Ankle tendon discomfort

[Guest guest]

Recently, I have developed an injury in both

heels. I experience pain in my heels/ankle tendon area

when doing the "down dog". It's been close to a month

now. And I am getting very frustrated.<br><br>I've

been taking ibuprofin and icing the ankles with some

benefits. I am not convinced it is tendonitis or plantar

fascitis. Has anyone had these symptoms? If yes, what are

the remedies?<br><br>Perhaps I need to be more

patient.<br><br>Thanks in advance for any advice.<br><br>Thanks

[Guest guest]

A few months ago I had something like that in my

left ankle/heel area. I had been studying alot about

such injuries since I have been dealing with problems

in my hands/wrists/arms for awhile. I had become

convinced that these problems were basically repetitive

strain injuries and that tension was the cause, or at

least tension is what was causing the conditions to

remain. One book that I found very helpful in all this

was Pain Free by Pete Egoscue. Since I have a lot of

very deep chronic tension and since I continue to use

the tools that are giving me trouble, I am still

dealing with the hand/arm/wrist problems. For awhile, the

wrist thing was bad enough that I could not do

Ashtanga, or at least anything that puts weight on the

hands. The wrists are much improved now. Anyway, the

ankle/heel thing kind of came out of nowhere and it was very

depressing since I thought, oh no another injury that I will

have to struggle with forever. Any kind of forward

bend or downward dog would cause pain. I would have

sudden pain many times during the day just bending over

to pick something up. Applying some of the ideas to

this that I had come up with in dealing with the arms,

I figured that this had to do with tension in the

leg muscles. So I tried to figure out how to stretch

the muscles that might be responsible for this

without causing additional strain to the ankle/heel. What

I can up with was to practice a gentle variation of

utthita hasta padangusthasana, basically just standing on

one leg with the other leg (the one with the problem)

extended straight out in front and resting on a support

(such as a chair arm). This seemed to give a good

stretch and did not cause any pain. The problem went away

within a week or so. I think if I had been doing a

regular practice all along, this may not have happened to

begin with. Probably whatever you do, it is best not to

do downward dog or anything else that causes pain

until this is healed. If my ideas on this were correct,

I was able to isolate and stretch leg muscles

enought to remove some of the root cause of the problem

and remove enough of the strain to allow healing to

occur. The pain was probably caused by extra strain at a

point where a muscle tendon connects to the foot bones.

The extra strain was probably caused by tension in

the leg muscles. Once something like this happens, a

vicious circle can develop where the pain causes more

tension, which causes more pain, etc. I think I just kind

of accidentally discovered that the extended leg

posture was something that did not seem to cause

pain.<br><br>So I would give that a try - and good luck with it!

[Guest guest]

I am also having some pain in this area but a bit

different. It is at its most intense when i do prasarita

padottanasana. I feel the pain on the outer part of my right

ankle (I don't know which muscle this is exactly).

While in this pose if i put more weight on the outer

part of my foot, the pain increases. If I move the

weight more to the inner part, the pain decreases some.

I am starting to feel some of the pain in downward

dog and other standing poses. It is frustrating b/c I

am making some real progress in many areas and this

injury is keeping me from just going with these new

strenghs. I've also noticed that most of my pain and

tension is located on the right side of my body -- from

my wrist to my neck to the ankle. Maybe this is b/c

I work on a computer and use the mouse w/ my

righthand.

[Guest guest]

My ankle/heel thing was on the inside of the

foot. Probably the same ideas would apply. The pain may

be due to "tendonitis", an irritation of the tendon

where it attaches to the bone. Pretty much all muscles

turn into tendons at both ends where they attach to

bones. Usually the fix is to remove the tension that has

built up in the muscle. Fascia surrounds and permeates

all muscles and is also involved in holding tension

patterns in place. <br><br><It is frustrating b/c I am

making some real progress in many areas and this injury

is keeping me from just going with these new

strenghs.><br><br>Such setbacks are indeed frustrating but must be

honored. In fact it is good to have the attitude that this

is an opportunity to learn. It is probably best to

not do any postures that cause pain. There are

probably many postures that do not aggravate the condition

and some of them may be instrumental in healing the

condition. The body is very complicated and you can't always

figure out what all the connections are. Working on the

back may help the feet, working on the neck may help

the hands.<br><br><Maybe this is b/c I work on a

computer and use the mouse w/ my

righthand><br><br>Don't get me started, I may have to go into guerilla

marketing mode. Many people have patterns of deep chronic

tension that involve imbalances on the two sides of the

body. Mouse use may contribute to or be the cause but

may also just be the straw that brings the tension to

your attention. One book that may be of interest is

Comfort at Your Computer by Paul Linden. He is a

Feldenkrais teacher and an Aikido teacher. His website:

<a href=http://www.being-in-movement.com

target=new>http://www.being-in-movement.com</a><br>To explore the mouse issue

further, you may want to

look at my hands page:

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

target=new>http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/hands.htm</a><br>A good book on

therapeutic yoga is Yoga for

Wellness by Gary Kraftsow. I don't think there is any

specific info on foot problems in there, but lots of good

general info on healing physical problems with yoga. He

is basically a teacher of viniyoga, following

Desicachar's principle that asana practice must be adapted to

the individual.<br><br>Probably all you need is

contained in the system of Ashtanga yoga, you may just have

to modify things to your needs for a while. Skip

some postures, modify some, spend extra time on some,

explore some with more attention. Some massage or

self-massage may be helpful also.<br><br>Just my opinions.

[Guest guest]

"It is at its most intense when i do prasarita

padottanasana. I feel the pain on the outer part of my right

ankle"<br><br>I have a similar problem. In my case it is

associated with recurring mild pain in the arch of the foot.

I've found that the presure on my foot and ankle from

poses in which I pull on the big toe agravate the

problem. When the areas are acting up I find that

repeating Prasarita Padottanasana A in place of D and

modifying Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana allow me to

continue practicing without agravating the problem. In the

case of UHP, instead of grabbing the toe I put my hand

over the toes holding the ball of the foot like in

Paschimattanasana B.

[Guest guest]

<In my case it is associated with recurring

mild<br>pain in the arch of the foot><br><br>I'm usually

too lazy to do much with self-massage and too poor to

pay for a lot of bodywork, plus I tend to think that

anything that can be accomplished with massage can be

accomplished with yoga. But - I think the soles of the feet

may be a particularly important place to do some

massage work. There is a lot going on down there. If you

check out a good atlas of human anatomy, you will see

several layers of muscles on the bottom of the foot. I

used to dig into my feet with my knuckles, but now I

use various tools. I have a Ma Roller, meant to be

used on the back, which I sometimes press the arches

of my feet into. I also have a little plastic

dolphin called the Dolphin Massager. I put it on the

floor on a sticky mat and press the bottoms of my feet

into the sharp dorsal fin. I use that more to break up

hard stuff that seems to be glued together and to

attack painful pressure points, while I use the Ma

Roller more to gently stretch the arches. I have also

used the Theracane to dig into my feet. Guerilla

marketing tactics have been employed on my website in case

you want to locate these tools. I'm sure it is

possible to use various ordinary items as massage tools

(or to make them). I find that the tools are way more

effective and much easier to use than just using my

hands.<br><br>I have come across the idea quite a bit while

checking out books and videos on Iyengar yoga that the

standing postures are the most important to work on first.

Lino Miele puts forth the idea in his book that the

first 6 postures in primary series Ashtanga (which are

all standing postures) are most important and should

be mastered first. Probably most people have a lot

of tension in their legs and feet. Many of the

largest muscles are in the legs. Many people spend too

much time standing (8 hour shifts standing behind a

counter, etc) or too much time sitting (at home and at

work). So I think we tend to overlook how much work we

may need to do to get our legs and feet straightened

out.