YOGA @HOME
Many experienced practitioners and teachers are speaking up about their struggle with injuries due to excessive stretching and repetitive stress. In the pelvis alone, a great number of long-time yogis are experiencing femoral acetabulum impingement, labrum tears, nerve issues as well as hip flex or and hamstring attachment tears and tendonosis. I’m personally dealing with and managing all of these pelvis ailments through rest, physical therapy, plasma injections, acupuncture and a major hip surgery, and have connected with a number of practitioners walking down a similar path. According to physical therapist, Dr. Charles King, stretching your glutes and hips is great for creating space in your lower back to relieve back pain, but consistently over-stretching your glutes and hips without strengthening them can cause instability and excessive elasticity in the hip joint capsule, which can potentially lead to hip impingement and labrum tears. During asana practice we’ve often been told not to engage our glutes, especially during backbends, which means other muscles have to compensate for a job that is supposed to be done by our body’s main powerhouse and locomotor. The asana practice is also bias toward over-stretching the back of the body, especially the hamstrings. Dr. King says habitually stretching and holding the hamstring muscles in an elongated position without counterbalancing the stretch with strength exercises can lead to muscle fibres unraveling and potentially tear in or der to protect the sciatic nerve from being overstretched.