Everything you should know about Yoga injuries and how to treat them

Yoga is a brilliant tool not only to improve your fitness and flexibility, but also has several great benefits for your mental health. It can reduce stress, help with anxiety, and fight depression. While yoga as a practice dates back thousands of years, it only became popular in North America very recently.

It is a great tool for anyone, young or old, to help get in tune with their minds and bodies. Unfortunately, if people aren’t careful, don’t listen to their bodies or try and do too much too quickly, they can injure themselves.

While enrolling in health insurance will help you deal with the cost of these injuries, you still need to be aware of how to treat them well to get yourself recovered. With that in mind, let’s look at everything you should know about a few yoga injuries, and how to best treat them.

Some of the Most Common Yoga Injuries

While yoga is generally safe, there are some injuries that can occur. Many of the most common injuries come from holding a position too long, using bad form or trying to do too much when they aren’t ready for it.Any injury can technically be caused by yoga, but there are generally two main types of injuries that occur. These are back injuries and joint injuries.

Back injuries, especially in the lower back, are quite common among those who do yoga often. Yoga generally consists of a lot of bends and folds, which can put a large strain on your back. If you are new, or are a little tight, trying to overexert and do these bends can damage your lower back. This is also caused when people keep their legs too straight and attempt to round their back when posing. If you give your knees a little bend, and keep your core stable during bends, it will help reduce the chance of an injury.

Joint injuries include a variety of different injuries such as wrist, knee, shoulder, and hip. If you put too much pressure on these joints, or stretch them too far, it is incredibly easy to damage them. Always aim to achieve the most balance as possible when posing and if something hurts a considerable amount, stop the pose. The better you can balance and the more you can distribute your weight and the pressure, the better.

As mentioned, those who practice yoga will often suffer other injuries, but back injuries and knee, hip, shoulder, wrist and other joint injuries are the most common. Preventing these injuries, and others like them, should always be a priority of yours. You should always stretch before doing yoga, work on using the correct form and only do poses you are comfortable with. Pushing yourself and trying new things is good, but always be aware of your limits.

How to Treat Yoga Injuries?

Now that you know of some of the most common yoga injuries, and how to prevent them, how do you treat them? Well, treating a yoga injury is similar to treating any injury. You need to start with resting the affected area. Be sure to stop any activities that could put further strain on the joint, muscle or area of the body that you hurt.

You should also ice the area immediately, to prevent swelling. Ice it for around 15 minutes, and then stop with the ice for a few hours before doing it again. Other helpful methods when it comes to the reduction of swelling is compression and elevation.

Some OTC pain medication can also help to deal with the pain of day-to-day life when dealing with an injury. Also, while you may want to rest for weeks and weeks, starting to gradually use the area again can help with regaining the necessary strength or movement. However, each injury can have a different rate of recovery and healing, so be careful. Some may feel better in a matter of hours or days, while some could take multiple weeks.

If you feel it’s not getting better or feel as if something could seriously be wrong, don’t hesitate to visit a doctor. Of course, if the injury was immediately recognized as being severe, seeking medical attention should always be the first thing you do.

In conclusion, we hope this blog post has been able to teach you all about some of the various yoga injuries and how to treat them.