modifications after broken neck

Ok, just a quick update: I have talked to my chiropractor about the vertigo, and she thinks it’s totally normal (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) and very common after neck injuries. There is a manoeuvre she can do to fix it once I have full range of motion again. At the moment I have about 50%, but it’s early days – the brace has just come off yesterday. General pain levels are low unless I do a sudden movement, when they can spike quite high but subside quickly.

So where to from here? I bought your Masterclass last year, so have been thinking maybe I should start with home practise so I can pike out at any time if it gets too much, and not have the room too hot. Which postures should I be careful with? Should I even attempt any of the necks stretches (forward and back) or do the posture with a straight neck to build muscle first?

At the moment I have just started with gentle exercise, 15 mins on my stationary bike. 🙂

Thanks!

Hi Gabrielle,

Thank you so much for your reply and your kind words. It made me laugh how you picked up on my use of language: “pike out” – you are totally right with that observation. Thanks for the reminder, I did need that. Patience is not one of my virtues and I often start berating myself if I progress too slowly in my own eyes … In those last 2 weeks I’ve only been able to increase my stationary biking to 20minutes. What a pathetic effort, yells my inner critic. %-P

That being said, I guess my progress is actually pretty good, especially in terms of the vertigo, which has been reduced to a few dizzy spells I can handle quite easily.
My range of motion is up to about 75% sideways and forward extension is almost fully restored to normal! Backwards is still nearly impossible while I’m upright – my neck muscles seize up the moment I only so much as look up in preparation, my breath catches and I get kind of scared.

So I’d love to hear more about the Pranayama modification you’re suggesting. With fingers layered over the other at the back of the neck, would I try to move the head back at all, or keep it perfectly still? And when the elbows move out, is it normal for the scapulae to move up? (If I try doing it with shoulders down as I would in normal Pranayama, I can move my elbows out only a minuscule way.)

Also, how should I approach the first backbend (the standing one), the floor bow, and camel? All of these freak me out a bit, though in their defense I have to say I’ve only tried once, and half-heartedly. The floor backbends seems to be ok, since I don’t have to worry about gravity breaking my head off. :gulp:

Last question: in the belly down savasanas, what should I do with my head? Can’t turn it sideways far enough to lie on it without significant pain. Should I just turn it as far as it goes, and kind of hover there with neck muscles engaged, only part of my face touching the towel? Or is it best to leave it in the centre, putting my forehead on my arms? Or something else?

My doc says that should I absolutely do neck extension/ flexion/ compression exercises in order to break down/ prevent scar tissue on the muscles and ligaments, but to be mindful not to go too far. She does yoga as well, and compared it to that “sweet spot” in a good yoga stretch.

Ok, that’s it for now… thanks heaps for your time!
Romy

Hi Gabrielle (and everyone else who may be dealing with a neck injury!),

I just wanted to let you know a quick update on my progress and how I went with your modifications. First up – thanks so much, again, for your time and advice! It really helped me get back into my regular practise and now I’m almost back to normal. I’m still working on turning my head to the right all the way, and have to be careful with dropping the head back, but my fear has gone, hurray! 🙂

Initially, I have to admit that my neck actually got worse, in spite of the mods, so I went to see an Osteopath as well. I lucked out with him since he had done Bikram yoga too, and knew exactly what to recommend.

The most important piece of advice he gave me was not to bend my head back in the initial breathing at all, not even assisted by my hands, since the neck isn’t warmed up enough at that stage. Instead, he got me to just push my head back gently with my knuckles, keeping the chin perfectly level at all times. This still provided a good stretch for the neck (and shoulders!) while warming it up slowly and preparing for the backbends later on. About 2 or 3 weeks into doing that, the sharp pain I had was gone. Another 6 weeks later, I slowly started (very slightly) to bend my head back again during the breathing, but I’m still throwing in quite a few “push-backs” – I find it has helped with working towards correcting my anterior head carriage as a bonus. Yay!

Hope this helps someone who may be going through the same thing!

🙂