What yoga injuries do you most commonly see?
When I invite people to my classes, some recoil and say yoga injured them. This disappoints me as I believe yoga is for everyone and a lot of teachers don’t teach progressively and safely. When I ask how they hurt themselves, it’s obvious they have “chaturanga shoulder” or an SI joint issue from pelvic instability while doing asymmetrical poses incorrectly. Years ago I myself got bursitis from doing an ashtanga series I was not ready for. Now I urge everyone to breathe first, feel and listen to their bodies and take the modification most appropriate for them. I ALWAYS offer options for EVERY pose and I give positive reinforcement to students who, for whatever reason, choose child’s pose.
My clients don’t get injured while doing yoga at my studio. We teach to honor your body today, to listen to your body knowing that each practice is different, that pain is a gift, etc. We try to lay ground work right from the beginner practitioner that big deep poses should be earned not expected. That the real payoff of their practice isn’t an advanced level exercise but a “best self” that steps off the mat and into life.
I think it starts with finding an instructor that is RYT certified, that practices daily, that teaches to the bodies in front of them and not from their ego (teaches a client a pose because they are ready not because they know how to teach it)
Injuries come because clients are out of alignment and trying to do poses they aren’t ready for and instructors are under trained to handle the bodies in front of them.
These are just my personal opinion take what works with your belief system.
I don’t teach yoga, but I have clients that attend yoga classes. And certainly I have, over the years, talked with many people who have sustained injuries during a class. I most commonly hear about back, shoulder, and wrist injuries.
The reasons for such injuries vary considerably:
-participants who don’t listen to the instructor
-participants who push themselves too far
-instructors who use the class more for a personal workout (and thus don’t pay due attention to each participant)
-instructors that shouldn’t be teaching yoga, are (like a bootcamp instructor who’s subbing that day…of course one person could be well-trained in both, but there still exist the people and facilities who don’t care if they are or not