I started iyengar yoga about a little over a week…
my muscles have been weak and i have developed tremors since then…
is any of this normal…
ps… my tremors seem more apparenty when my heart is beating
can’t think of advice to give without asking the usual how old are you, are you in good health normally, what is your diet like, etc etc, and the only thing that comes to mind at first is was the practice too much too soon? and are you able to breathe enough during it? hope it just goes away on its own!
Hi,
I really think you have just overdone it a little. Do you know rescue remedy? If not, it is a Bach flower remedy and is usually very good in calming the muscles and body after a streneous yoga session. You can find it at any good health shop or even a pharmacy and you need no presciption and it is natural. A few drops, about ten or less is taken under the tongue.
Please take your yoga step by step, listen to your body and do just what is right for you, then you won’t over do it.
Remember yoga is not a competition, you are not in competition with anybody or even your own body. Yoga is about balance and harmony, about flowing with you body.
23, better health than i used to be 5’11" around 204
diet varies, but ive been eating meats, veggies, cheese, and fruits latley, and taking vitamins (only latley)
add in a bunch of junk food too…
I first noticed the tremors later in the week, when I accidentally took 2 sudafed 12 hour releases’s in a row, i noticed them that night, i was also taking flonase for allergies… that was more than 5 days ago, they still havent subsided and tonigth they are the worst the have been. As i type this my forearms are feeling considerably tired. During my second yoga session, after some poses, and then going into the hero pose, not only was my arms shaking, almost my whole body was… like from fatigue, muscle spasm and twitches included… not just in yoga either, if i set me foot on something and raise it up a bit, and hold it, my leg will start shaking soon after.
I use my rescue remedy to no success, it does nothing for me, in fact, my bottle is half gone after only a few days. Also been taking some passionflower remedies, and have antidoted the sudafed and flonase using homeopathy…
i have a prior anxiety disorder problem, and it may be related, i had weened off all my medication, but i may be going back on it i guess
Hi,
Yoga changes your body and this is very important to realise. Over time you purify your body through yoga and this change this cell structure of your cells and the enrgy fields of your body.
I think what you experience, and I see this happening over time to many of my own students, is a sensitivity to modern alopathic medicine (sudafed in your case). Modern medicine contains so much toxins and these toxins tend to gather in yout lymphatic system. When you do yoga, you basically force these toxins throught the diffrent asanas back into the muscle tissue, which results in the shakes and tremours your expereince. It is you bodies way of getting rid of them and to tell you to stop taking these medicines.
My advice try to switch to more natural and homeopathic medicines. The 12 tissues salts are a wonderful and natural way of helping yourself.
For the moment take plenty of fluids to wash the toxins out of your body and try to replace the sudafed with accupuncture or some homeopathic medicines.
oh man, haha now i have lots of advice i want to give! i used to have real anxiety issues, and one thing that helped me (i noticed you said you still ate junk food) was cutting out excessive sugar. excessive sugar and yoga do not mix! especially when starting out… also, instead of medicating i wonder if nasal cleansing via a pot would work. I have never tried it myself! so, take that with gigantic grain of salt.
and like pandara said work with your body.
as far as allergies go i have been really lucky in dodging that bullet, and i have never known anyone who has taken flonase (or if they did they didn’t say anything about side effects)… i wish i had better advice. pandara, have you used homeopathic remedies with beneficial results? i am very untrustworthy because of the methods in which the remedies are made, effectively i have heard they are just water.
the other thing is stick with it. if you do it right your muscles will go from complaining, to after a while actually craving the practice!
There seem to be two possibilities. The first is that you are having some musculoskeletal reaction to your yoga practice (read: activity) and/or the meds you mention. The second possibility is that your nervous system is being affected and may be locked in a sympathetic mode, allbeit briefly (meaning not permanent).
Taking meds, or for that matter coming off of them in a dramatic rather than gradual fashion, can muddy the waters of assessment. So it’s not really possible to make a determination for you right now. It could be many things and there are too many variables to isolate.
Consider two things in approaching this, the first is to hydrate your body and make sure you are taking in enough magnesium and potassium in your diet. The second is to make time for authentic rest in your day. Five minutes of Savasana several times thoroughout the day may give your nervous system a much needed break.
Please also avoid caffeine of any sort in your diet. If you are looking for some relief from the muscular tremors then try massage oil on the skin nightly (perhaps olive oil), epsom salt baths, and some simple 2:1 breathing - inhaling for one part and exhaling for two (3 seconds and 6 seconds etcetera).
I wanted to thank you all for your comments and support, and the rest of this reply was a PM i sent to someone, but its an update…
the end is a reply to a question, what am i so afraid of, (anxiety disorder)
It has been almost a week since i have taken any medication for my allergies now, and my tremors/muscle weakness/muscle spasm/twitching is still there, id say the tremors are worse. My muscles feel really weak really quick, my forearms feel really tired even after typing on the computer for just a little bit. The only two things around that time were yoga, and the sudafed and flonase… which i havent taken in some time.
The tremors are worse when my heart takes a beat, so its like… tremble, stop, tremble, stop… but sometimes its there constantly. I feel it up into my arms as well. but you cant notice a shake unless you really look for it.
my foot is resting on something right now and i have my heel lifted, only took a few minutes before it started shaking.
I have OCD/Anxiety/Depression/ and a possible bi-polar dissorder…
however, i “HAD” successfully weened myself off my depression and anti anxiety medication, and have been doing homeopathy for years. Even though I question wether it really works.
About a year ago, i sprained my foot in acting class, to this day it hasnt fully healed and prevents me from standing long periods, running, jogging… i was also fairly overweight. About half a year ago, I decided I wanted to be healthy, and was going to do the master cleanse detox developed by stanley burroughs, around the time that i decided i wanted to be more active, and be healthy… i got sick and was in bed for a week, i developed low back and hip pain that also to this day hasnt gone away. I did the detox for 40 days… lost alot of weight, unfortunatley I can do almost nothing I want to do now, so it seems pretty fruitless…
I also have very very very very little muscle tone, anywhere, ive sat in front of my computer for most of my life with no activity. So theres that…
I went and did some acupuncture the other day w/ electric currents… and it seemed to help with the tremors a little bit, for a while… however the acupuncturist noted that i had very little muscle tone in my lower back, and maybe these stretches arent so good for me when im doing no strengthening, or any toning at all…
i mean, ive never stretched harder in my life than in that yoga class.
also, so yes, after the yoga, my axniety came back full force, with my allergies… also things are very stressfull due to starting up a business and setting up legalities, trips, etc…
I’ve had to start taking my klonapin for anxiety again, unfortunatley it only makes me forget about my tremors and not focus on them, but they are still there…
i think its best that I dont do yoga again until these tremors go away , to determine where they are coming from…
im constantly in and out of med centers and recently had my hormones and blood tested for things, no results yet… next we are checking for a hernia in my back.
Im 23, what am i so afraid of… im afraid of what im experiencing now, i never wanted any of this, and more time continues to pass where im not enjoying a single thing.
I watched a video documentary by a famous neurologist… I need to find his name again, sorry. Anyway, he had done research that showed when we were in a defensive state (or anxious) in general it prevented cell growth. (some of you might know who I am talking about now) Anyway, that illustrates a really important point, and that is when we are really anxious we can trap ourselves in a vicious cycle which our bodies won’t be able to easily grow out of.
It sounds like you’re in a highly stressful situation right now without all the internal stressors to top it off. Do you know where your anxiety come from? Have you always been anxious? What are the things that are causing you anxiety that you can let go of in your life?
I don’t know about discontinuing -all- yoga. Someone else would be better than me at this but I know there has to be some easy set of postures for stress reduction.
just thought i would give an update
i have completley given up yoga as i can no longer do stretches or hold positions without tremoring significantly - im currently looking into essential tremor
but i was recently diagosed with lyme disease
The issues outlined in your post of September 26 are quite involved.
Students experience these sort of things, to this degree, and in this sort of combination, are typically NOT best served wandering in to a random yoga class. Many “yoga” classes do not contain the appropriate protocols to deal with such a student appropriately (safely and effectively).
The yoga practice for such a student should be one with a therapeutic inclination taught by a teacher who understands and can work with the issues being presented. Not by a teacher who says “do you know how to modify your practice” or one who says “just rest when you feel like it”. While those are certainly permissive statements it presumes the student can also be the teacher and that is often both careless and inaccurate.
When one gets food poisoning from a restaurant one doesn’t stop going out to eat. She just goes to a different restaurant. Similarly, it is possible that you’ve been tainted by a particular practice, style, or sort of yoga but that its effects are not a condemnation of yoga, per se, but an indicator that THAT yoga is not best suited for THAT student.
Of course there may be circumstances where it is perfectly appropriate to discontinue Yoga practice but I cannot think of any.
[quote=irhxcbcziuzxs;9475]just thought i would give an update
i have completley given up yoga as i can no longer do stretches or hold positions without tremoring significantly - im currently looking into essential tremor
but i was recently diagosed with lyme disease[/quote]
Hi,
Can’t see why you want to stop yoga, Lyme disease is treatable and when correctly treated you might be able to do yoga again. Remember it wasn’t yoga that caused the lyme disease, it was a little tick.
But, ultimately the choice is yours.
I just registered to answer this question.Anti-Deppressent medicines have the following side effects 1)Severe muscle tremors 2)Concentration problems 3)Confusion 4)Respiratory deppression(Diffulity breathing) 5)Fatigue
As u have stopped taking the anti-deppressent the side effects may still be present due to placebo effect where your body feels as if u have taken the drug when u haven’t,U may have as a minority before practing yoga,yoga may have only exposed the problem.The side effects go away when u come to know of the placebo effect.
i face the tremor when i try aggressive breathing yogas. I am actually a patient of essential tremor where tremors are generally with me round the clock and get worse with tension or agression. How far can yoga prove benecial to me. Which yoga exercices would be more profitable. Thanks.
presently i take an alopathic med.
Certain pranayama techniques can agitate the nervous system and while I would not advise them for most students in general, I surely would not advise them for those students dealing with tremors or anxiety of any sort.
Calming pranayama can be lovely though. Either way, pranayama is a potent tool from the yoga toolbox and should be instructed to the student by a sound teacher.
As a patient of essential tremor (head mostly, but in hands as well) I am interested to know the results of yogalover780, irhxcbcziuzxs, and smartchap’s experiences on the mat. I have moved further into my practice and am looking for a singular teacher to study under (kundalini primarily) and not asana-heavy (what I mean is not teaching solely asana as the only method of yoga). My tremor occurs at rest, though after last night’s slower-paced Vinyasa-style flow class with deep twists, I had little sleep, my nervous system jacked up, and I left work after 4 hours still feeling dizzy, woozy, and nauseous, plus my tremoring feels exacerbated. The teacher from last night’s class suggested I do Pranayama 10-15 minutes a day, Sukhasana against the wall, Viparita Karani, and especially, Supta Baddha Konasana. Any thoughts, ET sufferers if you’ve tried these? Or Teachers, any thoughts on these poses? I work in an office at this time, so it is unrealistic for me to do these poses during the day, but I can work towards waking up earlier (I’m acclimating my body to getting up at 4 a.m. by setting my alarm earlier by 10-minute increments each week).
Just as personal FYI on me and my tremor: I don’t take medication for it, but all stimulants and stress exacerbate it. if I sit in meditation, I can breathe through the tremor after about 5-10 minutes, but I’m not sure if I’m simply not noticing it or if it disappears at that point. Also, I am primarily Vata.
Zo! Wonderful to see you here! It’s been a while. And I just realized how old this post is! I hope those who have posted with diagnosis of tremors have found relief.
I can say I’m not familiar with essential tremor, although I do work with a student who has parkinsons. The poses you asked about above would be a nice compliment to what you are already doing. Reducing stress is, as you know, important in keeping tremors at a more manageable level. Your meditation practice seems to be working too. Not to worry about whether you don’t notice it or if it is gone during meditation. Release your mind from the worry.
What has greatly helped my student with parkinson’s is using the Vayu Mudra. Can be used any time of day or during your practice. Place the tip of your index finger on the base of your thumb. Then fold your thumb down over the index. Other fingers are straight. This mudra is used for tremors as well as sciatica. Amazing results with this student using this mudra. When her whole arm begins to tremor during class, it is usually when she bring her arm out to side, overhead or when it is tired. Doing some reiki on her shoulder/arm until it stops is always helpful and the tremor will stop within a minute or so. Do you know a good Reiki Practitioner?