Although most of the injuries received from yoga lessons cannot be called serious, there are always some students who, in the pursuit of perfection, can only be stopped by sprains of muscles and ligaments, fractures, dislocations, or pinched nerves.

Of course, caution never hurts - you can get injured anywhere, for this it is not even necessary to have special hobbies. As with any form of physical activity, the safest approach to yoga is to carefully study the correct technique and follow the safety rules, which the instructor makes sure to emphasize.

Imagine that you are a yoga practitioner, stretching the back of the thighs and doing deep forward bends. When you notice the pain under your ischial bones, you might want to stretch even more, thinking that this will help to relieve the pain. But the pain intensifies, and you decide to rest. The pain subsides and you start stretching again and injure the area again. The pain returns and everything repeats over again. This process can take years.

The Tendons of the Back of Your Thigh - How the Injury Occurs

On the back of the thigh, there are three long muscles. In their upper parts, they are connected to the ischial bones with the help of tendons.

Itching pain under the ischial bones is associated with a tear in the tendons where they join the bone. To stretch the hamstrings in forward bends such as Uttanasana, you straighten your knees by lifting your ischial bones. Every time you stretch a muscle, it pulls the tendons, creating micro-tears in them. Typically, such micro injuries completely heal in 24-48 hours. But the hamstring tendons take longer to heal because they have a weaker blood supply. When you don't let your hamstring rest, it can lead to a sports injury in the future.

If you create micro-tears in your hamstring tendons faster than your body can heal them, you could end up getting an injury. If you rest, healing will begin, but the partially healed tissue may still be too weak to hold the posture and you will tear it again, with more pain than before. Scar tissue is formed, the healing of which is a long and complex process. It seems to you that damage to the hamstring occurs unexpectedly, but in fact, it is caused by the gradual weakening of the tendons due to overstretching and insufficient rest period. It can end up as a severe overstretch, which leads to injury.

Prevention of the Injury

To prevent injury to the hamstring, you need to be very conscious and gradually learn to lean forward and take seriously any pain that occurs near the ischium. Never apply excessive force in the forward bend, and if you feel discomfort near the ischial bone, stop the stretch immediately.

If discomfort returns in a future practice, stop all the activities that cause it, at least for a few days. This means that you need to stop doing forward bends on the injured leg, i.e. you can do bending with a bent leg. It is possible to gradually introduce slopes with straight legs into practice again only after the discomfort has completely gone.

If you have a sedentary lifestyle, you probably have stiff hamstrings that can easily be damaged, especially when bending forward. Pay attention to such positions as Downward Facing Dog or deep lunges - enter the asana slowly and work at your own pace.

Overstretching of the thigh muscles can be done in the warrior pose, any of the wide-legged bends, and some other asanas - doing any of them incorrectly can damage the muscles of the groin or inner thighs. Your toes should be turned to one side when performing such exercises. Imagine that you have headlights on your hips, and you need to illuminate the road in front of you in any position.

Another precautionary measure is to include in your practice asanas that strengthen the back of the thighs, such as Shalabhasana, Purvottanasana, and Virabhadrasana. By strengthening the muscles, you also strengthen the ligaments and tendons around. However, if you have tendon injuries, these postures should also be mastered gradually.