The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Injuries, Restrictions, Ailments, Pose Modifications › Injuries › Hip pain
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I have been practicing for almost a year consistently (4-6 days a week) and just finished a 60 day challenge. I took one day off and have kept going, i think today is day 74 or so. For about 3 weeks, I have had pain in my right hip joint during and after class. It isn’t super painful, just a dull ache, but it is starting to concern me because it doesn’t seem to be getting better and it is affecting some of my poses. I have noticed in standing bow when balancing on the left leg, I can’t kick my right leg up as much as on the other side. Also, in floor bow (which used to be fairly balanced for me) when I catch a peek in the mirror, my right leg is about 6 inches lower than my left, and no matter how I try to adjust it I can’t correct it. I spoke to a teacher and she said I am just “opening up more” and not to worry. Should I worry, or perhaps consider taking a few days off?
Hi Stephanie
I would be wary of advice to just keep going further (because you’re just ‘opening up’). I have met quite a number of yoga teachers (hot yoga and bikram) who have a frequent regular practice who have this kind of hip pain. What it indicates is that there is an imbalance in the way you’re using your body. I would go back to alignment basics. In Standing Bow, go to that point where you can reliably keep that hip down, and then kick backward. You will feel that even though you aren’t going as deeply.
In Floor Bow try adjusting your shoulders and once again don’t kick to get more depth, work your way to better alignment, hold your legs in closer.
It’s possible because you are so ‘gummi’ 😉 that your strength building has not kept up with your flexibility. So what’s required now is a new focus. It will renew your practice in a fascinating way!
By all means take a little time off. Your body does need its recovery time.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂I took your advice and took a few days off. Actually, fate helped me out in that department because the day after I read your reply my car broke down and took a few days to be fixed, so no way to get to yoga! Haha. Anyway I have also been really relaxed and aware of my postures more in class. I think this is what you were talking about, because rather than the “push push push, must get better must get better” mentality I was working with before, I am much more introspective and actually quite calmer in class than before. I have actually noticed that rather than a hip joint pain that I thought it was, it has now become more of a pain that goes up my gluteus muscle on the right side and also up the front of my hip on the right side. I notice it hurts the most in triangle, tree pose, wind removing, fixed firm, and also during the final spinal twist, but only on the right side hip on all the poses. I am backing off on all these postures just until it only starts to hurt. Especially fixed firm, i have always been a knees all the way together, all the way down to the ground type girl, and now I am just seated with knees together and slightly going back. I agree that my body is probably readjusting, but also my alignment has certainly suffered because of my self-competitiveness. I am looking forward to continuing this yoga with a renewed sense of self-awareness and calm.
Just wanted to update in case someone else has this problem in the future. I think what Gabrielle said was right, that my strength just built up so much that it was pulling everything out of line. I took it easy for a few weeks and did extra stretches to stretch my hip, hamstring and gluteus muscles before and after class. Now I haven’t had any hip pain! But I continue to pay attention to my form more rather than just trying to go deeper. Thanks Gabrielle!
This is very interesting, and there’s something I have found that might be relevant to those who experience this type of discomfort – trigger point therapy. There’s a book I got after it was recommended by my pilates place. It’s called the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Claire Davies with Amber Davies. It teaches self treatment of trigger points. I got my copy second hand on Amazon and it was pretty cheap. It is fantastic!
Surprisingly often, if you have pain or aching, or a shortened range of movement, it can derive from trigger points in a related muscle. If you find and deactivate the trigger points it allows you to safely stretch the muscle out more effectively. I’ve found this book really useful. It is very easy to use and teaches you a lot about muscles without you needing to know anything to start with.
Cheers!
Rachel -
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