Thursday, February 21, 2008

Yoga injury

I've become a cliche. The office worker with a yoga injury.

Somehow, during yoga practice i managed to sprain my foot. (I didn't even know a foot could be sprained.)

The next morning, my right ankle and foot were so painful I couldn't walk, or put any weight on it whatsoever. My wife had to bring me crutches so I could make it to the bathroom. The doctor said that nothing is broken. He suspects that I stretched and injured a tendon or muscle.

I emailed my yoga teacher and she said ice it, ice it, ice it. (Doctor said, that's exactly right.) After a day of ice, compression and elevation most of the swelling and pain is gone. Two days after the injury, I tried to go back to yoga.

No luck. No strength in the foot, and no balance. Looks like I will be out of commission for another two or three days at the least.

I did not know I'd injured the foot during practice. As best I can figure, it happened during fixed firm pose. My right foot was cramping (common problem) and I think I put pressure on the foot instead of working the cramp out, or sitting out the posture.

My yoga teacher once practiced with a broken ankle. I have no idea how she did it. The ankle is essential to all of the standing postures, and about half of the floor postures we are doing.

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