The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Injuries, Restrictions, Ailments, Pose Modifications › Injuries › need neck relief!!
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Hi all,
I am hoping someone can give me advice on how to heal my neck injury. I injured my neck during rabbit pose in September 2010. It happened when a well-meaning instructor held my feet, allowing me to go very deep into the posture. I had been practicing regularly for 4 months at the time, and didn’t know not to overdo it…at the time I thought it was the best stretch ever, but the next morning I couldn’t move my neck. I tried going back to class starting a few days later and it was still too stiff to do most of the postures, especially pranayama, since I had practically no mobility in my neck.
Basically, whenever I tilted my head backward it felt like my neck was too weak to support the weight, a sensation that felt like my hear would fall off! Or like once my head was back I might not be able to get it back up again, even though I clearly could…Weird, I know. I took a month off class and did some physical therapy. The PT said I had overstretched the muscles in my neck, and my other muscles in my shoulders and back had over-tightened to compensate. The muscles near the base of my neck had become so tight that they actually pulled one of my verterbrae out of line with the rest of my spine. The PT was able to move it back eventually with (quite painful) massage, and I continued with my practice. However, pranyama still feels pretty bad, and now on days after class I wake up with a very stiff neck. And even though it is much better than it was immediately after the injury, I am still uncomfortable much of the time. Icing provides some relief, but it doesn’t last.
So, I guess I have 2 questions. First, is there anything I can do to get my neck to heal all the way? And second, what about pranayama? Should I modify it by not going back as far? When I do it now I feel as though I scrunch up my shoulders as I tilt my head back in anticipation of the “head-falling-off” feeling. I am sure that is not helping matters, but it still feels uncomfortable to tilt back. It is a tightness/soreness all over the back of my neck as high as the base of my skull on either side of the spine, and as low as my trapezius muscles. There is no sharp pain. All directions of motion have been measurably reduced, including twisting the neck (as to look over my shoulder), or tilting front, back, or side (eg ear to shoulder). Front and side tilting feel tight and a bit sore on the side opposite the stretch (eg back of neck feels tight when I tilt forward). In contrast, tilting back feels weak along the back of the neck and makes it feel vulnerable; there is no real tightness tilting in this direction. Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi Bunni,
I am a yoga teacher trained by Gabrielle and with her permission I will reply your post, if that’s ok with you too?
I hope you are well and that the soreness in your neck and shoulders has eased by now.
I am really glad to know that you already have seen a physical therapist, it definitely would have been one of my suggestions.I hope you dont mind me asking some questions?
What exactly do you mean when you say your teacher held your feet in rabbit pose?
Lifted it up or held it down?
Can you explain me how you proceeded in the pose after that and what you felt?If you don’t mind I would like to talk to Gabrielle about your rabbit pose and get back to you on that, as soon as I can.
As to the ‘head falling off’ sensation in Pranayama exercise you may want to try the following modification:
Start by interlacing your fingers or overlapping your hands (which ever feels better) behind your neck, elbows touching in front of you, arms parallel to the floor.
On inhalations elbows move away from each other, for a count to six. By six, elbows are pointing out to the side.
On exhalations release your head back carefully and bring your elbows to touch in front of your body again.
The head moves in the same way but stays supported with the hands behind the neck.
The head will naturally not go back as far but you will have the confidence to let go of the tension because of the cradling of the neck.
The interlacing fingers or overlapping hands will provide you with more control over how much the head goes back, so it feels safer too. What you are trying to do is rebuild your confidence.I myself take this modification time to time, simply because i really like the way it expands my lungs and the ribcage.
I hope you will find it helpful.Namaste,
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the reply and the modification–it does make my neck feel less vulnerable and I will give it a try in class next time.
When I injured my neck, the teacher was gently holding my feet down to the floor. Since I didn’t need to use my own strength to keep my feet and legs down, my curved spine was able to go farther forward and upward than ever had before. (Normally I needed to keep more of my body weight over my legs/feet to keep them from coming into the air). As I mentioned, the stretch felt great at the time, but the next day I couldn’t move my neck. I don’t remember putting extra weight on my head or turning my head–I knew those things were poor form. I just went way further in the stretch than I should have, and something got overstretched.
Keeping the feet and legs down in rabbit is hard for some people (as I have read in other posts), and I should have worked up the strength to keep them down on my own before worrying about the rest of the pose. So many (all?) postures are like that!
One thing this injury (and other minor ones) has really shown me is that every word of the dialog matters, and there are no short cuts. And, if I don’t have the strength to do part of a posture correctly on my own, then I am not ready to progress further in it yet. Like they say, it’s a practice.
Thanks again for your suggestions and your time!
Dear Bunni,
You are absolutely right when you say yoga requires a lot of practice.
Your words tell me that you think that your ability to find depth in your yoga practice depends on your strength. It’s not. Strength will build when you work the poses/body the right way.
One of the most important keys to a good practice is precise technique based on sound principles and if the injury was created under the nose of the teacher with actions encouraged by your teacher then this is really a very bad result and for you it was very serious.
Gabrielle and I both think that there are some serious problems in this pose that could also be affecting your practice in other areas too, as you specifically mentioned that “so many (all) poses are like that”. What we, Gabrielle and I want to show you in this process, is a completely different way to approach this pose.
To help discover these problems and how to fix them, can you please clarify for me whether, in normal circumstances when you don’t have someone holding your feet down, if you feel your legs and feet more inclined to lift up?
While you are at it, could you also specify for me where you feel the strength in your arms while in the pose right from shoulders, through biceps, triceps, wrists and hands?
Also, where exactly do you feel strain/compression/pressure/stretch from your hips/bottom right up through your back, shoulders, neck to the top of your head?
With all due respect, I am not of the same opinion about the importance of the ‘dialogue’ as I truly believe that yoga is not a ‘one size fits all’ kind of activity (if there is such at all?!..). It would probably shock you to discover that it is possibly even the ‘dialogue’ that got you into trouble. And for me, there are too many problems that come from teaching to that script and that’s why I went to Gabrielle’s Teacher training ;D
I look forward to hearing from you!
Namaste,
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the help…hopefully I can answer your questions:
Q: can you please clarify for me whether, in normal circumstances when you don’t have someone holding your feet down, if you feel your legs and feet more inclined to lift up?
A: yes, I feel my feet want to come up off the floor. So to avoid that I try to center my body weight further back toward my feet so that it is not so much over my knees. I also tried a tip from Gabrielle on another post to put a little space between knees and forehead. This helps me feel less like I am tipping forward.Q: While you are at it, could you also specify for me where you feel the strength in your arms while in the pose right from shoulders, through biceps, triceps, wrists and hands?
A: I don’t think I have ever gotten the arms correct on this pose! I finally figured out to begin pulling right away to get the curve in the spine even before bending forward. This uses mostly biceps. But then when I am in the posture with my head down I feel very little sensation in my arms–no contraction or stretch. I have never really been sure how I would pull in that position, it just feels awkward. I feel a nice stretch along my entire spine. I think I am getting that stretch by lifting my hips up and forward and contracting my abs in to push my spine into a curved position. My arms just kind of hold me in place.Q: Also, where exactly do you feel strain/compression/pressure/stretch from your hips/bottom right up through your back, shoulders, neck to the top of your head?
A: Although I injured myself in this posture, it is not uncomfortable to do this posture now. The main posture that bothers me is pranyama and to some extent back bending in half moon (eg tilting my head backwards is what feels bad). In rabbit I feel a stretch along the entire spine. It is not localized to the upper or lower spine per say. I don’t feel a stretch in my hips or shoulders. Maybe a little stretch in the rhombiods, though.Hi Bunni
Thanks for answering our questions!
One more: What, if any tension do you feel in your feet?
You see, if your feet feel as though they want to lift off the floor then there’s something wrong with your pose mechanics.
From your words it seems you are doing the right thing with your arms. There is no muscling required in this pose. If you are using your biceps or triceps at all then most likely either your feet will want to come off the floor or your head will plunge toward it.
So if it’s not your arms, then it’s where and how you’re holding your feet, or it’s the way your head is positioned.
Where is your head touching? Crown, the face side of the crown or further around past the crown?
What is your chin doing? Is it tucked the whole time or are you feeling as though you need to untuck the chin in order to stop you rolling forward?
Perhaps we can get to Pranayama and Half Moon in their threads to make it clearer for all!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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