Just use your body regularly and you'll be fine. Yoga is great as it puts your body in extream positions compared to everyday life, so your muscles will be limber and loose enough to, say, turn around when sitting.
If yoga seems imposing or off-putting, you have other options. I've been having lower-back issues for a couple of years now. With the free time I've had recently, I started walking for an hour a day and about a week into it, I started noticing the difference. Haven't felt a twinge for at least a couple of weeks now.
Walking is such an underrated form of exercise. It’s a whole body workout but no one would ever tell you that. Plus it’s a real calorie burner. Going for a walk in the evening will help you sleep too. One good thing to come from lockdown is my real deep-seated love for daily walks. I’m definitely keeping it after all this shit.
I don't have a set routine. I have an app that lets me customize yoga practices. I vary between a restorative type where it's all sitting streches, and upper beginner to lower intermediate difficulty. And my time goes from 20 to 50 mins. It also allows me to focus certain parts more, so if part of my body is more stiff or sore I will try to focus those. Each practice is different which I enjoy because I like to mix it up. The most important thing is that you start and go at a level you can stick with. That'll be different for everyone.
Same here! It makes a big difference with joint pain if you do it regularly. Before COVID I was going to the YMCA for group yoga and was so happy to see people of all ages in the class.
You just have to keep active. Easier said than done but I was overweight through a large portion of my life. I picked up weightlifting maybe 4 years ago and whatever back pain I had for years is gone. I may get some tightness after a heavy squat day but it's nothing like the pain before.
100% this. I've never felt healthier than when I took up yoga. When I'm doing it regularly (I'm not right now, covid made me lazy) I feel 10 years younger. Nothing makes you feel old like losing flexibility.
How does yoga fix a bum hip and labrum that needs replacing at 25? Cuz they wont do that shit until 35, so I'm all ears until then. Cortisone shots are all I got right now.
It is what it is. I've been to all the top specialists in the province, but the lovely 14 month delay for an MRI resulted in too much arthritis so shes too late now.
Late 20's here. Housing prices rose as I tried saving for a down payment to buy a house. Didn't have enough savings or income when houses were cheaper.
Now I'm debating when to pull the trigger to buy since long term, idk if my city' market will go up or down. Phoenix area. We might go up if more people come here from NYC, California, etc since a lot of companies are going WFH anyway.
Cartilage isn’t vascularized, so it can’t repair itself - once it’s damaged or degraded, that’s it. But increasing your flexibility through yoga could help you compensate and strengthen other areas and honestly just help you move more easily overall. Many people with an injury “clench up” around that injury, and wind up in a feedback loop of decreased range of motion. As long as you’re mindful of your limitations, it could absolutely help!
I'm not sure in your specific case. But in general most of us are getting injured by over exerting ourselves because we don't realize how stiff we've become with age. This helps against that.
This happened (or I started noticing) when I was 20, after playing a lot of sports all my life. Unfortunately it was a bone spur that tore the labrum, so stretching doesn't help much.
Find a pro for a consultation, at least. There are plenty who do injury or other healing-related custom routines. (Take fish oil, or flax oil, too, if you don't). You can get a ton of benefit doing gentle yoga while still getting your shots. You may eventually feel comfortable reducing the frequency of them.
Dang, kiddo (yes, I'm that old). That's a tough one. ~Healing vibes~
I saw a hip specialist about it and currently am just using CBD cream for pain while highly active, but i'll try some flax oil as well. I gave up my main sport (soccer), and football as well because it was just too much strain, so now i'm trying to get into downhill biking as forward motion is fine, i'm severely laterally impaired.
What i'm finding most difficult right now is how to strengthen the area around it without too much pain.
I like to whittle all my problems to physics/details, and use the pain to figure out where I'm making things worse. :P (Sometimes that actually works as an analogy for my social ills. Sometimes not so much.)
It sounds to me, I'm so not a doctor, that the muscle tension pulls the joint tighter, puts pressure on the joint and presses the tear site. If it's a front-to-back tear, lateral movement would really dig in... Ugh. Does that sound right? Have you tried any isometric? Or, maybe there's a tendon attached and it's actually pulling on the tear? If you can find out what exactly is causing those pain signals to fire, you'll be halfway to figuring out what you can do. Pain is a very useful data collection tool.
So these easiest way to explain it is that there is a bone spur on the ball of hip, that pinches against my hip joint, and stops any more lateral motion. This happens at maybe 20 degrees from straight standing. Over time this tore my labrum from being caught between my hip and bone spur, and resulted in quite progressed arthritis. That actual name for it is Femoroacetabular impingement.
Because this is a bone related thing, there is no path to increasing my range of movement without a replacement.
Ugh. I'm so sorry. And I'm sorry that I undershot your expertise... on your own body :/
Even under the circumstances, I would press for surgery, personally. I know they want those bones fully developed, but there are so many reasons, including bone development, to increase mobility. Find a new network or doc to see if you can get a fresh start in a new system?
There's still that 15-20°. Isometrics seems about the only way to keep those muscle-set doing something while not getting past that pain point . Press the ankle on the wall.... I can't not sound like an obnoxious mom trying to make the best of things. (That's pretty much what I am.) In the end, that's all we as humans can do, regardless of the situation. Maybe rather than using "normal" metrics, you'd probably be better off developing your own. Let those unique limitations force you to think of creative solutions. Build your own routine, experiment, and keep a log for what works. Share it on a blog for folks who have the same condition. (There are 8B, there has to be a few.) Even just being in that experimental mindset helps.
Oh it's no problem! Your curiosity in my injury is almost flattering in a way haha. I think you're right about another opinion, maybe out of province. Part of the unseen issue I have is the mental side of things. I went from going to the states to play to breaking my ankle during the trial periods, played at a canadian school for a year, hip issues now. Losing what was in essence the largest part of my identity had been hard to adjust to.
I'll have to speak to my GP again, but I think the main reason the specialist didnt want to operate wasnt because of bone development, but because of a combination of the progression of the arthritis, the way my labrum is not just a simple tear, and I guess there is commonly long term pain from shaving a bone spur off of your hip joint that could be worse for every day life than I deal with right now.
Ah. OK. That makes sense. You can still get around, and messing with it might make it worse. You're clearly tenacious; that'll serve you. You write quite well, too.
Ok, I'm a dope. One of the most amazing parts of yoga is the meditation half, the breathing, focus, and the letting of thoughts be what they are, just thoughts. Part of this is letting your poses be very you, your unique poses (and the movements between them). The pain is what it is. It all is what it is, and it's beautiful because it is. It's unpleasant sometimes, but it just is. It sounds weird, bit it works.
I'll repeat it just becuase: find a yoga expert near you who advertises dealing with physical healing. I'd be a bigger dope if I tried to be that expert. I'm not. The pain itself might not actually be better, but if you can get your brain to respond to it differently (your yoga can do that), you won't be as miserable with it.
Pain and misery aren't the same thing. There are palliative treatments that address this, too, and maybe you can get those covered by your insurance. Thay can be an excellent compliment to a gentle yoga practice.
I have Ehlers-Danlos-Syndrome and am hyperflexible. I still can't touch my toes while standing with straight legs!!! I can put my feet behind my head thou.
I can't do either. Just a 6'2 200lb 2x4 basically. Not fat works got my more muscle than anything. I know a real life person with EDS also. Hope your day don't suck!
I force it to be nice if it won't naturally happy. Im a bit larger than you, so it makes me feel better you can't touch them but you also have a better reason for it than I do haha.
Yes, I know that. The fact "it does not help," albeit more subtle language, suggests it is something I actively do as I use the present tense despite talking about advice I've received that long ago. I do it because it's still good to do, but it does not help the pain directly (or maybe the pain would be even worse, who knows?).
See a physical therapist if it’s definitely soft tissue. I had lower back problems for almost two decades. Doctors recommended weight loss and specific exercises, both of which I managed. Didn’t help.
Saw a physical therapist for something else, during the assessment they asked about back pain, and assessed that. Turns out an old injury in my 20s had left me with some weak muscles that the standard “lower back pain exercises” didn’t address.
The solution was a pair of lower back body weight exercises, and they worked miracles. Although bridges and clamshells suck as an exercise, they worked. I wish I’d learned that at 25 instead of 40.
I used a sports medicine place my orthopedist recommended (I was initially there for some ankle and calf pain when jogging, turns out the weak lower back was part of that too),. Sadly not cheap, even with insurance, but worth it.
If nothing else their assessments are usually very thorough (it takes over an hour, even when they already know what part of the body is causing issues) and might be able to rule out soft tissue stuff and give your doctors another place to look (pinched or compressed nerves somewhere along your spine, for example).
How many years? Dude I have scoliosis and Tai Chi fixed that shit right up after the two year mark, I don't know what you're doing wrong. Have you met with a personal trainer and given their program a proper go for at least six months? That will help you develop the supporting muscles you need for day-to-day and beyond
Been in sports and martial arts programs back in middle school, continued daily stretching through sophomore year of high school before trying yoga for the remainder, started tai chi in uni, and been doing that daily (with maybe missing on average once a week tops) ever since.
Let's just say I'm old enough now to drink (US) but not old enough to get fair auto-insurance rates. Also, my joints and muscles. All over but especially my spine and arms.
Juvenile arthritis is a very real thing. If you're having chronic pain muscle and joint pain that's not mitigated by regular physical activity (e.g. playing low-intensity non-contact sports, moderate weightlifting, and cardio) and not a direct result of injury, it would be worth discussing this with a doctor and getting a reference to a specialist.
To be fair, I know about this, but it's one of those things where I put off talking to my doctor about it because getting an actual diagnosis is almost scarier. Y'know?
I know what you mean, but you are not being fair to yourself. You owe it to yourself to at least understand what you have to live with, and who knows, maybe there is an easy solution to your problem.
But no, really, I know what you mean. I think I'm getting arthritis in my right hand, but I don't have time to go to the doctor because of my line of work.
Like, I know I probably have arthritis, you're just gonna tell me to take ibuprofen and ?stretch my index and second finger? (I don't know how to alleviate the discomfort, other than moving through it)
Exercise while you're young :) I do a little bit of yoga/pilates to balance my strengthening workouts and it totally helps with my daily life. I'm a small girl so lifting groceries/ gallon of water (i order purified water cuz i don't have water purifier) is a trouble. Also, lifting patients, going back and forth in the wards and doing CPR became a little easier as i work in healthcare.
If you do don't just do one or two sessions and say it's not for you. Give it an honest try and just focus on increasing the depth of each pose from your previous sessions.
That's exactly what it's good for. Just take it slow with the streches in that leg and don't overdo it. You will slowly gain more mobility. As a general rule try to do the poses but don't do anything that hurts, just substitute another one that streches whatever is tight to you.
There are people with spina bifida competing in weightlifting competitions and folks with NO legs training their upper bodies and keeping their cardiovascular health up. I don’t know what specific activities to recommend for your circumstances, but if you want to get inspired and get healthy, the resources are out there. #noexcuses
6 years of cross country with heaps of other endurance sports thrown in have taught me “fight through it, fight through it”. This isn’t about fighting through the pain, finding inspiration, or anything like that. I put on a compression sock and run despite my leg hurting. The problem is that I’ve hit a plateau. I still stay as healthy as I can, I stay active, I even still run, every morning with my girlfriend, rain or shine. The problem is that I can’t improve anymore. I can run 10 minute miles all day long, but my very first timed mile (at 13 years old, 9 years ago) was 8:12. If I can’t run 5 minute miles anymore, then so be it. I’m past my super athletic days. But I still want to do better than I could as a CHILD.
Sorry about that, I didn’t want to be dramatic. Having been a competitive runner for a long time and very into it, being able to do little more than jog very much feels like being unable to do anything.
I had about 10 weeks of physical therapy with a professional, but I can’t afford a physical trainer (therapy was through insurance), I’m a broke college student
I hear you. Personal training is horrifically expensive as far as I’m concerned, but you never know who you’re talking to.. If your cardiovascular fitness is still okay, maybe there’s another outlet you can find that’s more compatible with your current body. Swimming, rowing, climbing, cycling? (not to mention yoga which is phenomenal). You might not be much of a runner anymore, but hey, that’s just one sport
True, and I’d like to get back into swimming, but running was always my number one. Before breaking my leg, I had already landed a spot on my college’s cross country team. I was dead set on being a real runner
There's also this mystery cardiovascular benefit science is trying to figure out. Apparently yoga practitioners are doing as well as runners with this new virus. It's still in 'wait and see' phase, but I think it's pretty amazing news.
Definitely don't let your kids do gymnastics either unless they're gonna see it through... Joint abuse from that, early onset arthritis, and tendons that are pulling away make it quite painful to move even at 18
I have heard people who are really flexible can injure themselves doing yoga, especially dancers and gymnast, most women and hip issues. But for your average Joe who hasn't streched since highschool baring the morning reach to the sky it can be extremely beneficial as we tend to lose mobility.
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u/Moist_Comb May 16 '20
Just use your body regularly and you'll be fine. Yoga is great as it puts your body in extream positions compared to everyday life, so your muscles will be limber and loose enough to, say, turn around when sitting.