Hi,
I’ve been practicing yoga for 2 years now and I love it. However, I’ve always had a slight nagging pain in the back of my left knee in forward bends. I went to the doctor about it early on and they ran lots of tests and found nothing wrong with the knee itself.
I recently decided I wanted to learn more and to do the 200-hour TCC, I stepped up my yoga practice in order to feel ready, however the knee pain got worse and was bothering me more. I visited an osteopath who has discovered the pain originates in my back. I have three bulgind disc in my lumbar spine which press on the nerve. He told me to basically quit yoga (and take up golf!) and said that I shouldn’t do any forward bends at all.
Does anyone have experience of this? I feel really depressed that I made the decision to make yoga a big part of my life and I have been told to give it up. 
Also, I’m only 27 and feel I am way too young to have such physical restrictions.
Thanks in advance for your help. Namaste.
Yoga has plenty of other stuff, besides forward bends. Why don’t you leave them alone, for a while ? 
Hello Jen,
Golf? Really? How odd to recommend an inherently imbalanced activity (swinging a club using only your dominant side). Someone should play more golf but it shouldn’t be you <wink>
Disk injuries like the one you mention often heal. However they need to be loved, cared for, and nurtured in order for that to happen. So a logical shift in your activities would be mandated for a certain period of time. In addition a tidying up of your diet and lifestyle would support your body’s own healing process. And I mean clean, clean, clean. Not this “I eat pretty healthy” nonsense that’s tossed my way so often. No caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, or sugar. Those are the bare-bones basics.
Forward bends are contra-indicated with this sort of thing in your spine. Rounding the spine in forward bends tends to squeeze things toward the flesh of the back body. Since your discs are already going that way it’s not a smart move to force them farther.
You can however have a robust yoga practice, in fact a robust asana practice too. But not one with things that exacerbate your bulging discs. Please consider spending some time with a highly trained teacher with experience in therapeutics so that you can develop a practice (asana) that will bring you closer to your Self, nurture your healing discs, and allow you to embrace the joy of moving your body that has so clearly attracted you to yoga.
Also keep in mind Yoga is vast and not merely asana. If you want hard work try living the ten yamas and niyamas from Patanjali’s sutras. Historically speaking, students did not learn asana until they had mastered these precepts. Take one at a time and live it for a week without fail. Then move to the next.
[quote=JenW;12036]Hi,
I recently decided I wanted to learn more and to do the 200-hour TCC, I stepped up my yoga practice in order to feel ready, however the knee pain got worse and was bothering me more. [/quote]
IA has given his usual excellent response.
I am curious though - when you say you have stepped up your yoga practice - I am assuming you mean asana. I’m wondering how this will make you feel more ready for your teacher training program?
Thanks InnerAthlete, it was an excellent reply. I have since overcome some of the negativity I was feeling with the diagnosis. Of course, I know that there is so much more to yoga beyong the physical asanas. But not being able to participate in my regular class made me feel very down.
Actually, I am starting to believe this could be a positive thing in the long run by enabling me to see beyond the realms of what has been my routine physical yoga practice.
I will take IA’s advice on the yamas and niyams. Thank you.
Dear JenW, I also had a very similiar diagnosis although I didn’t have too much knee pain. I had 3 bulging disks and couldnt bend forward. It got worse and worse. My yoga practice had to change and then finally it was so reduced that I could no longer share my practice with others and up to only a few weeks ago I was doing the JFS in bed. I understand how depressing it becomes! The doctors decided I should perhaps consider an operation and I knew that that wasn’t the answer quite yet. To cut a long story short I worked on the lower cross syndrome theory i.e my abs are weak (i couldn’t believe it after all the yoga i had done!) but more importantly my [I][B]psoas muscle[/B][/I] on the side my disks were bulging slightly laterally was tight, short, weak. Glutes weak and erector spinae tight.Modifications of runner stretch, Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 done one after the other for 3 to 6 breaths, 3 times a day, Upward legs with modification and Child’s pose done sitting on a chair really helped. I am not out of the woods yet, the pain has shifted to the glutes but I know I am on the right road. The negativity is really tough to deal with and I don’t thing I have really been able to manage it but we learn a lot about ourselves when a physical imbalance pulls us off kilter. I wish you well in your healing process.
Hi Jen!
First I would get a second opinion from a second osteopath preferably one that does yoga so he can better understand the whole mechanic of it!
What if you do your forward bends differently? With your legs bent and stomach against your legs. Making sure that you always keep a back bend while doing your forward bend. Then slowly straightening your legs but keeping that stomach touching your legs.
[quote=JenW;12036]Hi,
I’ve been practicing yoga for 2 years now and I love it. However, I’ve always had a slight nagging pain in the back of my left knee in forward bends…
I visited an osteopath who has discovered the pain originates in my back. I have three bulgind disc in my lumbar spine which press on the nerve. He told me to basically quit yoga (and take up golf!) and said that I shouldn’t do any forward bends at all.
Does anyone have experience of this? I feel really depressed that I made the decision to make yoga a big part of my life and I have been told to give it up. Also, I’m only 27 and feel I am way too young to have such physical restrictions.
Thanks in advance for your help. Namaste.[/quote]
JenW
sorry to hear of your condition. I also suffered 2 herniated disks at 27 (now some 33 years past…) and spent many years trying to find relief. Long story short I was advised to have Spinal Fusion done, but resisted after discussing with a doc who suggested I keep searching and working and if things didn;t deteriorate I was better off ‘waiting’ on that option. At that time Yoga was not part of my life.
Long story short - aside from the usual attempt at drugs the thing which helped most was to focus on strengthening ‘core’. AS Maryjane notes, core strength goes a long way to stabilizing the spine and reducing chances of further or progressive injury.
When I didn;t pay attention to core for a period of time, I would always be paid by an ‘attack’, often reducing me to days in bed, prone.
I finally was able to get a good strengthening program going and that brought me back to what I now consider ‘normal’. I do most anyhting anyone else does, only I’m always aware of things which might cause re-injury.
like IA mentions, there is a strong possibility of considerable ‘healing’, as has happened for me.
Forward bends are not a problem for me and in fact, now help ‘open’ and relieve pressure on the lower spine for me. it back and lateral bends which ‘excite’ my issues, so I pay real close attention to any variations of ‘Triangle’ type or backbends like ‘Bridge’. I do them, but only with real awareness of how my body feels at that very moment. Surprisingly (or maybe not…) starting my asana practice with easy and simple cat/dog stretches and a side stretch from the same hand/knee position (looking around to the heels) turns out to be a great way to gauge my back and move progressively to more intensity in the practice.
I do ‘slow’ yoga, holding poses for as long as it takes to get ‘comfortable’ in the pose and also determine my ‘limit’. This also assures more ‘strengthening’, since whatever is getting use is getting used strongly.
Yoga has added to my continued improvement of ‘core’ strength and also suppleness and flexibility. But thats after quite some healing had already happened. I really can’t give any advise on how to proceed in Yoga with a ‘fresh’ back injury. But I don;t believe it should be ruled out - and is most certainly better for you than golf, tennis or any other unbalanced activity.
Swimming is great, cycling works wonders for me (forward bending is really ‘good’ for me…) and circuit work in a gym using nautilus or other programmed machines is a great way to help build strength and not cause further injury.
Its hard (almost impossible) for anyone, including doctors, to give precise advise on what to might do. Thats really your decision, but the awareness that yoga prolly brings to you, about yourself is much more than most sufferers of back injury are equipped with.
Finally, kicking myself now, it took me almost 20 years to decide to get an inversion table. I tried the ‘inversion boots’ thing way back and found them awful, consequently I ‘wrote’ off the table idea. Last year I finally decided and got an inversion table and it has been ‘HUGE’, INCREDIBLE in what its done to further improve my back condition.
Gotta say my back now feels better than I can remember it being in the past 33 years! And I’m psyched to continue that trend.
In all, it was not ONE thing. Its what you do every minute of every day and every little thing you can to help you get to ‘better’, including your nutrition and mental approach to the day. Creating an environment for a ‘better back’ will create a better overall you.
Best of luck in having a better day, every day.
namast
Dear All
Thank you so much for your kind replies. It is encouraging to hear that others have suffered similarly and have found ways to overcome it.
I too have very tight and weak psoas. I’ve seen a private teacher who is also qualified to teach pilates and she has been using a lot of pilates exercises as it seems I too have poor core strength. The pain has got much better as a result, though I haven’t returned to group classes - although I feel much more positive about this. The development of my condition has entirely change my view of yoga practice and what it means for me.
I am currently in Lhasa, Tibet and there is nothing like the warmth and humility of the Tibetan people to put our own trouble into perspective.
Thanks again and Tashi Delek
Jen
Jen,
Above all “do no harm” and listen to your body. I have two compressed discs in my lower back and an arthritic thoracic and after doing 4 years of hot yoga you will find there is no cure. Yoga will suspend the pain however similar to massage. Always ice the region after your done working on it. The results are tremendous.