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My Arm Hurts/Call for Help

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Hello, all. This recent thread has certainly hit

home with me because I continue to have hand and wrist

pain caused by ashtanga. Unfortunately, despite my

deep attention to keeping the palm flat and everything

perfectly aligned, and despite the fact that many people

advised me it would probably go away, my hands over time

got worse and I finally replaced my ashtanga practice

with a Bikram-style practice (has its merits, but

that's another conversation) for the last couple of

months. During this time, my hands healed (proving to me

it was caused by ashtanga and not typing or my rock

climbing interest), and I have been so missing vinyasa,

that I recently decided to try adding in a few sun

salutes here and there. But almost immediately, the hand

pain has returned. Not bad yet, but I don't want to

push it! <br><br>Please, please, has anybody else out

there had this experience? And if not, can anyone

recommend someone who might be able to help me -- an

ashtanga teacher with deep structural knowledge for

example, who I might be able to e-mail or visit?

<br><br>Dreaming of vinyasa,<br>Robyn

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Although practicing Ashtanga is what makes your

wrists hurt, I wouldn't say that Ashtanga is the cause

of the problem. Of course that depends on what we

mean by cause. But the root problem is the deep

tension in your musculoskeletal system. Bones become

misalligned as a result of chronic tension in the muscles and

fascia. If you were all straightened out you would have

no trouble doing Ashtanga. But then if any of us

were really straightened out we wouldn't need asana

practice. The practice of Ashtanga yoga is meant to get

everything into allignment. However, Ashtanga as commonly

taught is kind of a one-size-fits-all deal and that

isn't going to work for everyone. Practicing Bikram or

modified Ashtanga for the time being may improve the

condition to where you can get back to Ashtanga. But there

may also be more effective methods to

pursue.<br><br>There may be Ashtanga teachers around who can help you

with this. But unless you live where there happens to

be just the right person, this is probably not the

first place I would look. There is a kind of

self-selection process that seems to filter out everyone but the

most physically fit from even trying Ashtanga yoga,

not to mention getting into it enought to become a

teacher. Most Ashtanga teachers don't really specialize in

what might be called therapeutic yoga.<br><br>In the

yoga world, you might look more towards Iyengar

teachers. I would also suggest checking out Sam Dworkis. I

highly recommend both of his books, ExTension and

Recovery Yoga. You can read more about those books and get

lots of great information at his website:

<a href=http://extensionyoga.com

target=new>http://extensionyoga.com</a><br><br>I have the impression that Tias

Little is an

Ashtanga teacher who gets pretty deeply into issues that

most teachers don't expore. He is in New Mexico but

travels around alot.

See<br><a href=http://www.yogasource-santafe.com

target=new>http://www.yogasource-santafe.com</a><br><br>But it doesn't really

matter what school a teacher

comes from as long as they can help.<br><br>Since there

is a size limit on messages here, I will continue in

the next post.......

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As I mentioned in another post yesterday, I would

highly recommend getting a copy of Conquering Carpal

Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries by

Sharon Butler. She is a Hellerworker, which is a type of

bodywork developed by Joseph Heller, a Rolfer (and former

president of the Rolf Institute) who didn't think that

Rolfing should hurt. Her book is entirely oriented toward

self-healing and is permeated by a positive attitude. Note the

word CONQUER in the title. Please get this

book!<br><br>You may also want to look for a Hellerworker. Many

have been trained by Sharon Butler. For more info on

Hellerwork, see <a href=http://www.hellerwork.com

target=new>http://www.hellerwork.com</a><br><br>Also, you

might want to look into Feldenkrais. <br><br>There may

be all kinds of people who can help. You may want to

reveal your location. Someone may then have more

specific recommendations. <br><br>Various types of massage

or bodywork may be helpful. SELF-massage may be very

beneficial.<br><br>Personally I am committed to self-healing, which is one

reason I am so interested in yoga. Whatever anyone does

to help you, you will still have to do the real work

yourself.<br><br>For more info (and info on how to get info) about

hand problems, see this page on my

website:<br><a href=http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/hands.htm

target=new>http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/hands.htm</a><br><br>The first step in

self-healing is education.

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TLSlade,<br><br>Thank you with the deepest

sincerity for your thorough and compassionate reply. I,

too, believe in self-healing and in fact already

bought the Flex-Tend gloves you talk about on your very

informative hand site (they help a bit when used

consistently). I just now placed an order for the Sharon Butler

book and look forward to reading it. <br><br>I am also

aware that I harbor deep muscular tension throughout my

upper body (I type 8 hours a day and climb on the

weekends!!) -- so you might be right that this is the true

source of my pain from ashtanga. I have also had

shoulder, neck and elbow injuries from my previous athletic

life, so no doubt that all plays a role. <br><br>I

guess I just kept hoping that if I did my daily

ashtanga practice, all would be healed. But, it's

obviously going to take more patience and intelligence than

that!! <br><br>No doubt, the many resources you

suggested will be a good starting point on the path.

<br><br>With gratitude,<br>Robyn

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I'm needing to update my Flextend page. I'm not

sure I would really recommend that product. It may be

helpful, but I think the same results can be accomplished

with rubber bands. For the price they could have made

the product a little better, like using smooth rings

that don't catch the rubber tubing. But I'll try

anything! There was an interesting discussion on Sorehand

about flexors and extensors. It was pointed out that

the flexors and extensors don't necessarily have to

have equal strength to be in balance. The human body

was designed to do a lot of hand flexing and there

isn't much need for strength in the extensors.<br><br>I

might recommend one more very interesting book which is

loaded with great info for anyone wanting to heal

themselves of musculo-skeletal problems: Pain Free by Pete

Egoscue. This is a pretty new book and can be found in

bookstores. One of his main messages is that the human body

is ment to move and that lots of our problems are

cause by our modern lifestyle involving lots of sitting

(which starts with having to sit in desks at school for

hours a day). He explains his ideas in the first few

chapters and then covers each section of the body, giving

lots of interesting exercises which he calls

e-cises.<br><br>Also, speaking of motion, a friend of mine turned me

onto an interesting website a few days ago. It is

about Babaji, the avatar who is discussed in

Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. It is

<a href=http://www.babji.net target=new>http://www.babji.net</a><br>Anyway, I

found this there:<br>"The result of hard work

is happiness and the result of laziness is pain.

Troubles of this world are caused by inactivity. I

repeatedly tell you this so that you will be industrious and

be benefitted."<br><br>I like the idea in Midnight

Omboy's post about giving up attachment to

accomplishment. It was hard for me to accept that I could no

longer do a lot of the yoga that I used to be able to

do. It was hard enough to accept that I was already

so far "behind" everyone else. But we have to start

where we are and just keep putting one foot in front of

the other.<br><br>Some time ago I started to look at

Ashtanga practice as a goal. So I have to develop my own

personal practice which may someday make me able to again

practice Ashtanga.<br><br>And you are certainly right

about patience and intelligence.

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hi, TL. namaste'. thanks for all the info re

books & such. the one about pain resulting from

sedentary habits certainly rings true. remember distinctly

all through childhood suffering sitting in school

desks, knowing from an early age that such unnatural

restrictions were a baaaaaaaaad idea, and probably constituted

some form of child abuse. i was a skinny lad, and the

pain from sitting for hours could be especially

unbearable on my bony little ass.

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Hey Robyn,<br>Just want to share with you that my

friend came to New York for eight weeks recently and at

the end of the first month she fell on the ice and

broke her arm. She almost decided not to pay for month

two of yoga since she has a cast on her arm and

didn't think it would be worth the money. She was also

very disappointed because she is working on her

upper-body strength since it a place where she feels

particularly vulnerable.<br><br>So on the last day of yoga she

asked Peter what she should do and he said come and

just breathe. I mean that is what this yoga is all

about anyway, right? She finally decided to pay for the

month and discovered amazing things she wasn't

expecting. WHat she, and everybody else there teaching, came

to discover, was that there is a lot that she could

do with a cast on her arm - including marichyasana

D. She also became stronger in many other poses and

much more confident in herself which is something she

would not have found if she had not broken her arm and

kept working on her 'upper body strength'. A lot of

people were really inspired by her, including the people

teaching. Her arm has healed and the cast is

off.<br><br>There is a lot of patience and intelligince in your

decision to do your daily practice, you just might have to

do things differently and that may be a clue to

getting past the hand ostacle. Plus, a few prayers to

Ganesha wouldn't hurt.<br><br>FBL

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Here is a link that describes the study that used

yoga to treat carpal tunnel syndrome, and lists the

postures they used.

<a href=http://www.YOGASITE.COM/ytn3.html#4

target=new>http://www.YOGASITE.COM/ytn3.html#4</a><br>scroll down to back issue

#4<br><br>Also, an Iyengar

teacher of mine used to suggest putting wedges under the

hands for wrist pain. The wedges ran the length of the

hand and gave about an inch or so of lift. Some people

used the wedge to elevate the fingers, some the base

of the hand, depending on their pain. Maybe this

could help make vinyasas tolerable while you do other

things to unwind the tension in your hands and

shoulders.<br>(p.s. Rolfing did amazing things for my chronic

tension)

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