paid attention I noticed that I rolled my weight to the outside edge of the outside foot. She said that, while this won’t cause immediate problems, eventually it will injure your lower back. Mystery solved!
This tip has transformed my practise – no more fear. By keeping both feet on the ground evenly I now only bend sideways about 2 degrees (haha – I look like I don’t bend at all but now I can feel the stretch!), but the disturbing weirdness is gone. Hurrah.
Just thought this might be useful to other people who have trouble in this pose …
Enjoy your practise!
🙂
Hi Romy
Glad you finally worked it out. It’s amazing something so basic had slipped your attention for so long (and that of your teachers who could actually see you 😛 )
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂I know!! Too basic. My feet are too far away from my head to get much notice… 🙄
I now wear toeless socks for my practise, looking like a fool of course, but they remind me of my feet and it works.
Still, all the stuff I’ve learned in the process, about engaging the core properly, keeping the shoulders relaxed, etc., wasn’t wasted – made a big difference overall.Thanks for your quick reply Gabrielle, it’s so nice to know that there’s someone out there who cares!
🙂
Thanks for posting that. I am wondering if you experience(d) the same thing in the backbend? I notice that my feet tend to roll outward in the backbend, which I assumed was because of pushing my hips so far forward. Now I’m wondering if it is something I need to pay attention to.
Hi kfiano!
For me, the backbend doesn’t cause this to happen, but if your feet tend to roll outward in this part, I’d say this is definitely something you need to pay attention to.
With my new awareness of role of feet in ALL of the standing postures, I can see that they are really the first thing we need to get right: everything else aligns up from the feet, so if they are out of whack, chances are the effect is magnified up through your body. And your knees, hips, back etc. will eventually feel the results.
Gah! No idea how this never occurred to me before … Gabrielle probably has a whole topic about the feet somewhere, but I never thought to look. Lock the knee was always as far down as my thoughts went. :cheese:
Actually, you’re right–Gabrielle has a whole video on how to use your feet correctly! It’s on this page and it’s the third video down. It helped me in all the standing postures. In addition to distributing the weight correctly, she also points out that people tend to “sneak” their standing foot toward a more turned out position ever so slightly in the one legged balancing postures…it make it easier to balance but is incorrect technique. I was definitely guilty of that one!
I completely agree, and will spend more time thinking about my feet. I’m also guilty of turning my foot out sometimes in Eagle. I’ve also caught myself “scrunching” up my toes during standing bow, which I believe has impacted the nerve in the standing leg. This is an important topic, I’m glad you brought it up. So much to learn with this yoga!
Glad I could help! If being reminded of the importance of the feet prevents back injury for just one person I’m happy! 🙂
I noticed a comment about engaging your core in this posture. I am really really new to Hot Yoga and have noticed a pain in my back that has not alleviated since my (three:) sessions. I was a diver in my former life and am still pretty flexible. As a result, I push myself in all postures where a back/side bend is required. I have received directives to tighten my stomach when completing the final pose and wonder if I am not engaging my core correctly. Maybe this is causing my back pain. How should the core be engaged during this pose and others that require a back/side bend? Is it possible to engage the core and bend as much as possible? Should I focus on my core first and then stretching next?
I have also noticed some yogis arms seem to be behind their head almost on an angle from the body. What is the correct position of the arms?
This forum/site has been soooo helpful in my limited Hot Yoga experience. just fyi
Hi Martin
Thanks for the compliments. I am happy you are finding my websites useful!
Your post doesn’t give me quite enough information to know whether you’re engaging your core or not.
But I can tell you that you are giving me clues that you are ‘trying too hard’ and not surrendering. Pushing yourself beyond where your form or alignment is ideal for you, could be causing you some issues.
It’s very common for men (well, not just men!) to push past where they should be and that often happens because we want to follow the instructions. If you are going to a scripted class (recited) then this happens A LOT.
So for your next class rather than trying to BEND over into your back and side bends try LIFTING into them. It’s subtle but it definitely works.
If you need to check on your core activation then going to a therapist or some kind of trainer will help you. But first let’s see what happens with the above.
Arms above head: Just see if you can keep them there without activating your neck and shoulder muscles. The position of your arms is less important than resolving tension in your neck.
Come back and tell me what’s on your mind or in your body! 😆
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.