Yoga injury is a term that is not correct. This is misunderstanding of the term yoga." Real yoga is as safe as mother's milk" (swami gitananda).
If someone claims to get injured by yoga it means that he doesn't understand what yoga is, so he is practicing something else in the name of yoga.
The word yoga means union of the self with the supreme energy, by sage patanjali yoga means citta vritti nirodha = yoga is the stopping of the activities of the mind or directing the activities of the mind to good and satvic direction.
yoga is a science that comes from the Hindu scripture about 5000 years ago, but this knowledge was exist in this world even before, it is mentioned in the vedas, puranas, Upanishad, bhagavad gita, patanjali yoga sutra, hatha yogic texts...
Even in different religion we can find different practices of yoga, because the aim of religion is the same- to make union of the self with the god. So grossly we can say that every practice that takes the human soul closer to the supreme soul is the practice of yoga.
The first time that yoga was written in a systematic way was by sage patanjali around 200 b.c and today this is the main scripture that we use for the practice of yoga, this text is called patanjali yoga sutra. We can find in this text the description of how our mind is working and what the ways to control the mind are. This will help one also for having more happiness in his life but also for the spiritual purpose of Samadhi.
Another very knowing text is hatha pradipika that has been written by svatmarama around the 14 century. Most of the practices of asana, pranayama and kriya that are practiced today come from this text. This text says that by practicing this entire practices one will be able to control his mind. But even that the focus is more on the physical level in this practices the aim is the same aim of sage patanjali- Samadhi- to bring the body, mind and soul to a complete balance and harmony and to be free from the worldly suffering.
Yoga is existing in all the literature of india, so it mean that yoga is universal phenomenon of spiritual system, that want to get peace and harmony to all human being, not only for the Indians souls.
By practicing yoga one will get balance in his body, mind and spirit. Yoga practices are for the sake of spiritual development, they are for people who want to get realized in this life or in the next life.
But even that the aim of yoga is to bring one to a state of Samadhi, there is so many different benefits that one is earning by practicing yoga, like fitness of the body, flexibility, healthy body, calmness of the mind, relaxation, happiness, removal of some disease, prevention of disease…
Today most of the people who practice yoga in the world practice only very small part of the yoga. Most of the people today practice asanas, little bit pranayama and kriyas. In most of the world today asanas are considered as the practice of yoga, and many people think that yoga is measured by how good you can perform advanced asanas and how much your body is flexible. This understanding of yoga is wrong and incomplete because by sage patanjali this is only the first part out of 8 different part of ashtanga yoga: yama (social discipline)), niyama (self-discipline), asana (position of the body), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara( withdrew of the sense organs), dharna (concentration), dhyan (meditation), Samadhi (self-realization).
Patanjali is the first sage who wrote a systematic book on yoga, this is called the yoga sutra of patanjali. In this text patanjali wrote only few sutras on asanas, and he was talking only on meditative asanas that one can sit and meditate for develop in the spiritual path.
sthirasukhamasanam – PYS: II : 46
Means: asana should be practice with stability and comfort.
prayatnasaithilyanantasamapattibhyam – PYS: II : 47
Means: asanas should be practice with minimum or without effort and with merging the mind on the infinite.
So by this 2 sutras we can see that the asana practices that are practiced today in many studios of yoga are far away from the concept of patanjali of asana practice, it is more close to be exercise then yoga. The main purpose behind the practice of the cultural asanas is to prepare the body to be able to sit for a long time in one sitting position without movement and to practice meditation. To be able to do this the hatha yogis text gave us different asanas that make flexibility in the legs joint and in all the parts of the body- to make the prana (vital energy) flow easily in the body, and after one practice this asanas he will be able to sit in meditative asana for a long time.
Many people see the final pose that is describe in different yoga text, and they try to achieve this final state, but every one of us has different structure of the body so no one can perform asana in the same way as other people. While people try to stretch their body over there limit to be able to perform the final pose of the asana they can injured their muscles and ligament and even the vertebral disc. When we practice in this way we cannot get any relaxation in the final pose not in the physical body and not mentally. One will get the benefit of the asana only in his own final pose with the limitation of his body. To reach to the final pose is not the purpose of the practice in yoga, and one should keep this in his mind.
Today we can find so many different schools of yoga but they are very different from the schools of yoga that is mentioned in the text. The schools of yoga today are only talking about different ways of practicing asana. Some are practicing in a flow of movement, some practice in hot room, some practice with a lot of props…
The traditional schools of yoga talk about different ways to control the mind. Bhakti yoga- through devotion, gyan yoga- through the intellect, karma yoga – through action without any expectation in return…
So the main different between the yoga that has been practice today to the yoga that explained in the traditional text is the way of practice and the aim of practice. The way of practice yoga today is by doing asana, and the aim is to make the body fit, thin and healthy. The way of practicing yoga according to the yogic texts is with comprehensive awareness and the aim is to control the mind and to reach to a peaceful state of mind- Samadhi.
Today most of the yoga teacher training courses around the world are of one month period. And in this month the teachers study how to instruct to perform asanas and pranayama, they don’t have much time to go in depth to the yogic philosophy. So when they teach other people they focused on this practices, and many time the main part of the yoga – awareness is missing. Then when a practitioner of asana want to become perfect in this field he can do some over stretching of the muscles and ligament for being able to perform some difficult asana and he can get injured.
The concept of a yoga teacher- guru in the yogic scripture is very different. Guru is the one who takes you from darkness to light, the one who show you the way you should follow for reaching happiness and peace. And for reaching this state the student must walk in the path with his on foots. The practices that was given by a yoga teacher in the past was not how to perform asana that stretch one particular muscle, it was more of satsang= talking about the real truth of the world.
So when we see in some newsletters or in the internet that a person was injured while he was practicing yoga, it is because he practices asanas as exercise and not as yoga, without the rules of asana practices (steady and comfortable without effort and with focus on the supreme energy), so it means that this kind of injury maybe was due to practice of some asana, but without the awareness of the mind towards the body limitation and needs.
So if we speak about yoga injuries that happens due to wrong understanding of how to practice asana, we can say that the most common and vulnerable place in the body to get injured by wrong yoga practice are the lower back, knee, and neck, followed by the sacroiliac (SI) joint and the origin of the hamstring muscle (where it joins the sitting bone). Back and SI injuries are often linked to forward bends, because they can place strain on the disks and ligaments at the base of the spine. The injury can happen if person is doing some advance asana like sirsasana/ chakrasana/adhu kukha svanasana… and his muscles is not strong enough to hold the pose and he can fall down and hurt some important nerves and muscles, or if he suffer from high blood pressure and heart problems and it can make the blood pressure higher. Injury can also happen in siting position for a long time, like vajrasana and then there might be complete stopping of blood supply to the area of the legs and it can cause damage to the nerves, joint and muscles in the legs.
To prevent this kind of injury one should practice with full awareness, and while listening to the body one should not cross his limitation. Practice should be slow without jerky hasty and sudden movement, and the progress will take time, one should not put extra force on his body until his body is ready to progress.
Apart from asana injuries, in different traditional text they write about some practices that must be learned with the guidance of a guru and if it will performed wrong they will cause disorder and disease in the body.
Pranayama practices are considered as one of the most important practices in the hatha yogic text, and they write that by performing correct pranayama one will remove all disease, obstacles, old age and fear from death.
Exhale and inhale air properly is one of the guidance that is explained in hatha pradipika, while performing kumbhaka (pranayama) one should not feel any suffocation while he is practicing.
To practice pranayama and to get progress in the practice (increasing the rounds and increasing the time of holding the breath) one should practice every day for a long period of time, one should have a lot of patience and do not try to go beyond his limit. Without regular and continuance practice it is very hard to progress. But many time because one want to see fast result he can over stretch his limit, and in pranayama it is dangerous because we are working with our breath and the respiratory system, and this system bring the oxygen to all the cells of the body, so by hurting this system we can hurt different part of the body, so one must be patient and careful. The much time it takes to progress in asana practice and more will take for progressing in the practice of pranayama.
Just as wild animals like lion, elephant or a tiger can be brought under control slowly and gradually, similarly the respiration should be brought under one’s conscious control gradually with practice. Otherwise, it can ‘kill’ the practitioner (himself)
(HP: II: 15).
It is mentioned in hatha pradipika list of disease that can happen from wrong practice of pranayama: Various diseases like hiccup, respiratory disorders, cough, and pain in head, ear and eyes.
So by this knowledge we know that one can get injured by wrong practice of pranayama, and this will happen if one doesn't have proper knowledge in yoga and the yogic scripture, and with stretching the limitation of the breath.
Another practice in yoga that can cause injury is the shudi kriyas- cleansing process. The shudi kriyas are mentioned in the hatha yogic text and there aim is to clean the gross body for further yogic practices like asanas and pranayama.
The shudi kriya are:
Neti- cleansing of the nasal region with water and with rubber.
Dhuti- cleansing of the stomach region with water, tube and cloth.
Nauli- movement with control of the abdominal muscle.
Basti- cleansing of the rectum with water.
Kapalbhati- forceful exhalation and passive inhalation, which cleans the forehead area.
Trataka- cleansing of the eyes by gazing one point.
These cleansing processes have different variation in different text.
The same as different yoga practices one should know the right technique and the way to perform, and what is the meaning behind this practices.
If these things will not be under consideration there might be some injuries that can happen from the practice of shudhi kriyas.
For example:
While doing jala neti one should know the temperature of the water and the amount of salt that should be put in the water, without this it will cause headache ,pain, cold and some other disturbers in the head region.
While doing sutra neti and vaman one should cut his nails to protect his skin in the throat, because while trying to take out the rubber from the throat and to make the action of vomiting one can scratch his inner layer.
While doing vastra dhuti one should know not to keep the cloth for too long in the stomach and not to pull it out by force because it can damage the layer of the esophagus and cause inner bleeding.
By practicing different kriyas we are controlling and directing the prana and the 5 different vayu in the body. So one should understand which kind of action each kriya is creating in the body and with this knowledge he can perform different kriyas.
For example vaman dhuti is reducing the mucus in the digesting system, but if we are doing too much of vaman dhuti it will create a state where there is less mucus then what should be and too much of dryness, and this can harm our digestive system and cause different disorders.
In ayurvedic terms it will increase the vata and might take it out of balance.
While practicing the cleansing process one should know when to practice and when not, how much to practice, and how to practice. There are different season that can affect the body in different way so some of the cleansing process will suit in different timing of the year, day and condition of the practitioner.
Not only in modern time there are injuries that happen from wrong practice of yoga, also in the past there were yoga injuries. This is the reason that in the yogic text they mention different warning about the practices and they advise to study under the guidance of a guru.
Today in many places in the world people use yoga practices as a yoga therapy to recover from different injuries and diseases. kaivalyadhama was the first instituted that made scientific research on yoga and proved that not only that yoga practice if performed in correct way cannot hurt the body, it can also cure so many problems.
If one understand how yoga should be practice, and he have sufficient knowledge of the yogic text, there is no doubt that he will not get injured by yoga practice, but he will get only the benefit of practicing yoga in all levels- physical, psychological and spiritual.
Reference:
*Yoga Mimasa, Vol. XLIV No. 2: 148-161, July, 2012
IS THE NOTION OF 'YOGA INJURY' TENABLE?
Dr.Bhalekar, S. Sahay, G. S. & Bhogal.
*Hathapradipika of svatmarama/ edited by swami digambarji & pt. raghunatha shastri kokaje
*The science of yoga, the risks and the rewards/ William j. broad
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