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| Hi everybody,
...getting up at 6am to practice in a cold room, without a proper warming up and hearing my Iyengar teacher's voice at the back of my head (more more more), and of course not to mention my insensitivity to my body and its limits, I pushed too much and now I have torn hamstrings, both. It has been more than a month now that I don't practice any standing postures, having pain, using the RICE method and well the doctor said that there is nothing she can do.
I believe that I already had scars in the muscles before, according to the symptoms I have heard (painful when sitting for a long time, a little bit of pain just where the legs start off the buttocks etc.), which scares me even more, because i didnt hear the ¨puph¨ sounds everybody is talking about, but rathar just pain.
at the moment, i try to rest as much as i can. whenever im not working (i work part time as an English teacher), i try to lie down. Although, i do practice a bit of sitting Asanas (nothing of forward bends of course).
I was hoping that someone would know more about it, and might be able to give me an advice.
I am very scared that I would have to live with it all my life (because I read in some sport Forums that many people suffer from it over 10 years).
Does anyone have an exprience with such an injury?
Please any idea would be very appricated!!!!
Thanks,
Ori
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| No standing postures? I don't like the sound of this rehab you are doing.
I would start doing the sun salutes every morning with bent knees in uttanasanas.
Utkatasana for sure.
Do purvottanasana for sure and reclining big toe with strap.
You might seriously week up and down stairs everyday too. But just rest.. not sure about that approach.
Massage yes, walks yes, practice light yes.
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| thats rough...
what were you doing when you tore them?
i mean the specific asana...
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Ori - that is painful. After I tore one, I waited several months then had a good massage therapist work on it. She said it was like popping bubble wrap to get out all the little adhesions. It is still the slightly less flexible side years alter, but no pain. Good luck! And yes, I am curious as to which pose did the damage as well. |
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| Ooh, yikes, Ori, that's rough.
I have an appointment coming up at a sports therapy clinic to talk with someone about a problem with a tendon on the inside of my ankle. I have been feeling strange sensations (a "popping" feeling when I transfer weight onto that foot in certain standing/bending postures) and I want to prevent the kind of injury you are suffering from. It has been slightly sore on and off, but not (yet) painful. Once I swear I heard an actual popping sound. That's when I realized I needed to look into this ASAP. In the meantime I've been doing a lot more seated yoga. I, too, often practice in a room that others would call chilly (I live in northern Vermont and have very expensive oil heat!). I do love my little space heater, though.
If I learn anything of use, I will post it here. I know that it's a different part of the body, but some of it may be applicable or helpful to others recuperating from this type of injury.
I can also relate to "pushing too much"—I think that perhaps I have jumped a little too vigorously into yoga and my body still needs time to catch up. Or, more accurately, my mind needs to start listening to my body a little bit more.
ciao,
Lily
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| I still have some issues with my right hamstring since injuring it two years ago just from using the dustpan and brush! Mainly it that it's a little stiffer than the left one. Gentle stretching has gradually brought back function as has seeing an osteopath and sports therapy masseur. The biggest improvement came from doing a standing forward bend (uttanasana) at the wall under assistance from an advanced level Iyengar teacher though. She alternated pushing my back further down the wall with rolling my sitting bones up and then pinning them into position with her hips.
Fee |
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| Thank you guys,
you have made for yourself a really nice community here. 
I think i got it from Uttanasana. as i said, i didn’t hear any ¨puff¨ kind of a sound, so i think i tore slowly but surly.
I have been practicing Iyengar for the last 5 years, so i guess it gave me enough time to tore them slowly...(although never on 6am cold rooms and 4 hours a day as i did the last few weeks)
I was wondering, Yogi expert, you suffered from this injury, could you please tell me how you recovered besides the massage (what type of massage was it and how often did you do it), did you do any standing asanas or anything else that you think might be helpful to know...
I am happy to say that although it is painful, i can walk. But i can not stretch them, so doing the reclining big toe with strap would be impossible for me now, even with bend knees.
Thanks Again!
All the best,
Ori
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| I have a favourite reference source for assisting myself get over painful moments of lunacy (my body hates me   ) ...
In this case, I think you'll find the following page very helpful :
http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/ham/index.html
Fee |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Ori - I continued my normal practice, but was careful with anything that made the injured area more painful. I think I went to massage weekly for awhile to work out the knots. But by that time I was not in acute pain anymore, as I recall, just very limited on that side. It sounds like yours is still quite inflamed and may need to settle down a bit more before you let someone go digging around in there.
As you were practicing in a cold room with a cold body, what sort of preparatory work did you do before going into a deep forward bend? Actually, you can do that kind of damage even warmed up, as I did. I simply did not have my soon-to-be-injured leg working properly in trikonasana. Was paying attention to the front leg and forgot about the back one and "pop!" I was on the floor  |
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| Hi Ori and everyone,
I just posted an update on my own injury situation in the injuries & rehab section. The post title is "Achilles tendon + ribcage," although since I first posted there a month or so ago I found out that it was actually my posterior tibialis that is bothering me (the tendon on the inside of your ankle).
ciao! |
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| I'm sorry to hear about your injury Ori. On the positive side, sometimes injuries lead to a much more acute awareness about our bodies and the minds that seek to control them. I hope that your injury leads to understanding that transcends your pain.
I don't know that your injury was a result of going too fast, but I would like to put this out there anyway as preventive medicine:
Warm up first. Then, when going into a pose, go SLOWLY. Go only as far as you can go without ANY discomfort. Once there, gently extend your spine and limbs with every inhale and surrender and relax with every exhale. NEVER muscle into a pose or force to get deeper. If you are patient, your body will open like a flower. If you force, you are working against yourself because force tightens your muscles and relaxation allows them to stretch. The "goal" of yoga is not how deeply you can or will be able to go in a pose. The "goal" is how you are doing it, right now.
Stretching is extension. Extension = ex-tension. It is the release of tension.
Ease = health. It is the opposite of dis-ease. Do your poses with ease.
If you go too easy, you will not progress. If you push too hard, you will injure yourself. Find balance between force and surrender, pushing and relaxing, etc. Opposites can only exist in opposition to it's other half. At the middle balance point, the opposites disappear and there is peace, wholeness. Asana practice is finding this peace in your body and your mind and in their relationship to each other and the universe.
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| Hello Ori,
you must first handle the fear you express. There is little or no way for the body to heal effectively when one holds such fear in their consciousness. You may or may not have to deal with the resulting hamstring issue over time. It can be either. So first that, otherwise all the pragmatic advice under the sun is worthless.
If it is in fact tearing of the hamstrings then there is a need to know where the tears are and to what degree. It would be obvious to refrain from jumping and intense hamstring poses which require balance too.
In the meantime this is a therapeutic issue and as such you should be working with a therapeutically trained teacher to develop a protocol for your practice not only while you heal but to support that healing.
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| Ori - I feel your pain, literally.
I, too, suffered an injury to my left hamstring - right where my left leg joins my left hip/butt - and haven't been able to do uttanasana or a host of other asanas for a month. In fact, I haven't been back to class in a month and I'm going out of my mind. I had a pain in that area (right in the middle of my butt) for several months, but then a few Saturdays ago I was late to class (anusara) and I just jumped in without stretching (I know, I know...). During an assist, the pain became so bad that I couldn't really finish class. The pain has been with me ever since. It hurts when I bend over, sit down for more than 10 minutes, etc. My gut tells me that something is definitely pulled. I'm paralyzed with fear at the thought of not being able to continue my current practice.
Where do I even begin to get this properly diagnosed? An orthopod? Sports medicine doctor? I know cerebrally that this could be a good growth opportunity for me and will change the way I practice (probably for the better), but I'm just having a hard time getting on the right road to recovery.
Any thoughts you or anyone else could provide would be deeply appreciated.
Namaste,
Sheri A. |
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| You have to modify big time until it heals. It will get better.
Use massage, walking, (light) yoga), But don't sit still and wait for everything to fix itself. Sometimes driving long distances is the worst for it. Make sure you stop and walk around if you are in the car for long periods. I used to push my left foot on an imaginary pedal.
The trick is to very slowly get the leg stronger and more flexible.
I'm saying this again, so that you will believe it. You will get better.
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| Yoga Journal this month, Mar 08, talks about this very injury and proposes 2 asana to heal the tear by strengthening the muscles without stretching it .. I cannot remember what they were now but I think one was purvottanasana, and another was lying on your back and placing the foot of the injured leg about a foot up a wall (straight leg) and activating that muscle. |
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| from Yoga Journal Magazine, pp. 82-83 (article by Roger Cole, certified Iyengar teacher): preventative poses -- Salabhasana, Purvottanasana, Virabhadrasana III poses while healing -- Supta Padangusthasana against resistance, Uttanasana w/bent knee
Edited by OrangeMat 2008-03-08 7:15 AM
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Torn Hamstring
