Ancient Poses.
Yoga is an ancient practice with some of the most physically and emotionally rewarding movements. As impressive as it is, yoga poses require a yoga teacher to flow through the movements. Perfecting yoga moves comes with yoga practice and is the only way to reap the numerous benefits of yoga. However, if you aren’t careful, yoga can be a pain in the butt. Yoga butt is not a medical term but a term used to describe an injury one gets when doing yoga.
What Does Yoga Butt Mean?
Yoga Pose Pain.
This is the most common injury people experience during yoga. Technically, the yoga butt is known as proximal hamstring tendinopathy. It is the inflammation or irritation of the hamstring tendons at their attachment to the sitting bone. Thankfully, it is rarely complicated and can be corrected. Any physical therapist can diagnose yoga butt injury and recommend the hamstring stretches to help get rid of the pain.
Pain That Makes You Never Want To Put your Leggings Back On.
You are there about to get into a comfortable position and clear your mind. Suddenly, a sharp pain hits you in your backside. Your mind refuses to get quiet or clear, and the easy yoga poses become anything but easy.
Interesting Fact…
The most interesting thing about this injury is it can hit you at any time. You might be doing too much or too little yoga, and yogis can attest to it. The moment you start feeling some mild hamstring pain, chances are the yoga butt is here for you.
Begining at the Sciatic Nerve.
The pain begins from the sciatic nerve and hits the ischial tuberosities all the way through. The real pain comes in when you try doing the same yoga practice to try and heal the injury. The best thing at this time is to visit a physical therapist and get diagnosed. The injury might as well heal on its own, but it tends to be painfully slow.
Not Caused By Your Yoga Pants.
Yoga pants do provide support but they won’t help with yoga Butt pain, no matter how supportive your high-waist yoga pants waistband are.
Good Instruction.
When trying to heal the yoga butt injury, a knowledgeable yoga instructor helps you with different poses in yoga class to help stretch the hamstring muscles and hamstring inserts mildly. The hamstring position and other joint positions must be taken care of when you are in pain, and this is why you need an instructor.
What Causes The Yoga Butt and How to Avoid It
The Pain is Real.
Contrary to what most people think, the injury is not as sexy as it sounds. It is painful and uncomfortable.
When you engage in yoga too much, especially when you tend to strain the body, you are most likely to get an injury. The gluteus Maximus is the largest and heaviest muscle in the body. The muscle, when hurt, also known as gluteal strain, causes an uncomfortable pain in the gluteus medius to the hamstring muscles where it extends.
Gluteus Maximus
This is the most affected muscle when you have an overuse injury. One of the most common injury symptoms is an unbearable pain in the butt. Sitting down and sometimes walking becomes a problem.
The proximal hamstring tendinopathy occurs when you place a repetitive load on the tendon without adequate time for recovery. Beginners in yoga are advised to avoid challenging movements until the body is used to such methods of movement. This helps avoid gluteal strain on the gluteus Maximus which maintains an erect posture as it is one of the muscles that extend the hip joint.
Strong Hamstrings.
For those starting in yoga, hamstring strengthening poses will help you prevent this overuse injury. Poses that involve the entire glute complex and give you a range of motion on your joints. You get a knowledgeable yoga instructor to help with your weak glutes and achieve symmetrical glute activation before trying some poses. Even the experienced yogis once have the experience of this injury, and it restricts the range of motion on your hip that it gets uncomfortable to get into a seated position. Deep glute rotator strains can also lead to yoga injury.
Feeling Comfortable.
During yoga, finding the most comfortable position is key to a successful session. If you experience some pain during hip flexion, chances are you have a yoga butt. Avoid any more exercises at this point and strive to understand the injury and how to heal it. Even if you get back to yoga, some flexion in poses might prove difficult unless you strain the muscles back to pain again.
Healing The Yoga Butt
Some kinds of poses can heal the injury, while others can make it worse. One of the physical benefits of yoga is pain relief in your muscles and hip rotation components. For this, you can use it for enhanced flexibility and help heal the overuse injury. You, however, must be wary of your energy levels when injured. Some yoga poses might be too risky, especially without a trained yoga instructor when you are injured. Isometric holds are some of the best exercises to engage in. These are contracts on the group of muscles causing the pain in your sitting bone.
Perfect Session.
Having a yoga session combined with a good workout routine helps heal the injury faster. You can try light-weighted squatting and advanced poses to engage different planes of motion on your hip. The tabletop position in yoga is one of the most rewarding methods to heal butt muscle injury. Alternative poses include the downward facing dog, but for this one, you have to be extra careful not to stay in the position for so long. Depending on your body type, you can try the fold pose as well but in a passive range.
Experienced Instructors.
Yoga classes today have experienced instructors and movement professionals to help avoid injuries in yoga. In these yoga classes, you can expect to engage your gluteus muscles amazingly without hurting yourself and avoid poor glute activation, which can also lead to injury. Yoga is a body workout combined with the clearing of the mind.
Unfortunately trying to heal the gluteus muscle injury without pain and discomfort is a long shot. Prevention is better, so take note of how your body is feeling and stop if you first sense any significant pain.
If you feel a sudden sprain on your sitting bone while in yoga, stop and “listen” to your body to avoid making the injury worse. You look good in the pair of leggings, but you will have to ease your body building workouts if you are injured to help heal quickly.
