neck injury

Hi cjl62281

Now there are a lot of things going on here! You seem to feel very concerned. So let me see if I have understood you correctly. Please fill me in on other details if they come to you.

Your neck is painful so the pain is seizing your neck up and making it difficult to turn and move. Any kind of bad spasm or tightness like this, there is always a danger that you will anticipate the pain and this makes the problem worse. So my guess is that your doc has given you muscles relaxants to help you get some ease and comfort around your neck so that you can operate in a normal way without constant pain.

Although you don’t like to skip classes you are probably doing the right thing in the short term. You are the only one who can say when you have reached a point where going to class feel safe enough for you. Having said that, there are things that you can do…

The very first hot yoga pose is often pranayama breathing and I would really encourage you to modify this. You can Skype me for a chat. The important thing with sore necks is to really use your active stretches to safely and gently open up the neck. So in pranayama for example you should be pushing the hands against the jaw and vice versa in both directions using nice slow movements. In backbends, if you can’t let your head go back completely without holding it up then you need some help (ask me: again skype is good).

For safety aspects of your muscle relaxant, best bet is to research it: talk to a pharmacist, google it, or talk to your doctor. Of course drug information is lengthy and includes everything (which can make them scary) – even when a reaction is extremely rare or unlikely. So just be aware that almost every problem under the sun can be mentioned in these documents. The good news is of course is that once you are over the acute problem you can resume your normal yoga ‘habit’. The trick is in working out when it is right for you to return.

I have had plenty of students with neck injuries. One of my first students came to me with a very bad problem that she was going to have an operation to fix. Less than 10 classes later, her persistent problem had vanished and to this day has never had that op. I helped her modify her pranayama and supported her in particular poses.

Your turn :cheese:

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂