Before I get going here – check out our new space here! This is our new website – and the kinks should be worked out by now. My awesome friend, Kate Romano, did a lot of the beautiful pictures featured on the website (check her website out here). If you see something not so beautiful – I probably took the picture 😉 We have some new membership pricing options, be sure to check those out as well.
With all the tennis I play, yoga I do, and using my body all day as a physical therapist and yoga instructor – injuries are just bound to happen. I have been experiencing injuries since my dancing days in high school up until the very present where I am experiencing some lovely left shoulder and neck pain. Essentially, I am writing this blog post as a reminder to myself and what I tell my patients when they are heading back to their usual activity after an injury!!
A few things you should consider about your body before I give you some tips! First, if you were to sit and not move for a whole week, you would lose A LOT of muscle mass. Why do I share this information with you? Well coming back from an injury, you have lost a lot strength and may be starting close to square one, so be patient if a pose doesn’t look the way it used to look. It takes about 3-4 weeks to start to see muscle tone and strength changes in your body with a consistent yoga practice (or any work out for that matter).
Secondly, flexibility takes a lot longer to come by than strength. So it is totally normally to experience this big change in your strength right at the beginning of practicing yoga, and not see too much change with flexibility. Also, flexibility depends on connective tissue elasticity, the structure of your bones, your posture…etc – it’s a little more complex than gaining strength!
With that said, here are the two simple tips I give my patients about getting back to their mat (or any other recreational activity):
- Be patient with yourself. It may take some time to ramp up to where you were “before.” Consider this an opportunity to get out of the world of comparison and get into experiencing your body right now.
- Modify, modify, modify! That’s right – learn the modifications of poses that might be affecting the injured area of your body. Or don’t hold poses quite as long, take the opportunity to take child’s pose.
I hope this helps! We are offering private yoga sessions at the studio now – and if you are coming back from an injury – getting a one on one with a teacher is a great opportunity to make sure you are practicing at the best pace for YOU. Hope to see you on your mat this week!
Shine On,
Jackie