I cannot say that yoga caused my injury. I believe that doing yoga exacerbated an already existing weak area because A) I did not understand how to truly listen to my body and stop when I felt discomfort other than tired muscles and B) because I did not have a teacher to help me and to be sure I was doing things correctly.
To be brief, when I was doing some kundalini yoga kriya’s, there was one in which one raises the arms overhead, palms together (did this with a video) and leans back, arching the low back, then folding over in a smooth movement, then back up again, and down again, over and over. I did not listen when my low back protested, and I now have a displaced sacrum, I suppose you would call it. The sacrum is tilted to the left, and wedged against the pelvis on that side when standing. It will probably take years for this to mend, and I’ve been dealing with the pain and discomfort from this for two years now. I am working on healing this with my chiropractor and with learning how to do yoga without stressing the sacrum, to give it time to pull back into place (hopefully) and heal. If that isn’t possible, my main goal is to just be free of discomfort.
So yes, doing yoga without an instructor and without knowing fully how to listen to my body, I injured myself.
