Injuries & Conditions in Yoga

Introduction

Following are three ways to consider and approach the topic of Injuries, Conditions & Yoga:

1. Preventing injuries from yoga practice.
2. Accommodating injuries and conditions in yoga practice.
3. Addressing injuries and conditions via the tools of yoga.

To go beyond accommodation of a student's condition and attempt to actively address it is not within the scope of practice for a yoga teacher with standard training.

See below for information on each consideration.

Injury Prevention

An international survey of 33,000 yoga teachers, therapists, and other clinicians from 35 countries published in 2009 found that respondents most commonly blamed these five reasons for yoga injuries:

1. Excessive student effort (81%)
2. Inadequate teacher training (68%)
3. More people doing yoga overall (65%)
4. Unknown pre-existing conditions (60%)
5. Larger classes (47%)

Source: Angela Pirisi, Yoga Journal, How to Avoid Yoga Injuries

Injury prevention is accomplished through promoting student safety in practice.

1. Knowledge of Anatomy & Physiology – To promote student safety requires knowledge of anatomy. For a study guide, see Anatomy to Promote Safety & to Accommodate Individual Needs.
2. Teaching that Generally Promotes Safety– Just as important as knowledge of the body are such teaching tasks as fostering a noncompetitive environment, teaching students to take responsibility for themselves, and referring students with particular conditions to an expert. See more in Promoting Student Safety.
3. Teaching Yoga Techniques in a Safe & Sound Way – The next general area of promoting safety is to properly teach pose alignment and accommodations, and appropriate breath practices. For support, see the Study Library.

HOW & WHY STUDENTS GET INJURED IN PRACTICE

Although yoga is intended to heal, many students and teachers find out the hard way that it can also potentially harm. Common yoga injuries include repetitive strain to, and overstretching of, the neck, shoulders, spine, legs, and knees, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)… An international survey of 33,000 yoga teachers, therapists, and other clinicians from 35 countries (published in the January 2009 issue of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy) found that respondents typically blamed five things for yoga injuries: excessive student effort (81 percent), inadequate teacher training (68 percent), more people doing yoga overall (65 percent), unknown pre-existing conditions (60 percent), and larger classes (47 percent). – Angela Pirisi

POSES DON’T INJURE; DOING POSES INCORRECTLY INJURES

One of the participants… had sprained his knee a couple of weeks before while overdoing it in Pigeon pose. I examined him and concluded he had a mild sprain… We began working with the muscular stabilizers of the knee, in particular using a progressive series of postures that culminated in Lotus pose—all while paying close attention to engaging the muscles that provide dynamic stability to the knee joint. By the end of the workshop, his knee was completely pain free and felt normal. At which point he made an insightful comment: “injured my knee doing yoga wrong, healed it doing yoga right.” Put another way, “poses don’t injure people; doing poses incorrectly injures people—and doing them correctly heals.” – Ray Long