You may recall one or more of us suggesting that one way to keep yourself safe as you are learning yoga, or dealing with an illness or injury, is to advocate for yourself when you are in class. But what exactly do we mean when we ask you to do this? Another way of thinking about this is that you should take responsibility for your own well-being when you head into any public class by telling your teacher before the class about any problems you may be experiencing.
Before I address what you should be sharing with your instructor, I want to tell you why you should do so. First off, any teacher worth their salt (which used to be very valuable a century or so ago!) or who is operating with genuine compassion and concern for his or her student actually wants to know what is going on with you. Especially if you are dealing with illness or injury! And don’t think your experienced teacher is fooled for a moment when you are asked if you have any injuries or health conditions they should know about and you reply “Not really.” My next question is always, “So what is that I should not really know about?” This question is usually received with a smile, and sometimes I even become privy to what is going on with my student. Yes, we really want to know! Hopefully this argument alone will be enough for those of you feeling reluctant about sharing, for whatever reason, to go ahead and spill the beans.
Beans, Beans, and More Beans (from Wikimedia) |
Some other urgent or significant things to report are the following:
- can’t stand and balance well on two feet
- can’t get up and down from the floor without assistance
- dizziness
- advanced pregnancy or history of miscarriage in previous pregnancy and no yoga experience.
- acute recovery from stroke or heart attack
- communicable diseases
And here is a list of common areas of injury and other situations that we also really want you to tell us about:
- plantar fasciitis
- acute ankle sprains
- acute knee strain and beyond
- acute hip pain
- hamstring strains or tears
- sacroiliac joint issues
- lower back pain
- inguinal hernia
- acute shoulder strains
- acute neck pain
- recent motor vehicle accident
- carpal tunnel syndrome and other wrist and hand pain
- broken bones, splits, or braces
- missing or limited functioning limbs
- severe scoliosis
- post surgery (even small wounds, such as skin tears, can be problematic)
There are also some conditions that affect stamina that we would like for you to let us know about:
- hypertension
- stroke
- fatigue due to illness
- headache, nausea, dizziness
- respiratory illness such as asthma and emphysema
- fibromyalgia
- diabetes (type 1, and type 2 if newly diagnosed or poorly controlled)
- chronic fatigue syndrome
- active multiple sclerosis
- post chemotherapy
- severe rheumatoid arthritis
- Lyme disease
No comments:
Post a Comment