Aura Wellness Collaborative: May 2021

Saturday, May 08, 2021

Teaching Yoga to Prevent Back Injuries

By Kimaya Singh

As any chiropractor will tell you, improper posture or spinal injuries can create a host of seemingly unrelated physical issues. For example, misaligned cervical vertebrae might be related to headaches and sore throats while problems in the lumbar region of the spine could also lead to tingling in the feet or to persistent knee pain. Basically, the back and neck have a lot of responsibilities; they support lifting and carrying, walking and running, turning and sitting still and any other type of physical activity a person is involved in. The majority of the population suffers from or will suffer from moderate to severe back pain, and many with weak or chronic back injuries use yoga to build strength and flexibility and improve symptom management.

Yoga for Back Pain

Yoga is one of the few strength building or fitness activities that can claim respect for the spine and all it does. In fact, rather than putting stress on the back like weightlifting does or putting it at a high risk for injury like many dynamic sports do, physical forms of Yoga practice tend to stretch out weak and tight back muscles, align the spine and build core strength to improve overall back health.

Deep relaxation poses like the corpse pose or the child's pose are particularly effective in relaxing the neck, shoulders and lower back, areas of the body that many adults never experience a full release of tension in. Other poses like the cobra pose or the cat pose stretch the spine and neck and strengthen the muscles associated with these areas. This combination of tension-release and strength building can completely eliminate back pain in some people and prevent further aggravation of old injuries in others.

Teaching Yoga to Prevent Back Injuries in Classes

It is clear, however, that though yoga is an effective practice for improving spinal alignment, core strength and back pain symptoms, some yogis have experienced back injuries that are related to their yoga practice.

There are several scenarios within a yoga session where back injuries tend to occur more frequently, and instructors should be extra vigilant during these occasions to ensure their students come away injury-free.

1. Students are at risk for injury when practicing poses they have not mastered yet. Yoga teachers should keep an eye on pose technique and provide corrective feedback as often as needed.

2. Injuries tend to occur when students are distracted or unfocused, and any student whose mind looks like it is wandering should be guided back into the concentration required, if possible.

3. Back bends and inversion poses can place strain on the spine, so movements within poses should be slow, fluid and as correct as possible. Students with back problems may need to modify these poses or avoid certain advanced ones, like headstand, completely.

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Related Resources

The YOGA MIND:

52 Essential Principles of Yoga Philosophy to Deepen your Practice

by Rina Jakubowicz

RESTORATIVE YOGA FOR LIFE:

A Relaxing Way to De-stress, Re-energize, and Find Balance

by: Gail Boorstein Grossman

YOGA: THE PATH TO HOLISTIC HEALTH

by B.K.S. Iyengar

TEACHING YOGA: Essential Foundations and Techniques

By Mark Stephens

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Saturday, May 01, 2021

Yoga for Breaking Bad Habits

By Gopi Rao

Yoga training isn't very invasive for a therapy that can cause so many positive changes. The problem is all of us face temptations. Yoga instructors are just as human as everyone else, when it comes to temptation, and giving into temptation can become a habit. There is no big secret learned about dealing with daily temptation that is taught at a 200 hour yoga teachers training. Practicing good habits and avoiding bad choices is the result of a trained mind. Bad habits stem from making impulsive choices that aren’t good for us. We know that certain things have harmful effects, but we are powerless to prevent ourselves from doing these things. In order to truly break bad habits, we must think about them in ways that we aren't always comfortable with.

Habits both good and bad emerge from training. At most times, this training happens in the background without any specific demands placed upon us. The human mind and body are clever enough to help us form these habits without any overt thinking required. At other times, it is necessary for the mind to convince the body of what it can do. A basic example of this is riding a bicycle. Some part of the mind knows well in advance of the body that it is capable of mastering this task. The mind provides the determination and the body soon follows suit.

Breaking bad habits is much the same. We stick to our bad habits out of inertia. At times, bad habits can be so corrupting that the mind itself begins to believe that it cannot change. It is during these times that bad habits begin to change from choices into seemingly insurmountable aspects of our personalities. Without the ability to practice objective self-assessment, there is virtually no hope of overcoming such a habit. Fortunately, the human mind is very flexible. No matter how far it persists in one belief or another, it can be guided back through direct work. The key to success in this kind of behavioral modifying endeavor comes from knowing how the mind forms bad habits in the first place. Yogic tradition has been used to break bad habits for centuries.

At its core the yoga is a collection of good habits. It is unnecessary to ascribe any sense of morality to these habits. It’s simple enough to know that every asana, every breathing method and every type of meditation in yoga is good for the mind and body. When you practice yoga by standing, kneeling, sitting or lying down, you are forming habits with your mind and body. Regulating your breathing is a habit. Holding the body in asanas is also habit forming. As yogic meditation shapes your mind it also increases your mental discipline. By doing this it increases your self-control. Increased self-control naturally leads to being able to defend against bad habits more effectively.