Have you ever had a major injury as a result of practising yoga?

I am currently halfway through reading The Science of Yoga, By William J. Broad.  This is a very interesting and thought-provoking read, especially as I am up to Chapter 5: Risk of Injury.  I am still gobsmacked at the types of injuries it has detailed as Broad states: "few practitioners anticipate strokes and dislocations, dead nerves and ruptured lungs." Yeouch!

It got me thinking of my own injuries I've had as a result of yoga. Only one major one comes to mind which, as I learnt in Teacher Training, probably puts me in good stead as a teacher apparently. Anyhoo, it was at a yoga class in Whistler, Canada, when I was living there and we had gone from Ardho Mukha Svanasana (Downward facing dog) to three-legged dog to flipping the dog. Yoga Journal here explains it much better! Also, I just found in Yoga Magazine here, that it's also called "Wild Thing"...cool! How did I not know this?!

Anyway, as I was reaching my upper hand to the front of the room stretching as far as I could, the teacher came around to do some adjustments.  She took my upper hand and pulled my hand even further towards the front as I myself, rotated and stretched even more.  Suddenly, I felt a sharp twinge right in the centre of my spine. Holy s&*t, I thought to myself, that did not feel right. I slowly and very cautiously, made my way back to down dog and felt almost winded like someone had punched me in the stomach, combined with someone else stabbing me with a knife in the back. I quickly came to my hands and knees and tried to regulate my breathing, but the shooting pain down my back was practically debilitating.  I lowered further down to Balasaana (Child's pose) and after a couple of minutes, resumed the class, albeit half-heartedly. At the end of class, I very tenderly got up from Savasana and quickly skulked out. Needless to say, I didn't go back, but promptly took myself to the doctor where she diagnosed me with a partially slipped disc (also called a Bulging Disc - See pic) between my L4 and L5 (Lumbar vertebrae) and advised me to rest flat on my back for at least 2 weeks. Grrrrrrrr, I thought to myself, how could this have happened?

In addition to the inconvenience it had caused, oh, did I mention that a couple of weeks earlier I had just recovered form a dislocated shoulder as a result of a mountain biking fall? No? Well yes. Isn't it always the way? It's like when you kick your little toe on the couch or something as you walk past and for the rest of that week, you keep accidentally kicking the SAME TOE! So yeah, I was bedridden for at least a week, hardly able to move and stuck on the other side of world with very few friends and only my thoughts to keep me company. It was pretty rough.  I kept replaying that yoga class over and over in my head to think what I could have done differently. But alas, it was done.

Little did I know that 5 years later in my teacher training, this experience would actually put me in good stead. I am know acutely aware of teachers adjusting me and conversely of adjusting my students in the future. I have learnt to speak up if it doesn't feel good and always check in on my students as to how they are feeling. I think this is definitely a trait of yoga students as I had demonstrated in that class in Canada. You want to be good for the teacher and you put your trust in them to help you.  But if something goes wrong, we are often too scared to listen to our bodies and speak up.

Don't risk an inury. It's not worth it!