Discomfort during Yoga asana - Anatomy with Susi

[admin]

Anatomy with Susi

Discomfort during Yoga asana
I am sure all of us have or do experience certain discomforts during various challenging asana. But how can we tell, when to back off and when the discomfort is okay and when we need to pull back in order to avoid future injuries (as they indeed surely can happen in all sorts of places of our holy temple).
First of all, when discomfort takes place we need to establish two questions: Is this muscular tension? Or is it perhaps Compression? With compression i mean, an area in the body that is in pain because either two bones are pushing and grinding against each other, or a bone is pushing or grinding against some soft tissue.
The best thing to do is to first back off a little to a position where it does not hurt at all - then on exhalations move deeper into it to the point of resistance - if we do it slowly and deliberately - the exhalation - the breath will release the muscular tension - which usually lies in the bulky part of the muscle and feels like a hot burning stretchy sensation. Depending on how hot YOU want the experience the more you will of course challenge yourself - however it is important to not overstretch tendons (fibres that attach a muscle to a bone). Tendons are always at the origin and the insertion points of a muscle. So for instance the hamstrings are attached on the sitting bones as well as behind knees and lower legs. You only want to feel the "hot"sensation between those two points and not right on the sitbones or the backs of the knees, hence you want to feel it on the back of the middle of the thighs. With time Yoga will change the discomfort and make it feel nice.
When it comes to compression - it's important to understand that it's a sign there is no space for movement - maybe you were born with a certain hip structure or maybe you had an injury in the past that is now covered with thick scar tissue or similar. Just simply staying in the pose and bearing the pain, is not going to make it any better.
So when you experience a pain (which will usually be a quick sharp pain within an actual joint or closely around it e.g. knees, shoulders, lower back) it must be addressed with a teacher. You must back off with moving deeper and allowing yourself to possibly do a slightly different position (teacher will show you how) or use some sort of a prop perhaps, towels, blocks, wedges - to create space for the compression. The grounding of your foundation will become important so that space can be created within the joints above - hence alignment (stacking of the bones) will become important as well and the instructions of a good teacher will become paramount. Hence the art of listening will play a major role for the inspired yoga student.
So when feeling discomfort ask yourself: is this just muscular tension (OK!) or compression (HELP!)

Namaste
Susi

For more info visit www.yoga8.com