Extreme and General Body Stiffness - Help

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hello all,

long time since my last post. Seems like my body also evolved in its own way since then, and a lot of things have been modified in my physical routine approach now.
I am faced with very tensed and stringy legs muscles obstacles when I try to stretch now, even the most simple and easy stretches are impossible to perform without feeling the tension, getting muscle spasms etc…
I am not new to Yoga, I had several years of ashtanga practice back then (30 to 34 y.o) but had to stop due to busy and stressful professional life, which led to a herniated disc and back surgery in 2011.
After that did a Panchakarma, slowly got back to Yoga and started with soft stretching and breathing exercises. But it’s never been the same, it feels more like the older I get (now 37 y.o), the hardest it is to stretch my body.
Legs area are the most tensed part, but it’s more or less stiff and tensed everywhere, my shoulders get painful after few hours at the computer, my psoas are impossible to stretch without extreme pain and spasm feelings, I get cramps in my calves after swimming few minutes, my hips are so sore after stretching that it creates a chain reaction of tension and spasms and muscle pains all along the back chain of muscles, from the thighs to the neck!!
My body is like a cage which I can’t exit even while trying to pull the bars apart !

To be more specific, I drink plenty of water, I eat very healthy and favor veggies, fruits and juices, I switched to gluten free diet, no-coffee, no-tea, no diary, and I top it with the right supplements, vitamins, magnesium, calcium etc…

I am trying to take it easy and stretch regularly and get results day after day but it’s impossible, I stretch and feel better for few hours but the next day it’s back to the starting point, all my body feels stiff and my muscles are extremely stringy, they feel like wood.

My physical therapist was himself shocked when he felt my thigh while I was barely raising my leg to 35 degrees !! He was short of explanations and solutions…

That’s why I’ve come here, I hope the length of my post didn’t bore you and that someone could help, I want to be back to a regular Hata or Iyengar practice , but here where I live there such place , so until I can find a descent studio I just want to stretch at home. Please help !

Peace :smiley:

#2

Sounds like you need to take some weeks off for ayurveda. Your hectic life has stressed your system it sounds like, and what kind pf minerals and vitamins do you take? How do you know they are good? If you live in the states the chance of getting good stuff seems like a lottery when reading on the net, i could be wrong though. Maybe 1 month holiday with no obligations from work would be the answer.
I guess you must have analyzed your situation so what do you think?

#3

This easy-to-follow book, which is Amazon No#1 seller in pain management category, has educated and helped me to reduce pain and stiffness through self-maintenance. I use 2 tennis balls (each inside a sock) & a Thera cane. It takes time and patience to practice, but the result certainly is paying off, I live relatively pain-free, and when there is pain or tightness I know how to release them. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572243759/ref=nosim/triggerpointt-20

We need awareness of our daily bad postures, and take action to correct them.

Also, a regular alignment based yoga asana practice is important to maintain whole body stretch and tone.

Good Luck in claiming your freedom!

#4

Thank you for your replies, I am not working at the moment and have all the time to relax and take it easy and in the same time take care of my health and exercise… the supplements I take here in France are organic originated and supposedly one of the most serious brand in Europe, very expensive too :wink: compared to GNC basic stuffs (which I never take since my pancha karma)

I should try the trigger point, but honestly I doubt it will provide enough relief even with long term practice, I know my body and it doesn’t respond to these soft techniques . I had the chance to live in Asia and had massage twice a week there, with excellent therapists, I tried Bowen technique in NYC, acupuncture in Hong Kong, all were great but the next day, pain and aches were back, I then have difficult time to “launch the machine”, sometimes I can barely bend forward to pick up my clothes, it’s terrifying !

Could it be due to the scoliosis and the fact that one disc is now missing so the all balance and energetic pathways have been modified and now is in need of readjustment?

#5

Hi as you live in france i think safety is good as it is europe. What brand can i ask? just curious to see if its avaiable here.

If you have scoliosis it could be that but also many people having this does not have as much problem as you i guess, i mean there are different grades of pain for different people. Where is the pain located mostly? I guess now but i think you have lower spine weakness so it will then create all kind of stiffness in body even the legs.

So where is your main problem is it in your body is it spine and sitting erect is that a problem? You say legs are most stiff but that does not mean the legs are the problem it could be in the spine. If it is the spine ill give you some practices to do and if you do them regularly you will be able to sit erect more easily and hopefully legs wont tense then.

You should try ayurveda for 2-3 weeks. i think 2 is little i took 2 weeks first time but after that i stopped taking meds and i was taking sleeping pills that are classified as narcotics. After 1st time i did go for ayurveda again but that didnt felt so much good as first time and i could have skipped it i guess but 1st time was like magic. Or try some postures at home and have this ayurveda in mind as a final solution if everything else fail.

#6

I also have a lumbar herniated disk I am currently treating right now also… It has caused me to have very tight hamstrings. Did your PT know about your herniated disk?

#7

[QUOTE=ELNINO;76954]…I should try the trigger point, but honestly I doubt it will provide enough relief even with long term practice, I know my body and it doesn’t respond to these soft techniques . I had the chance to live in Asia and had massage twice a week there, with excellent therapists, I tried Bowen technique in NYC, acupuncture in Hong Kong, all were great but the next day, pain and aches were back…[/QUOTE]

Trigger Point (TP) release is a form of deep tissue massage which has its roots from Chinese Acupuncture/massage but further refined through research in hospital. Previously for muscle/joint pain, I too was unable to getting full relief from TCM but was able to obtain full relief from TP self-massage, reason being (1) I have a lot more time to explore and experiment, (2) I can apply the level of pressure that provide relief (3) for treating injury I massage every 3 hours during waking time. To give an example, once I was unable to raise my left leg while lying sideways, I went for many treatments and the pain got worse over a period of 3 weeks. With the tennis ball I massage areas around sitting bone, and all pain disappeared after that one massage! Of course that was a lucky strike but it does illustrate how effective it can be.

Do take note, pains and aches comes back if we do not observe good postures.

Regards.

#8

transformation is a hard work…whatever the transformation is: digestion food, getting a degree, getting a good partner for life, get your hamstrings more flexible… keep working:) you did a lot of work already, you will be rewarded :wink:

#9

Thanks again, your replies are very helpful

@fakeyogis: Regarding the supplements, I mostly take magnesium/vitB6 complexes, french brand Inovya, found in pharmacies. Calcium/VitD is from a french lab too, and the multivitamins from Nature’s Plus, actually a US brand you might know.

The pain I would feel can originate anywhere in my body, if I sit on my knees it could start a cramp in my foot and really hurt my shinbone area, if I work on the laptop, my neck, shoulder and lower back will start burning after few minutes in the sitting position. But mostly, the pain is in the lumbar area, where I had the operation, and it has always been, even before the operation.
You are absolutely right, it is very hard for me to sit straight and to stand erect for more than 2mn, when I did pilates and could sit erect for more than 5 mn, after a while it was becoming impossible.
Actually my scoliosis was detected by my mum who thought it was weird I was always lying forward while seating, even during meals, I could not sit in a proper erect position even at 12 years old. Because of the scoliosis, I also have uneven legs length, and I had to wear insoles since the age of 14 until today. But even with these props, walking for a long time becomes very tiring and tense my legs even more. When I lived in NY I used to walk a lot, and had to rush home to stretch my legs as it was becoming really painful to just stand for few seconds without moving.
Also, whenever I sit or walk or do any type of activity for too long, I feel the urge to go lay down asap. I would welcome any type of exercise you may be able to recommend with great pleasure.

I remember I received a massage from a chinese medicine therapist 2 months before the operation and I was already considering doing it, and she told me to do all I can to avoid surgery, as it would just transfer the problem somewhere else and in the long term, trigger more problems that would need surgery as well. I am very familiar with eastern medicines as I lived in Asia for 15 years and I know exactly what she means, it is scary to think about it as being my irreversible future!

Ayurveda is definitely the key, if only I could turn my life around and become a yogi and live in Kerala, I would do it right away. I did several treatments there, ranging from 2 weeks to a full 5 weeks pancha karma (at Vaidyaratnam) with very strict rules to make it the most efficient possible, and it felt amazing, after some of the massages, I could even feel that my legs were the same length again, that I could stand straight without the soles, as if my hips were floating freely again and were not held back by some tensed muscles or fascias pulled by the spine. Anyway I plan to do it again in the summer of 2013, and hopefully will be able to do it every 2 years in the future.

@pinoyvegasyogi: the PT I use here treated me for the post surgery recovery. So he knows all about the surgery, the scoliosis, the general back and body conditions, but unfortunately, PTs in France don’t train to help patient’s general health aspect, but only focus on one area which has been prescribed by a doctor, and since all is paid by social security, they have to treat multiple patients in the same time. So even with the greatest consideration, there will never be enough care and focus to treat the most serious cases.

That’s one of the contradictions here, PTs are great in the US and in Asia, they have a tremendous amount of body-mind therapy knowledge and really want to help the patient…but they’re expensive, while in France they just complete what was written on a piece of paper by a Doc, treat 3-4 patients in the same time and collect their money from the government… but it’s free!
On the other hand , vitamins are supposed to be of better quality here :wink:

#10

Thank you Antaraayaah, I will definitely get a book about TP and start to apply it, hopfully it will bring some sort of relief, maybe more.

In my case good posture is the main problem, because of the scoliosis and the multiple imbalances it creates, my posture is the biggest uncertainty in my life. Even when practicing Yoga regularly, alignment was a big issue, my instructor kept correcting me, and didn’t understand how come I could never get it right even after several years. I guess I have more bone compression in some places.

[QUOTE=antaraayaah;76967]Trigger Point (TP) release is a form of deep tissue massage which has its roots from Chinese Acupuncture/massage but further refined through research in hospital. Previously for muscle/joint pain, I too was unable to getting full relief from TCM but was able to obtain full relief from TP self-massage, reason being (1) I have a lot more time to explore and experiment, (2) I can apply the level of pressure that provide relief (3) for treating injury I massage every 3 hours during waking time. To give an example, once I was unable to raise my left leg while lying sideways, I went for many treatments and the pain got worse over a period of 3 weeks. With the tennis ball I massage areas around sitting bone, and all pain disappeared after that one massage! Of course that was a lucky strike but it does illustrate how effective it can be.

Do take note, pains and aches comes back if we do not observe good postures.

Regards.[/QUOTE]

#11

[QUOTE=antaraayaah;76952]This easy-to-follow book, which is Amazon No#1 seller in pain management category, has educated and helped me to reduce pain and stiffness through self-maintenance. I use 2 tennis balls (each inside a sock) & a Thera cane. It takes time and patience to practice, but the result certainly is paying off, I live relatively pain-free, and when there is pain or tightness I know how to release them.

We need awareness of our daily bad postures, and take action to correct them.

Also, a regular alignment based yoga asana practice is important to maintain whole body stretch and tone.

Good Luck in claiming your freedom![/QUOTE]
Thera-cane and rolling the tennis ball up the entire length of a muscle is a good idea. I advice such things for my clients to do at home. Trigger point therapy can be quite effective as well - as well as using contrast therapy (alternating heat and cold either with packs, baths, etc.) and of course yoga. You might, as I don’t know you, want to get a doctors’ approval for contrast therapy though as their are many common conditions (cardio & neuro mostly) that deem it not as safe. Of course, I would also recommend massage therapy (which would likely include trigger point therapy) . It’s not always affordable for everyone but if there’s a massage school in your area they may have a public clinic for the students to practice and for the public to get a cheap massage. Best of luck to you :slight_smile:

#12

Make sure you muscles are very warm before stretching add weekly massage treatments
( rolfing ) hold stretches for minutes at a time ,do it everyday .
37 is not old you have many years ahead of you
Stretching and yoga are not the same imho
Cheers

#13

I think everyone here has great advice. Just a thought, but perhaps your sleep is affecting things? Do you have a good quality mattress and pillow? It’s amazing what a difference that could make.