There is a woman, late 40’s who came once last spring and then again last week for SYT. She has has SI problems, right side moves down, left side
does not. I gave her the SI stabilizing exercise back then. There is a
lot of discomfort in the right hip now (in glut med. area, it has shifted from SI joint where it was before, but she has a hard time pointing to where it hurts.) I did an assesment last week that revealed no strength in hamstrings, glut max., psoas, IR, ER of hip on both sides. About 3 yrs ago she went to a yoga class (somewhere else) and feels like she got injured there, doing something like the dolphin pose, elbows and toes on the floor and everything else off the floor. She is very skeptical of yoga now, yet wants to come. She is skeptical of everything I say and questions every suggestion I give her, yet she says I give her hope. I guess it is all vata imbalance? I only gave her a few things to do as homework, kept it as simple as possible. She is coming back and I figure we’ll go over the suggestions I gave her, and work on how to breathe and relax. Any other thoughts?
A - Her fears are vata but in this case they are warranted. So I would say she is merely being cautious and that is indeed healthy given how she was injured in past. She should be given teachings as to what she is likely to feel when doing poses before giving poses. Then she has something to look for. Also give cautions as to where she should minimize feelings of postures. Same on relaxation - what is signs of relaxation that she might encounter ? How will she know it si going well. Go over these during process. I often talk about signs that I see arising in students during Savasana. Eyes fluttering, intestinal sounds, breathing out mouth, sighs, legs opening, shoulders dropping, etc. namaste m