- Hi Bernie,
I just finished the Online Course. I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. Thank you! I have a few questions which answers I couldn’t find in the forum. Hope you can answer them via email.
1) A teacher ones told me that if you’re reached your compression point in split and your still working it so that bone hits bone, more bone is growing in the area of hitting and you will even lose range of motion. What do you think of that?
2) You talked about nocebos… What do you think about not turning the head in Salamba Sarvangasana or other poses where the neck is compressed? Will it injure the neck?
3) I’ve heard in my first teacher training that during hyperextension the joints/bones can break more easily. I guess that’s not true after what you have taught?
4) You spoke about bending like a credit card until it breaks… I was thinking of Up Dog and Down Dog. In Sun Salutation we often do them alternating. Would that actually also be harmful?
Thanks already for answering my question.
1) This teacher is referring to one source of compression, which is bone-on-bone contact. Bones, like cartilage, are stimulated by compression. In other words, compression is good and healthy for bones and cartilage. Without compression, these tissues will atrophy. Atrophied bone can become osteoporotic, weak and brittle. To avoid that, we need to apply compressive stress to bones. But, just as you can do too little, you can also do too much. Boney growths, called osteophytes, can be caused by compression occurring over and over again at the same spot. While this is sometimes called arthritis, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Along our spines, the spinous processes do tend to grow larger and thicker with time due to a lifetime of compression. As we age, most people lose some spinal extension (backbending) range of motion. But, again, this is not necessarily bad. The bones have adapted to the constant stress of life by becoming thicker. Many weightlifters and body builders deliberately build up bone in places where there is a lot of stress. (Stuart McGill calls this “callusing the bones” and it is a good thing because it makes the bones stronger and more resilient to damaging stress.)
Will this happen in your hip joint due to splits applying a stress on the bones? I highly doubt it. How long are you staying in that position and how much stress are you applying? Unlike weightlifters who are training constantly and under very heavy loads, a yoga student holding splits for 5 minutes a couple of times a weak is not going to stress the joint too much. But, let us say that you are so dedicated that you do this pose every day and hold it under extreme load for 30 minutes every day, then — yes, conceivably, you could grow your bones and they may become thicker in that area, reducing slightly your range of motion. But, the real question is — is this good or bad? We don’t really need a lot of range of motion in splits to live our lives, but having a strong joint and sturdy bones can be very healthy. So, personally, I would not worry about it, unless you feel pain there. If there is pain, that is a whole other question.
2) Will it injure the neck if you turn your head in Shoulder stand? Yes! No! Maybe? I don’t know. It depends on so many things. It depends upon your biography and biology. It depends upon how you are doing Shoulder stand and how much load is on your neck versus your shoulders. I can envision that for many students it is not and never will be a problem. And, yet, for other students it is definitely something they should not do. It may be injurious. But, just because something bad could happen, doesn’t mean it will happen. You could get hit by a car crossing a street, but that doesn’t mean you will be hit. It does mean that you take care when crossing a street to make sure it is safe to do so. Is it safe for you to turn your head in Shoulder stand? What are you feeling? Is your neck bearing a large load? If so, don’t turn your head. Is your neck floating free and safe because all the weight in on your shoulders? Maybe it is okay to turn your head. But, let me ask, "why would you want to turn your head?" If it is get more range of motion for your neck, there are far less risky poses to do that. Personally, Shoulder stand, to me, is a high risk/low reward pose anyway. Many students have no problem with it, but many more students do have problems with it and they can do other poses to get the same benefits.
3) Remember there are three causes of hyperextension: 1) a genetic condition that affects the collagen structure, making it very loose; 2) an injury to a joint which reduces its ability to prevent hyper movements; 2) skeletal variations that allow more than normal ranges of motion. For the first two causes, care should always be taken when approaching end ranges of motion. For the third, there is very little or no risk. I do not agree with what you heard. Simply going to an end range of motion is not risky; going PAST end range of motion is risky and going to end range of motion under high loads is risky. But in yoga, we don’t dynamically stress the joints with high loads, we gently stress the joint at the end range of motion. Most hyperextension joint injuries occur in the sporting world due to transient, dynamic loads placed on a joint. With the exception of causes of hypermobility in the first two cases, safely moving to an end range of motion and staying there (hypermobility due to the third cause) should not be a concern.
4) The credit card analogy, like all analogies, is not perfect. A credit card is an inanimate object; it has no ability to repair itself. Living organisms can repair damaged tissues. The key is dosage and recovery time. There are four parameters you should consider: amount of stress, number of repetitions, frequency of exercise and recovery time. 1) The amount of stress is important; jumping from Down Dog to Handstand is a greater stress on your wrist than going from Down Dog to Up Dog. 2) How many reps are you doing? Eight reps is less stressful than 108. 3) How often are you doing this? Once a week is less stressful than twice a day. 4) How long are you resting this area between episodes of stress? 72 hours is more restful than 24 hours. If you are doing the “credit card bending” stress to your wrists every day under high loads, then like a credit card, it could wear out and become damaged. If you are doing it a couple of times a week under low loads, then your body is probably not only healing the stressed area but adapting it to the loads and making it stronger.
I hope these answers are clear!
Cheers
Bernie