Jagati

By Kyra Kyles
RedEye
Published October 24 2007

Sarah Starnes is a self-proclaimed yoga enthusiast who has practiced since she was 12 years old.

Starnes, now 27, says the act of aligning her body and breath has helped her achieve a sense of calm, clarity and peace that continues outside the studio.

She is so dedicated to yoga, in fact, that she is now a yoga instructor. Starnes specializes in a form called Anusara, which focuses on slow, graceful movements aimed at "opening the heart," she said.

Still, as much as she advocates the ancient art of enlightenment, Starnes said those who are looking to it either as a way to stay fit or get focused should know exactly what they're getting into, and pay attention to signs of stretching gone awry.

"Yoga is definitely dangerous," said Starnes, who teaches at health clubs, holistic centers and corporate events in the Chicago area. "You can really help yourself or you can really hurt yourself with yoga."

Starnes experienced the "hurt" firsthand. In 2004, both her shoulders were injured by a traveling "master teacher" who forced her already flexible body into a very deep pose she wasn't ready for, Starnes said.

Before that, in 1998, she lost her ability to walk for a few months after a different yoga instructor lifted her from the floor in the midst of a pose called "full bow."

"He basically lifted me off the floor without warning of that he was going to do," Starnes said of the event that caused a severe back-pain injury. "My back basically folded in half."

Yoga injuries of that severity are uncommon, according to Starnes and a number of yoga instructors and students who talked to RedEye. But as yoga—particularly Bikram and quicker-paced Vinyasa forms—rise in popularity, practitioners and their instructors have to be much more cautious.

Approximately 4,459 Americans went to emergency rooms, doctors' offices and clinics last year for yoga-related injuries, according to a report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It's enough to give the medical community some cause for alarm, according to a local spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

"Yoga, the way I think of it, is a way to discipline the mind and body," said academy spokesman Dr. Michael Schafer, chair of Northwestern University's orthopedic program. "It was never meant to be a cardiovascular type of program. … When people try to do too much too quickly, they can injure the big five: neck, shoulders, lower back, legs and knees."

Schafer said he has seen an increasing number of patients in his practice who suffer from yoga-related injuries. "I had a patient who tore the cartilage in their knee, and it did require surgical intervention," Schafer said.

Miguel Latronica, owner of yoga-teacher training center Eight Limbs in Evanston, said shoulder rotator cuffs are particularly delicate and prone to tearing during yoga gone wrong.

"Certainly people can tear, on a cellular level, a lot of muscles," said Latronica, adding that the more advanced you get, the greater the risk of injury. "It happens when you do not warm up properly and try to go too deep into poses."

Schafer said the majority of people with yoga-related injuries he has seen in his practice are Baby Boomers trying to find a way to get fit fast. But younger aspiring yogis also are at risk, Schafer said, especially as they flock to Bikram yoga, a form practiced in a studio heated to between 100 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

"It carries some of the risks of being involved in heat-related activities, like what happened at the [Chicago] Marathon," Schafer said of the October event during which 80-degree weather caused more than 300 runners to be taken from the course by ambulance, with approximately 50 complaining of nausea, dizziness and, in some severe cases, hyperthermia, the Tribune reported. "There's a concern of hydration issues. You've got to make sure your cardiovascular system is ready for a challenge like that, working out in that kind of heat."

But local Bikram yoga instructors said the only danger is those who do choose not to eat before or drink enough water during classes. The hot conditions mirror that experienced by yogis in India, the discipline's birthplace, said Mike Frayer, owner of Bikram Yoga in the City.

"Heat promotes flexibility and promotes detoxification," Frayer said. He talked to RedEye in the steamy River North studio's lobby, where a few feet away class participants emerged from even hotter temperatures, dripping with sweat and seemingly eager for free ice pops provided by the studio.

"Think about a blacksmith," 34-year-old Frayer said. "If he pounded metal without heat, he'd break his hand. But if he pounds it with heat, it is flexible. He doesn't get hurt."

In fact, Frayer said, he started doing Bikram yoga in his home state of Michigan after a running injury sidelined him from cardio. Frayer said Bikram is so popular that at least 100 students enter his studio a day.

Of those numbers, only two have been adversely affected, he said.

"They weren't injured, but one hadn't eaten and the other didn't drink enough water, and they got into trouble," Frayer said of two participants who left class early after experiencing weakness and dizziness. "That's why it's important to have your energy up when you come to class."

It's also important to stretch, said Schafer, pointing out the American tendency to push oneself in sports and other forms of exercise.

"With our younger population, it's human nature to want immediate gratification, so we overdo it," Schafer said. "Start slow with yoga, build up. Don't just do it once a week. Really get involved."

And just as important, listen to your own body to avoid injury, Frayer said.

"I wouldn't advise going to a studio with a very aggressive instructor who wants to adjust you or move you to positions," Frayer said. "I make a choice not to touch my students, but to correct them verbally because I want them to learn the poses within their own limits."

Starnes learned the hard way that instructors don't always know what's best for your body, but she is grateful for what her injuries taught her.

"I joke around with my students from time to time, and I say 'If your face looks like this,' and I scrunch my face up in mock pain, you're pushing too hard," Starnes said. "Yoga is supposed to challenge you, but it is not supposed to be painful."