Day-After Soreness

There are often many questions about Yin Yoga and specific spinal conditions. Feel free to ask your question here, or check out other posts or contribute input from your own experience.
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petmyrhino
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:59 pm

Day-After Soreness

Post by petmyrhino »

Hi. I normally practice a yoga flow practice and am a runner, but have only done yin a few times. I'm not used to holding sphinx pose or its variations for long periods of time. I did one of the lovely yin yoga practices on MyYogaOnline (I think it was one for the hips, but it also focused on the back). It's the next day and I feel a little sore in my mid-lower back. It's not pain. It just feels like I used the area in the same way one might feel after lifting weights. It feels very localized over and around specific vertebrae. Is this normal? Do you recommend I rest these areas, and if so, for how long? Should I avoid back bends for a day or two? Should I continue to approach the backbends in the same way or back off more?
Thanks for your help.
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Lower back pain from Sphinx Pose

Post by Bernie »

The fact that you are aware of the soreness and trying to correlate it to prior activities is great: this is called paying attention! Soreness or pain can arise while in the pose, right after the pose or in the next day or two, so it is possible that you went too deep in Sphinx, or held too long. However, there are also other possible causes. You may want to rest for a few days (or do non-spinal targeted postures instead) and then try a gentler version of Sphinx. See if you again experience the same discomfort. The more you try easier postures the more you can firm up any possible correlation between the backbends being the cause of your pain or eliminating them as the source. If the pain never stops, that could be a bigger concern and you may want to check with a physiotherapist to find out why your back is so sensitive: maybe there is something significantly wrong going on.

Options for the Sphinx can be found on this web site. You can either stay lower (rest your chest or armpits on a bolster), or stay for shorter periods of time (say 1 ~ 2 minutes). Then over time, work you way to longer holds first, then once you can do 5 minutes with no discomfort, work towards more depth, lifting the chest higher.

If possible, the best advice is, find a Yin Yoga teacher and work with her/him.

Cheers
Bernie
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