Prevent the Two Most Common Yoga Injuries

Transcript

hi my name is jessie i'm an integrative doctor of physical therapy at the healing collective functional and integrative medicine in nywalk colorado and this is a video on two of the most common postures asanas in the yoga practice that i see leading to repetitive strain injury and it's not that the postures are at fault it's that there's a level of refinement required to protect joint stability over time in these two postures the first is otto mukashvanasana known as downward facing dog and the second is chaturanga dandasana the plank pose i hope it goes without saying that this is a video right so i don't see how you're moving and it's hard to see yourself moving so if any of this causes discomfort or pain especially that's a red flag just stop and find yourself an experienced therapeutic yoga teacher or come in and have a session with me where we can break things down step by step and i can give you real-time hands-on feedback for how you're performing the postures so again if it hurts stop immediately and consult with an experienced yoga instructor downward facing dog is one of the foundational postures in all of yoga and unfortunately it's also quite an advanced posture it requires a lot of core integration and the shoulder girdle core needs to be set up properly in order for this posture to really be serving you over time rather than causing some challenges in the shoulder region a lot of times the type of repetitive strain injuries i see when people practice this posture incorrectly are ac joint pathology tendinitis issues in mostly the interior shoulder and the key to performing this posture correctly lies in even before you get into the posture setting yourself up appropriately so that the shoulders are stable and able to support you throughout the pose something that's really common that i see a lot is people achieve the posture but then hang into their joints rather than creating the muscular and skeletal stability that enables this pose to be really supportive and healing so to set up start with knees hips distance apart and palms directly under the shoulders perhaps even a tiny bit wider than shoulders and then looking down at your hands see that your pointer fingers are either parallel or pointing outward toward the outer edges of your mat ever so slightly this translates up through the entire arm so that the outer edges of your arms are moving back so the action of the arms is this external rotation movement and then stability there now you also want to observe that the ears the shoulders are lowering away from the ears as you perform this external rotation action and the key is keeping that external rotation as you go into the pose and so a nice way of working with this before you even go into weight bearing which is more advanced is just to find a seat place your palms out ahead of you externally rotate but have it not coming just from the wrists but coming from the arms do you see the difference here this is me rotating from the arms versus just rotating from the wrists so the upper arm bones are externally rotating see how that dropped my shoulder away from my ear and i feel some action here in the serratus muscles which are drawing the shoulder blades down and forward without rounding the shoulders forward so you just it's like opening two ball jar lids at the same time externally rotating shoulders down and away from the ears now you may find that just finding this action and seated is challenging and if that's the case that means we should work this way before even going into the floor pose when you're ready to progress to the floor pose as i said hands shoulders wide or a little wider apart actually helps to give more space for the shoulders and then find that external rotation i'm exaggerating just a little just so that you can see it more clearly find that external rotation action from the upper arm bones and then shoulders down and away from the ears tucking the toes under just see if you can hover your knees three inches from the floor maintaining that external rotation of the shoulders and this might be a lot of work this might feel like a big challenge and that's where you practice resting the knees back down you can sink into balasana or bhaktasana devotional pose with the arms outstretched here even flipping the palms up emphasizes that external rotation of the shoulders it might feel like a gentle activation or stretch or release between the shoulder blades or under the armpit chest this is another nice way of working more passively into that external rotation movement of the shoulders gazing forward palms flat on the earth find that external rotation of the arms from here coming up to hands and knees tucking toes under and then see can you keep that external rotation as you lift the knees and then sending the hips up and back and this mat is stretching on the floor so just noting that relaxing the neck completely and further emphasizing that wrap of the shoulder blades that external rotation of the upper arm bones and you may just stay here briefly just visiting that action and then coming down to rest bhaktasana with the arms outstretched helps to stretch the muscles involved or balasana with the arms hands back by the feet just lets you release completely so that just hopefully gives you a little bit to work with as you progress into auto mukashvanasana so in chaturanga dandasana where you're lowering from the plank pose to the floor it'll be useful to have a yoga strap close by and the distance i'd like you to loop the strap in is about shoulders wide apart so you can measure it by looping your strap and holding it up to your shoulders and have that handy as we move into this next posture one of the more common dysfunctional patterns i see in chaturanga dandasana is as people lower to the floor instead of keeping the shoulders back and keeping the spine aligned straight and not overarching there's a tendency to roll the shoulders forward and use a lot of pec stability as you lower down that puts a lot of strain in the interior structures in the shoulder and over time can be really uncomfortable in this posture so the way that i like to encourage people to practice this is with a strap that is measured to about shoulders wide apart and place the strap just above the elbows and then coming to the floor keep the knees on the floor for this practice because you're going to be activating new muscles keep the knees on the floor for this practice knees can be hips wide apart hands are directly below the shoulders so making sure they're not far ahead of the shoulders because this is a very important piece when you perform this posture if the shoulders or the hands are too far ahead it puts the shoulders in an awkward and unstable position from here look down and see that the pointer fingers are parallel and then hug your pinkies in so that they touch your fourth ring fingers this i've found is a nice way to improve stability up the lines of the arms so instead of spreading your fingers apart as wide as possible hug the pinky in to the fourth finger pointer fingers are still parallel and then push out energetically with the arms into the strap draw your shoulders down and away from your ears but then puff up the back of the heart just a bit so you're really activating the stability in the shoulder girdle from here leaning forward bending the elbows so that as you lean forward the elbows stay directly over the wrists never moving forward or back of the wrists and bending forward keeping the shoulders back drawing the tail toward your knees until you're basically resting on the support of the strap with upper arms at a 90 degree angle check in with the length of your spine from the crown of your head to your tail shoulders back tailbone toward your knees and you'll feel the stability here to come out press strongly into the hands and rest back into your bhaktasana or balasana pose for a rest so practicing that way for practicing that way with the strap and ensuring that the alignment of your elbow always stays directly over your wrist and what's moving is the rest of your body over your elbow really helps to set a foundation and help the helps the muscular coordination to develop in the shoulder girdle before you go without the strap when it is time to explore the next um and then when it is time to explore the next step in this pose you would set the hands up in the same way point your fingers parallel baby pinky finger hugging into the fourth finger set the shoulders again away from the ears puff up the back upper chest just a bit to create stability and then really pay attention keeping the elbows directly over the wrists as you draw forward don't let the lower back over arch and keep that puffed sensation in the back of the chest and then pushing back up ensuring that the shoulders don't draw forward especially as you push back up out of the pose that is a big tendency to watch for and really just moving into and out of that chaturanga position is going to over time build you toward the strength of doing that and holding it and then lifting the knees off of the floor so that the whole body is involved i hope that was clarifying and helpful for you to find more accessibility comfort longevity in these amazing healing asanas postures that are really meant to be therapeutic when done with the appropriate level of refinement if anything was uncomfortable confusing challenging for you to access in your body sometimes there can be other pathologies other aspects that are at play that we can really dive into explore unravel unveil in a therapeutic yoga appointment with me here at the healing collective i also utilize some modalities that really help at melting adhesi adhesive tissue sticky gunky scar tissue that may be from an old injury that maybe you've forgotten about from childhood or or a recent injury so i have lots more tools to access if you're finding that this just wasn't isn't as fully helpful as you were hoping for so i just would invite you to reach out to any really skilled therapeutic yoga instructor physical therapist who has an awareness of the the whole world of yoga asana or reach out to me if you'd like some additional support in making these postures really healthy for you in the long term i wish you very very well you