Is it the yoga?

[TokyoSushi]

I've always been fairly active but really started to increase about 18 months ago and have been great up until about 6 weeks ago.

I go to DL and do (all classes) a combination of spin, body pump, dance, step, legs bums & core, barre and the like. I've recently added in 'yoga' (Yin/Hatha/Spirit - a lovely yoga/pliates combo) thinking that the yoga would be a complementary class to the more intense cardio types. My hips are wrecked, really sore and it's radiating into my whole pelvis. Is it the yoga? I was find before, and now terrible! I go about 5 days per week.

What do I need to stop/change? Or should I power through and it's just my body adjusting?

Bump for the evening crowd!

I am no professional but my experience was similar. I did 30 days with Adrienne in April last year and ended up with tendinitis in my hamstring. I can only think I stretched too far for too many days in a row. But I ended up in significant pain which took ages to heal.

Oh no! Maybe it is the yoga...

When I started doing weekly yoga, I was in bloody agony for about a fortnight until my body sorted itself out. During that time I took lifts instead of running up single flights of stairs.

Doing it 5 days a week sounds pretty full on. Can you drop it to once or twice a week & increase gradually later?

Oh the yoga is just once or twice, other stuff on the other days!

Deffo the yoga. You need to let your body recover.

If you're doing it that often on top if everything else my suspicion is that your style is pretty "all out! " Personal best! Best in the class! etc.

Try stretching only until you can just feel you are stretching, not "as far as I can" and mix it up. 5 days a week on top of everything else makes me wonder when you have time for the rest of your life!
Opps cross post i see you're not doing 5 yogas. But still, ease off on the stretching!

Ha @candycane222 you might be right! 😬 it's only 45 minutes, and mostly in the 5-6pm slot so not too intrusive!

😁

Yes most likely.
People throw themselves into yoga, especially those who are already doing a lot of exercise, thinking it’s just a bit of stretching but it’s not.
It’s hard work on the body and you must go very slowly and gently. People too often push past their ‘edge’ but this is a recipe for injury.
I’d hold off whilst you heal and then begin again under a properly BWY qualified teacher (anyone can call themselves a yoga teacher now with just a weeks course in Ibiza) but they NEVER have the full proper training or knowledge of anatomy or asana.

The fact that the class was a ‘hybrid’ Pilates/yoga type class rings alarm bells to me. Let me guess, was it in a leisure centre/gym/sports centre?

In yoga, unlike other forms of exercise, you're not supposed to push yourself to your limits. I taught yoga for twenty years and the fittest people were the worst they just didn't understand that yoga is not about being the best, doing what the teacher does, getting to the hardest pose. It's about listening to your body, staying at the basics til you really get it. And sometimes never doing the advanced because they just don't suit you. Also so many modern yoga classes are fusion pilates classes, Spirit or Body Balance taught by general fitness instructors not proper yoga teachers. Sounds to me like you've suffered a mix of these things.

Oh goodness, you're all absolutely right! 🤦🏼‍♀️

Thank you! I'll tone it down!

To add re getting into poses - my yoga teacher wisely reminds us that different people are considerably more or less able to achieve certain poses, particularly someinvolving the hips, and that it is nothing to do with practice or effort, but the hard geometry of the skeleton which cannot be altered at all since it's bones!

She warns us not to expect ever to achieve identical poses to each other as we definitely don't have identical skeletons!

Any decent yoga teacher will offer variations on poses, depending on how easy / difficult people find them. Does yours do that?

I hurt my back doing weekly yoga. I think sometimes we do pull muscles doing this

I had a similar experience with Yoga with Adrienne! It was her New year 30 Day challenge. Somehow I crocked the top of my leg/hip/lower back. Agony for days.

I was cross with myself because I'd sworn off yoga years ago, for being more pain than it was worth. And I'm pretty bendy, I cycle and have done fitness and stretch classes all my life. I didn't injure myself every time but enough for people to notice!

Part of it is I don't think yoga teachers warm you up enough. Or maybe all the warming up in the world won't help my joints and tendons - I'm lanky, long-boned and feel the cold. I do think some bodies are more suited to yoga, Tai Chi (the knee wrecker!) etc, than others.

I've been doing pilates for a few years and rarely get twanged from that. So I'd recommend it. Meanwhile, if you're ok to take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen OP, do so, and try to keep things oiled with very gentle movement. I wouldn't advise powering through, you could end up really hurting yourself.

I do a lot of yoga and Pilates. Separately.

I don't have any patience for classes that claim to combine the two, they're different disciplines. Also, don't go to a yoga or Pilates class taught by just anyone. If your body pump/aqua aerobics/spinning teacher is also doing a Pilates class, they're probably not a brilliant pilates teacher.

As other pps have said, don't use it to showcase your athleticism, your body won't (and isn't) thanking you for it.

I'm in a similar boat of new to yoga and enthusiastic at sport, these 2 things help me:
Yoga is about how it feels, not how it looks
Never go past 80% of your edge in yin yoga

Also baffled by how joint yoga/pilates would work, the breathing is flipped! Yoga in on the elongation, out on the fold but pilates opposite.

@SleepyHedgehog exactly, it doesn't work, it's nonsense!

I'm no expert, but have done pilates for about 4/5 years, with a very experienced teacher. She was off a couple of weeks ago, and I did a class at my leisure centre. Bloody hell, never again. Stick to pilates or yoga only experts. Saying that, yoga knacked my back - I thought it was permanent, but my lovely pilates teacher has me consistently back pain free, for the first time in about 30 years (nurse).

I go to a body balance class with a very good instructor. I know it is sniffed at but it’s all my gym offers! However she is slow and methodical and never lets us push ourselves too far. I have made great progress in my balance and flexion, especially my stiff hips.

She was off recently and we had an absolutely bonkers replacement who took us through everything at a great speed and insane poses and I was so scared of hurting myself.