Experts Weigh In on Injury Risk with Yoga Poses

by Baxter

A few months back, I had the honor of moderating a panel discussion for Yoga Journal Magazine on the topic of injuries that occur when performing yoga poses. In the West, you and I know this physical part of yoga as “asana practice” or the doing of a series or sequence of yoga poses. In many settings, these yoga pose sequences can be devoid of any of the other limbs or aspects of yoga, such as meditation or lifestyle guidelines (like the niyamas). As has been suggested elsewhere, there is an inherent risk of injury to our oh-so-human bodies when we humans engage in physically demanding activities, such as exercise, and yes, even yoga asana.

Joining me for the panel discussion (which appears as an article in the February 2013 Yoga Journal Magazine) were three of the country’s most experienced yoga teachers, representing different yoga traditions:

Gary Kraftsow trained under TKV Desikachar, who focuses on one-on-one instruction, often with a more therapeutic bent.

Patricia Walden has studied with BKS Iyengar for some 40 years, with his attention to solid alignment, static held poses and the assertion that doing asana is another way of doing meditation.

Ana Forrest, also a veteran of almost four decades of teaching, is the founder of her own style of yoga, known as Forrest Yoga. From my limited experience of taking a session with her, I would describe her style as a physically demanding and strong practice, but with attention to the mind and breath.

As we began our discussion, each one of us was able to recall at least one, and sometimes more than one incident of having sustained an injury during yoga practice. In my case, through inattention, for Ana, secondary to being generally disconnected from her body when she first started practicing, for Patricia due to her ego wanting to impress her teacher, and for Gary, long inversions with unskillful sequencing or lack of adequate preparation. So we all had the personal perspective of being a human being who can get injured doing physically challenging yoga poses. Interestingly, in each case, these injuries, which could have been viewed as negative, unwanted events, actually led to important insights as healing occurred, allowing us to feel compassion for our students and for ourselves and giving some tools to help others avoid our mistakes and heal more quickly when injured. 

Some of the important take-home messages from our conversation were that we all would benefit from:

• Remembering that the underlying purpose of yoga is not to master a bunch of difficult yoga poses, but to develop a healthy, deep relationship with our bodies as a gateway to a more important relationship with our mind and heart.
• Working mindfully and gradually to build intelligence in your body and understanding of the poses you do decide to learn, with the guidance of a skilled and experienced instructor who has the same intention for you and who can provide feedback as to your readiness to go further safely.
• Reframing our intention as it relates to yoga poses from mastering poses to helping bodies. If that were your underlying purpose, we would all be less likely to move into situations where we injure ourselves.
•  Realizing from the start that we often bring somewhat injured bodies to our first yoga class, just by virtue of being human and living a typical human life.  If we can keep this in mind, compassion for ourselves arises naturally and we can truly be kind to our bodies as we enjoy the challenge and newness of yoga.
• Studying with teachers whose sequences of poses leaves us feeling really good at the end of practice and the next day. Then learning for ourselves in our home practice how to sequence to do the same. And cutting ourselves some slack if we end up tweaking our bodies now and then!  If three of the country’s most renowned teachers did it, don’t you think we probably all are going to have it happen to us at least once?

The conclusion of all four of us is that yoga’s benefits far outweigh any risk for injury that exists. Setting clear intentions as to what your purpose and hope is by doing yoga is as essential an ingredient as a safe and fruitful practice. Coming back to a relationship with the movement of the breath as a grounding focus for the mind was also strongly encouraged. And finally, as Gary mentioned, remembering the poses are just tools designed to help individuals understand their bodies and transform them, and that the practice is about you and not the poses! Such an attitude goes a long way toward keeping you safe and injury free.

For those last-minute folks who might think about joining us, Gary, Ana and I will all be teaching at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference this coming weekend. To read the entire article “Injuries: Why They Happen & How to Avoid Them,” pick up the February issue of Yoga Journal out now or look for it online at yogajournal.com.

Be safe out there while you are having all that fun doing yoga!

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