Wrists, neck, lower back, hips, ankles, eyes. HELP!

Wrists, neck, lower back, hips, ankles, eyes. HELP!2015-11-15T03:27:53+00:00
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  • dsbenoit
    Participant
    Post count: 1

    Hello,

     

    I am a 29-year-old, professional musician (string bass player), and I have been struggling with wrist tendonitis for almost a year now. It has turned out to be a complicated injury that includes a calcified ligament, ganglion cysts, and possible cartilage tearing. Before this injury, I had done P90X to get/stay in shape, but since I can’t really use my hands, this is not possible. I also have tendonitis in my right ankle, and this prevents me from running. I learned about this when I tried to train for a marathon a couple years ago, even though I’m naturally a good distance runner. I did cross country in high school.

     

    My girlfriend had been doing Bikram for 6 months and continually told me about the benefits. Since I don’t have many options for working out, I decided to give it a try. I did it almost every day for about two weeks until the injuries became too much. Can you please offer any advice for the following injuries? I’d like to keep doing Bikram, but I’m not sure if it’s right for me. Thanks in advance!

     

    Neck – I have trouble bending my next backward, like in any type of back bend and the breathing exercise. It feels very unnatural like I probably shouldn’t be doing it. I would almost consider myself to have chronic neck pain. I currently sleep on a special neck pillow, but it doesn’t seem to help very much. I’m aware that I usually have bad posture on a daily basis, but I’ve been trying to correct this.

     

    Lower back – All of the back bending and back strengthening postures REALLY hurt my lower back. It will even hurt for the rest of the day and when I wake up the next morning. I never go too far into any back bend. I wonder if it could be related to locking the knee/engaging the thigh/engaging the butt. Even Savasana hurts my lower back.

     

    Hips – I have the tightest hips of anyone, and I think I’ve always been this way. It’s difficult for me to even sit Indian style. In tree pose, I can’t even come close to getting my hip in the right spot. I also can’t do spinal twist. I was told to put my leg out straight because I can’t even get close to doing it the correct way.

     

    Ankles – In addition to having tight hips, I think I have tight ankles. My ankles cannot straighten out to make a straight line from the shin to the top of the foot, and I can’t even get it close. Because of this, I have extreme difficulty with anything sitting Japanese style. I can’t get my butt on the ground or anything. For the two weeks that I did Bikram, I pushed myself to try to increase the flexibility of my ankle joints. Nothing too crazy. I would go as deep as I could without pain, try to push a little more until I started to feel pain, and then ease off. It turns out I injured my ankles. It feels like they are both sprained, and it hurts to stretch them out or put weight on them. I’ve been trying to take it easy, but they are not better yet.

     

    Eyes – I get blurry vision after every Bikram class. I don’t know if it’s because of the sweat dripping in my eyes or just from the heat/humidity. They would be blurry the rest of the day until I went to bed. I started using eye drops right after class, and that helped a lot. Why does this happen?

     

    A little more about me: I’m a very critical person (most musicians have to be), so I’m generally aware of what the postures are supposed to look like and what I’m doing that’s matching or not. I’m usually a pretty tense person, too. I have fast reflexes but I’m easily startled or surprised. My girlfriend and I have gone over the postures several times at home for some extra practice. She has one of Bikram’s books. I’m taking this very seriously, but I’m having so many problems. Please help! Thanks! And please ask if you need any more information or information related to a specific posture.

     

    Daniel

    Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)
    Forum Owner
    Post count: 3047

    Hi Daniel

    What a doozy of a post! I am going to have to spend time doing things in a stepwise fashion. There are some classic signs in here of classic Bikram mistakes. We can sort those all out. Really! There will be some things I will task you on that you can do at home that will make your progress easier and more comfortable and quicker too. There will also be things that I ask you to do that may very well challenge the beliefs of script-following yogis. I just want to warn you of that. But honestly, with an open mind, some patience and willingness to work together, to heal and follow some instruction that will debunk the oft-ambiguous or unclear things you are most likely hearing in class (that WILL make you feel better), you will get there.

    First step (if you don’t mind watching a couple of videos about principles that will help you both with yoga and body function and movement) is to go to the home page of this website and watch videos. I filmed these yonks ago so they’re not as short and punchy as they would be if I made them now, but I promise you they will help. Note to self: reshoot those vijos.

    While all will be helpful, watch: “Flatten Your Tummy and Strengthen Your Back” and then “Transformational Technique” about elbows and shoulders (it will help your neck) as your priority.

    That first video requests you buy a cheap soccer ball (size 3) or a basketball (less padded and still size 3). Get going on this.

    Complementary to the other video is the notion that you should always be cognisant of any tension in your head and neck and shoulders. At the moment you are finding all backbends difficult and Pranayama is hell for you. I can bet you any amount of money that you are following the instruction to keep your arms straight and locked out in those poses with your arms over your head. This is not doing you one single favour. Allow an amount of bend in the arms: Just enough to make sure you can keep the neck long and feeling free. It may not even be evident to onlookers that your arms have a microbend in them. Keep that same awareness on ALL your poses to make sure that your neck long and shoulders feel free and unfettered in every single pose. We’ll get to exactly what you can do for each pose as we move on.

    Report back when you’ve done some of these things (even at home or at class – makes no difference). I will work through your repertoire (!) of issues one or two at a time after this.

    Do know however that the answers to just about every one of your problems, if not all, are already in the forum. Digging for them will reward you! Sometimes a whole thread will be 100% pertinent to you, and other times less so. I may point you to some of them in my summary for you as we move forward.

    Namaste
    Gabrielle 🙂

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