In an Injury Rut? Quit Skimping on Your Rehab and How Yoga Therapy Can Help

Being involved with outdoor sports, I am around lot of people who have or had injuries.  One thing that we all have in common is that we want to heal fast and get back at our activities and our lives.  However, if you want to fully heal from your injuries, you can't take short cuts, so it's best to have a holistic plan that involves both treatment and rehabilitation. 

There are many treatments for an injury; examples are surgery, prolotherapy, acupuncture, or any other choice that involves a specialist doing something to your injury to help stabilize it.  Rehabilitation, such as physical therapy and/or yoga therapy can either follow or be included along with the treatments.   In both PT and YT, the purpose is for you to learn to move your body again using kinesiology principles that you learn from your therapist.  Then you move your body through the exercises in a pain free zone until it becomes engrained in your mind and body and you develop necessary strength and flexibility. 

Yoga therapy is a tool for healing that looks at the whole person—body, mind, and spirit to achieve your goals.  So, in a yoga therapy session not only do you learn physical movements that you can do to heal your injury; but you learn better ways of breathing to release tension and create stability; and awareness exercises for your mind so that you can be aware of how you are holding yourself on a daily basis and during your activity.  You are also encouraged to look at what your injury means on a deeper level—what personality traits are causing you to move in such a way as to cause injury?  Are you rushing through a movement because you don't have proper technique?  Is your mind somewhere else, such as on the perceived outcome?  Are you tense and nervous?  Are you trying to move your body faster than you are able?  Do you constantly push yourself past exhaustion?  These traits are human nature and by becoming aware of them, they no longer will control you.  You can learn these things about yourself just by being mindful of how you do your physical exercises in a yoga therapy session.  The purpose of the session is to learn to slow down and pay attention to what you are doing so that you can hold your body in a way that is healthy and effective, and you learn how to observe where your mind is so that you can bring it into the moment and apply yourself fully.  

Any injury rehabilitation is not a passive process and can take a few weeks to years.  Actually, it is a process that never ends.  I'm sorry, but there are no shortcuts in this step.  Saying that there is would be like saying you can become a great cyclist by going out one time, or that you can learn to climb or kayak instantaneously.  Just like the outdoor sports that we love, rehabilitating after an injury is a learning process.  If you skip steps, the only person that you cheat is yourself.  Plus, if done thoroughly and mindfully and with the appropriate therapist, your rehabilitation will probably make you better at your sport or activity than you were before!  

So if you've recently been injured and you're cutting corners on your rehab, I encourage you start fully participating in it now!  You don't have anything to lose except the couch!

The Who, What, and Why of "Yoga for Shoulders"

So, I've been posting up for months about my Yoga for Shoulders classes and video.  You may be wondering why I teach Yoga for Shoulders and if it's appropriate for you.  So here is my story, some info on shoulder injuries,  and how you can and can't use yoga to heal:

Yoga for Shoulders—7 Steps to Healing and Preventing Sports Injuries

As a whitewater athlete, I’ve had my share of shoulder injuries over the years.  During my first couple of injuries, I was in my yoga teacher training and healed up pretty quickly; or so it seemed.  As I got older, I developed chronic pain in my shoulder.  I thought that I would just need to get used to the pain—I was an extreme athlete, and pain was par for the course, right?  Then I began studying yoga therapy and playing around with some different yoga techniques.  To my amazement, pain that I'd had in my shoulder for seven years went away in about two weeks with the right exercises.  As the pain faded, I gained a safe range of motion that I never thought possible, and my strength increased.  Now I can do all kinds of things that I had been told that I would never do again without surgery.  My yoga practice and paddling are thriving, and my athletic life is opening up to new possibilities every day. 

Inspired by my healing, I began educating myself further so that I could help other injured athletes use yoga to gain more freedom and strength in their bodies.  For several years, I immersed myself in more therapy based yoga teacher training, and I taught yoga classes to people with shoulder injuries.  Through the process, I discovered what shoulder problems are common in active people and what should be done in order to heal through yoga practice.    

Generally, active people's shoulders become injured because of trauma–such as a dislocation and/or repetitive motion and posture–such as kayaking or riding a bike.  Obviously, after trauma, an injury needs healing time.  If you experience pain in the following months or years, the injury has become chronic.  Bodily imbalances then develop that are often similar to repetitive motion injury.  Either way, the typical scenario is that the arm bone tends to move forward in the socket due to muscular imbalances.  As the arm bone rolls forward, it causes the opening between the arm bone, the collarbone, and the shoulder blade to become smaller until it pinches on important stabilizing tendons causing pain and swelling.  Further, when pinched, the tendons are cut off from the muscles causing instability in the shoulder. The symptoms of this are weakness and burning in the front and back of the shoulder and feeling as if your arm might come off as you reach for the shampoo bottle in the shower.

If you exercise and push through these pain sensations, go ahead and make an appointment with your orthopedist for surgery.  The exercise will speed up the injury process, and you'll need surgery pretty soon.  Think of a rope moving back and forth between sharp rocks.  What will eventually happen?  By pushing through pain sensations in your shoulder while working out or doing yoga, you’re causing damage—pain and swelling are your body's signal.  If you truly want to heal, you have to learn to listen to your body's pain signals and work within a pain-free range of motion, or you will be in pain and injured forever. 

So, what should you do to heal or prevent this kind of injury?  These are the steps that I take using yoga as therapy to help someone heal from a shoulder injury, heal after surgery, and to prevent shoulder problems:

1.  Breathing—learning to fully breathe in a relaxed body is the base of a yoga practice.

2.  Bandhas--energy locks in the body, some of which create necessary core stability for yoga poses. 

3.  Releasing the fronts of the shoulders.  This is stretching–kind of.  I like to think of it as releasing—you are gently returning your body to its natural state.

4.  Movement in the shoulder blades–your shoulder joint is actually only as mobile as your shoulder blades. 

5.  Standing poses—learning to move your whole body in a pain free range of motion.

6. Building core strength—not only strengthening your abs, but also your spine and shoulder blades.

7.  Weight bearing poses on the shoulders—a culmination of all the previous techniques, learning to balance effort and ease in the body by moving through poses that develop balanced strength.  

Can you get this from attending your local yoga studio?  Maybe, but probably not in a general class setting.  I've been in some classes where the teacher helped me tremendously.  But in some classes, when I was moving improperly and making my shoulder worse, no one ever corrected me.  Also, there are many poses done in general yoga classes that are not appropriate for athletes with shoulder injuries; some common poses will actually weaken injured shoulders.  If you are an athlete with shoulder problems, you should make a private appointment with a yoga teacher who is trained and experienced in shoulder therapy for athletes.  After you are healed and understand your injury, you will be free to go to any sort of yoga classes!

What about doing yoga on your own to heal your shoulder?  That’s okay as long as you know what you’re doing.  If you don't, seek help–or you may never get to do your beloved activity again!  A home yoga practice is good as long as it's tailored to your shoulder injury.  You can use a video as a guide, but make sure it's okay for your injury.  If you are going it alone, my advice is to always move slowly while you exercise and pay attention to your alignment.  If you get pain and pinching, stop doing what you are doing and work within a pain free range of motion.  

A path to healing is never quick and easy, but if you want to play hard, it's essential.  So, take the time and a little extra effort (and ease!) to get out of the pain and injury cycle and discover the amazing rewards of your accomplishment.  May your shoulders be free!

I am available for private instruction in Asheville, North Carolina and over the internet.  I also created a yoga DVD with a step by step program to heal and prevent shoulder injuries.  You can send me and email or visit my website YogaVenturesDotCom for more info!

Praise the Effort, Not the Reward

In our society, we have this ugly dichotomy that on the one hand says that you can do anything, and then when you do it, if you're not the best at it, then you're just not good enough.  I have always wondered about it and in the following article a writer and a psychologist explain the situation.

I am stoked that I have had to work hard in my life for everything I have achieved--I am not naturally good at anything and the hard work is the reward for me.  I have a "growth mindset," but it has taken some work to even have that--learning to turn off the media, avoid negative people, and combat negative self talk.

Don't let society fool you into being stuck or thinking you suck.  Don't worry about your swim or your fall--just get back up and try try again!  That is what I keep doing--my sweetest successes have come after huge failures.

If you are into sports and/or have kids, this is a must read!  Here is the article from Women's Adventure:
A is for Effort

A Review of "Yoga for Shoulders"

Making a yoga video is really tough.  First, I have to decide what all I can fit in there--I have to usually cut down my material tons and then think of how to put it all together so that it will be simple to the end user.  Then I have to figure out how I will say each cue so that the user can understand.  While I did practice for years on my yoga students before I made this video, once the video was finished, I wondered if I made any sense.  I wondered if the structure and the language were useful or confusing.  So, the first thing I did was send off the video to the very groups of people that I was targeting with this video:  active people who may or may not already do yoga.  I thought Tali from the Cupcake  Mafia blog would be perfect because she is an active outdoors girl who happens to be in yoga teacher training.  A teacher in training is perfect because they are being taught to be critical of other teachers and I wanted an honest opinion.  It helps me tremendously to hear that she understood the structure of the video and that the very purpose is to slow you down in your yoga practice and pay more attention to the process.  That is the only way to heal.  Thanks so much to Tali for taking the time to be thorough with my DVD and give a review that is super helpful to me and to you:

Review: Yoga for Shoulders with Andria Davis, RYT by Tali of the Cupcake Mafia blog. 

"Yoga for Shoulders" DVD is finally finished!

You can purchase the new DVD, read all about it, and check out the trailer at the YOGAVENTURES WEBSITE.

If you'd like to read more about how we made the DVD and my inspiration for it, check out my blog posts below.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me through my website.

May you be well and free of suffering!

Family time gives us an excellent opportunity for yoga practice! Here are some tips to help:

1. Get out and go for a walk and do some yoga poses during the holiday. You'll be a good role model for the kids and the fresh air and exercise can clear the brain and increase endorphins.

2. If you are throwing the dinner, don't overwork yourself and then blame others by becoming short-tempered—this is controlling and selfish. See this as an opportunity to work together and delegate tasks. Teach that this is a time when the family works together. And if you are a guest, be of service.

3. Practice non-judgment and compassion. We throw these words around a lot in yoga, but really think about them. Others have a right to do what they do and believe what they believe. Your family has feelings and a belief system just as you do and having respect towards them will gain them respect towards you. Learn to see past the things that annoy you about people and into their humanity. Practice loving them even though you don't agree. Love supersedes all boundaries.

4. You can't control others, but you can control your reactions to them.

5. The reason that we practice mediation is for this moment! When all of these family energies, noise, food, children, emotions, loud television, and other chaos are going on around you, stay in touch with the peace inside yourself.

6. The most complicated thing is to do is to be who you are. We have a tendency to begin to see ourselves as we think that our family sees us, which causes resentment. Just be observant of your behaviors, emotions, and thoughts and you can break this pattern. Easier said than done, but maybe for now, just practice!

I know everyone throws around advice for the holidays and even that can seem overwhelming. So, to keep it simple, just remember to be happy, loving, and peaceful and have all of your actions come from that place and the holiday could be one to be worth celebrating!

Finishing up the "Yoga for Shoulders" Video

We are finally finishing up the "Yoga for Shoulders" video! It's been a long tough road, but we finally got the last footage that we need. I am really stoked to help out others with shoulder issues and I really hope that this video will help out!

Here are some shots from Linville Gorge in North Carolina:


This is a restorative pose to work on releasing tightness and tension in the fronts of the shoulders that can cause impingement.


We will work on becoming more aware of the shoulder blades and work on moving them around to prevent frozen shoulder.


Not a bad place to be working! My husband and I do all of the work on these videos ourselves--we love it, but it's also very difficult in many ways. He is amazing--he does all of the camera work (3 video cameras and 1 still) and directs too! We use all natural lighting, which is why it takes us awhile to get the right day. We also do all of our own editing and sound.



A variation on Mountain Pose to help with better posture.



Downward Facing Dog Pose--we will work with the mechanics of this pose for safely performing the pose for those with shoulder issues and with using your core to lift the weight out of the shoulders and wrists.


Plank Pose--we will work on the same concepts as in Down Dog--how to use the whole body better to relieve the shoulders and wrists.


Whew! This is Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose). It is better to perform this one with knees down to work very diligently on making sure you are using your body correctly. It can exacerbate problems if done poorly, but if done mindfully it will build strength and grace in your body!


Ahh--my shoulders feel so good and free! I have not had surgery and I have never felt better! I have made much progress with this program for my own shoulders by overcoming injuries that resulted in impingement, pain, and severe shoulder blade winging and dysfunction. I heard the same complaints from many of my friends--some who had surgery and some who didn't, so I began to want to help people get out of the shoulder pain and injury cycle. I have been teaching shoulders classes for a few years and now have put the class together for this video. I hope that everyone finds freedom and strength in their shoulders!