I have been practicing yoga almost daily for 8 months. It is not a problem in class, but my muscles become sore in the evening. I am not stiff but I have sore muscles, usually my gluts and backs of my legs. I take Yoga 2 Hot Vinyasa and it is not very challenging any more, so I don’t know what the problem is. Any ideas?
Your body tells you it needs some rest maybe. Rest for three days and then continue.
It could be tears of your muscles and can become worse but hard to say what it could be as its your body.
Best you can do is rest.
I used to have the same problem during the first two years of practicing yoga. Then I learned to pay more attention to my breathing and the muscle soreness gradually eased, and I feel much more energetic after my practice. Since then I noticed that I tend to over-exert myself whenever I forget about breathing, either unconsciously breathing too shallow or too fast, or even holding my breath especially when doing challenging poses.
Try to put more awareness into your breathing, and paying more attention to your exhalations which help to relax your muscles and joints. See if it helps?
It is true that I start the class with the intention of using Ujjayi breathing through the whole class and always forget when things get strenuous.
Are you saying you are and have been doing the same asana sequence in the same way at the same pace for the last 8 months? And that you are having ongoing muscle soreness in the same area(s) as a result of this?
And if “yes” how frequently are you doing your practice for what span of time please?
You do the classes in the morning and then the same evening your muscles become sore and stay like that also the next day?
I wanted to bring up this thread as I, too, am chronically sore from practice, and for some time I’ve questioned whether or not this should be the case. In the end, I accept the soreness as a consequence of the type (vinyasa), duration (75-90 minutes), and frequency (5.5 days a week) of my physical practice.
When I say soreness, it’s neither joint pain nor sharp pain, but rather a chronic ache in the muscle belly (bellies), as I have always felt following exertion. Indeed, I find that this soreness doesn’t seem to limit my actual practice, but it’s certainly discomforting during the rest of the day I’m not practicing. What I initially failed to recognize is that for decades, when I used to bike 60 miles a week or run 15 miles a week, I somehow accepted chronic quadriceps soreness without too much question, but because my yoga practice today hits all body parts (all encompassing), it’s not just my quads that are sore but often many areas at the same time, and for a time I questioned if this was acceptable. I [I]questioned [/I]it.
I do take days off and my practice is varied, in that on any given day it could be Ashtanga or a vinyasa flow such that I don’t think the soreness is related to continuous repetition of the same sequence. And I’ll feel it pretty much anywhere I happened to work it earlier – primarily the quads, but often the hamstrings or pectorals or lower back if I’ve worked some backbends.
I read InnerAthlete’s comment on a different post related to soreness where, to the extent that I find joy in my practice, I may also find acceptance in the soreness related to that practice. This speaks to me. My love of yoga includes accepting this condition, to the extent that I find it serves me. I see this as qualitatively different from pain. When I do experience pain, I back off. However, as a new student of yogic philosophy I have read where “tapas,” literally heat, but perhaps taken more broadly as the acceptance of such uncomfortability (sic), can be a catalyst for growth. I have begun accepting the uncomfortable feeling associated with intense stretching in the same way I’ve accepted the chronic soreness associated with a vigorous and frequent practice – in that I am trying not to necessarily run from it, but rather accept it within the framework of a safe yoga practice. I am trying to stay with it. It most certainly isn’t easy for this new yogi but it does seem to get easier with time.
And! I am totally open to the suggestion in this thread about how focusing on breath has helped at least one yogi to overcome this. I shall take more efforts to improve this component.
my guess is what Vinyasa is a fast paced sequinece of postures and just like any exercise will make you sore. My runners run miles every day and still get sore.
Some sequencing differences affect different bodies differently… Maybe try different styles of yoga?
Tune into your intuition while you are practicing.
Yoga is not about competition.
Blessings Chezron,
Adding to what Fakeyogis says about rest and Glpom with breathing, both fully and synchronized with movements, and with what JanineM says about shifting the style or at the very least, adding in some different postures and movements once in a while, two other things that I have personally experienced as culprits in soreness are not drinking enough water and tightening while stretching. By tightening while doing asana rather than relaxing, this locks in the energy, creates stagnation and stresses the muscles because of the conflicting energy: we are trying to stretch while constricting.
[B]To sum up:[/B]
[ul]
[li]Rest
[/li][li]Breathing (fully and synchronized)
[/li][li]Changing up practice
[/li][li]Drinking water
[/li][li]Relaxing (while stretching and afterwords)
[/li][/ul]
Be Blessed
This happens to many people after exercise; the common perception is that it’s related to the build-up of lactic acid, but now we know that it is actually caused by micro-damage in the muscle fibers. The pain can last 2 to 5 days, and is more intense if you leave a few days in between yoga sessions. Practitioners who practice often (almost every day) often notice that their soreness is diminished after class. Also, you can lessen the soreness if you warm up your muscles properly in the sequence and transition smoothly from asana to asana. Hope this helps!
More sore after Mysore seems to be an age related thing for me…however if I don’t do Mysore I feel more sore than when I’m doing Mysore.
My dear Sir! Mysore makes me less sore. Left in Peace I can pace myself, and more: My mind may soar!
Rest for at least 48 hours and see if your still sore. Eat banana and peanut butter. They are good for recovery after a workout such as yoga.
[QUOTE=yogabender;86490]…The pain can last 2 to 5 days, and is more intense if you leave a few days in between yoga sessions. Practitioners who practice often (almost every day) often notice that their soreness is diminished after class…[/QUOTE]
These two statements are true for me…but I’m confused about how this works. Although sore going into class I more often than not feel good for most of the rest of the day afterwards, albeit still sore but it’s less intense for quite a while afterwards. Should I sit out two days though, oh man, those 72 hours are perpetual agony and on that third day when I get back on the mat I feel like an iron rod, along with an overall tightness that makes for an uncomfortable practice.
I don’t understand how with delayed or latent soreness I don’t cumulatively get sorer and sorer as 6 days of practice grinds on. Why is it that when suspending practice I only [I]then [/I]really feel the effects of latency?