Beginner in Yoga... Pain in the body.. Pls help

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Dear All,

This is my first thread on this forum. I am a 25 years old female and I started attending a yoga class (under a well experience yoga teacher) this month and till now I have attended 10 classes.

When I’m doing yoga I do not get any back or neck pain after a pose. I found the plow very difficult at first but now I’m doing it ok, but still my shoulders hurt a lot when I do it and after that I do not feel any pain.

But when I go home and the following morning, I get all sorts of pains through out my body… specially in the back. My neck is hurting like it’s pulling my head down and my lower back is also giving a very dull pain.

Again when I go for practice and do all the poses, I have no pain.

I have not being doing exercise much for some time and with this class only I actually started, but my teacher says i am flexible.

Pls. advice me whether these pain are normal for a beginner in yoga. Will they eventually go away as i practice or is it not normal?

Your feedback is highly appreciated.

#2

Anu,

Thank you for posting.

What you ask likely does not have a definitive answer. There are a myriad of possibilities. And I’ll run through them briefly.

It is possible to have a risky asana practice even with an “experienced” teacher. And by “risky” I mean that the integrity of posture is not retained usually due to a lack of training on the part of the teacher or a lack of adherence on the part of the student.

It is possible to not feel pain in class and do damage to the physical body over time. This begs the question “then how will I know” and the answer to that is "either you will become deeply discerning and aware of your own body and the things that are and are not innately “for” you or you will study with a teacher who places priority on safety and understands the physical and energetic body so that safety may be maintained.

For your particular practice, since you do not outline specific poses and the ways in which they are done, it is impossible to assess your current practice and its ramifications.

As a beginning student it is likely that you will be using some muscles that you have not used before and therefore soreness (muscles) for two days following asana practice is not unusual. However this should pass. If the things you describe continue, then it may be prudent to attend some other classes with some other teachers and pay attention to the residue those sessions leave in your body.

gordon

#3

[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;31518]Anu,

Thank you for posting.

What you ask likely does not have a definitive answer. There are a myriad of possibilities. And I’ll run through them briefly.

It is possible to have a risky asana practice even with an “experienced” teacher. And by “risky” I mean that the integrity of posture is not retained usually due to a lack of training on the part of the teacher or a lack of adherence on the part of the student.

It is possible to not feel pain in class and do damage to the physical body over time. This begs the question “then how will I know” and the answer to that is "either you will become deeply discerning and aware of your own body and the things that are and are not innately “for” you or you will study with a teacher who places priority on safety and understands the physical and energetic body so that safety may be maintained.

For your particular practice, since you do not outline specific poses and the ways in which they are done, it is impossible to assess your current practice and its ramifications.

As a beginning student it is likely that you will be using some muscles that you have not used before and therefore soreness (muscles) for two days following asana practice is not unusual. However this should pass. If the things you describe continue, then it may be prudent to attend some other classes with some other teachers and pay attention to the residue those sessions leave in your body.

gordon[/QUOTE]

Hi Gordon,

Thanks a lot for the reply…

Well, I think most of my pains are what you have described as soreness for about 2 days about asanas.

But my problem is that, even if I sit in a wrong posture for 10 mins, I start getting pains in my neck and my lower back. I have been having a neck pain and a back pain for some time, and having the idea that yoga would help me get over it only i started doing yoga and I told my teacher also the same.

Well, I have complete faith in my teacher because she’s very good with her teachings and my first 10 days was individual classes.

To be specific, I did the head stand for the first time this week, with the help of my teacher and the next day only I started getting the neck pain. When I called and told my teacher, she asked me to do the spinal twist to both sides.

Do u think this is just an initial pain since I did the head stand for the first time?

I really dont want to damage my body by doing yoga, I simply want to relax my mind and the body and get rid of all this physical pains I’m having here and there. I also have to say that I do feel really good physically after I started doing yoga.

Thanks again for the reply. Pls help…

#4

You’re welcome.

Ten minutes is a very long duration for a beginner to remain in any posture other than savasana or a supine pranayama posture. So I would ask in what pose are you remaining for ten minutes?

If you are simply sitting for meditation (as example) then it takes time to build up the ability to sit without aches. You may also find that for sitting poses you need some height under the sitting bones in order to tip your pelvis slightly forward. Though I’d be shocked if this has not already been shared by the teacher you mention.

Students may do headstand once they have the ability to spread the shoulder blades using the serratus anerior without collapse in the sternum AND can bear most of their body weight on the span running from the elbow to the little finger (often referred to as the forearms). Additionally students who have a healthy cervical curve (vertebrae in the neck) have one head placement while those with a reversed curve have another placement. Again, not having contact hours with the student makes it impossible for me to direct you in this regard.

The fact you are having neck pain AND cite a pose that can place strain on the neck would be a red flag to me. And for me personally as a teacher I can’t think of an instance where spinal twists would serve as a remedy for such an issue. But again, there are many styles of asana practice and many layers of truth within those layers.

#5

According to me this pain is normal. As you practice yoga regularly this pain will be reduced.

#6

Hi Anu

Iv been doing yoga intermittently for about 4 years now…

I used to have similar types of discomfort to what you seem to be describing… a) muscles down the centre of the back, almost like you have slept badly b) muscles between the shoulder blades and c) sometimes extending sometimes into the hollow of the back, in kidney area. especially with respect to the plow pose. i dont know if what you are feeling is almost like there’s a vacuum in a space somewhere in your back… sometimes being a very uncomfortable to take an in-breath?

i have found that initially the plow is very difficult to do because (at least for me) of the extent to which the back (including neck and pelvic region) undergoes extension and compression at the same time. I find that the vacuum feeling gradually goes away, but only if i dont push the shoulder stand and plow posture, even if i can do it and it feels comfortable. iv come to the conclusion that perhaps its because the neck and back muscles dont stretch as much as we’d like them to…

iv also found what helps: doing extra seconds of the neck stretches before the shoulder stand (and plow).
how: lie on your back, keep your body flat (and heavy) on the floor, including shoulders (NB). using your arms, stretch the neck forwards and down along the length of your body so that your chin rests on your chest. release and then
turn your head towards the left front corner of the room (45 degrees to your body) and stretch your neck forwards, again along the length of your body. repeat turning your head to the right front corner of the room.

i find that doing these stretches in sets helps loosen the muscles down the spinal column (when ur head is in line with the body), including those hard to reach muscles along the sides of the spine (when the head is turned at an angle).

this has reduced the vacuum-discomfort i feel after being in the shoulder stand for a while.

i usually feel additional discomfort one or two days after the class, and tend to rub down with some arnica oil, just to help ease that discomfort away. from experience, its nothing to worry about unless its actual pain.

hope that helps!
cheers
y-p

#7

[QUOTE=anu914;31543]

But my problem is that, even if I sit in a wrong posture for 10 mins, I start getting pains in my neck and my lower back. I have been having a neck pain and a back pain for some time, and having the idea that yoga would help me get over it only i started doing yoga and I told my teacher also the same.

To be specific, I did the head stand for the first time this week, with the help of my teacher and the next day only I started getting the neck pain. When I called and told my teacher, she asked me to do the spinal twist to both sides.

[/QUOTE]

As an owner of back pain I thought I will drop few cents. If this pain is something more than just “1 or 2 day after” sore effect, it would be good to be more careful. There may be some hidden injury/imbalance which is normally compensated by surrounding muscles. And when you do stronger asanas this compensation mechanism may be damaged (because after all asanas re-align the musculature). So paradoxically more proper alignment may increase pain. At beginning if the cause of the problem is healed or constantly in case of chronic inflammation of the muscle for example.

Do you have this feeling that it is “bad pain”? That something makes you anxious about it?

#8

For someone to do a headstand withn their first ten classes seems a bit fast to me. Maybe evaluating that pace of progression would be a good call. Maybe a person in good or great athletic shape can go this fast, I dont know, but then again I am not an experienced instructor. Flexibility does not equal strength.

#9

[QUOTE=Brother Neil;31810]For someone to do a headstand withn their first ten classes seems a bit fast to me. Maybe evaluating that pace of progression would be a good call. Maybe a person in good or great athletic shape can go this fast, I dont know, but then again I am not an experienced instructor. Flexibility does not equal strength.[/QUOTE]

I wanted to write that as well but I thought that if this teacher is experienced maybe it is ok.
It took me more than year to develop strength to just hold myself properly - not mentioning such hard core for neck like a headstand…

#10

[QUOTE=Pawel;31811]I wanted to write that as well but I thought that if this teacher is experienced maybe it is ok.
It took me more than year to develop strength to just hold myself properly - not mentioning such hard core for neck like a headstand…[/QUOTE]
well yoga teachers are like golf instructors, some are good, some arent.

Anu, who wanted you to do this pose, you or the teacher?

#11

I don’t think instructions that teachers hand out do and can apply to everyone.

You get some teachers that might say at th begining of class. “Look if you don’t feel like doing this,then you don’t have to” That tends to generate more of my respect for their teaching ,not to mention safety.

Yoga is like a jacket -it’s not going to fit everyone.

Regard to headstand, i was tuaght bregma headstand9 and have been kinda sold on it), and i think can be a safer version because a) it’s alot easier & b) it is easier to ensure nearly all most of the weight is on the tripod of the arms,hands and elbows. I rarely practice the normal version .

I would’nt be in any hurry to get into sirsasana.Entry & exit are best apporached slowly and carefully.The neck or cervix is obviously at risk of compression etc.

In bregama the but sticks out more partly because the spine is not so upright.

If you are concerned about a posture ,tell you teacher. I just think some teachers maybe push their students too much or too far…If you’re flexible headtstand can be easy, if you.re not it could be quite unwise.There are so many poses sometimes included in “beginner’s classes” that imv are not probably apporpriate in such a class described as such where a fair amount of foolk are indeed completely new to yoga… If they are not familar with basic postures at all then chances are this is their first class or block or whatever.

#12

I think that if you are feeling pain or discomfort that is not normal sore muscles from use, then you should take that as a red flag.
have you been x-rayed to make sure there are no possible injuries or subluxations? (A good chiropractor can help you determine this).
I myself will not do headstands as I do have a reverse curvature of the neck, and know that anything that puts a strain on my neck is a red flag for me.

I too had some dull pain in my low back when doing yoga, and brushed it off as sore muscles. Little did I know that I was exacerbating a sacral injury. I may have even developed the injury from doing the yoga, and it was NOT strenuous yoga, merely kundalini yoga with backward to forward bending movements. It should be noted that four years later, with the help of my chiropractor, I am still dealing with the injury, as it takes a very long time for a sacral injury to heal.

You mentioned plow pose being one that first brought your awareness to this pain - do you support the neck in plow pose, as in having a blanket folded under the neck to elevate it so it is not pressing into the mat?

Listen to your body. Regardless of what anyone tells you, even your teacher, unless it rings true, you know your body. They do not feel the pain, and may not understand fully what you are trying to explain.
Go visit a chiropractor, and make sure you have a healthy neck and spine.