Preventing Overuse Injuries in Yoga – Jennifer Pilotti
Avoiding chronic overuse yoga injuries is a multi-faceted issue, but using variability within the pose is an important way to prevent overuse injuries.
What does it mean for an injury to be a chronic overuse injury? It means you perform a movement in a habitual (chronic) way. In yoga, this could mean always performing specific postures with exactly the same alignment and never straying from an “ideal” position, or attending class with the same teacher who always gives the same cues, so you approach the asana in an unchanging way.
Occasionally changing how you approach postures varies the load you are experiencing throughout the musculoskeletal system. This means not only will you reduce the likelihood of chronic overuse injuries, you will also gain strength in a varied way. It also has an additional benefit for learning. When you practice the same skill in a variety of ways, you become better at the skill. While the goal might not be to be “good” at downdog or Warrior II, getting stronger and more efficient is a nice benefit to varied practice.
FOCUS
Adding variety can be as simple as changing the order of postures. If you do downdog/updog/chaturanga, that will feel different than the standard vinyasa of chaturanga/updog/downdog. Transitioning between two asanas you don’t normally place together results in different loading in both the transition and the posture, because you arrive at the final posture in a new way.
Another way to add variety is to vary how you do the asana. There are a number of easy ways to approach asanas in new ways, including:
Practice the asana focusing on different parts of the body. Trikonasana (Triangle), for instance, can be done focusing on the feet, the hips, the spine, or the action of the arms. Changing your focus invites opportunities to do the posture differently.
Change your set-up. In downdog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), you can set up with your hands and feet even, but what happens if you set up with one hand slightly forward of the other? Or one foot slightly forward of the other? Or toes angled in or out? Subtle changes can alter your experience.
CHANGE IT UP
Enter the posture in a different way. Do you always do your right side first in Warrior II? What happens if you do your left side first instead? Do you always set up the feet a specific way? What happens if you set up the arms first and then the feet? How does that change things?
Don’t settle into the static hold of the posture right away. Move around a little in the posture—let your weight shift or allow your limbs to move before coming into the static hold. For instance, in downdog, shifting your weight between hands or pedaling the feet lets your nervous system adjust to the position and dynamically loads the tissues, building strength in the final position.
Staying injury-free in your yoga practice involves **building strength and moving in a variety of ways**—not just on your yoga mat, but in life. However, practicing the principles outlined above will keep you one step ahead of falling into a rut with how you approach yoga postures. Variety, as the saying goes, is the spice of life, and in movement, variety keeps you healthy and injury-free.
Jenn Pilotti is a movement professional, studio owner, and author. She holds a number of certifications as well as a M.S. in Human Movement. More information about her can be found at www.jennpilotti.com.
Preventing Overuse Injuries in Yoga – Jennifer Pilotti
Preventing Overuse Injuries in Yoga – Jennifer Pilotti
Avoiding chronic overuse yoga injuries is a multi-faceted issue, but using variability within the pose is an important way to prevent overuse injuries.
What does it mean for an injury to be a chronic overuse injury? It means you perform a movement in a habitual (chronic) way. In yoga, this could mean always performing specific postures with exactly the same alignment and never straying from an “ideal” position, or attending class with the same teacher who always gives the same cues, so you approach the asana in an unchanging way.
Occasionally changing how you approach postures varies the load you are experiencing throughout the musculoskeletal system. This means not only will you reduce the likelihood of chronic overuse injuries, you will also gain strength in a varied way. It also has an additional benefit for learning. When you practice the same skill in a variety of ways, you become better at the skill. While the goal might not be to be “good” at downdog or Warrior II, getting stronger and more efficient is a nice benefit to varied practice.
FOCUS
Adding variety can be as simple as changing the order of postures. If you do downdog/updog/chaturanga, that will feel different than the standard vinyasa of chaturanga/updog/downdog. Transitioning between two asanas you don’t normally place together results in different loading in both the transition and the posture, because you arrive at the final posture in a new way.
Another way to add variety is to vary how you do the asana. There are a number of easy ways to approach asanas in new ways, including:
CHANGE IT UP
Staying injury-free in your yoga practice involves **building strength and moving in a variety of ways**—not just on your yoga mat, but in life. However, practicing the principles outlined above will keep you one step ahead of falling into a rut with how you approach yoga postures. Variety, as the saying goes, is the spice of life, and in movement, variety keeps you healthy and injury-free.
Jenn Pilotti is a movement professional, studio owner, and author. She holds a number of certifications as well as a M.S. in Human Movement. More information about her can be found at www.jennpilotti.com.
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