Hamstring Tendonitis Pain & Low back pain

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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Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Hamstring Tendonitis Pain & Low back pain

Post by Bernie »

I was recently asked the following questions:
  • Dear Bernie. May i have your help about my student who has hamstring tendonitis problem? Do they still can have Yin Yoga Class? Or is it too much for them? This guy already had the pain almost 1 month.

    The other one is student with back pain, she said nerve clamp. Is she also allowed to join Yin Yoga class? considering quite many kind of 'back pain' and actually not always nerve clamp. Please help to enlighten me..

    Thank you so much. Y.
Hi Y

Regarding your student: my first question would be “what does his/her doctor say?, Tendon pain can take a long time to heal, especially in the hamstrings. The problem is, it starts to heal, then we tear it again by doing forward folds: not just in yoga, but even at home bending over to pick something up. I had this once, and it took me a year to heal it because I kept hurting it while teaching yoga. Finally, I had to adopt a zero-tolerance policy to forward folding: none! Eventually it healed.

Today, I would not only avoid forward folds when my legs are almost straight or fully straight but I would also add earthing to help reduce the chronic inflammation. Your student can probably still do Yin Yoga, just avoid anything that stresses the hamstrings: no Caterpillar, no Straddle, no Half-butterfly (although regular Butterfly may be okay if he/she doesn't feel anything in the hamstrings.) Make sure there is no pain when he/she does abduction of the legs too.

Re your student with back pain: what is a “nerve clamp,? I have never heard that term. Again, what does her doctor say? Which movements cause her pain? Avoid those for sure.

Cheers
Bernie
Yoprihessy
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:11 pm
Location: Indonesia

Back pain

Post by Yoprihessy »

Dear Bernie

Thank you so much for your reply.

About other student which i mentioned had back pain-she said she feels something in her nerve pinching. It feels until the buttock along the way till the feet.
Does she also can not do all forward bending in yin?
Is there any yin poses recommend (safe) for her and maybe help her to resuce her back pain?
Does back bend poses really help for people who experience back pain and will gradually reduce the back pain?

Thank you.
YP
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Post by Bernie »

Again, I would suggest she see a doctor to be sure of what's causing her pain. It sounds like sciatica, which has similar patterns of pain. If so, you may find an article I wrote on it helpful. See Sciatica & Yoga.

If it is sciatica, then normally backbends are not a problem. But she would have to experiment and find out what movements cause her problems (and do not do those) and what movements are okay.

Good luck!
Bernie
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