Yin Yoga and Hip Pain: What Teachers Should Know

Hips and Yin Yoga
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[00:00:00] So today I’m gonna be joined by Beth Coyne Lewis, who is a recently retired physiotherapist. And, I’m just gonna give you a little bit of Beth’s bio, and then when you hear from me next, I’ll be with Beth. Beth fell in love with yoga, particularly yin yoga, in 2015 when preparing for and then rehabbing from a knee replacement.

Then she completed her 200-hour training in 2016 at a Baptiste studio and went on to complete both level one and level two Baptiste training. She completed her first yin training locally in 2017 and then traveled to Vancouver for Britta Clark’s in 2018. She has since completed several additional yin trainings, including mine, , and also done, , kids training, prenatal, yoga for grief, some breathwork, meditation, and yoga nidra, [00:01:00] among others.

And she recently completed her certification in aqua yoga. Having been widowed in 2008, Beth developed a deep interest in how yoga is beneficial for the healing and grief and trauma in our bodies and has studied independently through several online courses in this area. , And she has presented locally and nationally on the topic of yoga for grief.

Beth is currently teaching yin, vinyasa, nidra, chair, aqua, and yoga for grief. She recently retired after a 40-year career in physical therapy and continues to have a keen interest in how we can best use yoga functionally in our bodies. And she’s also an advanced clinical aromatherapist and a level one and two reiki practitioner.

And when Beth isn’t doing yoga, she enjoys spending time with her adult children and spoiling her cats, McCartney [00:02:00] and Harrison. When you hear from me next, I will be with Beth.

Welcome, Beth, to Yin Yoga Podcast. .. I should, I should , out the fact that we already know each other. , So , if our interview is a bit casual, that’s why., Beth took one of my, took my… Was it the 100 hour that you took or the 60? The 100.

It was. The 100 hour. Yeah, yeah. I think you were in that first group where I switched it from 60 to 100, yin training, and she’s got a boatload more yin trainings, which we’ll talk about in a moment. But so if people are watching or listening and we seem a little familiar, it’s because we are familiar.

Also, I just want to mention that, Beth has some adorable creatures with her, cats and dogs and things, and,, we’re not gonna be concerned about whether or not they make noise. This is real life. We love pets. So Beth, don’t worry about it. And y’all, if you hear a little meow- … or if you’re watching on YouTube and you see a cat tail, that’s fine.

This is real life. Mine are currently sleeping because I usually feed them right before I start. [00:03:00] Ah, that’s smart. , Yeah. Very smart. So they’re passed out, so they’ll be good. So today the reason that I have, Beth on is because there was a question about, in the Yin Yoga Facebook group, that Yin Yoga network group, which again, by the way, just a reminder folks, that’s not my group.

People think I own that group and run it. No. I am but one mere of four admins that just pitches in to help out. , But there was a question, I d- I can’t remember honestly if it was about knees or hips, and I thought, not every average yoga teacher, especially if they’ve just got a 200 hour, they haven’t done any kind of,, advanced anatomy or therapeutic training or something, has any clue or skill on how to deal with a student who comes in with something going on with their knee or something going on with their hip, or a knee replacement or a hip replacement, or a recent knee surgery, or,

and so I thought, wouldn’t it be good to have, an episode on this? And, if this gets long, we’ll split it into two., And I had reached out in the group- And of course [00:04:00] Beth was like, “Hello.” , Not only am I a for- just recently retired physiotherapist, but I’ve also had a knee replacement and l- oodles of yin training.

So I thought, “Oh my God, why didn’t I think of that?” So here we are. , But before we get into the topics of knees and hips and all the things, I would love to first talk a little bit about your journey to yoga, , what made you decide to teach, and then some of your journey into yin, and your experience maybe with your first yin class, and what made you decide , to move into lots of yin training.

Okay. I had dabbled in yoga here and there, opportunities to take a class, , but never had really done much about it until, I believe, 12 years ago, maybe 13 years ago. I had a meniscal repair on my right knee. Worked great, had six weeks of pain-free life, was wonderful, and all of a sudden had severe knee pain again.

And was put on [00:05:00] crutches, non-weight bearing for 12 weeks. Ugh. So I could do nothing. I had a series of stress fractures across my knee, same knee that had severe arthritis. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 15. So my daughter was home at the time from college, and she was volunteering at a yoga studio, worked the front desk, get free yoga type of thing, and she’s like, “Mom, you have to come do yoga with me.”

And I’m like, “I can’t stand. I’m on crutches.” You’re like, “I’m on crutches.” And she’s like, “No, no, no, you don’t understand.” Now, if you’ve ever had a teenager or been around teenagers, you know sometimes the easiest way to shut them up is to just do what they have asked you 100 times. And she kept saying, “No, no, no, you don’t understand.

There’s this great class. You sit on the floor and you sleep on pillows all the time.” And I was like, “Okay, maybe I can do that.” So clearly she was talking about yin, and this was a Baptiste studio, which, for people who don’t know, is power yoga in a 90-degree room, so very different than yin. [00:06:00] So really to make my daughter happy, I went to yin class with her, and it took one class for me to absolutely fall in love with yin.

I think because I had been 12 weeks of not being able to do anything, it made me feel like I can exercise, I can do something, I can do something safely. It also was incredibly relaxing. It was a time in my life when- I was a only parent, , so there was the stress of being a solo parent. My husband had died maybe six years prior to that, stress was common in my life.

Putting one child through college, a second soon to follow. So just the relaxing, the meditative, the keeping calm aspect of it was also absolutely wonderful. So I really… my serious yoga journey started with Yin because I was not physically able to do anything else. So I took Yin. We only had one Yin class a week at the studio at the time, because again, it [00:07:00] was Baptiste and regulations of what you can and can’t have.

So I took that once a week Yin class up until the week before I had my surgery, and I said to… We had one teacher who was trained to teach Yin, and I said to her, “If you,” jokingly obviously, “If you can come to the OR with me, I won’t need any of those pre-meds. You can just talk me down and have me meditate and I’ll be fine to go into the OR as that.”

So that was really my kickoff to yoga and, you know, how I fell in yo- love with Yin because as somebody who was used to walking, and I had given up running years before because of my arthritis. But biking and, , being a PT and active and all that, just being able to do some sort of exercise felt really good.

, So that’s really how I started my yoga. And then shortly after my replacement, I tried a few of the, power classes. Obviously Not full out, and gradually, [00:08:00] got into enjoying those classes as my knee rehabbed. And I do feel strongly that yin in particular, when I went back for my six-week checkup, my surgeon said, “Can you bend your knee to 90 degrees?”

That was kind of the mark that you wanted at six weeks. And I had full knee flexion. I could bend it all the way. And I s- and both my physical therapists, ’cause even though I’m a PT, I went for PT. Both she and the doctor and I all felt that the yin really helped to get my range back quicker than if I was not doing it.

But then I gradually started taking the power classes, and, exactly one year after my knee replacement I started my 200-hour teacher training. That’s so interesting. I love it when I hear people’s stories like actually it started in yin. , My partner was that way actually as well.

, I was teaching hatha and just experimenting still with yin. I’d taken a weekend workshop with Paul, but I wasn’t certified to teach yin at all. , And he always [00:09:00] wanted me to come home , and, , teach him some yoga. And I would like… At this time, I was a new teacher. I was teaching six days a week and working a part-time job, and I was just like, “Dude, the last thing- Yeah

I wanna do when I come home is more talking,” you know? So what we would do is I said, “Okay, how about this? I’m gonna put on Paul Grilley’s…” It was a DVD at the time. “And we’ll do it together, and I’m not gonna say anything to you unless I see you doing something where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you’re totally gonna hurt yourself.’

Otherwise, it’s just , no. Paul is going to teach both of us, and we’re just gonna hang out and do yoga together.” And so his whole first yoga experience was yin. His first teacher training was yin. And then he went and did some more hatha training and some therapeutic training. And it’s so interesting when you see the world through a functional lens first- Mm

then when you take your other trainings. Like I remember him saying, you know, he’s in this hatha training, and they’re trying to teach you how to come out of camel pose safely. And he [00:10:00] said, “So, so simple but so perfect. I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t you just sit on your heels?” Right? , Because he doesn’t have this experience of Hatha with all these rules, and he’s used to this very simple functional approach, he’s wait a minute.

Why wouldn’t you just sit down, and then when you’re ready again you go ba-” Like, huh? Go back, yeah. Right? So it’s , it’s rare, but it’s so neat to hear when people have, , their first experience pre-Yin. And you really, , you chose two styles that are quite different. Yes.

Yeah. It’s not like you went, , Yin and gentle Hatha. You went, , Yin and power. Those are- Right. Right … like yin and yang parents. Yeah. Power yoga is very big. I live in New Jersey, and I’m in Southern New Jersey, and power yoga is very big around here. There were a couple other studios, but there were two power studios that were, you know, very big within three or four mile…

One in my hometown, and one where I took my training a few, miles away. And then even more up towards… I’m, like, south of Philadelphia [00:11:00] for anyone who knows. I’m the true South Jersey. But up more within an hour, it’s, power yoga just happens to be very big. Not as big anymore. People are kinda pulling back a little bit.

Um, but it was very big at the time. So, um, yeah. But fortunately we had a teacher that had done Yin training elsewhere when she joined us, and had started doing one Yin class a week, which, , was great. Wow. And then we expanded. , And had more Yin after that. And now I’m teaching in a… That studio closed And I’m teaching in a studio that does not do power.

Um, many of us were power trained because she was trained at the same studio, but we do a lot of, , slow flow Vinyasa, several Yin classes a week. We have,, Yoga for the Wise, which is, you know, code for older people. I love that name. Yes. Isn’t it great? Oh my gosh, what a great name. I believe on the website it says for, like, 50 and older, or 55 and older.

Yeah. So it’s… You know, we [00:12:00] have younger people come sometimes, but it’s really geared for a gentler type of yoga for people that can’t do- 17 Chaturangas during a class, you know? I’ve worked with so many teachers who teach that population, and they’re always struggling with, , what do I call this class- Mm-hmm

so that they know that it is for them, but without just- Yeah … being as obvious as yoga for seniors, which I actually don’t think is bad marketing at all to just say- No … yoga for seniors. Yeah., .

But Yoga for the Wise, I love that. Yes. That’s what we call it. And we’ve tried chair yoga, couple other, , different, but all away from power. And then I also teach at the Jewish Community Center, which has a grant, to… for people over the age of 60. For anybody who lives in the county, they can take a s- certain classes for free, and I teach chair yoga there twice a week.

Once at the- That’s cool … once at the center, and then once at the library in my town. And, , they also offer Tai Chi. They offer one pool class at the JCC, a [00:13:00] couple other, and that’s a grant that they’ve had. I don’t know, I’ve been teaching that for about, in the library for about four years now, and then about maybe nine months ago I started at the JCC, and I’ve picked up a couple other classes.

I’m definitely- Way away from the power yoga and teaching a much different style now, but I also have aged myself. And in addition to my knee replacement, two years prior to that I did not have a hip replacement, but I had a hip repair. I had a torn labrum … the tissue that surrounds the hip, and I had a labral repair and a whole bunch of calcium scraped off the hip.

Mm. You know? Yeah. Um, so you took… You’ve taken a bunch of yin training. Let’s just take a moment to chat about that. What was your- Yeah … first yin training, and then- My first yin training- … I know you’ve done mine, but you’ve done a bunch Yes. My first yin training was at the studio, where I was taking my 200-hour.

And I can’t remember if it was before or after, because they did let you [00:14:00] take that training if you just had a strong interest in yin, just to find out more about it, not to teach but just, you know, you wanted to get more information. So that was, I believe, a 30-hour training. , But I did start teaching once I got my 200 shortly thereafter.

Actually, the first yin class I taught, you will enjoy this, I was not trained yet. And I was signed up to take the class, and the owner of the studio called me and said, , “You’re taking yin tonight.” And I said, “Yes.” And she said, “Angela,” she’s the person who taught yin, “is sick. She’s sending you a sequence and you’re actually teaching it tonight.”

“We looked at the list, and you’ve taken yin more than anybody else who signed up to train it, to take it, so you’re gonna teach it tonight.” So I was like- Oh, okay. Okay. So I taught it. So I went through her little list, went home, practiced it, and then taught it, and then, , would I agree with that now?

Probably not, but I did it at the time. And then when I… After finished my 200 hour [00:15:00] and took the Yin training, , my next training I went to Vancouver and took Bernie’s training in person. It was pre-COVID-… so he was doing just in person at the time. At Semper Viva. What a great place to…

I’d never been to… The only place in Canada I’d ever been was Nova Scotia, so you know, Vancouver was, like, what a place to take training from anybody, like-. even if they didn’t know anything about yoga, it was just beautiful, ? So I took that training, which I think , is 50, I forget how many hours, spread out over the course of a week, .

I think it is 50. Yeah. , Great training, came home and so we’re talking now over the course of the last 10 years, say, I took… I helped two or three times with the training at our studio, assisted with that. So s- sat through it again, and obviously, the… Anytime you sit through stuff you get more and more.

Yes. And then that person left our studio and started doing a lot of Ayurvedic stuff, and then she did a yin training specifically through her Ayurvedic… so I took that training.

Not that different, but a little [00:16:00] bit different. I’ve taken several of Gabrielle, , Harris’s courses online. , Mayo Yin, as well as she did recently a regular yin series. I forget how many hours that was. , I took Somatic Yin with Annie Oh. Out of New Zealand, Australia, something like that.

Again, that was an online. In order to take it live, I got up at, , 3:00 in the morning, ’cause I’m not real great at watching the videos. , I do it, but I get much more if I’m watching it in person. Mm-hmm. That was very good on trauma and that sort of stuff, to get kind of a, a read, not necessarily on any different poses or stuff, but being able to recognize trauma and stuff in your students, which I think is so prevalent these days.

I think- every yoga teacher should have some training on trauma informed. Agreed. And then I took,, a Mayo Yin training in the very midst of COVID from… I don’t remember her, but she’s someone who was trained by Joe Fee. And- Was it Nikki? [00:17:00] No. S- S- Sabrina, Sabrine- Oh … something Winkler. Mm-hmm. I don’t know.

Anyhow, again, it was, like, a two or three weekend from the floor in my living room, Mayo Yin training, which as a PT, that really intrigued me. Like, okay, how can we get this myofascial that I don’t have to put my hands on? I can’t put my hands on every single person in class, ‘. But how can, you know, throwing a tennis ball under your glutes or something like that help? expand your yin practice. , And so I real– that was the first Mayo Yin, and then I took Gabrielle Harris’ Mayo Yin too.

And then last year I took your 100-hour yin training, and that was fantastic because it brought in so much more of the Chinese medicine aspect of it. And certainly had learned about, , meridians from everybody else, but learning about the difference between the meridians and the sinew channels and that sort of stuff just really opened up my eyes to, really examining my practice a whole lot more, [00:18:00] both my personal practice and then teaching.

And when I take a class now, , the, you know, don’t follow flexion by extension. And how many people do that constantly, you know? , Things that I wasn’t as…

Y- you pointed out a lot of things that I wasn’t as aware of. Yeah. I think- I feel like following your guidelines of a lateral, a rotation, a forward, a backbend, head, neck, has made my classes much more well-rounded. Oh, good.

T- Nick did not pay me to say that. This is my honest opinion.

And I feel like it just gives teachers… For those of you who don’t know, in my training I give a recipe so that if you’re struggling with like, ah, what should my sequence be? It’s like, well, if you can include a backbend, a forward bend, something lateral, a twist, and then if you can get neck and shoulders and, , hip, butt, IT band in there, you’re gonna have happy campers.

So it’s kind of- Yeah … just a bit of a… I don’t wanna say formula, because it’s obviously flexible. But that’s why- Yeah … I call it a recipe, not a plan, because- you can add and subtract things depending on the [00:19:00] needs of- Yeah … in, of the people in front of you. Yeah.

So maybe we’ll start to talk a little bit about hips. , , we may have students, let’s just start with, , the undiagnosed, unoperated on hips, you know? Mm-hmm. First of all, I would just say hip/butt area on most people in Western bodies is tight, from my experience.

Yeah. It’s all the sitting in chairs- Yeah … and all that, right? So- Yeah … so I wanted to note the difference, dear yoga teachers listening, between the average human who happens to be tight there and someone who may have something deeper going on. And I would say as a yoga professional and as a yoga therapist, in my yoga classes, I don’t ever want anyone in pain.

So if they’re telling me that they’re experiencing pain, I’m gonna prop it or I’m gonna give them something else to do because that y- that is me diagnosing their pain or treating, air quotes, their pain be- well beyond my scope of [00:20:00] practice. And even if it wasn’t, not something I could do in a group class.

So just to get that out first, that dear teachers, if your student is saying they’re in pain, gently bring them out and give them something else. And if you understand functional yoga, teaching from a functional perspective, then you will know why you had that shape in there and what else would also access that.

So for example, if I know I’m doing something for my hip butt IT band, um, and something isn’t working for somebody, then I might know of four or five other things that we could try- Mm … with or without props to see if there’s something that they can do. But there might be times they just can’t. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. And then how do you think that shows up in class – Let’s just talk pre-surgery before Pre-surgery. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think an important distinction that people sometimes come to you and say they have hip pain and it’s on the side of their hip kind of- Mm-hmm

in the IT band. Typically, that [00:21:00] is not hip joint pain. Typically, that might be a bursitis or that muscle is tight or the tendons, blah. Typically, true joint pain is in the groin. So somebody who is gonna need, , a hip replacement, and again, even as a PT, and I don’t work as a PT when I’m in the yoga studio, true hip joint pain is more in the groin.

‘Cause if you think about where the pelvis is and where the ball of the femur is, that’s really in your groin. Hmm. If you picture what the skeleton looks like. Mm-hmm. So people who are having pain on the side, more typically it’s probably not an arthritic hip joint pain. Interesting., But I agree. Props have always been my best friend, even when I did power yoga.

, I… Always a block brings the floor up to you. , I know you can teach Yin without props, but I think if you- are really trying to make the most accessible practice for people, you really need props to be able to throw a block under a [00:22:00] knee, to put them on their back instead of, , sleeping swan.

Put them on their back in figure four, something like that, taking weight off of the joint or the pain. Anytime your body weight is added to it, it’s gonna create obviously extra. And I agree. I al- even as a PT, I was not a no pain, no gain person. It’s like if your PT is causing you pain, you’re not with the right physical therapist.

Mm. I mean, a little pain, maybe, but you should not continue to have it. They should be helping you find ways to strengthen or stretch. Uh, like yeah, you wanna feel a sensation, but that sensation should not be pain. Yes. Um, so yes, backing them out of it, , giving them permission in the beginning to maybe take, if you’re saying to your class, “On average, we’re holding three to five minutes,” giving them permission to, “But you may only be able to hold this position for a minute or two.

Feel [00:23:00] free to come into s- on your back, on your belly, on your side,” , whatever you’re gonna be using as your rebound or resonance or whatever you wanna call that pose. It … particularly if you know somebody, if they come to you before class and say, “I’m having hip pain, I’m having knee pain, I’m having shoulder pain,” whatever, being able to say…

And not everybody comes to you until after class when they say, , “By the way, seeing the surgeon tomorrow, what should I say to them?” You know, but if they do tell you beforehand, or someone who’s been if they’re your student that has been coming to you for a while and you know they have an issue, I know there’s the, you know, typical you need the three minutes to get the yin benefit, but giving them the permission to come out of that pose early because maybe that’s what they need, particularly when they’re,, early in their yin journey.

So that’s another way besides props and stuff to kind of allow them to come out of things in a more tolerable sort of way. Um, I think the other thing that is [00:24:00] lacking so much in 200-hour and yin training is anatomy And I will say that one thing I appreciated so much about your class, and then I recently just took a training online on doing…

on aqua yoga, so yoga in the pool for my JCC job, also required taking one of Paul Grilley’s. It was a different video than the one we had to take for you- Okay … but it was another one, and I think that is so helpful for any Yin teacher to invest in the time, and they’re not that pricey, to really take one of his or another anatomy training to really learn about hip and knee anatomy.

Bernie’s got, a one that he’s, he had done live a few times that’s available online now too. Okay. Um, so yeah. Either of those are great resour- resources, for sure. Um- And [00:25:00] I love Bernie’s books. The, The Body- Yeah … , your Yoga, whatever. The illustrations and pictures and all in that are really good to describe the variation in hip angles and all that stuff.

And I think that’s what Bernie’s course, from what I understand just having spoken to him, is based on actually, is like he basically- . took those books and put it into something that is a bit more audio/visual so that people can absorb it m- more- than- than trying to read, a textbook essentially.

Yeah. Even in his 50-hour training he had the skeletons there and, , we did the whole, if your femur is this way, if your femur’s that way, you know, that sort of trying to show what… So I wanna tease out something you said, that hip issues might actually show up as groin pain.

Mm-hmm. So what about when people do come in though and they are pointing right to, like, their outer hip, a lot of times that’s either a muscle strain or very often there’s that little bump on the side of your hip, that bone- Mm-hmm … bump. It’s called the tro- greater trochanter, and the iliotibial band slides over that, and there’s very [00:26:00] commonly bursitis and- Okay

IT band bursitis if it’s right, and a lot of times you can tell that just by pressing on it. Okay. That would be more of a bursitis. It could be true hip pain, but often if it’s on the side it might be more tendinous or muscular than actually an arthritis-y type of thing. And I’m thinking too that one of the reas- one of the things that would probably show up more, , in hips in yoga is when people are in external rotation, simply because we do more external rotation in yoga than internal rotation.

– So I think that, one of the things that we will see more often in yoga is people being in discomfort when they’re, for example, sitting cross-legged.

So external rotation being more common in yoga than internal rotation. And so that may not necessarily be, like, a hip joint injury. . It just might be soft tissue. Is that what you’re saying? Okay. Yeah. , Yeah. The other thing that is really important [00:27:00] to note is that th- most people have an asymmetry in their hips.

So you may be able to internally rotate way more on the left than the right, other way around. So when I am teaching, I always remind people, now that we’re moving to the second side, remember it might feel very different. This does not mean there’s something wrong.. It just means that you probably are asymmetrical.

I read somewhere that the most asymmetrical joint in the body, and I don’t know if this is 100% true, is the SI joint, the sacroiliac joint, so where your- tailbone kinda comes down into your pelvis, that’s where you find a lot of asymmetry. So if you’re asymm- asymmetrical, so not the same in that kind of triangular shape coming down, that’s gonna throw your whole pelvis

wonky, and could account for some of why, okay, I’m in butterfly and my right knee almost touches the floor, but my left knee is, , way [00:28:00] up in my chest, or, we won’t get into how much I hate saddle, but why some people can do saddle pose and some can’t and, , all that sort of stuff. , But very often, and even the setting of the femoral heads and stuff can be different.

Many people will feel different on one side than the other I just wanna spotlight what you just said, that many, many people will be different on one side than the other, because I think, and I’ve heard it in yoga classes and it just makes me cringe, culturally and there’s, in the yoga verse there’s this idea that, like, we’re trying to get symmetrical.

So if one side is a little tighter, you should hold it longer, or you should do w- more whatever the style of yoga is. Yeah. And that’s, that’s ridonkulous. That is my soapbox on that. I’d wanted to spotlight something that you said about the SI. I hadn’t thought about how that could also affect- your external rotation.

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought it about that. I actually found out- … a few years ago, , I had been walking backwards in my apartment and tripped over [00:29:00] something on the floor backwards that’s always there.

Like, I should’ve known it was there. And it was one of those falls where you know you’re going down, and you know it’s gonna hurt, and you’re almost thinking, “I should reach for something to, like, try to break my fall,” but then you look around and everything you could reach for is very heavy, which would cause extra injuries.

And so you just surrender to the- the plant on your butt, so I really jarred something, and I was like- Yeah … it was a bad… You know, I’ve had back issues on and off my whole life. It was a bad one. So the first thing they did was send me for an X-ray to make sure that I didn’t fracture anything, and they hadn’t.

Oh. But what they noticed was that I have a little bit of a fusion on the right between my L5 and S1. Oh. And , the note says, “Suspect it’s been there her whole life.” And I was like, “That is why I’ve always felt crooked.” My whole life I’ve always felt a little bit not quite balanced in my-

pelvis and in my hips. I just thought it was amazing. But I, what I hadn’t thought about until you pointed it out [00:30:00] just now was how much that affects everything else. Mm-hmm. Now, I think if I didn’t have a really good amount of genetic external rotation, I might have noticed that more. Mm-hmm. But because I have such a range that way, , it probably hasn’t shown up.

So yeah, I think that’s really good to know, that people are not symmetrical.

Yeah. The other thing, since you mentioned x-rays, that can cause hip pain is back issues. Sometimes you may feel in your hip because you’ve got, , a pinched nerve or, , inflammation coming from the spine, and those are the nerves that innervate, all the tissue around the hip and stuff, too.

So sometimes you may think, “Gee, I’ve got something going on in my hip,” and it turns out that it’s more something going on in your back. Mm. Um, so there can be different causes for discomfort in, in that area. And I think this is a good time to maybe just chat about,, what we , might do to offer support.

, But I also just wanna, before we do that, just [00:31:00] remind teachers that you are not a physiotherapist and you are not a doctor, and it’s not your job to diagnose or treat. But you may have someone show up in your class who’s in that kind of discomfort that’s approaching pain, where it’s like, ooh, they’re right on that line where it’s like, this isn’t just uncomfortable, or they are in pain.

And, I’m guessing the most common ways this might show up in hip stuff in, in a yin practice is the sort of externally rotated poses, although saddle could also be a huge problem. And not just for people’s knees. Most people think of saddle b- being, uh, a knee, a knee pose issue, which it is.

We can get to that later. But it’s also, what most people don’t realize is that to do saddle, your thigh bones actually have to genetically be able to turn in a fair bit to be able to do that comfortably. So what poses do you think that this would show up most in? And is it as simple as perhaps giving them another pose, or put a block under that knee [00:32:00] here.

Give them a bolster for support. Yeah, I think it kind of depends, , whether you’re that, you know, genetically blessed with external or genetically blessed with internal, which I have. I spent my entire life W sitting, which is when your butt’s on the floor and your knees are out to your side.

Which puts a lot of stress on your knees, hence probably what exacerbated my knee injury and all, and why I hate saddle so much. I don’t mind it if you’re sitting on your knee, sitting on your knees, but I don’t like it when you’re, you know, doing your feet out to the side. But I think, yeah, I think prop and bringing someone a little bit out of a pose, you know, like putting them into the pose and then allowing them to back up a little bit so they’re kind of feeling the pose without feeling pain.

, Or finding alternate poses. I usually start all of my classes or all of my as we move into a pose and say, “Your target area for this pose is your quadriceps,” and I point out where the quadriceps are. , “If you’re [00:33:00] not feeling a stretch in that area, let me know. I’ll help you find something else.”

And it may be that I need to alter them. It may be that, you know, they’ve got their leg rolled way in, rolled way out, something like that. It may be that they’re just anatomically have reached the max of it and they’re not going to get any bit more. For a lot of the hip poses when you think of the whole IT band thing, most people immediately go for sleeping swan or something like that.

I love figure four on the back. Mm-hmm. I love figure four against the wall. I like double pigeon. A lot of people can’t get into that, but single, , there’s… You can do a lot of that upright. There’s so many different ways that you can do something like that. So and I think- One of them’s called square pose too, for those of you- Square pose, yes

who are like, yeah, who are like, “What’s double pigeon?” I couldn’t re- Yeah … I couldn’t remember what the Yin of square pose was. , Often when I offer a forward fold, sometimes I will, sometimes it’ll be like, okay, I want it to be butterfly because that’s working into my sequence, but often if I’m just offering a forward fold I will say [00:34:00] your options are caterpillar, butterfly, dragonfly.

. Because, , we’re just getting the forward fold aspect of it. And maybe somebody who has crappy external rotation can’t do butterfly, but they can do dragonfly, their knee’s maybe rolling in a little bit. Maybe they can do caterpillar, so sometimes offering, you know- identifying the target area, and then sometimes people on their own are able to say, “Okay, if I shift this or if I add this prop,” particularly people that are take my classes frequently now, they kind of know how to self, you know, rearrange to get the, to the target area.

But I think if you teach them about the target area versus just we’re stretching your hip, how many ways can you move the hip? In, out, rotation this way, that way, abduction, adduction, and this is what you’re doing. , So providing an alternate position, Against the wall. I love yin against the wall.

That adds so much support for your leg. If you’re doing a dragonfly on the [00:35:00] floor in a forward fold, someone might not be able to do it. You do legs up the wall and then a dragonfly. Now your back’s supported, now your leg’s supported. You’re not getting as much flexion, but you’re still getting something, and it’s an option that they can still participate in class.

I know we’re not talking about spine stuff right now, and I have a whole episode on that, but, um, also great for those who have back issues. Yes. Yeah, taking it to the floor, for sure. Exactly. Yes. Use the wall. Yeah. Use the floor. Yeah. So maybe we should kinda start talking about, okay, so what if it’s… So now we’ve just briefly talked about, like, what do we do if someone comes in and they’re like, “It’s ouchie here,” and they’re pointing at their hip.

Give them a prop. Call your doctor. Yeah. Yes. First of all, I can’t diagnose, but while you’re here, let’s give you a prop or a different version or try something else and- Yes . And then now let’s talk about actual hip surgeries that might show up in your class. I have one woman who,

Oh my gosh, she was in my class long before I had any therapeutic knowledge, like I was a new teacher, who had a hi- has [00:36:00] had a hip replacement. And she still comes to my class to this day on Zoom, ’cause I’ve moved- to a new province. And I don’t know how long she had it before I connected with her, but I connected with her easily 15 to maybe even 18 years ago.

Wow. So it’s at least that old, and I don’t know how, how long she’d had it before that. And I, I don’t know for sure with her, it wasn’t an age thing, for sure, because she was obviously quite young when she got it. So I don’t know if it was an injury or, like you said, or, like, an arthritis thing , or who knows.

I feel \ blessed that I was, even as a younger teacher, just kinda thrown this curveball. And I, and I just wanna say this before we get into all the things, because I think that sometimes teachers freak out when someone comes up and says, “I have blank,” and they get that deer in headlights look because they don’t know either what that is or

how that information is gonna affect them or what they should now do about it. And so [00:37:00] the very first thing I asked her was, “How has that affected your movement in the hip compared to the other side? What can’t you do?” “What did your physiotherapist and your surgeon tell you not to do?” And that’s how I gear her practice.

She does really well in my yin class, my Sunday morning yin class. And so I just wanna say that first before we get into all the who, what, when, where, why, and how to teachers is, , don’t freak out.

Just ask them questions and encourage them to honor their own body. Mm-hmm. And that if anything doesn’t feel right, to let you know, and just be open and curious to finding a solution as opposed to thinking, “Oh, well now, you know, I suck. I can’t, you know, I can’t help this person.” Because what I know for sure from years and years of teaching and working with people is that when somebody comes with you with something going on with their body, and- You [00:38:00] get caught up.

Now you’re not in your parasympathetic nervous system, and so you’re not gonna be able to come up with creative solutions. But if you can just pause, take a couple grounding breaths, and get curious and ask questions, that can help to keep you in that parasympathetic state as the teacher, keep you grounded.

And then the creativity can come from there. But if the first thing you do is go, “Ah, oh my God. Ah, oh my God.” Ugh. Yes. “I don’t know how to do this. Ah,”, then it’s over. You can’t come back from that. “Well, just do what feels good.” Well- Yeah … they don’t know what else to do that feels good sometimes.

So I just wanted to say that first. Teachers, cut yourself some slack. They’re not expecting you to know everything. They’re just happy that you’re curious and open and asking questions and trying and experimenting with props. They’re just happy that you’re trying to help them. Mm-hmm. They don’t expect you to be perfect.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, I think there’s a couple things that come to mind. Number one, and we had talked about this before we went on camera, there are other [00:39:00] benefits to Yin besides physical. So when I had my knee replacement and was taking Yin far too soon than I probably should’ve been taking Yin, I was concentrating on the breathing aspects-

the meditation aspects, the just quieting my mind, because I needed that in my life. I needed that post-operatively. I needed that because I had teenagers, I needed that aspect of Yin, too. So I think you also can always point out to somebody that if they’re having trouble physically in a pose, it’s okay to come out of the pose and then really focus on just calming your mind, calming your breath, some of the other benefits of Yin.

Not to say- Don’t do any of the physical, but, giving them permission to explore the other aspects of yin. And the other thing definitely is to touch base with what did your doctor say? What did your physical therapist or physio, if you’re in Canada, say? , In the old days when I was first [00:40:00] trained, educated as a physical therapist, there was one way of doing a hip replacement, and that way was to kind of cut through the side, and they cut a whole lot of muscles, and you were really weak.

But your restrictions were you couldn’t bend your hip past 90 degrees, so your knee could not go above your hip. You could not internally rotate, so your knee going in towards the other knee, and you could not A-D-duct, adduction, so cross your body, because all of those could contribute to dislocating your hip.

Now there are three approaches. There’s, there’s still that approach. There’s one that’s kind of between anterior, which is front, and that old one, which has its own restrictions. And then there’s anterior, which has different restrictions. So it’s v- with the anterior, it’s you can’t bend your leg back, like put your leg behind you as much ’cause you could pop it out.

You’re not the doctor. You don’t know what kind of surgery they had. They need to know what their restrictions [00:41:00] are, and believe me, their doctor will have told them what their restrictions are. They’re, if they say, “I don’t know,” send them home to look at their discharge papers they’re on there.

They varied very much as to what the restrictions are, so they should be well aware of that. You need to know your anatomical terms, so if they say, “They told me not to internally rotate,” make sure you know what internal versus external, but they’re gonna have an awareness of what they can and can’t do, so that’s very important.

Um, the other thing, you said she was very young when she had it. There can be a whole host of reasons why someone has a hip replacement. It could be arthritis, and there’s two forms of arthritis. There’s osteoarthritis, which is just the more bony, so you’re having bony breakdown. That tends to be more isolated to one or more joints, so they could have it in one hip and not the other.

There’s rheumatoid, which is a whole more autoimmune, and then there’s lupus and Sjogren’s and a thousand other autoimmune [00:42:00] diseases. Most of those people tend to have multi-joint involvement, so even if they had hip surgery, they may be presenting to you with, “Oh, I had hip surgery, but I also have difficulty with my hands, with my knees,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Sometimes depending on where a fracture is in a hip, they do a replacement rather than a rod or something, ’cause it’s just easier if that fracture is up in the neck of the femur to just whack it off like they do with a hip replacement, stick a new femoral bone in, and maybe it’s just the femoral component and not the pelvic component.

And then there’s a host of genetic things. You can be born with the dislocated hips and they never form really well. Different things that can cause damage to, someone who looks totally normal but they’ve got crappy hips at age 20 because, you know, of an inborn thing.

I think most of us tend to think of a hip replacement as older people ’cause they fell and broke their hip or arthritis, [00:43:00] but there are times when they’ll have others issues for it. You can have people that it’s just the hip or people that are coming with lots of other issues as well.

So being aware of that. And always sending them back to their doctor, ? And if they don’t know the answer, “I’ve been discharged from my doctor,” well, unless it was 20 years ago, chances are your records are online and you can find them. And if it was 20 years ago, you’ve lived in that body long enough to know what- That you know.

Yeah. Right. And just because your doctor discharged you doesn’t mean you can’t call them back up and saying, “I’m having some difficulty when I’m in yoga or in the gym or whatever. Can I do a telehealth visit with you?” Or go to a PT. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will say that there is a shadow side of yoga, and particular schools more so than others.

, I will just give a hint, practice, practice and all is coming. , And that there’s a certain generation of yoga teacher that it’s very common, hip [00:44:00] replacements now- Mm … and hip surgeries, and it’s because of this now we know not accurate belief that everyone can do lotus fl- lotus pose if they just push through it, ignore the pain- Mm

and keep practicing and practicing, that you too will be able to do full lotus, and that’s ended up causing a s- a host of… I , I could count so many yoga teachers I know, , that hit a certain age, and now their hip is essentially- Or their knee, ’cause lotus can screw up your knee as well. Yes, both.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, if you don’t have the range in your hip, then your knee’s gonna take the, the beating, right?

I think it used to be a, a secret thing that, yoga teachers wouldn’t talk about the fact that they had a hip replacement because, , and maybe largely due to their yoga practice, because, we were supposed to think that yoga was this magical healing salve that cured all ails and, , would fix the world, and all of these things, and that if you knew that your teacher had a [00:45:00] hip replacement due to all of the years of lotus pose or some other poses too, a wide legged, like a straddle, like a f- a forward split- .

That one also can be hugely problematic. And I think that’s changing now, thankfully. And I would like to just say, I’m gonna give a huge shout-out to, she’ll probably never hear this, but actually to Jill Miller, who- has created Yoga Tune Up. So she’s- Yeah … for all you people studying Mayo Yin, Jill Miller’s the OG.

You wanna talk about ball work and fascia? Go study with Jill or go research her stuff, get her book, ’cause she’s the OG. But anyway, she, , I think was one of the first professionals I knew that came out and said, “Hey, you know, I have had this surgery done. I don’t know if I would’ve needed it anyway, but definitely some of the practices I was doing didn’t help.”

I just think that’s, it’s important to know, , because sometimes I think even though if we’re Yinies, we’re supposedly thinking about functional movement and functional stillness and, moderation and sensation and all of this, that [00:46:00] sometimes either you or your students or other teachers will come in with this practice, practice and all is coming thing.

One very- clear story about that, that I had. There was a gal, and I don’t even think I taught her regularly, so I’m not sure why she chose me to ask this question to out of all of the teachers at the studio, but it was me. And good thing it was, because I gave her the correct answer. She said to me, “Can I ask you a question?”

I said, “Sure. Hopefully I have an answer.” And she got into frog and

she said, “I can’t go down any further.” Why? And I said, “, what are you feeling?” And she was feeling pinching in her outer hip. So she was at compression. And I said, ” because your bone of, your leg bone is hitting the rim here. You, , you’re done. There’s- … we’re not gonna melt your bones.”

So that’s all she wrote. And she’s , “Huh.” So I asked her specifically, “You’re only feeling that? No stretch in the inner thigh?” “No, nothing in the inner leg.” I was like, then that’s all [00:47:00] she wrote for you.” And she’s , “So I’ll never be able to do the splits this way?” And I was like, “Not this lifetime.”

And she was like, “Huh.” And she wasn’t upset. It was almost like- when I found out that I had the worst shoulder range of motion to ever do snail pose- , I was relieved ’cause I was like, “Oh, this explains it,” ? , And so she had that visible feeling of, oh, okay. And I said, there’s 108 other yoga poses you could master, so who cares about one, right?”

And we had a- .. little laugh about it. But, I think that this also can happen in our classes, and it’s just something to watch out for, that people are- pushing into their joints. . Not gentle compression, but, they’re trying to get somewhere. And how problematic that can be.

Yes. Yeah. And that’s why knowing anatomy is so important. Yeah. So you can help somebody figure out is it tension, is it compression? , Can they go further or no, maybe that’s it? Yeah, which is why- Not how they were made … dear listener- Yeah … if you have not yet [00:48:00] watched Anatomy for Yoga by Paul Grilley, it’s always linked in every show notes.

Please watch that. And because then you’ll get to see real bodies and which makes more sense, right? When we can see actual- Totally, yes … bodies. Yeah. Yes. , Okay. So if someone’s had… So if someone’s just got unbeknownst to us why pain, we’ve already talked about we can just give them some alternative poses or give them some props so that they’re not in that pain range.

And I’m assuming, although I should not assume this because people surprise me every day, that people wouldn’t be walking in too quickly after a, a hip replacement to yin. But I should not assume that., So that first thing I would ask if someone told me they’d recently had a hip replacement and they walked into my class is, “Have you been given the go ahead to come back to regular physical activity?”

, And you had mentioned before we hit record that you should also maybe ask them to ask their doctor specifically about yin, not that their doctor will really understand. Like, most [00:49:00] doctors are just like, “Go do yoga,” they don’t know- Yeah … the difference between, Bikram and restorative really.

They don’t. And so you may have to ask your student to go back to their doctor and just say- So in this practice, we’re not standing and building strength. We’re sitting on the floor, we’re lying on the floor, we’re doing long holds. Am I- Yes … am I cleared for that? Yeah. , the doctors very often don’t know what yoga is. , I’m, , been having back issues over the last couple years, and the physical medicine, I have not hit neurosurgery or orthopedics yet doctor, , is fascinated by yoga. , He found out I was a yoga teacher and, every time I see him he’s, looked up another article about, , what yoga is, and now he understands what yin is and, it’s really nice to see.

When I tried to explain to him in the beginning that I was not doing 108 sun salutations, ’cause I don’t do one sun salutation, , even in a regular class, and tried to explain yin and stuff, and he’s really educated himself on it, which is wonderful. But I would say for the most part, no,, doctors are not gonna know what yin versus, another [00:50:00] class is.

And they may be fine to go to a flow type class to build a little strength and balance where they’re not gonna be stressing the range in their joint, and they may not wanna put them in yin. On the other hand, if you have somebody who had a hip issue because they fell and broke their hip and they, , don’t want them doing a whole lot of balancing, single limb stance, stuff like that, they may be fine with them doing a little bit of well-supported yin to get a little bit of mobility, but not , to get risk t- going into tree pose and falling over and breaking the other hip.

. I’m a huge believer in a balance between you need a little bit of… You can’t just do yin in life. You need some sort of a weightbearing practice, whether it’s yoga or something else, so I think that it’s very important for a doctor to know what kind of practice and not just say, “Am I cleared for yoga?”

Because they may be like, “Yeah, a little bit of standing is a nice way to do some strengthening and build a little confidence,” and that sort of [00:51:00] stuff. And then you say, “Well, I’m sitting in straddle pose for 10 minutes stretching out my hip joint,” and they’d be like, “Oh my gosh, , no, you’re not ready for that,” sort of thing.

Or they may be like, “I’m worried about your balance. I don’t want you to fall yet, but it’s okay if you sit and, stretch your back and your shoulders out even if you’re not stretching your hips out.” You know? Yeah. And doctors wouldn’t even know something as simple as, “I’m worried about your balance.

Maybe not yoga yet.” They could have a wall. They could have a chair. There’s ways- Exactly. Yes … to work up to it too, right? There’s so many different things. Yes. But doctors don’t know all of this. Yeah. So- No … you need to be very specific. Yes. Not long ago I remember saying something to… I can’t even remember what we were talking about specifically, but I was talking to another medical professional and I said something about yoga.

And , they were starting to make some statements about things, and I was like, “Oh, oh, oh, no, no, no, no.

, I don’t teach that yoga.” I said, “I’m doing, super gentle, therapeutic and yin.” I was like, “We don’t even stand up half the time.” So, you know- … [00:52:00] even , all kinds of health professionals don’t necessarily know, especially I would say, and not always with age, because there are some probably doctors that have been practicing a long time that are super curious and always wanting to learn and da, da, da, da, da.

But odds are- Yeah … the younger the doctor, the younger, say, the physiotherapist, the massage therapist, the chiropractor is, the more exposure they’ve probably had to yoga. Mm-hmm. And they’ve probably gone to more yoga or they’re, they have, , a- more of a frame of reference probably.

Mm-hmm. Um, but of course that’s a generalization. Yeah. I will also say, and again, this is stereotypical and generalization, a large number of doctors who have made the decision to go into orthopedics have done so because they themselves were athletes, may have had an injury, or are familiar with it, and their view of exercise is probably not yoga.

It’s probably going to the gym, lifting weights, and working out, because your average football player [00:53:00] doesn’t take yoga, your average basketball player, that sort of stuff. And , many orthopedic doctors are former athletes, so they’re, Saying to them, “I’m doing yoga,” is like saying, “I’m flying to the moon.”

They, are not gonna have really a concept of that form of exercise at all, even though they themselves may be very athletic. Yeah. I was just gonna say, one of the great things about smartphones now is you could potentially, have a little video clip lined up on your phone to say, “Can I do this?”

Yes. Can I do this yoga? Exactly. The other thing that you as a yoga professional can do If you are willing to, you can ask your student, “Can I call your doctor?” If they come to you, something like that.

Now, that’s obviously taking time out of your own time and you may not be willing to do that, but, you know, I have, as both a physical therapist, obviously tons of times, but as a, even a yoga person, someone will [00:54:00] say, “My doctor said I could call while I’m here,” you know, just to explain something like that or get a copy of the records or probably-

more easily talk to the physical therapist. They may have, you know, some time to do that. Or you could help them come up with a couple questions. The next time you see your doctor, why don’t you write down this question? Draw a little stick figure of this is what butterfly look like, something like that so that they have some concrete questions to go to the doctor with if they’re uncomfortable. As a yoga therapist, we’re a lot more likely probably than the average yoga teacher to have that kind of- r- and you’re typically though working one-on-one with somebody. Yes. That i- I think that’s totally reasonable to say, , “Are you okay with me contacting your doctor, chiropractor, physiotherapist-

whatever, so that we can have- Mm … a collaborative approach here?” Mm-hmm. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen in a drop-in class, ? Probably not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s not your responsibility in [00:55:00] a drop-in class, because they haven’t- Yeah … hired you to give them one-on-one support.

Yeah. Yeah. , But if you’re working privately with somebody, yeah, that can be super helpful. I’ve had… Because I’ve been working with p- folks with back pain for so long, I’ve had numerous people, email me and say over the years, , “I’m not sure if this class is for me. This is what’s going on.”

And I can usually tell based on what their doctor has approved them to do, and also what injuries they’re telling me they have and the length of time. And I can ask them some simple questions like, “Are you picking stuff up off the floor yet?” ,

but- Yeah … but there is something for me, and maybe not all yoga teachers would appreciate seeing scans and x-rays ’cause it might just overwhelm them and they would have no idea what they’re looking at anyway. But for me, because I’m super visual, and also I think in confidence building for the student, if they, if I can meet them for 30 minutes before they sign up for a class and take a look at their scans if they have them.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so that I… But I’m a very visual [00:56:00] person, so it helps me to get an idea of , oh, okay, it’s that vertebrae, and here’s what, probably most yoga teachers are not gonna wanna do that, and they’re gonna be totally overwhelmed by the thought of looking at- … at scans.

Even though they’re looking at that. So which is why it’s important that you maybe just do a phone call if, if you’re working privately with someone. If someone’s in class, and it’s a drop-in class, you’re just gonna try to keep them from hurting themselves. , That’s all you can do,

Encourage support. Keep them out of the range of injury- , and, and that’s really all anyone can expect from a yoga teacher- … in a drop-in class. Yeah. Yeah. We often w- will recommend if someone calls and says, “I’ve never done yoga before,” or, “I have a back injury,” or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, “Which class is the most appropriate for me to take?”

The people at our desk may recommend that they come in 15 minutes before class just so they can have a couple minutes to talk to the teacher ahead of time, as opposed to walking in at 5:30 when class starts and says, “Oh, by the way, , tore my [00:57:00] ACL yesterday,” or something like that. But we’re required to be there f- a half hour before to set up, and then so we are available if someone wants to come in and, just give us a little- Yeah

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Person with differences in my body, , when I take a yoga class, I always get there a few minutes early so I can say to a teacher that I don’t know. If I’m not doing what you call, it’s not because- Mm-hmm … I’m being stubborn or I don’t like it, but I have a knee replacement, I have a hip reconstruction.

I have two, wrist joint replacements. I am a yoga teacher. I’m comfortable making my own… taking my own variations, but I do make sure that they know maybe why I’m not doing- 14 chaturangas, , or if it’s a movement class, or a certain Yin pose or something like that. I always make sure that somebody knows.

When we have someone new, we just encourage them to come in a little bit early and just talk to the teacher for a few minutes so they’re aware of what’s going on. ‘Cause particularly in Yin, you don’t want someone, , two [00:58:00] minutes into the pose asking a question that’s gonna then disrupt the mindfulness flow, , quiet aspect of a Yin class.

And the other thing about that, and then I wanna hear a little bit more about your, your hip, because we were just, we’re talking about hips. The other thing about that is that also does give you an opportunity to let the person know they’re in the wrong class. Yes. , And yes, it sucks- Absolutely

that they may have driven there, and you might be saying, , y- you might be saying, , “Sorry, this is really not the class for you.” But better to find out before the class, when they can maybe still go to the front desk and get , a credit or a recommendation to it. And when you talk to a teacher too, they might be able to say, “You know what?

Actually, this class would be better for you.” ?

. And you said you had surgery on your hip, but, it wasn’t a hip replacement. Yes … what did you have done?

I had – after I had my first round, I had a bunch of knee injections. I was having severe hip pain. So, um, and for a while we thought it was related to my knee [00:59:00] and, , like you’re off balance and you’re compensating. and all. So and it was groin pain, and I’ve had arthritis for so long.

So they did an MRI and it turned out my arthritis is there, but it was not that bad. I had a labral tear. So the labrum is the cartilage that surrounds the joint. You can have a labral tear in a shoulder and in a hip. And because of that, it was rubbing against- .. the pelvis and causing pain. In addition, I had a bunch of calcium, almost probably the, you could call the equivalent to bone spurs is the most,- , the chicken and the egg.

Did the bone spurs cause the labrum to tear? Did the torn labrum then cause the bone to rub against each other? So did that. So what they did is they went in and they shaved off all that extra bone, and then they sewed up the labrum to secure it so that it, my joint would be intact again. And then that’s a fun recovery ’cause you are non-weight bearing for about 12 weeks on that one.

Brutal. And you hobble around on crutches. I think it’s a little [01:00:00] less now, and there are some restrictions and all. And then I went for PT and all. And,, If it doesn’t work, usually the next step is a total hip. Because there’s really, they won’t, typically they won’t repair a labrum if it’s torn more than once.

, It is a common injury in athletes. You hear about football players and stuff having torn labrums a lot.. It can be from trauma. , It can be a congenital thing. , I, as I said, have an excessive, excessive amount of internal rotation. I’m very pigeon-toed when I walk. Chances are mine was more from the congenital aspect of how my hips are formed and where the position of the femoral head was into the pelvis.

, But I am tighter on that side now. , I can’t W sit as easily as I used to, on that. They also go in, , it’s robotic, at least when I had it done. I know it’s still robotic. So I have four little incisions in my thigh [01:01:00] and then one in my hip. , And this is the other thing that sometimes can impact someone’s range of motion is anytime you have a cut, you have scar tissue.

So when I do a quad stretch, I still, I have full range, I can flex, but I really feel it not only where my knee replacement scar is, but where those tiny, and there may be, I think I had two stitches in each of them, half inch long, but it’s enough. There is scar… You know, and I did the scar massage and all that other stuff, and the mobility feels real good, but I can still feel that in knee flexion and hip extension if I do a full quad stretch.

, That’s the other area post-op where someone might feel a funky feel or stretch if they have the traditional hip replacement where it’s on the side of your hip, and that’s a big huge scar. And so they could feel a weird sensation. Sometimes there’s numbness, sometimes there’s tingling, but [01:02:00] it may restrict to a small degree motion and

over where a scar is too. So that’s something else, , that people might- Be noticing when they’re going into any of the hip or knee or, , they may feel a tightness over, a scar too.

That’s something to also consider. So as we slowly start to wrap this up, this episode , on kind of hips and yin, and for those of you listening, we will be doing another one on knees at some point coming up very soon. So stay tuned for that. But it’s too much to talk about all in one episode. , So as we start to close this out,, what kind of a summary would you offer, or is there anything that you think is really pressing that we forgot to mention about how teachers can help , their folks if they have hip stuff?

I’m not sure we forgot anything. I would say take Paul Grilley’s anatomy [01:03:00] class Use all the props you have and more, and always refer back to the doctor. Yeah. You’re not a doctor, you’re not a ther- even as a therapist, I’m not… When I am in the yoga room, I am not a physical therapist. Yeah. I am your yoga instructor.

I may have a little different set of eyes that can look at your position and look at your props, but I’m not your doctor and I’m not your physical therapist. Yeah so important for yoga professionals who don’t have- Scope of practice … we don’t have that built in because we’re not licensed.

And I, I have very controversial opinions apparently about whether or not we should be licensed. I don’t think so. But I do think that we can adopt, as yoga professionals, the same, , boundaries and guidelines of other professions that have scope of practice. And if you’re not sure- Yes … what that even means, scope of practice, Google that, ’cause that could be a whole episode.

But- Yes .., Staying in our lane, knowing what it is that we are trained and qualified to do and not. And [01:04:00] as Beth just mentioned, even though she is a physiotherapist, if she’s teaching a yoga class, she might be wearing her physiotherapist hat backwards in that she will understand more than what the average bear might, but she’s not treating people.

She’s not offering them physiotherapy or, one-on-one suggestions when she’s guiding yoga, because that’s beyond- Exactly … the scope of that practice. Yeah. . When I’m in the yoga room, I am a yoga teacher. Again, my- Yeah … eyes are a little different, but I’m not doing anything. , And , if someone walked into the PT gym and said, “I’m not sure,” “I don’t know what restrictions my doctor gave me,” I’d say the same thing.

Yeah. “Go back to your doctor and get me those restrictions.” In that case, I might call the doctor myself. But yeah, , I’m not moving forward as a physical therapist without it, that information, so I’m sure as heck not moving forward as a yoga person without that. And I’m not a yoga therapist, I’m just a yoga teacher.

So I’m not moving forward with that. And offering the best- But even as a yoga therapist- Yeah … it would be the same [01:05:00] thing. I would not be moving forward unless- Yeah … I either had a conversation with , their healthcare- And- … professional … just going back real briefly, again, physical is not the only part of yin.

Yes. I had mentioned to Nick before we started recording, I went back to yin way before I probably should’ve. But mostly what I did was just sit in the room and relaxed and worked on my breathing and worked on my mindfulness, and still got tremendous effects out of that in terms of helped with my- , that aspect of healing, Mental, emotional health, community.

There’s all these- Yes … other aspects. Yeah. Yes. , If someone comes to your class and you’re not sure what to do with them, put them in heart bench and- Yeah … have them, , breathe through and then, , flip them over into side lying or something and, work on that aspect of things.

Yeah. Yin , is not just physical. Beautiful. , I think with that last little thought there, we’ll move into some of these fun rapid fire questions that I have, which are rarely answered in a rapid [01:06:00] way, but we still call them that. I’ll try my best. , Coffee or tea? Coffee. Favorite ice cream flavor?

Coffee. One thing people often get wrong about me? , People think that I’m an extrovert and I’m not. I’m a total introvert. Ditto. . I get that misconception also. , Do you have a pop culture vice that you’re into, like a TV show or a book series or a movie series or something that you’re just, like, can’t get enough of?

Right now my TV show of choice is The Pit. Okay. And the other one is, um, been around a little bit longer called The Midwife. Okay. I’ve not heard of either, but I don’t have a TV, so that would probably explain it. That would be why. Yes. , Finish this question, or finish this sentence: when I’m not practicing yoga, I am…

Probably baking. Oh, I wanna live by you. Slap and fold my sourdough bread. [01:07:00] Lovely.

, One weird fact about you. I don’t know if this is weird, but some people find it is. I have a tremendous amount of food allergies, and probably my most strange ones are pears, which most people have never heard of an allergy to, and mushrooms. Hmm.

What the world needs now is

Really? Peace. Hmm. Good answer. One thing I wish people knew about yin yoga That it’s not easy Yes. Agreed. And is there anything else I forgot to ask you that you would like to add? I think so. Just I totally appreciate this opportunity to sit and chat with you. Yeah, and we’ll do it again, dear listener.

We’ll, the next one, the next convo will be about knees. What do we need to know about knees and how to help our folks that have [01:08:00] knee stuff going on? This one will be very close to my heart currently because I got knee stuff going on. , We will revisit knees in a separate episode. , I want to thank you very much for your time and your expertise, and I look forward to episode two.

And you and I can say our proper goodbyes once I stop the recording, but, , for those of you that are watching or listening, bye for now