Yoga Instructors - Child's Pose with a ruptured lumbar disc

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Echoshill
Echoshill Posts: 42 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey folks,

PT recommended child's pose for rehabbing my ruptured L5-S1 disc. Any of you yoga folks, instructors and practitioners, have thoughts on this? Seems odd because I hurt the disc from overuse riding a road bike. It is like using the position that hurt me to heal me????? Makes no sense.

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  • modernfemme
    modernfemme Posts: 454 Member
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    It's a super relaxing pose that stretches the back. If you are nervous, only stay in it for 30 seconds or so and see how you feel. (Especially if you find your back and hips are kind of tight)
  • MarandaPanda86
    MarandaPanda86 Posts: 112
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    Hey, I'm not a yoga instructor but I've been through plenty of PT plus almost through nursing school. On the bike, there is pressure on your spine as you are holding yourself up with your arms and try to keep yourself semi-erect. In child's pose, your spine is allowed to relax and lengthen, taking stress and pressure off of your discs and allowing them to expand. This lets your nerves coming from your vertebrae to have more room and lessen pain as well. I have lumbar disc injuries and I love this pose and the Ragdoll pose.
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
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    Not a yoga instructor, just a yogini - but I'm guessing your back injury was due to rounding your back excessively? In a proper child's pose you should be lengthening your back and opening your hip flexors and shoulders. The 'fullest expression of the pose', as they say, would have your chest all the way on the floor - which you can't do if your back is rounded.
  • MarandaPanda86
    MarandaPanda86 Posts: 112
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    Oh, also several times a day you should take like 10 seconds and just lean back with your hands on your lumbar area to get a nice lengthening in your spine. Just put your hands there, lean back and kind of look at the ceiling as far back as comfortable. Think about it: everyone bends forward countless times a day so you have to correct it by going backwards. It feels soooo good and can be done anywhere!
  • Echoshill
    Echoshill Posts: 42 Member
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    Ah, well then, that does kind of make sense. I have never done Yoga (obviously) but what you all say lines up well with her thinking. She is indeed trying to stretch and "open up" my hips and low back.

    In my mind (which she says I need to stop thinking) I see it as putting pressure on the disc and squishing it to make more of the gue run out on to the nerves.
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
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    I would recommend taking a couple classes as opposed to trying to do it on your own (at least at first). Many studios have "new student specials" so it shouldn't be too expensive. My studio does a 10-day-10-dollar pass for first-timers. Particularly if you have an injury, a good instructor can help you with alignment and correct postures in a way that a yoga DVD or book can never do. Once you have a good sense for how things are supposed to feel, you can certainly continue a home practice.
  • Echoshill
    Echoshill Posts: 42 Member
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    Well, I am working with a physical therapist to rehab a back injury. I will stick with that at this point. This said, I woke up this morning with shooting pain up and down my side. Contacted my doc and he has advised against the child's pose position for my injury.

    Do you ever get the feeling that docs and therapists do not talk?
  • MarandaPanda86
    MarandaPanda86 Posts: 112
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    Well, I am working with a physical therapist to rehab a back injury. I will stick with that at this point. This said, I woke up this morning with shooting pain up and down my side. Contacted my doc and he has advised against the child's pose position for my injury.

    Do you ever get the feeling that docs and therapists do not talk?

    Did you have this pain after you did the pose yesterday? You might have gone to deep into the pose without being ready for it. I do feel like doctors and therapists do not talk, but I truly feel that the therapist has it right with this one. I have 3 herniated discs in my lower back and child's pose did hurt in the beginning. What I was told to do is called "pillowing" which is when you place a pillow under your chest and/or stomach to lessen the stretch in your back until you are more limber. Unfortunately, shooting pains in my experience are just part of the disc disease. That being said, if you are still in pain I would get back with your therapist and doctor and try to work something out. You will get through this!
  • takukate
    takukate Posts: 6 Member
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    I am a yoga instructor myself. Childs pose is great because it's a supported posture that creates a mild inversion to create space in the low back. If it's hurting you it is either being instructed wrong or you don't have enough support. There are different ways to do childs pose but the most supportive way is with props. You can put a bolster or pillow on top of your knees and have knees together. Make sure your forehead has something to rest on so that you aren't rounding out the cervical spine and it is supported also. The next step would be to do the posture with knees together, toes touching, and just remove the props, so your chest is supported on your knees. The most aggressive form of childs pose is with toes touching and knees spread away from each other about the distance of the yoga mat and I would not recommend this one for you or myself as it can compress the sacrum into your lunar discs with the lordotic curve it can create.

    I have degenerative disc disease so therapy yoga for the back is my thing and I love it! I hope this helps to answer your question? Let me know :) I've love to talk more about it with you!
  • takukate
    takukate Posts: 6 Member
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    YES! It's my opinion that western medicine focuses more on the solution to the problem than the cause....but if you don't remove the cause, you will just have to keep treating it forever.
  • yoginimary
    yoginimary Posts: 6,784 Member
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    Well, I am working with a physical therapist to rehab a back injury. I will stick with that at this point. This said, I woke up this morning with shooting pain up and down my side. Contacted my doc and he has advised against the child's pose position for my injury.

    Do you ever get the feeling that docs and therapists do not talk?

    I would not do the pose. There are other ways to stretch your hips.

    I would ask your therapist and doctor to talk about this one, if the therapist really wants you to do the pose.

    I would say 90% of yoga teachers do not have the training to deal with this, myself included. If you decide to take up yoga, you will have choose your teacher carefully (at the minimum you want someone with 500 hours of training, most teachers only have 200 hours). Yoga does have a really high success rate in dealing with back pain, so after your therapist and doctor clear you for it, you could give it a try.
  • southernyogini
    southernyogini Posts: 55 Member
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    Yoga instructor here- and everyone said the right thing. With Childs pose it is lengthening the spine rather than rounding forward (that would be more like "Rabbit" pose).
    But Childs pose with knees really wide and arms stretched out in front will lengthen the spine and create space. Good Luck!

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