Yoga For Your Health - How To Prevent Yoga Related Injuries?

The simplest way of reaping maximum health benefits is to adopt a 'yoga for your health' fitness regime. Yoga can also be treated as an addition to a fitness routine as it has various benefits to offer for all. It helps improve endurance and provides flexibility and strength to the body bones and muscles. It also helps the body gain better balance by stretching and strengthening the muscles.

However, there is another aspect to the positives of yoga too. With the rise in the popularity of yoga there has also been a steady rise in the injuries related to yoga. Some reasons that might attribute to yoga related injuries are:

Inexperienced yoga teachers who are into teaching newer forms of yoga rather than concentrating on the age-old forms.
Too much involvement by the participants without paying any attention to the bodily needs.
Pushing oneself beyond limits while performing yoga poses.

Yoga Is Not For Show Offs

Yoga for everybody is meant to provide strength and endurance to the body. There is no competition in it, and one does not need to prove that he is better than his counterparts. A participant must concentrate more on his postures and safety measures rather than what his neighbor is doing. Remember that you are pursuing yoga for your health and not to add to your ego levels.

A few safety aspects that can prevent injuries in absolute beginners yoga classes are:

Get a qualified yoga instructor to guide you. He would make sure that you are well informed about the potential dangers of yoga postures. He would also ensure that his pupils follow the entire safety procedures while performing their yoga postures.
Ensure that your yoga for beginners teacher has obtained the minimum amount of qualification that is required to be a yoga teacher. This would greatly reduce the chances of injury.
Don't think that you can maintain all the poses in one class. Yoga needs practice to master, so it is going to be quite a while before you can master the technique. Have realistic expectations in mind even if you are a gymnast or a dancer.
Never compete with your neighbor. Most yoga injuries happen just because the participant attempts postures that the body is not ready to accept. Just because neighbor has mastered the technique before you does not mean that your body would accept it too. Know your body and never stretch beyond what it tells you to. Practice yoga for your health and not because your partner is performing better than you.
You can also avoid injury if you pick a yoga style that is based on body alignment. Iyengar and Anusara Yoga are two kinds of alignment-based yoga techniques.
Treat all injury prone zones with extreme caution. Areas like the neck, lower back, hamstrings and the knees are more prone to injuries than the other body parts.

Conclusion

Injuries can happen to event the best of yogis. So despite extreme care, if you still end up hurting yourself, see a doctor immediately. Return to your original practice routine only when your doctor advises you to do so. At the same time, also inform your yoga instructor about the injury so that he can adjust the following classes accordingly.

Practice yoga for your health regularly to lead a stress-free, happy life.