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| My first post here!
I'm a middle-aged man who has done yoga in the past. Last fall I had a loooong and frustrating bout of trochanteric bursitis from way too much hiking after way too much not hiking. Once it cleared up I started to go to a weekly yoga class and was loving it. I ended up re-injuring my hip and it's been over a month since I've been to class. The hip's better but I've also managed to pull a hamstring this weekend (I know, I'm starting to sound like a total wreck) but I'm really missing yoga class. At this point I've pretty much come to the conclusion I'll probably never be pain free. Would I be crazy to go back to classes, being very mindful of not overdoing it with my problem areas? I'm starting to get fat from all my inactivity and it's worrying me.
Thanks for any guidance you can give! |
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| what kind of yoga have you been practicing?
more "athletic" styles of yoga (bikram, ashtanga/vinyasa) can exacerbate injury, but therapeutic yoga modalities can actually help you to be pain free.
i was super beat-up from sports when i started practicing yoga, and ended up beating myself up more through bikram yoga.
i too was once pretty convinced that i'd never be pain free.
but since starting iyengar style yoga, my pain is the lowest its ever been methinks.
and i feel great.
you work slowly with intention, using props to help better understand poses.
haha i'm always saying this...
hamstring is a tricky area.
you'll want an experienced teacher to help you navigate the injury.
and most importantly, listen to your body.
best of luck to you.
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| Thanks for your input. It was very encouraging. I'm going to go to class tomorrow. The teacher is a freind so I'll talk with her about it before we start.
I did do Bikram for a while and really liked it but just couldn't keep it up. This is a Hatha Yoga class where we sometimes do "restorative yoga". I don't really know what it means but the classes are small and very personal and I just plain like it!
Thanks again
Mark |
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| We're all given something to work with, so we work with what we've got.
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| Thanks, D-dog. I forget that a lot.
So glad I went back. Typically attendance at these classes is low so I wasn't surprised to be the only person there. A private yoga class. I discussed my situation and concerns with the teacher and she tailored the class to me. I'm really fortunate and blessed to have had that opportunity.
Thanks again for your replies to my post.
Mark |
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| askand ye shall receive
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| good for you for going back! and what luck!
yeah, I find it tough to judge how long to stay away after an injury, but mostly it's a matter of just being more aware of my body and rather that going into a pose as deeply as I think I can to start with, then playing from there, I start going into a pose as if from scratch, brand new, and stop very early on, at the earliest of sensations, and 'play my edge' from there. schiffman talks about 'playing your edge' in his book, and describes two edges - the first one where you start to feel sensation in a stretch, for instance, and the second, where you've just crossed the line into overstretching, for instance. in the case of injury, it's the first edge that I go back to exploring, to learn my new, 'post injury' body, trying to drop my preconceived notions about my body formed 'pre-injury'. it can be mentally challenging to do this, but that's part of yoga too. :-) |
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| I'm not sure why but I just felt compelled to "check in" here again and I see that it's been five months since I first posted. In that time I've been going to that hatha yoga class I started and then a couple weeks ago I added another class. It's a vinyasa class and the first session threw me because I didn't know what to expect. I almost didn't go back the second week but I did and ended up leaving class with the same peaceful joy I feel after the other classes. In the interim I found that my health insurance through work pays for half of various classes including yoga at their complementary medicine center. I'll be starting an eight-week hatha yoga class there in a couple of weeks replacing my short stint of vinyasa.
It's been a great summer. I was out hiking more than I have been in years with much less pain. My hips and legs feel stronger and much more stable. I just wanted to share the happiness  |
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| Sharing happiness is a good thing to practice too! You never know when someone else might need a little more than they think they have! ;) Thanks!
Sounds like you had a good summer! |
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| Some day I'll post somewhere outside of this thread. Really I will. 
I just came back here because I was trying to remember how long I'd been going to that class. It came up in a conversation the other day. It was longer ago than I remembered it being and I'm a little surprised; this is the longest I've stuck with anything like this.
In other news (this is becoming like my diary) last week I started sleeping intermittently on my left side (where I'd had the bursitis) for the first time in fifteen months. I've also started lifting weights again. The pain is gone. I still feel "guarded" when doing certain things just out of habit, but I can unlearn that, too. To celebrate I bought myself two new pair of shorts* over my lunch hour. Do I know how to party or what? 
Be well, everyone!
(*Which will lead to my next search and possible post on this forum!) |
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Injured + Anxious to Get Back
