YOGA: Mind your hips
November 08, 2019 • 1 min read
-- Improved flexibility, greater strength, better concentration … the list of benefits attributed to yoga is long. But careful you don’t overdo it.
UK-based physiotherapist Benoy Mathew warns he is treating increasing numbers of yoga teachers with serious hip problems – many of whom require surgery – because their bodies aren’t designed for certain poses.
Pain sure path to physical purgatory
Mathew, a specialist hip and knee physiotherapist and member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, said the problem is caused by people repeatedly pushing their bodies into “prescribed” positions unsuited to their physiology, placing excessive stress on their joints.
He said yoga practitioners are prone to confuse stiffness and pain, thinking they can ‘push through’ discomfort rather than heed the body’s way of saying stop.
Mathew said everyone’s hips are different, and what might be an achievable pose for some is damaging to others.
“Ego might mean them trying to take a position all the way to the end when they should just stop where it’s comfortable,” he said.