Getting Clearer on Yoga and the Risk of Injury

by Baxter

If you have not had a chance to read Nina’s Monday post (see here) about the New York Times article “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” please do, because she articulates some very important points to consider as you digest all this hype coming from William Broad, a New York Times writer. In addition, you’ll find my take on this issue on Yoga Journal’s blog, where I am an occasional guest blogger (see here).

Before getting into recommendations for modifying specific poses to reduce the risk of injury, I’d like to step back today, and look at what we know about key areas of the body that are at risk of injury from an unbalanced asana practice. What do I mean by an unbalanced practice? In my view an unbalanced practice is one where you are doing one or more of the following:

• Practicing at an incorrect level of difficulty for your present level of expertise 
• Doing the same poses over and over, increasing your risk of repetitive stress injuries
• Attending classes with an inexperienced teacher unfamiliar with guiding students who have special vulnerabilities or who is aggressive with adjustments
• Attending a class or pursuing a home practice that has an overly competitive quality to it

Well, you get my drift. One of the few studies that has tried to get a handle on this topic of yoga-related injuries was published in 2009 in the International Journal of Yoga Therapy by Loren Fishman, MD, et al (see here). He and his colleagues surveyed 33,000 yoga practitioners from around the world, got back 1336 responses, and compiled the results. In descending order, the areas of the body most affected were as follows, with the number of times reported in parenthesis beside it: neck or cervical spine (674), shoulder, including rotator cuff (661), low back, including sacrum, SI joint, sciatica (644), knee (597), wrist (414), back or spine, any area (392), hamstring (332), hip (112), leg, including ankle and foot (64), and groin (52). There were other areas also mentioned, but at much lower frequency, including elbows, headaches and nausea.

A Clear Day on Mount Tamalpais by Brad Gibson

What does this mean for you and me?  Should we be overwhelmed and fearful? Probably not. Remember, only four percent of the surveys sent out were returned, so we still have a relatively small sample of folks here. What we can say is that, just as Nina pointed out Monday, any physical endeavor has some inherent risk of injury to it. However, if we keep returning to the essential quality of mindfulness and honesty in our practice, we can go a long way in minimizing the risks of injury. I can honestly admit that I have injured myself on several occasions, once from inattention in class, once from being in over my head in an advanced class I was not ready for, and once when my ego decided I should do an advanced pose that my hamstring had other ideas about. But I have also had several injuries, yoga related and not, that improved and healed through mindful and attentive practice of yoga asana.

In my next post, I’ll look at Fishman’s number one area of injury, the wrists, with some ideas and recommendations on how to approach poses that are more risky for us ordinary humans! Until then, keep on practicing.