I truly believe that everyone can benefit from stretching and strengthening their muscles through yoga. I must admit it saddened me to read a recent article stating that in 2006, 
nearly 4,500 people ended up in the ER after suffering from injuries during a yoga class. It wasn't just beginners, but also yogis who've been practicing consistently for years. Common ailments included pulled muscles, torn rotator cuffs, exacerbated carpal tunnel syndrome, torn cartilage in the knees, and neck injuries such as herniated disks.
This statistic may come as a surprise to you since yoga is meant to heal not harm. The thing is, if you don't learn the basics from a good instructor, you try to do too much, or you don't pay attention to what you're doing, you could end up hurting yourself.
So how can you prevent an injury in your next yoga class? To find out read more.
- Make sure to take class at a reputable studio from an experienced teacher.
- Learning proper alignment is key, and a good teacher will use verbal commands, and demonstrations to let you know how to do poses correctly.
- Sometimes teachers do adjustments (where they use their hands to move you), to help with your alignment or to get you deeper into a pose. Watch out though because an inexperienced teacher can end up pushing you beyond your body's limit. Students have this idea that the teacher knows best, but if the instructor is causing you pain, you have every right to tell her to stop. If you're worried about getting a bad adjustment, tell the teacher before class that she doesn't need to adjust you.
- Listen to your own body, rather than to that little competitive voice inside you. If they see Patty Pretzel doing Lotus pose, don't think, "I know I just had knee surgery, but if she can do it, so can I." Do yourself a favor and be true to your abilities.
After hearing this news, I was wondering if you've ever hurt yourself in yoga class. Share your experiences in the comment section below.
Puma
Miu Miu
Satellite
At least that number of people hurt themselves on the toilet every year too. People are just accident prone.
1Pushy yoga teachers are the worst! Teachers should always be there to challenge and correct, but never to injure. The ones at Bikram hounded me so much (despite an injury I had at the time) that I stopped going.
2I just went to a class this weekend where the teach offered basically NO help and no variations. It was the suckiest class ever. I didn't hurt myself or anything, but I know my limits and I just sat there during certain poses. Some people were really straining and would've benefited from some help from the teacher. What a waste.
3It's really important that you listen to your body and move slowly when you go in and out of yoga poses. Yoga isn't art... It's not about looking beautiful in the pose. It's about feeling the pose, which then helps heal you.
"Feeling and healing"... That's what yoga is about.
4At my gym, the teachers or instructors are just poo. I've seen women doing horrible, no at all correct posture during all sorts of different things and no one ever corrects them. I don't take classes there, no use when they aren't helpful instructors.
5One time a teacher pushed on me while in a seated forward bend and I totally pulled my hamstring. It took me months to recover. Now I tell the instructors politely to keep their hands off me.
6I like being adjusted in class since I often need help getting deeper into a pose or pushing past what I think is my limit. The only time I had ever been injured was from my first (and only) class with a teacher that had just been certified in Ashtanga. I don't think he paid attention to how far I got into poses and just assumed that my shoulders were open enough to do certain things and tried to push them there. I blame myself though since I was too polite to tell him to stop.
7I'm currently in the middle of a 1 year yoga teaching course, and what I've noticed is that competition is the cause of many injuries. So many people push themselves too far because they want to be better than the person on the next mat, or because they feel that every yoga practice should be the same - the 'if I could do this last time, I can do it this time' kind of thing. Remember - your knees should NOT hurt during yoga! Don't do lotus if you can feel pain in your knees.
But yes, pushy teacher are awful - I've been to many yoga schools and some teachers (often the ones that used to have stiff bodies) push too far. Its hard for them to understand soft bodies (like mine - due to ballet + figure skating when I was a kid) can be over-stretched very easily.
Its important to remember, however, that not matter how experienced you are, you can still hurt yourself if you're not 100% focussed or in tune with your body. I've been doing yoga for almost 9 years, and I recently pulled out my right sacroiliac joint. And in fact, just last night, I jumped a bit funny during the sun salutes and pulled my knee. Whoops. Osteo, here I come...
8I usually close my eyes as often as I can to help concentrate on how my body feels as it moves in and out of positions (it's how I keep myself aligned properly). The added bonus is I have no idea what the person on the mat next to me is doing.
I'm really bummed right now because my (very excellent) Vinyasa yoga teacher of 3 years is leaving the state at the end of this month
9Hah,
Just last month I was in a Yoga class (Innyar?)and the teacher was pushy! When I asked her for an adjustment (because the pose was painful) she told me I was making up pain....uh yeah...anyway I sprained my neck during her class and I will never ever go back there...
10I had a terrible first yoga instructor - I think she was more interested in showing off than teaching the class and helping us get into poses correctly. She didn't care about our alignment at all. Now I have a terrific one who pushes us to our limits but ALWAYS tells us (and encourages us) to STOP if we feel any pain and not to stay in any one pose for too long. She's very attentive and will come and fix your alignment if she sees it could do harm or isn't benefiting you.
11Yeah, one time I went to a "fitness yoga" class at a gym which used a ballet bar. The instructor was really pushy and made me go to a bar that was way to tall for me and when I hoisted my leg up I pulled my groin, really bad. my walk out of the room was quite entertaining.
After that I decided I'd limit my group fitness to spinning haha.
12people are always afraid of being embarrased. i don't care i might blush, but i always tell instructors i can't do it well enough, cause i'm out of shape.
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