Yoga - Am I Doing This Right?

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Jlennhikes
Jlennhikes Posts: 290 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have been to about six yoga classes, and I like it for the overall fitness it seems to be helping me gain, but some of the poses don't feel right.

I work at a desk all day, and it's not uncommon to feel a little twinge in my back here and there, and in some ways yoga seems to make it worse. The back-bend type moves are never comfortable.

Is it that I'm not doing the poses right or that you should not do certain things if you have back issues? My back issues are really minor, so I don't want to be wimping out, but I also don't want to be stupidly doing something that's unhealthy.

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  • serenity56
    serenity56 Posts: 79 Member
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    Have you mentioned your back problems to your instructor? They are probably the best person to talk to about this for starts, since they know which poses you are doing and may know modifications that would be more beneficial for you (or at least not make your problems worse). I'd start with your instructor and go from there. Good luck! :)
  • sshintaku
    sshintaku Posts: 228 Member
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    I second the talking to your instructor. I also think it's important to remember yoga typically IS uncomfortable and there's a difference between discomfort and pain. Pain is bad. Discomfort is sometimes ok.
  • Jlennhikes
    Jlennhikes Posts: 290 Member
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    I'm going to talk to the instructor(s). Since I go to a big gym, out of the 6 classes, I've only seen one instructor twice. I think I can tell the difference between ouch, that's wrong, and ouch, that's hard, but I'm second-guessing myself because I'm such a newbie to yoga. Hopefully building up some muscle and flexibility will improve things a lot.
  • dt3312
    dt3312 Posts: 212 Member
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    You can do an internet search on something like Yoga Injuries and perhaps get some insights. I did that when I was choosing an exercise class and I decided to take Yolaties instead of Yoga. Yolaties is a combination of Yoga and Pilates and do not get those kinds of twinges in my back. If you want to see some Yolaties type exercises, you can look at You Tube videos of standing pilates.

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