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!

Yoga Core Exercises for Healing and Preventing Sports Injuries

It's not news that in order to increase your sports performance, you need to exercise your core. But if you think that this means doing a bunch of sit-ups, you need to freshen up your strategy. Core exercises should not only strengthen your core, but also teach you to use your whole body in a more functional manner. Your body is more efficient when your power emerges from your strong, stable center taking pressure off all the peripheral and much less stable joints of the body. The end result of learning to move from your core is that you will have better posture, less injuries, and more energy. The holistic viewpoint of Yoga makes it the perfect tool to teach us these lessons.

While doing these exercises, think in terms of your body as a whole. The point of these core exercises is to re-teach your body how to move in a more efficient manner. These exercises are from the upcoming "Yoga for Shoulders: Restore and Strengthen" DVD, so the focus is on how the core relates to the shoulders.

In all of the poses, make sure that when you engage your shoulder blades, that they move into the back and not toward each other. In the Boat Poses, think of all energy emanating from the navel and work on releasing unnecessary effort in the rest of the body:

Half Boat Pose, Ardha Navasana:


Begin in Supine Mountain Pose: lying on your back, feet together and flexed, arms at your sides. Lengthen your spine, relax extraneous tensions, and breathe fully. Exhale as you strongly engage the abdominals and lift the legs and torso without arching the low back or jutting the head forward. Concentrate on only using your middle: don't tense the fronts of the shoulders keeping the collarbones broad. Draw the shoulder blades down the back and then firm them onto the back. Breathe fully and relax the jaws and the face. Stay as long as you can stand it. Release back to the floor and relax fully taking deep breaths. Repeat.

Full Boat Pose, Navasana:

Begin sitting with your legs bent in front of you and feet flat on the floor. Lift in and up with the inner thighs, pelvic floor and navel. Lift up through the spine and the crown of the head. Broaden the collarbones and draw the shoulder blades down the back. Engage the bottom tips of your shoulder blades forward--toward your sternum.

Using your hands on the floor next to your hips for balance, exhale and lift your feet off the floor. Keep all of the above actions going. If you need more challenge, lift your hands and straighten your arms in front of you. Draw the arm bones back in the sockets, slide the shoulder blades down the back, and engage the bottom tips of them forward. Lift up with the back body as much as with the front body. Keep the collarbones broad and breathe evenly. Relax the face and jaws.

To go one step further, straighten the legs. Squeeze the inner thighs. Activate and spread the toes. Breathe and maintain all of the above actions.




Release back to sitting and take some deep breaths and relax all effort. Repeat.

The next pose stretches the front body and strengthens the often-ignored back body and the spine. A strong and flexible spine is part of a strong core:

Locust Pose, Salabhasana:

Lie in a prone position with your forehead on the floor, your feet about hip width, and your arms by your sides with your palms face up. Take a deep breath and release all tension. Lengthen your spine from your tailbone through the crown of your head. Broaden your collarbones, draw the shoulder blades down your back and engage the lower and inner shoulder blades into the back. Inhale as you lift your legs, torso, and arms. Keep the head in line with the spine and take your gaze up. Release tension from your face and jaws. Breathe fully. Exhale and slowly come down and release completely into the floor.


End with Relaxation Pose, Savasana:
Lie in a comfortable postition. Release your body into the floor completely. Stay for at least 5 minutes.



If these poses cause any sharp pains in your body, your body is not ready, and you need an instructor to watch and correct your alignment. Listen to your body and seek guidance if you need.

Simply Yoga

I get asked the question "What type of yoga do you teach?" often and I hear that people are sometimes confused about what yoga is and what types of classes they should take. First of all, yoga is not a religion and it did not come from religion--its just about creating awareness, that's all. Its really not that difficult to understand and the less you try to understand it intellectually, the less confused you will be--yoga is more about experiencing it. For a cool brief history of yoga click here.

Next, practicing yoga is not necessarily sedentary. Active people are often not drawn to yoga because they say they can't sit still for that long. How active or sedentary yoga is depends on the teacher and what kind of class you go to. Also, how spiritual and chanty class is depends again on the type of yoga and the teacher. So, here is a super basic run down:

Hatha Yoga--all of the following are Hatha Yoga--Hatha Yoga means that a practice is made up of postures (asanas), meditation, and breathwork (pranayama).

Iyengar, Anusara--work for long periods of time with alignment in poses. Classes are good for those with injuries or a super active lifestyle.

Ashtanga, Power, Vinyasa, Flow--move from pose to pose, sometimes quickly. Class is good for those who have a sedentary lifestyle and need some movement. Does tend to be more difficult.

Bikram and Hot--like the flow classes, but done in a hot room. Good for winter time, those who are more sedentary, and those who need to detox. Not good for people who are sensitive to heat, or I would imagine not good for menopausal women.

Yin--slow moving and more passive approach to poses. Therapeutic.

ViniYoga--Therapeutic, usually one on one to restore postural problems.

Kundalini--works with the breath, can be vigorous or slow moving, has more chanting.

You can read a more in depth article about yoga styles here and here.

Most classes and DVDs will explain what kind of yoga they are, but keep in mind, that classes can vary depending on the teacher and the mood of the teacher. I recommend trying different classes and different teachers. Same with DVDs--get lots of different kinds and try them out. Some teachers you will love, some will get on your nerves. Some DVDs you will reach for on low energy days and some you will reach for on high energy days. One day the teacher who once got on your nerves might even be your favorite--don't be afraid to try different styles and different teachers--variety is the spice of life. Yes, you might waste you money on a class or DVD you don't like sometimes, but you will never learn about yourself if you don't take risks. Don't pigeon hole yourself to be one type of person and so never try something because you don't think you would like it. You might be surprised.

To learn about me and the style of yoga that I teach click here--Andria Davis.

One big word of caution is if you are an athlete and you work out alot, you probably need to stay away from the super vigorous styles of yoga. I did this mistakenly thinking that the yoga was restoring my body and instead, I got overuse injuries. I ended up having to take time off of yoga postures, working out, and all sports. It was maddening. So, now, since I work out pretty vigorously, I use yoga as a more restorative practice. Although, when I am in a more sedentary period in life, I do still practice some vigorous styles--I just have learned to pay better attention to what my body needs.

And last, don't be afraid to be still...what is it that you are afraid of anyway? I have learned to slow down and pay attention more to the details of life because I learned to sit down and meditate sometimes (although I lie down to meditate since I have endured so many back injuries due to extreme sports). I will get more into this later, but learning to move slowly, do breathwork and meditate have made me better in my activities and have just made life, well, more lively.