Welcome to this week’s episode: Yin Yoga and Spine Health.
This was a requested topic, and it’s something I encounter often in questions like, “My student has lower back pain, what sequence can I give them?” or “How do I address back issues in my classes?” As a Yoga therapist with a specialty in back care, I’ve worked with individuals suffering from back issues for many years, and I’m happy to share my experience with you.
The Importance of a Healthy Spine
First, let’s address why spine health is so crucial. In our culture, back pain is common—85% of Americans and 80% of Canadians will experience back pain in their lifetime. Our sedentary lifestyle, from long hours sitting at desks, contributes significantly to this problem. For Yoga teachers and students alike, understanding the biomechanics of the spine and how to care for it is essential for overall health and well-being.
My Journey Towards Specialization in Back Care
I started working therapeutically with people with back pain long before I took my Yin training or became a Yoga therapist. From doing mentorships and apprenticeships in back care classes during my initial yoga teacher training to running my back care classes, I’ve accumulated years of hands-on experience. This background enables me to discuss today’s topic with some street cred to back it up, in addition to my years of therapeutic training.
Common Back Conditions Seen in Classes
There are numerous spinal conditions you may encounter, including:
- Lordosis (Sway Back)
- Kyphosis (Hunchback)
- Scoliosis (Side-to-Side Curvature)
- Arthritis
- Degenerative Disc Disease
- Herniated Discs
- Spinal Stenosis
- Spondylosis
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Osteoporosis
- Spinal Cord Injuries and Cancer
This episode is just a brief overview of these conditions so recognizing your scope of practice as a Yoga teacher and referring students to other more highly trained professionals is crucial.
The Overemphasis on Forward Bends
One common issue is an overemphasis on forward bends in Yoga classes. While a certain amount of forward flexion is important for a healthy spine, the average person in today’s society already experiences a lot of forward bending due to their lifestyle. This can exacerbate many of the spinal conditions mentioned above.
Rethinking Sequencing for Spine Health
When planning a sequence for spine health, focus more on:
- Extensions (Backbends)
- Rotations (Twists)
- Lateral Flexions (Side Bends)
Since we do so much forward bending in our daily life minimizing forward bends In a Yin Yoga Practice can create a more harmonious approach to back health and help alleviate chronic tightness and discomfort.
Some Alternatives to Sphinx and Seal Pose for a Yin Practice



Example Sequence for Spine Health:
- Backbends: Emphasis on sphinx or seal poses, or supported backbends over a bolster.
- Side Bends: Seated or lying mermaid pose, or gentle crescent poses.
- Twists: Supine or seated spinal twists.
- Hip Openers: Target tight hip flexors and IT band with dragon poses or variations.
- Hamstring Stretches: Use a strap while lying on the back instead of seated forward bends.
- Upper body Yin: Some poses for the neck and shoulders can be great too.
Engaging with Students
As a Yin Yoga teacher, it’s pivotal to engage with your students, understand their specific needs, and adapt your sequences to promote spine health. Remember, if you encounter students with specific diagnosed spinal injuries or conditions, it’s both compassionate and professional to refer them to a specialized Yoga therapist. If they don’t yet have a diagnosis then refer them to a chiropractor or physiotherapist,
I hope this guide sheds light on the importance of spine health in Yin Yoga practice and the modifications you can make to better support your students.
Understanding and respecting our scope of practice ensures that our teaching is safe, effective, and tailored to the needs of our unique student populations.
To see an example of Yin Yoga for A healthy spine practice check out this video
Yin Yoga For Spine Health – Listen
Yin Yoga for Spine Health – Watch
Yin Yoga for Spine Health – Read
WEBVTT
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi, Jenny’s and welcome
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Nyk Danu Yoga: to a Yin Yoga. Podcast
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are new around here, welcome.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are a return listener or a familiar of the Podcast Welcome Back.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Today’s topic
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Nyk Danu Yoga: is going to be about Yin Yoga and Spine health.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: this was requested.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but also
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Nyk Danu Yoga: something that was on my radar and on my list, because I often see
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Nyk Danu Yoga: questions.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I used to see questions more. So now now medical questions are no longer allowed in the Yen Yoga network Facebook group.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But you know, questions like.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: my student has lower back pain. What sequence can I give them? Okay? So we’re going to get into
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Nyk Danu Yoga: a lot of information in this episode.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Some of you may not know that I’m actually a yoga therapist with a specialty in back pain or in back hair.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: been working with folks with back issues
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for many, many, many, many years. I’ll talk a bit more about that as the episode
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Nyk Danu Yoga: starts.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: just a reminder for those of you that are new around here, or just forgot. I have the soul of a mermaid, but the mouth of a sailor. So if you have small people around, please take a moment to pause this and grab some headphones. Now.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: all right, friends.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re listening to this live. I will be in the midst of my fall. 60 plus hour therapeutic yin yoga teacher training.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re listening to this in the future, who knows
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Nyk Danu Yoga: where I will be, in which training, so I will be in the fall round
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the next round will be in the spring. So right now, at least at the time of this recording, I’m doing 2 years spring and fall definitely open eventually to doing one that’s at a nice warm location somewhere in the winter. An in person one. But stay tuned on that. That would require a lot more work, but I’m open to it.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you have been listening
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Nyk Danu Yoga: to these podcasts, and you have been finding them helpful.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you feel like you either need an initial Yin training or maybe like your original Yin training didn’t have
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Nyk Danu Yoga: enough coverage of these topics that I’m covering.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: especially if you did anything less than 50 h you definitely could use another Yin training.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I would say, even at 50 or my course, 60 h, it’s not unusual to do more than one.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you are curious or interested about my training. I would highly recommend you. Get on the wait list.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can do that by going into the show notes and clicking. Get on the link that says, Get on the wait list.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and when you do, when you look way up my photograph, there’s a button you can click there to add yourself, or if you go way to the bottom, there’s another opportunity to add yourself. If you’re there for a couple of minutes, you’ll even see a pop up, slide in from the side
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Nyk Danu Yoga: that you could add your name and email.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Once you add your name and email
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you don’t just only sit there until you know, registration opens. I send you all kinds of goodies along the way. So a sequence videos, music, ideas, you get this podcast message to you. Video practices, invitations to join me for some of my quarterly free in classes. All of those things
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Nyk Danu Yoga: will be sent to those that are on the wait list. So again, if you want to get on the wait list.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: just click the link in the show notes that says, Get on the wait list.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: The other things that happen with the wait list is that the wait list gets notified 1st before I kind of blast it out on my website and on social media. And let the wait list know first, st that registration is open. So you get kind of advanced registration.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you also get a coupon code, which is good for the 1st 5 people that sign up
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Nyk Danu Yoga: at the time of this recording, that’s 25% off for the 1st 5 that that take up. Take advantage of that. So
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Nyk Danu Yoga: these are some of the reasons you may want to join the wait list
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Nyk Danu Yoga: on the note of my training. I just wanted to read you a little bit of feedback that I got from somebody who took a recent training.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and this is by Shannon East, she said. I did a free class that you had offered, and knew immediately that you were my teacher.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and she says, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: She did. I did have a prior 30 h yin training with Debbie Soreta in Calgary.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but mine was much more organized, sequential and made sense.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: had much deeper learning, and there was more emphasis on variations, and very understandable because of Paul Greeley’s video. So one of the things I do in my training is y’all watch anatomy for yoga, and then do some reflection questions. That’s 1 of our homework assignments
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the in-depth Chinese medicine meridians and sinew channels.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I feel like I understand the principles much better now, and see how everybody’s different, but can still do a pose with some tweaks.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I feel confident in my ability to teach set students up in the best pose suited for their body.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I especially enjoyed the no nonsense approach, no fluff or ego involved, beautifully presented, written, and spoken.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and was never made to feel like my questions were a burden, or like, I should have known the answer.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I love being able to attend your weekly classes. That’s something that currently happens may not stick around forever. But
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for now those that join my training get to jump into a weekly zoom class with me
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for the duration of the training.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: having the recordings to go back to and review practices.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: My biggest takeaway is that everybody is different, but that some modifications can be made to get everyone into a pose that will give them the benefits of Yin Yoga.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would 100% recommend this training to other teachers.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I feel that the content was more than enough, any more just would have overwhelmed me.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So thank you for your feedback, Shannon.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So again, if you want to get on the wait list for that training, just click the link in the show notes that says, get on the wait list.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so let’s get into today’s topic, Yin, Yoga and Spine health
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for those of you that are watching this on video on Youtube. And if you were listening and you didn’t know that you can watch the unedited versions of this on Youtube very light editing. If I if there’s like a huge gap while I’m
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, sipping tea or something, or if there’s like a huge word word salad coming out of my face, I may edit it out. But for the most part these videos just get plopped right up on Youtube. So if you are more of a visual person than an audio person. Please know those are always there for you. The audio, of course, is edited because
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Nyk Danu Yoga: it needs to be slightly more polished in order to keep your attention when you’re listening.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, because this is a content, rich and dense as far as information goes. You will see me looking at my notes.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I want to make sure I don’t miss anything. So I’ll be looking at my notes if you see my eyes, those of you watching the video kind of moving around. That’s what’s going on there
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Nyk Danu Yoga: before we get into kind of a lot of the technical and theoretical information.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then and and then we’ll get into the nuts and bolts. Practicality of
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Nyk Danu Yoga: how the hell do I teach you and Yoga for spine health? So
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Nyk Danu Yoga: before we get into that, though I just want to talk a little bit about why, I even feel like I should talk about this for one. It comes up a lot in classes.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s 1 reason I all the time I’ll see in in Facebook groups, you know.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: what should I do when my student has this condition with their back, or this condition with their back, or they have low back pain, or they have this or they have that.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so that’s 1 reason I wanted to do this this episode.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: The other reason is because
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I feel like
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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s some pretty big misconceptions about what is good for our spine, especially as far as Western bodies go. So we’ll talk more about that.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I actually started working therapeutically with people with back pain long before I ever took my yin training, and long before I became a yoga therapist.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so if you rewind all the way back to 2,003, 2,004, so that that calendar year of we started in the end of 3, graduated in 4
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or sorry, started in the fall of O. 3, graduated in O, 4,
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Nyk Danu Yoga: one of the things we had to do in my very initial 1st teacher training was mentorship, and what they called assisting and observing.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I did a few different kinds of mentorship. So you could pick different teachers. And they really wanted you to pick kind of 2 or 3 areas that you were interested in to sit and observe a teacher teaching it.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So one of the ones that I did was prenatal, just so that I hoped to learn enough about what not to do.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: You know how to help folks with
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Nyk Danu Yoga: with that? I wasn’t wanting to specialize in prenatal, but I thought.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s lots of pregnant women out there. This would be smart.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then the other one that I took was a back care class.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now I myself have had back issues and neck issues on and off for my whole life.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I was actually born with the cord wrapped around my neck. And so this began some of the neck issues, and then I was in my previous occupation. I was a hairstylist for 12 years. That is a
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re not very wise and skillful, which nobody taught us. This back. Then, when I went to hair school
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Nyk Danu Yoga: on how you stand, how you use your body, your posture, etc. That industry can be brutal for your back, your neck, your shoulders, etc. So then, that didn’t help
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then, a couple of years ago I found out that actually I do have a little bit of a what they consider probably happened to
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Nyk Danu Yoga: birth. A little bit of a fusion on the right side of my spine in between my sacrum and my lumbar.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so I’ve always felt kind of just slightly crooked
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and thought it was just from all of my bad habits doing hair. But it turns out I found out a couple of years ago, after falling down and hurting my back a bit so they did an X-ray that actually, I’ve had that fusion. And from what they’ve said, it sounds like it’s been there my whole life.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I personally have had some back issues.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I was just really attracted to this backyard class.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, this particular back care class
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Nyk Danu Yoga: was very, very therapeutic, I actually think, almost to the point where.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in my opinion, now, looking back at it in hindsight, I don’t think those some of those students should have been there just yet. They should have still been in Physio. So like if someone’s coming in with a neck brace on still, and then taking it off right before the Yoga class to me too soon.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But this was happening, and people were, you know, were fairly injured. Actually, in this class.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: There was the usual kind of low back, bulging disc situations, but then there was also.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, some more serious whiplash and things like that. So I did some assisting and observing that teacher
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Nyk Danu Yoga: while I was in my training.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: then fast forward. A couple of years after I graduate my teacher training, and I’m off just doing my thing, teaching
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Nyk Danu Yoga: one of my former student, classmates, one of my colleagues now was teaching a
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Nyk Danu Yoga: back here class
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and
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Nyk Danu Yoga: was moving away, and asked me if I would like to take over her backyard class.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now this back here class, which I didn’t know I so I said No, because at the time I
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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is exactly the opposite of what I would do now.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But way back, when I was a new budding teacher, I had no interest in specializing. I just wanted to teach this kind of half the flow thing that I was doing, and get more classes, and, you know, get on with my life.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So her offering me this kind of more therapeutically themed class actually didn’t interest me at all. In fact, it kind of felt like a lot of pressure.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I said, No.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you know, couple of weeks later she poked me again about it. She’s like, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to take this class like you did
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Nyk Danu Yoga: mentorship in this area. You know you’ve got back stuff like, why wouldn’t this be a good fit, and I just said, Oh, God, it’s just too much pressure like, because I was picturing what I had
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Nyk Danu Yoga: done in my apprenticeship.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I was picturing people walking in with like neck braces and not able to move or get to the floor, etc. So that’s what the picture I had in my mind.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and she said, No, no, it’s not like that. These are regular people. They’re going to the gym. They filled out their I don’t know what it’s called in the States and Canada. It’s some kind of a form, a queue, something form that, you know states where their injuries are, and blah blah! You know, if they if they have a back injury, they’ve already gone through their physio. But it’s mostly, she said, just a lot of like desk jockeys, folks that sit all day and are sore and tight. And I was like, Oh.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, well, that’s different.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I said, Well, I don’t know. So I went to a few of her classes and saw kind of what she was teaching and the population, and then it was a resounding yes, I took that class over
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Nyk Danu Yoga: several years later, ended up running that class on my own outside of the gym when the gym closed, added another weekly class added 3 more back pain classes.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Over the years. And so this was all happening, and this specialty was happening even before I took my Yoga therapy training.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so not only had I done mentorship and apprenticeship with this I just started diving deep
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Nyk Danu Yoga: into studying, you know, on my own, and then also reaching out to physiotherapists and having conversations with them about specific back conditions, and what would be not good. And you know, whenever I was working with somebody, I would ask them, is it? Okay? If I talk to your chiropractor or your physiotherapist about what’s going on for you? And we would, you know, create any plan of modifications, or whatever based on my conversation with them.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I went on like this for several years, became known as sort of a back care specialist.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then fast forward.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Several years later, many years later, moving to Victoria and then becoming a Yoga therapist and diving even deeper
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Nyk Danu Yoga: into the back hair. Now, of all of the Yoga therapy modules that I took the back care module was actually probably one of the ones where I learned the least.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: simply because I had done so much previous study. But I definitely did learn a lot of things that I was not aware of in my previous experience.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So to tell you. This whole long story is to tell you why I’m I feel comfortable making an episode like this.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: whereas if somebody wanted me to do one that was like yin yoga for a knee pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wouldn’t pick that up as a challenge, because I have not worked in depth enough with people with their knees in order to feel like I have anything to add to that conversation.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So what you can expect in this episode is, first, st we’re going to break down the nuts and bolts just very brief overviews of some of the most common back conditions
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Nyk Danu Yoga: that can happen and that might show up in your class.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we’re going to talk about what can be really problematic.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: actually, for a lot of these back conditions
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in Yoga classes.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then what we might do about that.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then I’m going to give you a framework for how you could create a class
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for a healthy spine like a healthy spine class for yin yoga.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: not for people that have back injuries.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but for the general public, who are just kind of sore and tight, etc.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so that’s a lot. This is what we’re going to get up to today.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s get into it.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So we’re going to start with just some of the common back things that can pop up. And again, these are very brief overviews.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And would require a lot more study on your part.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if these are. If this is an area that interests you.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s start with something as simple as loridosis, or sometimes called sway back.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And this develops if your spinal curves are too much, and it pushes your posture out of its
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Nyk Danu Yoga: usual alignment, and you might see that the lower dosis affects the lumbar spine sometimes in late terms, called sway back.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I want to be really clear here, because
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Nyk Danu Yoga: it’s getting better. But in the past there was a lot of misdiagnosis of loridosis from people who were not qualified to diagnose it.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know this
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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I got some. So, genetically speaking, I have a large, larger lumbar curve than maybe some of the average people next to me. I do not have lordosis, though.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so sometimes, especially yoga teachers, can confuse a genetic bone structure.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And
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Nyk Danu Yoga: the fact that I have ample and strong glutes which makes my lower back curve look even larger than it actually is, because if you put me against a wall
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Nyk Danu Yoga: with my butt against a wall. My lower back’s not going to be anywhere near the wall, and that’s partially because of my genetic skeleton. But it’s also partially just because I got a big butt.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I want to mention this because this is often where a lot of this tuck your tailbone bullshit comes in, which, if you are still telling your students to talk your tailbone.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: please, Google, what’s wrong with telling my students to tuck their tailbone? Okay, this is an old out of date
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Nyk Danu Yoga: cue that really should fall by the wayside and is beyond this episode.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I was constantly told in my
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in my yoga experience from the uneducated eye that I needed to tuck my tailbone or lessen my lumbar curve because they thought that I had lower dosis, whereas actually
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Nyk Danu Yoga: that was just my bone structure. So I just wanted to mention that.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you can actually see this in certain populations, more so than others. So, for example, black folks are gonna have more of a lower back curve than someone who maybe is Caucasian or somebody who’s 1st nations or maybe Oriental.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now these are generalized statements. There’s always exceptions. But I mean, some of this stuff is just genetic. If you see people from different cultures standing all side by side, you’re going to see different amounts of lower back curve. And it doesn’t mean that one person has lower dosis and the other does not. So just to be very clear.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so should you be diagnosing your student with lower Dosis. No, you certainly should not. That is beyond your scope of practice, but they may come to you and say my chiropractor said, or my physiotherapist said, Okay.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that is a lordosis that affects your lumbar spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then there’s kyphosis, which is a front to back curvature of the spine, and that can lead to kind of like a hunchback or slouching posture. Now, I’m not talking about the normal amount of Western slouchiness that everybody seems to do. I’m talking about now. It’s actually starting to affect your bone structure.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: The forward curvature is normal in the rib cage, but can be problematic sometimes, in some cases.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and some of the things that can cause kyphosis could be degeneration, disease, or osteoporosis and other conditions that affect the spine. So this is what sometimes is referred to as that kind of almost hunchback position.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we have scoliosis and scoliosis is a side to side curve of your spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so it’s not a front to back. It’s not like you’re rounding forward or like you’ve got, you know, your butt sticking out like in lordosis. This is actually a side curve, and some
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Nyk Danu Yoga: curves in scoliosis are really mild and don’t cause a lot of symptoms. Those are usually functional scoliosis. So sometimes scoliosis happens in a functional way, because you have an injury, and so your muscles kind of tighten a little bit on one side, and you know a little slacker on the other side, or they’re stronger on one side, and so your body is just kind of adapted for an injury, or a tight spot, giving you a slight scoliosis that’s actually pretty common.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But then, of course, there is like extreme scoliosis or strong scoliosis that is more of a spinal condition as opposed to an adaptation.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And you may have seen those folks, too, where you know they’re sort of stand crooked, and a lot of times eventually, if they don’t get help for that, they are not able to stand up straight anymore.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: then, here’s some more common things. So arthritis, I mean, we can get arthritis in any joint, so, of course, that could affect our spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: degenerative disc disease.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So there are these wonderful little discs between our vertebrae little spongy disks that are designed to keep our vertebrae or the bones of the spine from
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Nyk Danu Yoga: falling onto each other.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So degenerative disc disease is when those jelly, like substances, those little discs between the vertebrae begin to break down.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: This can lead to bulging or protrusion of the disc, or to bone spurs.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and this can happen in the neck, but also anywhere in throughout the spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Some of this happens with age.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: although it doesn’t necessarily have to happen with age.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, then we have herniated discs.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: often by lay terms called slipped, ruptured, bulging.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: compressed, or prolapsed discs. Those are all pseudonyms.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: A herniated disc occurs when one of those little squishy cushion discs in between any of the 26 vertebrae of the spine ruptures, which means that jelly, like substance, that it was containing begins to leak.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that can then impinge on the spinal cord or the nerves.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Those disc situations can cause sciatica or other back pain, and also weakness
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and herniated discs are not uncommon.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they don’t
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Nyk Danu Yoga: always cause pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: What they are realizing now is that there are a whole bunch of people out there that may be living with, you know herniated discs or bulging discs
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Nyk Danu Yoga: that
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Nyk Danu Yoga: don’t even know, because they don’t have any pain, because the only way that you would have pain
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Nyk Danu Yoga: is if
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Nyk Danu Yoga: the disc was starting to push on a nerve.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or if it was causing other misalignments of the spine that were then pushing into nerve. Because pain again, is is a nervous system
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Nyk Danu Yoga: thing.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: nerve to brain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So it’s possible that people could be walking around with herniated discs or bulging discs, and never know it and not experience any pain. And then there are people that are experiencing that pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they can get treatment, and it actually can be repaired. People can live somewhat normal lives, I mean, they have to be aware of their spine. So I say all of this because I would say one of the most common things that I get in my backyard. Classes are people that have had herniated or bulging discs.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And there’s certain things that we want to keep in mind with that population as well as a lot of these. Actually, I’ll summarize it when we get near the bottom of these to tell you how Yoga could be actually making some of these things worse.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But just know that it’s not uncommon, and it is not a death sentence, and that not everybody that has a bulging disc has pain, and so they may not even know that they have a bulging disc.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spine that puts pressure on the spinal cord and the nerves.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this condition can occur in the neck
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or in the middle of the spine, or in the lower spine
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and spinal stenosis, can be called by
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Nyk Danu Yoga: injuries or by diseases like osteoarthritis or scoliosis.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Many people have no symptoms.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So again, just because you have something wrong with your back doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in pain. It might not be.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But some people experience, pain, numbness, weakness in their neck or their back.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay?
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then we have spondylosis, which is a condition where there is abnormal wear on the spinal vertebraes and the discs between them.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: This can happen in the neck, so cervical in the neck.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and can be a common cause of chronic neck. Pain can happen in the mid back
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or in the lower back as well.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we have angoloking spondylitis.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Some of these I have to say very slow, otherwise my tongue gets all wrapped around itself.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is a type of arthritis that causes inflammation between the vertebrae and the joints where the spine and the pelvis meet.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: This condition frequently runs in families, and tends to be more severe or prevalent amongst men.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Symptoms can include pain and stiffness in the lower back and hips, especially after periods of inactivity. So this is key.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: this inactivity part, and it can really reduce flexibility.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we have osteoporosis
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or retrieval factors that can come from osteoporosis.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is a systematic skeletal disorder that is characterized by low bone mass. This happens a lot, unfortunately, as we age, especially with women that are post menopause. If we’re not really really careful and aware of this.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: this can cause some big problems.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: micro architectural deterioration of bone leading to more porous bone and then an increased fracture risk.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then there’s things like
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Nyk Danu Yoga: spinal cord cancer.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: obviously, that can affect your your back.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: a spinal cord injury so falling down, perhaps, and injuring your spinal cord spinal deformities. So those could be, you know, birth situations like what I have, where one side is kind of fused a little bit.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that would be considered a spinal deformity.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: a spinal fracture so falling down and literally breaking your back, that can be a Biggie.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then we have spondylolisthesis, which again I have to say slow. Otherwise
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Nyk Danu Yoga: tongue gets all twisted and may get all word salady.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: That is a condition where one of the vertebrae of the spine moves out of its proper position and into or onto the vertebrae below it.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we have something called sciatica.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now I will tell you that sciatica is probably the
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Nyk Danu Yoga: most common miss Self, misdiagnosed
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Nyk Danu Yoga: condition that I have ever experienced in my time. I cannot tell you
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Nyk Danu Yoga: how many students come in with a little bit of kind of weirdness or discomfort or tightness in their Si region.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and so they’ll come in, and they’ll say, I have sciatica. Okay, so sciatica is a specific condition. It’s not diagnosed by yourself. You would go see a physiotherapist or chiropractor something like that in order to know that you have
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Nyk Danu Yoga: sciatica and sciatica is not the same as Si joint issues, which we will talk about in a moment.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, just to get that little B out of my bonnet, so sciatica
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Nyk Danu Yoga: can be caused by piriformis, syndromes, piriformis, syndrome causes pain or numbness in your butt.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: your hip your upper leg, and it occur occurs because the piriformis muscle
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Nyk Danu Yoga: presses on the sciatic nerve.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and the condition could be caused by injury or swelling in that area or scar tissue. Some people’s sciatic nerve runs through
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Nyk Danu Yoga: their piriformis muscle.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so this is just a genetic anomaly. Some people does some people it doesn’t. And so that can actually really change how the student experiences poses that are for their hip. But it bend
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Nyk Danu Yoga: some people with sciatica when they do poses for their hip butt it band area, get an immediate relief in their sciatic symptoms, and for some it aggravates it. And this just depends on
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Nyk Danu Yoga: how you’re built because we’re all different.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: The other thing that can cause sciatica is a spinal injury or a bulging disc, because that can push on that sciatic nerve.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay? And then we have just general Si joint issues.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: That could be arthritis. Sometimes it’s from hypermobility. So people that are kind of really lax in the in their connective tissue in their Si area.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: That can be a problem. They can also fuse over time the Si joints, and so that can cause some issues. So I had somebody in the group when I asked for ideas. Want me to talk about yin yoga and Si joint pain, and I was like.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I can’t do that because I don’t know why you or your student, whoever you’re speaking of has the Si joint pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’m not in the room with you. Nor have I spoken to your physiotherapist to figure out what is going on. So obviously I can’t make recommendations
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for somebody
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a Facebook group that I have never met, and I have no idea why they’re having Si joint issues. But some of those are the common ones.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Then we have just general neck pain and general back pain, and these might be something that you encounter a lot in your classes that aren’t really connected to any specific
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Nyk Danu Yoga: condition of the spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: This
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Nyk Danu Yoga: is largely due to our culture.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So now we’re done kind of just our brief overview of some of the common issues that can come up with the spine. I’m sure there’s some I’ve left out, but that’s a good starting of like. What are these and what causes them.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, let’s just talk about the general population and back and neck pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So
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Nyk Danu Yoga: the statistics are, I believe the last study I saw was in 85% of Americans and 80% of Canadians. So we’re not much better off
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Nyk Danu Yoga: will experience back pain throughout their life.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And for many of them that is chronic.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: This can be directly correlated to the amount of time that we spend sitting in chairs.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, sometimes these issues come from other reasons, right? Like all of the many conditions I just mentioned.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But sometimes people are just kind of sore and tight all the time in their back, and there’s nothing going on with their spine per se.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but it’s because they spend 8 to 10 to 12 to 14 h sitting at a desk.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you think about our ancestors, our ancient ancestors. We were hunter, gatherer creatures.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: We would not have been sitting in chairs. We would have been walking.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: running.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: moving around if we were sitting we were probably squatting.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or we were seated on the earth.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that is how we are evolved as far as our spine goes. Then somebody invents a chair and we start to become a culture of people who sit at desks.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And now we’ve got all these extra issues with our back.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when you sit at a desk all day, you are compressing the vertebrae in your spine, so you’re sort of squishing them down
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Nyk Danu Yoga: from
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Nyk Danu Yoga: how you would normally be standing in anatomical neutral.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Also you are
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Nyk Danu Yoga: tightening up and shortening your hamstrings
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Nyk Danu Yoga: as well as your hip flexors
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Nyk Danu Yoga: as well as glutes and butt.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now that’s all, just from the sitting.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, if you take into account that most people are not sitting in a chair and using the muscles of their core.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is not just abdominals, by the way, but all of the muscles of their torso, including the spine and even the pelvic floor.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: If they’re not using the muscles of their core to allow them to sit up straight. They’re instead leaning back into that chair.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe even sometimes with a big cushion under their lumbar, so they really don’t have to use any muscles.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Or maybe they’re not leaning back, but they’re rounding forward, and they’re sort of slouched, and then the cans are on the keyboard, and there’s this rounding of the upper back and this closing off of the front body.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: which now means all the muscles of the front of your shoulders, and your pecs in your chest are tight, and that the muscles of your back are chronically weak and chronically tight.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is a big problem, culturally.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So it is very likely that you will have people in your classes who have back pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: who don’t actually have anything anatomically wrong with their spine
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or the bony processes or the discs.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but it’s because they sit at a desk all day.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is the group that I want to talk about
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and what we can do.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, I want to mention that if you have a student who has any of the conditions in that list above that we just went over.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: You shouldn’t be teaching them in an average yoga class unless you have extra qualifications, and you have perhaps connected with their chiropractor or physiotherapist, to find out
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Nyk Danu Yoga: what their specific condition is.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and what movements are not recommended, and which ones are encouraged.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, once you even have that information, then you have to work with each individual student because they’re all going to be slightly different.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for example.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if somebody comes to you and says they have bulging discs.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Most commonly that means that the discs are a posterior bulge because they are a sloucher. They’ve been sitting at a desk, but
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if it’s an anterior bulge, you would treat that very differently.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you will not know that, and guess what your student might not even know that unless you’ve actually consulted with their medical professional.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if people come into your class with these issues, and you are
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Nyk Danu Yoga: the average bear. Yoga teacher, you’ve not taken any extra therapeutic training done any mentorship with people who specialize in spine health. Then I hate to say this, but you’re not qualified to deal with these conditions.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it would be wiser
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and more compassionate and more empathetic to just say that to the student.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, if they show up at your class. And they’re like, Oh, by the way, I have this going on.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: just tell them, okay, we’re going to do the best we can for this class, because I want you’re here, and I want you to enjoy the class. Make some modifications, perhaps, but ideally, you should just be dropping into Yoga classes. You should be.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: If your physiotherapist or your chiropractor says you’re ready. You should be attending a back focused class with a yoga therapist who has training and a niche in that area of back pain. So
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you are a generalized teacher and you have people that come in and they have some of these back injuries.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: do your best
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then refer them to a yoga therapist. If they’re if they’ve already done. Physio and their physio has said, Yoga is okay, which we want to make sure that that’s in place, too, because sometimes they’re just coming to Yoga because they heard it’s good for their back, and their physiotherapist would be shocked and appalled that they were attending yoga.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if let’s just say their chiropractor physiotherapist, etc. has said, Okay, you were. You’re good to go as far as physical stuff goes, and they show up in your class. You need to refer them out
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Nyk Danu Yoga: to somebody who has a specialty in this area. So a Yoga therapist who has a specialty in back pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I am one of those. Here’s an example, though I don’t work with all kinds of back pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in the population that I teach I don’t have at this point, and that will change, I’m sure, as long as I, as soon as I get up in the years as well. But I don’t have a lot of teachers that have osteoperosis or osteoarthritis at this point. Now I do know how to modify for those things.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I can say
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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you know that you have osteoporosis or osteoarthritis. I’d like you to do this instead. But I don’t have a lot of it in my class right now, so I’m not modifying my whole class plan for that condition. But I can say, if you have this right.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: just like in my average drop in class, I might call out, if you have bulging discs, or if you have osteoarthritis or osteoporosis, I want you to do this instead.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I have the knowledge to do that because of my years of study and my years of work with students. And I’m still learning stuff all the time.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’m gonna stress this a lot because I think that sometimes his Yoga teachers
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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s a hubris that can happen where we go way beyond the scope of our practice and our knowledge, because we think things are way simpler than they are. And we just want to help people right? We think if somebody comes in with lower back pain, and we just say, Oh, do! Forward bends that that’s going to fix their back pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: when, in fact, for a large percentage of the above
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Nyk Danu Yoga: conditions that I just read to you.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: forward bends could exasperate that and make it worse.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s say that one more time
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Nyk Danu Yoga: for a lot of these conditions, putting your students in a lot of forward bends, especially with a rounded spine, could make these conditions worse.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is why
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you should not be teaching out of your scope of practice.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So now I realize somebody drops into your class. They’ve already checked in. You work at a studio. What are you going to do? Well, you’re going to do your best.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and but you’re going to have an honest conversation with them and say, Hey, I know you probably heard somewhere that Yoga is good for your back, but actually just dropping into the average Yoga class may not be good for your back, because there are specific things that somebody with your particular spinal situation, whatever whichever one of it it is, should be doing and not be doing so, I would recommend that you seek out a Yoga therapist who has a specialty in back pain.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it would be be good for you to do some research as to who that might be in your area, so that you have someone to refer them to.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so this is super important
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Nyk Danu Yoga: as Yoga teachers. We just want to help people. But if we’re not careful because of our
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Nyk Danu Yoga: wanting to help and not understanding the scope of our practice and not understanding the limits
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Nyk Danu Yoga: of our
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Nyk Danu Yoga: knowledge, we can actually be harming more than we’re helping.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And it’s unfortunate that sometimes doctors or even physiotherapists will just say, Okay, go to Yoga without giving them any more parameters about what style of yoga? What kind of yoga, whether or not they should be doing therapeutic yoga. So sometimes that happens. And so it might fall on you to say, Hey.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: here’s what you should do now. They may be able to come to the average kind of drop in class at some point, but they should at least be working with the Yoga therapist 1st to figure out what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their spine, so that they’re empowered when they do go to a Yoga class to make modifications as needed.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that’s my soapbox about that.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let’s just talk, though, about the average person who doesn’t really have anything wrong with their spine, right? As far as we know, their spine cord is healthy, their vertebrae are healthy. There’s nothing going on there, but they’re just kind of always a little sore and tight, and they have some discomfort which is different than pain
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Nyk Danu Yoga: because of their lifestyle. Right?
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let’s talk about that, and what we could do about that, and what we might want to consider when we’re sequencing our classes or creating our classes, choosing the poses
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Nyk Danu Yoga: to make sure
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Nyk Danu Yoga: that we are addressing those needs.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So let’s rewind a little bit to teacher training. Now, some of you may not be really comfortable with these words, and so I’m going to just introduce them. And then I’m going to move into lay terms or common people speak just to make this more accessible.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But there are essentially 3 key movements to the spine. There’s flexion, which is bending forward
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Nyk Danu Yoga: extension, which would be bending backwards
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Nyk Danu Yoga: rotation which would be twisting. And then there’s lateral flexion or side bends, so
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Nyk Danu Yoga: they say 3 movements of the spine. I would say, that’s 4, because it’s forward, backward, twisting and then side bending. So
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Nyk Danu Yoga: these are the movements that our spine should be able to do comfortably if we’re in good health.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re working at creating a class that is either
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Nyk Danu Yoga: specifically labeled A, you know.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: health, healthy spine, yin, yoga, or something like that.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Or if you’re just generally creating your average class plan without that theme, just kind of your average weekly drop in. It would serve you and your students to make sure that those motions are in your sequence. So
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Nyk Danu Yoga: some sort of forward bending posture we’re going to talk about that one in depth in a moment, because that can be problematic.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: some sort of backbending action.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: some sort of a twist, and then some sort of a lateral or side bend. Okay?
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I’ve been harping a bit on this forward
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Nyk Danu Yoga: bending or flexion.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: We do way too much forward bending and flexion in Yoga classes, not just in Yin.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but in all Yoga classes. And then, of course, this is exaggerated in Yen because of the long holds.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, a healthy spine does need to gently round forward or go into flexion.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: However.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: our lives.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: we exist 90% of the time in a position of some degree of forward flexion.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: When you sit at your desk. Unless you’re very aware of your posture, you are in forward flexion because you’re probably slouching a little, and you got your arms forward
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Nyk Danu Yoga: when you drive your car
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Nyk Danu Yoga: when you come home, and you’re doing the dishes, or you’re picking up stuff off the floor, or you’re doing raking or yard work, or vacuuming
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Nyk Danu Yoga: all forward flexion of the spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in our Western culture we do way more forward bending or flexion than we do of the others that are also key for spine health.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you have someone in your class that does have one of those above spine conditions. Some of those can be
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Nyk Danu Yoga: made worse
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Nyk Danu Yoga: by forward flexion or
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Nyk Danu Yoga: forward bends.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in fact, several of them.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So what are we to do? Well.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: here’s how I take care of this.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: In my classes I have a way bigger emphasis on back bends.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: twists, and lateral flexion than I do on forward bending.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: not because forward bending isn’t important.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but because they already do it all day in their lives.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So we also have to look at. Why are we doing forward flexion. Why are we doing forward bending?
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe we’re doing it because we want to stretch their hamstrings. Well, there’s other ways to do that which I will mention in just a moment. So if that’s why you’re doing it, because your your intended area is hamstrings.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: then there are other solutions that are far more back healthy
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Nyk Danu Yoga: than a seated forward bent.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you’re getting them to do that forward bending or forward flexion, because you do want that gentle movement of the spine that rounding forward.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you could probably get enough of that in child’s pose.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or laying on their back and hugging their knees into their chest.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: does not need to be a seated forward bet.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So those are usually the 2 reasons. And then there’s the energetics, right? Sometimes we’re doing a forward bend, because it’s sort of down regulating for the nervous system. But again, there are other ways that you could do that.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: including lying on the floor, legs up the wall, etc.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the reason that I keep harping on the forward bending is because 90% of the time, maybe even more, maybe even up to like 95% of the time. That’s what we’re doing too much of in our Yoga classes.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Not just in Yin, but in all classes. There’s this obsession with forward bending.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if we were hunter, gatherer creatures, and we were not sitting in chairs, and we were not vacuuming and raking and picking stuff up off the floor and bending forward all the time. This might not be an issue at all.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: but we’re not
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Nyk Danu Yoga: right. Most of us are in this forward flexion forward, bending position to some degree
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Nyk Danu Yoga: all day.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So in order to create some harmony in the spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would argue that we want to focus on some of these other movements
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and minimize the amount of forward bending.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I know that I can hear your voices right now. Some of you teachers, especially those of you. Super Bendy.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m so open I can just fold forward, put my head on my knee, Yoga. Teachers are getting ready to argue with me, or you might already be arguing with me in your mind.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: But here’s the thing I have to say to you, dear teacher, your body is not your student’s body
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Nyk Danu Yoga: right? Just because you love something, and it feels amazing for you, and you’re comfortable in it, and you’re adept at it does not mean it’s good for your students.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is not about you.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: You want to forward fold to oblivion in your practice, and it doesn’t cause you any pain. You don’t have any lingering side effects of that
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Nyk Danu Yoga: party on with yourself. When you’re working with the general public, we have to think about what are their needs, not. What’s my preference for my home practice or in my body?
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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, so here’s the 1st thing I want to mention. Most of the average student that walks into your class, has hamstrings so tight
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Nyk Danu Yoga: that they aren’t going to be able to do a seated forward bend and do this thing that we all call hinging from the hips with a flatter back.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re just simply not going to be able to do that because of a serious amount of tightness
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in their low back, in their pelvis and in their hamstrings.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, no matter how much you talk to them about lengthening their spine, keeping their back flat as they hinge forward, they are not physically able to do it.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: It could be helpful to put a bolster or few folded blankets underneath their hips.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: That can help. With that
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Nyk Danu Yoga: you could also put a bolster behind their knees
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Nyk Danu Yoga: or a fold up blanket so that they’re not getting so much hamstring stretch that they are able to hinge forward. But there’s a huge percentage of the population
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Nyk Danu Yoga: that either doesn’t have the flexibility or the body awareness to hinge forward from their hips with a flat or a lengthened spine.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that is what you would need to be able to do a forward bend safely for a lot of these back conditions, or we could just say, for the average person who spends too much time rounding.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So rather than struggle to try to get the average person to be able to alter their forward bend
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Nyk Danu Yoga: in a way that keeps their back flat where they are hinging from their hips. And this is a little bit more young, because, of course, if you’re hinging from your hips and you’re keeping your back relatively straight as you’re folding forward.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: then you have to use the muscles of your body to hold yourself in that position.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so you can’t really do that sort of ultimate softening and surrendering that you would do typically in a yin practice.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it’s not totally unheard of that people can do that for a couple of minutes. But 1st they have to have the body awareness and the flexibility to be able to let their pelvis tip
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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that they can hinge forward.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if they’re sitting, and that you can see no lumbar curve, no lower back curve. Even when you put blankets or a bolster under their bum, they are not going to be able to hinge forward from their hips with a straight or a flat back
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Nyk Danu Yoga: flat back is deceptive. It doesn’t make any sense. But I think you know what I mean.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re just not going to be able to do it. 1st of all, they have to open up those areas. They have to open up that lower back. They have to open up those hamstrings. They have to open up their hips.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then you’ll be able to see what they have access to, as far as their bone structure goes.
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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I mentioned this because if you treat everyone the same.
452
00:50:07.640 –> 00:50:15.229
Nyk Danu Yoga: the Yogi who’s the ex dancer, and who can just fold over their legs with no problem, with a relatively flat spine.
453
00:50:15.650 –> 00:50:24.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: And then you have the guy who just works, you know, 12 HA day at a desk and has never done Yoga, and now he’s in his mid to late life, and he’s trying to hinge forward.
454
00:50:24.990 –> 00:50:26.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: These are not the same thing.
455
00:50:27.290 –> 00:50:33.489
Nyk Danu Yoga: What is happening in their hamstrings, and what is happening in their spine, and what is happening in their pelvis is not the same.
456
00:50:34.200 –> 00:50:38.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I tend to err on the side of
457
00:50:38.730 –> 00:50:40.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: spine health
458
00:50:40.750 –> 00:50:41.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: meaning
459
00:50:41.990 –> 00:50:45.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t do a lot of seated forward folds in my classes
460
00:50:46.400 –> 00:50:51.109
Nyk Danu Yoga: occasionally. I’ll do one like a butterfly, maybe, or a dragonfly.
461
00:50:51.530 –> 00:50:53.099
Nyk Danu Yoga: but not often.
462
00:50:53.230 –> 00:51:03.079
Nyk Danu Yoga: And if I’m trying to access people’s hamstrings, so if I’ve decided, I want to put a forward bend in here because I want to access someone’s hamstrings.
463
00:51:03.130 –> 00:51:08.880
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m going to actually get them to lay on their back and grab a strap, loop their foot and extend their leg into the air.
464
00:51:09.340 –> 00:51:31.299
Nyk Danu Yoga: Because now what’s happening is, their whole back is supported with the floor. They don’t have to worry about. Am I sitting up straight? Am I hinging forward properly is my spine rounded is my lumbar spine in its ideal position. They don’t have to worry about any of that. They’re being gently held by the floor, and all they have to worry about is bringing their leg up to the point where they feel that stretch on the back of their hamstring.
465
00:51:31.820 –> 00:51:34.729
Nyk Danu Yoga: So if that’s why you’re doing a forward fold.
466
00:51:34.780 –> 00:51:37.569
Nyk Danu Yoga: just get people to flip over, grab a strap
467
00:51:37.760 –> 00:51:39.940
Nyk Danu Yoga: that could also be done at the wall.
468
00:51:39.960 –> 00:51:55.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: So, bringing one leg up on the wall, or both legs in the wall. You can also do drag and fly at the wall. So a lot of the seated forward folds can actually be done at the wall, and if somebody’s quite tight they’re going to feel that in their hamstrings. I know those of you who are
469
00:51:55.180 –> 00:52:08.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: Bendy Yoga. Folks who fall into forward folds with your head to your knee are not going to be able to imagine that someone could lay on the floor, and put their legs up the wall and feel a stretch in their hamstrings. But, believe you me, it is very true and very common.
470
00:52:09.350 –> 00:52:15.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: So that is a way that I would isolate the back of their legs, or maybe their inner thigh
471
00:52:15.400 –> 00:52:22.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: in a forward bend without getting them to round forward or bend forward, because now they’re using the floor
472
00:52:22.740 –> 00:52:26.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: as a support for their back, and I would get them to either use a strap or a wall
473
00:52:27.100 –> 00:52:33.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: 9 times out of 10. If somebody in my class requests hamstrings, we automatically grab a strap, and that’s what we do.
474
00:52:33.120 –> 00:52:35.690
Nyk Danu Yoga: and that’s because I don’t have enough wall space for everybody.
475
00:52:36.600 –> 00:52:37.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: So
476
00:52:37.630 –> 00:52:47.069
Nyk Danu Yoga: if you’re doing a forward, bending action because of the effects on the spine, if you do want that gentle sort of rounding of the spine.
477
00:52:47.240 –> 00:52:59.229
Nyk Danu Yoga: Most people can get enough of that, especially considering they do that all day, every day in child’s pose, or maybe laying on their back and hugging their knees into their chest. Right? So you don’t have to do full caterpillar
478
00:52:59.790 –> 00:53:05.989
Nyk Danu Yoga: to get that rounding of the spine. You could do it in child’s pose, you could get them to hug their knees into their chest on their back
479
00:53:06.340 –> 00:53:08.440
Nyk Danu Yoga: if child’s post doesn’t work for them
480
00:53:08.570 –> 00:53:10.459
Nyk Danu Yoga: right? That is still
481
00:53:10.970 –> 00:53:14.480
Nyk Danu Yoga: flexion or forward bending as far as the spine goes.
482
00:53:16.590 –> 00:53:31.679
Nyk Danu Yoga: and then the other. So I think I’m harping on this forward bending enough. I hope that I’ve made my point that just because you, as a Yoga teacher, love your forward bends and feels good for you, and you’re adept in them, does not mean that it’s a good idea for your students.
483
00:53:31.710 –> 00:53:34.770
Nyk Danu Yoga: your students, are not you? They have different bodies.
484
00:53:35.440 –> 00:54:03.390
Nyk Danu Yoga: Now. You might teach a particular population that is very adept in their forward bending like you are, and if so, that’s different. Rock on with yourself. But if you’re teaching the average person, they’ve got way too much forward flexion in their daily lives. Already, in order to have a sense of harmony and health in their spine. And really what they need to focus on more is their back bends or their extensions, their rotations. Aka twists and their lateral flexion or their side bends.
485
00:54:03.830 –> 00:54:06.000
Nyk Danu Yoga: So when I create a class.
486
00:54:06.130 –> 00:54:10.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m focusing a lot more on extension or back bends.
487
00:54:10.610 –> 00:54:14.379
Nyk Danu Yoga: rotation twists and lateral flexion.
488
00:54:15.150 –> 00:54:23.060
Nyk Danu Yoga: I might put something in there for their hamstring, especially just using a strap. I might give them a child’s pose, or hugging their knees to their chest at some point.
489
00:54:23.410 –> 00:54:33.740
Nyk Danu Yoga: occasionally depending on the season as well. I might put in a butterfly or a dragonfly. But if I know somebody’s got issues with their spine, I’m going to get them to do that on their back, maybe using a wall, or maybe using a strap.
490
00:54:35.090 –> 00:54:37.610
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I almost never teach caterpillar
491
00:54:38.060 –> 00:54:43.629
Nyk Danu Yoga: simply because most people cannot do that in a way that is healthy for their bucks.
492
00:54:44.890 –> 00:54:51.959
Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s that. So I’m going to spend more attention on. I’m going to make sure there’s at least one back bend, maybe 2.
493
00:54:52.170 –> 00:54:58.930
Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m going to make sure there’s a twist in there that there’s a lateral extension. I also really like to put an emphasis on
494
00:54:58.960 –> 00:55:03.600
Nyk Danu Yoga: something for their hip, but it bend hip flexors, and also their neck
495
00:55:03.630 –> 00:55:05.400
Nyk Danu Yoga: and shoulder area, because
496
00:55:05.420 –> 00:55:10.630
Nyk Danu Yoga: if they’ve got tightness in their back, those areas are all affected as well from sitting at a desk.
497
00:55:11.420 –> 00:55:16.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: So when you sit at a desk all day, there are certain muscles that are not being used, so they’re not strong.
498
00:55:17.060 –> 00:55:25.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: and there’s a lack of postural awareness. And then there’s other muscles that are getting short and weak, and so I spend more time in my yin practice
499
00:55:25.730 –> 00:55:28.070
Nyk Danu Yoga: at creating an awareness
500
00:55:28.230 –> 00:55:30.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: of those particular muscle groups.
501
00:55:30.840 –> 00:55:32.120
Nyk Danu Yoga: hamstrings.
502
00:55:32.210 –> 00:55:40.130
Nyk Danu Yoga: hip flexors, hip butt it, bend glute areas, all of those. And then I do a good dose of back bends, and
503
00:55:40.180 –> 00:55:46.369
Nyk Danu Yoga: when I do back bends. I don’t just limit myself to the kind of og poses like
504
00:55:46.420 –> 00:55:59.459
Nyk Danu Yoga: spiel like spiel. I often combine sphinx and seal when in my classes, when I teach, I give them the option. So that’s why that slipped out so sphinx pose or seal. I actually do a lot of back bending over bolsters
505
00:55:59.650 –> 00:56:12.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: which I actually feel like is more sort of bang for their buck for most students, because they need that heart opening arms out to the side as well, and so heartbed.
506
00:56:12.934 –> 00:56:33.040
Nyk Danu Yoga: Starfish fish pose. A lot of those kinds of things tend to be my go to more so than sphinx or seal, simply because I want to get the most bang for my buck. And I know that in those shapes they’re going to get that gentle compression in their back, but they’re also going to open up their front body, which desperately needs it.
507
00:56:33.140 –> 00:56:40.669
Nyk Danu Yoga: And you can’t really open your front body as effectively in seal or sphinx, because you’re using your arms to hold you. So
508
00:56:40.910 –> 00:56:51.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s just my own personal preference. And if you are listening to this, you’re going. I don’t know what any of these poses are. Then you may not have done a yin training where they included any upper body stuff or any poses with props.
509
00:56:52.110 –> 00:56:54.882
Nyk Danu Yoga: and if that’s the case, I’m sorry about that.
510
00:56:55.660 –> 00:57:02.699
Nyk Danu Yoga: but they they are there, they’re around. You can always DM me if you’re totally lost and confused about what those might be.
511
00:57:04.215 –> 00:57:11.159
Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe I will. In the show notes on my blog. I will put some images of some of these.
512
00:57:11.780 –> 00:57:14.030
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I’ll put one of them also as the
513
00:57:15.121 –> 00:57:17.649
Nyk Danu Yoga: podcast image. So I’ll put some of these in
514
00:57:18.030 –> 00:57:24.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: in the in the the article on my blog. So you’ll have to click the link to get over to see the full show notes to see those.
515
00:57:25.520 –> 00:57:27.920
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then I also want to include some twisting.
516
00:57:28.440 –> 00:57:42.259
Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe one twist, maybe 2 and some lateral extensions. So maybe a little bit of what Bernie calls banana, which I call crescent pose, or, you know, mermaid maid, which is lying sideways over a bolster with the bolster in your waist.
517
00:57:42.440 –> 00:57:48.199
Nyk Danu Yoga: or even just a seated side bend can be lovely, is if you’re in, get them in shoelace already.
518
00:57:48.320 –> 00:57:59.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: or square, because you’re, you know, wanting to get into their hips, and you just get them to do a couple of minutes in a side pose that can be a lovely way to add in some more lateral or side bending.
519
00:58:00.490 –> 00:58:08.520
Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, so I’m going to summarize. I’m not going to go back and summarize each of these fine conditions, because that would be too much time.
520
00:58:08.810 –> 00:58:11.449
Nyk Danu Yoga: But I do want to really mention that
521
00:58:12.790 –> 00:58:14.620
Nyk Danu Yoga: as Yoga professionals.
522
00:58:15.000 –> 00:58:16.899
Nyk Danu Yoga: we have to understand
523
00:58:17.350 –> 00:58:19.129
Nyk Danu Yoga: scope of practice.
524
00:58:20.520 –> 00:58:22.450
Nyk Danu Yoga: When someone is a doctor.
525
00:58:22.610 –> 00:58:25.039
Nyk Danu Yoga: or a psychologist or dentist.
526
00:58:25.050 –> 00:58:28.220
Nyk Danu Yoga: or a massage therapist or a physiotherapist.
527
00:58:28.280 –> 00:58:34.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: they get these lessons as part of their training as to what is their scope of practice? Which basically means.
528
00:58:34.480 –> 00:58:36.170
Nyk Danu Yoga: what am I? An expert in?
529
00:58:36.280 –> 00:58:38.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: What is part of my practice?
530
00:58:38.870 –> 00:58:48.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: What can I work with people with? And what is beyond my scope of practice, which means I now refer to somebody else who is an expert in that area.
531
00:58:49.420 –> 00:58:59.280
Nyk Danu Yoga: and because Yoga isn’t licensed, and I don’t want it to be. But the only disadvantage of that, in my opinion, is that we have a whole bunch of underqualified
532
00:58:59.460 –> 00:59:06.109
Nyk Danu Yoga: Yoga teachers who are well-meaning but do not understand how little they know.
533
00:59:07.070 –> 00:59:13.349
Nyk Danu Yoga: So when it comes to medical conditions like back issues and issues of the spine.
534
00:59:13.630 –> 00:59:21.130
Nyk Danu Yoga: most of you that I’m speaking to right now simply. It is a matter of you don’t know all the things that you don’t know.
535
00:59:21.330 –> 00:59:26.730
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so, despite your good intentions, and despite you sharing what works in your own practice.
536
00:59:26.870 –> 00:59:31.289
Nyk Danu Yoga: you could be potentially making someone’s back conditions worse.
537
00:59:31.700 –> 00:59:35.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: So this is why, if somebody has all of the conditions that I mentioned above.
538
00:59:35.810 –> 00:59:41.030
Nyk Danu Yoga: that I recommend that you help them as best you can in their class, but then you educate them and say, Hey.
539
00:59:41.640 –> 00:59:55.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: I know you were probably told to go to Yoga by your friend or your Physio, or whoever, but not all Yoga classes are the same, and, in fact, many of the Yoga classes, especially classes, where there’s a lot of forward bend into backward, bend forward, bend into backward Bend
540
00:59:55.750 –> 00:59:58.619
Nyk Danu Yoga: are actually probably going to make your back feel worse.
541
00:59:58.880 –> 01:00:07.559
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I would recommend that you check out a yoga therapist, provided, of course, that their physiotherapist or chiropractor has already told them they’re good to go for Yoga.
542
01:00:08.010 –> 01:00:11.459
Nyk Danu Yoga: find a Yoga therapist who has a specialty in this
543
01:00:11.680 –> 01:00:28.499
Nyk Danu Yoga: back condition. They may have a small group class for people with back pain, or they may want to work one on one with that Yoga therapist a few times, so that they have a better understanding of what movements should I not be doing if I do go to a public Yoga class? What should I not be doing right? So
544
01:00:28.660 –> 01:00:34.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: as a Yoga professional. It is your job if you cannot skillfully help someone
545
01:00:35.300 –> 01:00:39.050
Nyk Danu Yoga: to tell them that and to refer them to somebody who can.
546
01:00:39.950 –> 01:00:40.750
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay.
547
01:00:41.400 –> 01:00:51.720
Nyk Danu Yoga: now, if you’re just dealing with folks who don’t have any injuries in their back. But they’re just that kind of desk jockey, slouchy, tight, sore discomfort person which is
548
01:00:51.830 –> 01:00:54.140
Nyk Danu Yoga: probably 80% of the population.
549
01:00:55.210 –> 01:01:11.719
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then I would recommend that you focus more on your extension or back bends your rotation, slash, twists your lateral flexion slash side bends than you do on forward bending, because they are already doing flexion or forward, bending all fucking day.
550
01:01:11.850 –> 01:01:17.970
Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you really do want to get into something for their hamstrings, maybe flip them on their back, and you could do this with the whole class.
551
01:01:18.030 –> 01:01:23.850
Nyk Danu Yoga: It doesn’t have to be like, oh, those of you who have discomfort in your back do this. You could do it with the whole class.
552
01:01:24.050 –> 01:01:29.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: everybody. Let’s lay on our back. Let’s grab a strap. Let’s lift one leg in the air with the strap. We’ll be here for 2 min
553
01:01:30.010 –> 01:01:33.759
Nyk Danu Yoga: now. You’re specifically getting their hamstring without all the other stuff.
554
01:01:34.080 –> 01:01:51.359
Nyk Danu Yoga: If you are wanting to do some flexion gently for their spine to just kind of nurture, you know, energetically to have that sort of down, regulating, rounding, softening of the spine that can easily be done in child’s pose, or hugging their knees to their chest, does not need to be a seated forward fold.
555
01:01:52.230 –> 01:01:57.559
Nyk Danu Yoga: I would highly recommend emphasizing more back bends than forward bends.
556
01:01:58.180 –> 01:02:03.149
Nyk Danu Yoga: And this is again, because of the average sedentary nature of our culture
557
01:02:03.530 –> 01:02:06.690
Nyk Danu Yoga: and some more twists and lateral extension.
558
01:02:07.150 –> 01:02:12.569
Nyk Danu Yoga: I can tell you from experience that if you have in your class one or 2 back bends
559
01:02:12.600 –> 01:02:21.459
Nyk Danu Yoga: or twist a lateral extension, something for their hip flexors, you know one of the Dragon family poses, whether that’s kneeling or laying on their back
560
01:02:21.700 –> 01:02:29.130
Nyk Danu Yoga: something for their hip butt it band zone, and then you include a little something, something for their neck and shoulders. You are going to have happy campers.
561
01:02:30.080 –> 01:02:37.299
Nyk Danu Yoga: So it does take a bit of a reframe for us to see the way that we sequence when we’re thinking of spine health
562
01:02:37.360 –> 01:02:38.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: as the goal.
563
01:02:40.020 –> 01:02:49.460
Nyk Danu Yoga: So I realized that for some of you you might be having like, Oh, holy fuck moments now, because you sequence with a lot of forward folds.
564
01:02:49.790 –> 01:02:57.859
Nyk Danu Yoga: And maybe that’s just because that’s how you were taught, or because there are so many of them in Yin, or because that’s what you personally enjoy in your own body.
565
01:02:58.090 –> 01:02:59.910
Nyk Danu Yoga: But if that’s the case, I would just
566
01:03:00.050 –> 01:03:02.929
Nyk Danu Yoga: ask you to sit with it for a while and ask yourself
567
01:03:03.210 –> 01:03:07.670
Nyk Danu Yoga: what is the intention of putting this forward fold in my sequence?
568
01:03:08.010 –> 01:03:12.110
Nyk Danu Yoga: And if you can’t answer that. That’s a sign that maybe you need to reconsider.
569
01:03:12.540 –> 01:03:16.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: and if it is for hamstrings I’ve given you options, use a wall, use a strap
570
01:03:16.700 –> 01:03:25.399
Nyk Danu Yoga: if it is for gently rounding the spine and having them feel sort of nurtured and hugged in. You could do that in child’s pose, or hugging their knees into their chest.
571
01:03:26.720 –> 01:03:40.829
Nyk Danu Yoga: So ask yourself what your intention is for these poses, so that you know whether or not you’re just doing them, because you’ve always done it this way, or because it’s what feel good in your body, or if you’re doing it because it’s what’s best for the students that happen to be in front of you that day.
572
01:03:41.770 –> 01:03:49.129
Nyk Danu Yoga: because my hope is as Yoga professionals. We can have our plans right. But then we can look out at the students that are in front of us and go. Oh.
573
01:03:49.170 –> 01:03:51.589
Nyk Danu Yoga: okay, I need to rethink a couple things.
574
01:03:52.250 –> 01:04:00.319
Nyk Danu Yoga: and I hope that this also empowers you to know that if you are just a 200 or a 500 h teacher who hasn’t taken any specific
575
01:04:00.973 –> 01:04:06.309
Nyk Danu Yoga: in-depth therapeutic training in back conditions and spine conditions.
576
01:04:06.350 –> 01:04:18.949
Nyk Danu Yoga: I hope this gives you the confidence to actually just be able to say that to your students like you are not expected to know everything. And so if someone walks in and they’re like, Hey, I have blah blah blah going on with my back. And you’re like.
577
01:04:18.960 –> 01:04:21.509
Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, shit! What is that? What does that mean?
578
01:04:22.150 –> 01:04:24.580
Nyk Danu Yoga: Then just say, welcome. I’m glad you’re here.
579
01:04:24.740 –> 01:04:30.640
Nyk Danu Yoga: Ask them how they’re doing. Ask them what makes it feel worse? What makes it feel better? Modify their practice, and then educate them.
580
01:04:30.720 –> 01:04:35.899
Nyk Danu Yoga: that there is a better place for them to be practicing, and that is with a Yoga therapist.
581
01:04:36.060 –> 01:04:49.420
Nyk Danu Yoga: If they’ve been given the go ahead to practice yoga, so that that Yoga therapist can show them what to do with their back, what not to do with their back, and how they might modify going forward if they do want to do a public class.
582
01:04:50.030 –> 01:04:51.539
Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, my friends.
583
01:04:51.580 –> 01:04:54.160
Nyk Danu Yoga: I hope that this wasn’t too heady.
584
01:04:54.220 –> 01:04:58.019
Nyk Danu Yoga: too heavy, but it comes up so often.
585
01:04:58.060 –> 01:05:12.179
Nyk Danu Yoga: As I said, 85% in the Us. The last Stat I saw 80% in Canada is probably not terribly far off in some of our European and Australian and New Zealand countries. So any culture where there’s a lot of sitting at desks.
586
01:05:12.440 –> 01:05:14.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: you can have high back pain rates.
587
01:05:14.820 –> 01:05:20.029
Nyk Danu Yoga: And so this isn’t something obscure that you’re never going to come into in your class. It’s going to show up
588
01:05:20.470 –> 01:05:25.930
Nyk Danu Yoga: so hopefully that this episode gave you some knowledge about different spine conditions and what they are.
589
01:05:26.492 –> 01:05:38.469
Nyk Danu Yoga: But also, hopefully, it gave you the sense of empowerment, knowing that it’s totally fine to refer out to somebody else that you don’t have to know everything. You don’t have to teach everyone.
590
01:05:38.980 –> 01:05:42.009
Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, hopefully, it gave you some encouragement
591
01:05:42.160 –> 01:05:47.230
Nyk Danu Yoga: to consider your sequences from the position of spine health.
592
01:05:47.390 –> 01:05:48.530
Nyk Danu Yoga: instead of
593
01:05:48.710 –> 01:05:55.010
Nyk Danu Yoga: what do I like to do, or what are my favorite poses, regardless of whether or not. Those are actually good for the population. I’m teaching
594
01:05:56.140 –> 01:05:57.500
Nyk Danu Yoga: all right, my friends.
595
01:05:57.630 –> 01:06:05.710
Nyk Danu Yoga: if I haven’t mentioned it a million times, these episodes often happen because of questions from listeners like you.
596
01:06:05.810 –> 01:06:10.879
Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you have a question about Yin Yoga or Yin related topics.
597
01:06:10.980 –> 01:06:33.470
Nyk Danu Yoga: please let me know you can find me on Instagram, either at Nick, Danu, Yoga, or at the end Yoga podcast, and send me a DM. Say, Hey, I would love it if you would discuss this on the podcast please let me let me know what you need more information on. And if I’m not qualified to ask it, I will find a guest who is
598
01:06:34.090 –> 01:06:38.790
Nyk Danu Yoga: okay. My friends have a wonderful day, and until I speak to you again
599
01:06:38.820 –> 01:06:39.900
Nyk Danu Yoga: next time
600
01:06:40.320 –> 01:06:41.430
Nyk Danu Yoga: bye, for now.
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