Yoga

I'm looking to get into it more. Tried hot yoga with my Girlfriend but I seriously question the health benefits of heat stroke. I'd like to find a good entry level yoga studio in a luke warm room that is somewhere near the 2nd Narrows bridge. I've broken my back twice, torn my achilles, several lateral metatorsals, I have a severed ACL and it hurts when I pee. So really I'm looking for something for middle aged men with lots of sports related injuries.

Any help?

Parkgate Community Centre

My yoga instructor brought up an interesting comparison tonight… how mtb'ing (and other things like dh skiing, car racing etc) require the person to be "in the now" which is the same state of mind that is promoted in yoga.

Yoga's a good way to fix the body, challenge the body and stretch the mind a bit too!

I go to Yogapod and I also use DVDs (Eoin Finn's series) several times a week. I'm hooked. It's changed everything in my life for the better including my ability to concentrate, my back issues (although they haven't yet disappeared), my riding ability, my ability to fall and avoid falling The list goes on.

I don't think it matters much what type of yoga you do to start as long as you start. Just go easy on yourself and if something hurts don't go so deep. I'm certain I'll be doing yoga for the rest of my days.

Here's a link to my yoga-focussed interview with Ryan Leech.

Ryan has been my instructor since the start of the year, and he's totally awesome. Down to earth, flowy classes, open to all levels and reasonably priced. If you want to check out yoga, then I thoroughly recommend one of his classes.

cam have you had an MRI or any imaging done on your back to see if there is any disc damage?

Apparently Bikram instructors aren't allowed to touch the students when helping to correct poses, etc. When I was doing yoga, I appreciated when the teachers would adjust my postures with their hands, because often just telling me what to do wouldn't suffice.

cam have you had an MRI or any imaging done on your back to see if there is any disc damage?

I have not. But if they discover damage what's next? I think I'd likely avoid surgery. Not sure I would change much - unless there's some therapy I don't know about.

Apparently the McKenzie protocol can have good outcomes for those with disc problems. My physio uses it with his patients.

Depends what they find.

If they find nothing wrong, it rules out a lot of scenarios and allows physio/sports med dr's to narrow the list of things down and develop a treatment plan.

if they do find things, depending on the severity you can either elect to have surgery or not.
you might be quick to rule out surgery now, but if you wake up paralyzed like i did because your disc ruptures and damages your chord you might think differently. You're not THAT old, so surgery can be pretty simple. 6 week recovery and you're back to normal. Problem is the longer you wait generally the more complicated things become.

All of this is a discussion you can have during a neuro consult, but if it were me, knowing what i know now about the consequences of not listening to my body, i would at least get the imaging so i know what is wrong (or find out there is in fact no major issue).

I suffered from chronic back pain for 28 months. I've had a sore back my whole life but i always chalked it up to the abuse i did to my body biking. The chronic pain began when i started getting shooting nerve pain down my sciatic nerve in my butt to the back of my left knee. Going from sitting to standing was dreadful. I put up with it for over 2 years, seeing every kind of doctor under the sun.

After 23 months i finally got an MRI. We learned it wasn't in fact an issue in my butt, it was a bulged disc in my lower back impinging on the nerve. I put off surgery however and developed a plan with doctors.
I woke up in February 2011 one morning paralyzed from just below my belly button down. My disc had fully ruptured in my sleep and in the process had damaged my spinal cord.

I basically had no option but to have emergency spinal surgery to repair the damage.
After 6 months of rehab im back to 100%, have zero back pain, and have a new appreciation for life.
Back pain is the worst kind of pain ever. I would never wish it on my worst enemy. It effects every facet of your life, and you're like a bear with a thorn in its paw. I had forgotten what pain free actually felt like.

If it were me, i'd get the MRI and then make the determination based on the results before just ruling it out altogether.

Apparently the McKenzie protocol can have good outcomes for those with disc problems. My physio uses it with his patients.

It's ok….but in all honesty you still aren't 100% certain whats going on.
It can certainly rule some things out in the short term, but if you're a long time sufferer of back pain, i'd still suggest getting on the waiting list for imaging and getting a definite result that a neurosurgeon can see.

I find I can only do hot yoga, but it's ok because I like it. I tried some classes at a standard gym and found the instructors sub par and the pressing "corrections" were all bad.

I stick with Traditional Hot as it lets me grow into the poses while still breaking down all the bad kinks from a season of riding. It also helps with childhood injuries.

It can take a bit to find the right instructor and the right studio but it's worth it in the end.

The hot ladies are out there but the dudes have caught on so expect just as many fatties as dudes as hotties in a class…

I did. No love. My father-in-law has one that inverts you from the waist only - bending forward - and it gave me some relief. I haven't tried it over a long term though.

I've tried it, and it didn't really help. I even did spinal decompression, and it didn't help. I've tried multiple chiropractors, phsyios, and doctors. It's pretty hard to uncompress a couple compressed discs.

What helps is not doing ANY heavy lifting.

An guy I road with a few years back had to quit because of neck problems. He tried everything and went and saw everyone. He finally gave yoga a try, out of frustration I guess, and he said he's much, much better; almost as good as new. He doesn't do any crazy stuff, but he's pretty much pain free and has no problems with movement.

I did FUSION classes at the YMCA which is a combo of yoga pilates [HTML_REMOVED] fitness

the lack of movement in Yoga bothered me and it didn't really feel like exercise

Fusion was good for the core, it had a LOT of movement to get me huffing puffing sweating and there were lots of women to look at … recommended

I joined the local ymca today. I plan to do it all.

I went with Mrs. Flanders to couples yoga for a while; I have a bit of trouble with my back at night and made a big difference.