Severe back strain/spasm

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CAMMY008
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August 21, 2013 at 11:40 am

Post count: 1

#2555

Hello Gabriel
I am very new to yoga and hot yoga and have done approx 15 classes. I thoroughly enjoy the hot yoga, however since about by 6th class or so I started to feel a slight ache in my lower back. I however still continued with the hot yoga. About 5 weeks ago now, I then picked up my son and while I didn’t feel anything instantly, I knew I had picked him up badly. By the end of the day I could not walk or put pressure on my right side as I had a shooting pain in the right buttock area. I heated the area, took a pain killer and the next day I was fine. I still continued with the hot yoga, however the lower back ache increased and started to become unbearable. Unfortunately, I also have a desk job and am seated a lot of the time.

Two weeks ago I decided to visit a Physio and last week a chiroprator and he said that I had severe back strain and that thankfully it was nothing to do with my spine/discs. I decided to take a break from hot yoga and let my back heal and have only been doing light walking and core exercises on the gym ball.

The ache is getting less and less everyday and I would like to resume hot yoga but feel very nervous. While I was doing the hot yoga I found that my lower back would hurt a lot in the the hands to feet pose when I had to bend forward.

Now that I feel ready to resume, are there any poses that I should avoid or do a modification on, until my back ache goes completely. I feel nervous on the the back bends as well (even though I know they are good for the back) though I try hard to lift my chest and squeeze my bottom so that I don’t compress the lower back.

I would appreciate if you could guide me through the forward and back bends so that I can have the right posture to avoid any further strain.

I think that I am tight in my lower back/hip area. For example in the head to knee pose I cannot bend forward with a straight back. My back automatically curls. When I realised this, I started to bend my knee so that I could try to keep my back straight. The same applies to standing separate leg intense stretch.

Also in standing head to knee, when we are initially holding the foot, should the back be rounded or upright. I am not yet able to straighten my leg so I concentrate on balance and locking the standing knee while holding my foot.

This is a great support group and there is a lot of information here. I have also purchased the hot yoga master class, and just received the book.

Thanks again.

Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)
Forum Owner

August 22, 2013 at 9:01 am

Post count: 3048

#10613

Hi Carla

I will be able to get to this over the next 4-6 days. I will give you pages to look at in your book. (Thank you so much by the way. Very much appreciated. 😉 )

If you like, I would suggest to read Technique and Mistakes sections on the following poses. Don’t overwhelm yourself by reading them all at one time unless you feel ok to do so. The main idea is to read and experiment and to notice the overlapping techniques so that your approach will evolve to a much safer way than the dialog classes can afford you. It’s the ambiguity of the script and some issues with instruction that have created the issue for you.

OK, so take a look at:
>>> Pada Hastasana (Hands to Feet) AND Standing Sep Leg Intense Stretch. Notice the BIG similarities.
>>> Sit-Up so that you can learn ways to safely get up off the floor and if you can do a sit-up then a way to make sure you are not compromising what appears to be a weaker than ideal core.
>>> Paschimottananasa (Intense Stretch at the end) See how this relates to the technique and mistakes that occur with the Sit-Up.

The other 2 places to look at are 2 of my free resources:

This one is a blog post on Opening Up Your Hamstrings with Hot Yoga. it helps you understand the mechanisms I allude to in the above 4 poses.

The other is a free video that will help build core strength, safely and easily. It’s amazing and will help stretch and strengthen the right muscles in a risk-free way.

That really is enough to go on. I only read your post very briefly. Since you’re ready to go back, it’s time to knowledge up on the best way to approach your practice. I will look for other clues in your post early next week.

This gave you a lot to do. So come back and let me know how you’re going or if you need any clarification. Any thoughts you have, any wins or if you think of anything else to fill in the details

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂
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