aedington

Hi! I’m new to this forum, but I too have cervical spondylosis (discovered 2 years ago when I took a bad fall on my snowboard and was paralyzed from the neck down for about 3 minutes). MRIs showed severe spondylosis and degeneration of the cervical disks. After healing from the snowboard accident, which took several weeks, I did not have many problems with pain until I resumed doing Bikram yoga (after a 3 year layoff). Now, after doing about 10 classes in my first 2 weeks, my neck pain if quite bad and I feel as if the yoga is damaging my neck instead of helping to heal it. I am careful to not let my neck go back very far in pranayama or back bends, but I have been tucking my chin to knee and I believe that may be what is causing the issues. My question is, can I do Bikram without doing a lot of neck movement, back or tucked? Will I still be able to benefit from the poses? I LOVE this yoga and definitely do not want to give it up, but it’s not worth damaging my vertebrae any further. Are there modifications I can do to prevent further damage/pain and still continue? Any insight or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!