Good Pain or Bad Pain ?
Greater Baltimore Yoga Blog
A level 1 student reported that that he finally found out how to stop the pain in his thoracic spine. Chest openers. [See my article : Reawakening the Spine] When he lays over a bolster, there is instant relief. At night he will lay over an ice pack to backbend and add cold to an irritated inflamed area. He is convinced backbends are the answer, not only because of the instant relief but also, pain does occur when he bends forward. He has a diagnosed herniation [bulge] of some of his thoracic disks. More commonly, the cervical and lumbar disks bulge and cause inflammation, but the thoracic disks are obviously not immune from bulging and causing pain. [See my article : Low Back Pain]
He asked whether he should or should not tolerate the back pain when he bends forward. I told him: definitely not. Some intense sensations in yoga are to be tolerated because they are therapeutic. But the soft tissue and nerve root irritations from bulging disks cause intense sensations that are signals to stop and avoid whatever movement that caused this sensation. There is "good pain" like stretching tight hamstrings or backbending a spine skillfully. Eventually the stretching sensation subsides and one feels better for having gone through the intensity. But there is "bad pain" where the bottom line is that one continues to worsen afterwards. One is then perpetuating one's condition, and it becomes chronic in nature. One does not have to cause more soft tissue inflammation. The study of yoga helps one develop the skill in knowing the difference in the quality of sensations and therefore the affects derived .
Do you know if the sensations that you experience are telling you that your yoga pose is therapeutic or injurious?
posted by Greater Baltimore Yoga @ 3:36 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Wecome to the blog-sphere, oh knowing yogi. Demo pics please.
Dear Carol,
Golgi tendon organs [GTO's]are sensory receptors in muscle tendons, that respond to tension [muscle stretch or contraction.]They cause reflex inhibition of agonist muscles and stimulation of antagonist muscles. Their function is an inhibitory reflex for injury prevention and for fine motor control. They are not causing the intense sensations of yoga stretches. Our stretches are slowly evolving, on purpose, not to tear muscle or tendon. But I can see where you might think that, with the yoga injury of torn hamstring attactment at the sit bones. Whether or not this injury is from slowly evolving intense stretches, the GTO's are not involved. GTO's are in all tendons.
But muscle spindles are the balance to GTO's. Muscle spindles monitor rate and changes in muscle fiberlength. Stretching of muscle spindles causes reflex stimulation causing agonist muscle fibers to contract and resist stretch. They function to oppose sudden changes in muscle length.
The great yogis probably realized samadhi without ever pondering GTO's and muscle spindles. But if crazed quests are your thing, go for it.
Namaste,
Stan
So
Dear Carol,
The GTO's probably do have "merit towards relieving or assisting in stretching". But I do know if the neurophysiologogists, who study these things, ask that question. I remember back in my days as an upstart neurology physical therapist, I studied this neurophysiology. But I was frustrated in the realization that moverment therapy in the clinic was not on the minds of the GTO and muscle spindle researchers. They recorded subtle electical potentials in the neurons connected to these stretch and tension receptors. I assumed and implied connections between these sensory receptors and movement. But this is only an intellectual exercise. It comes down to experiencing the movement from the inside, not intellectualizing about our nervous and muscluar systems. Happy Yoga!
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