Can I still do yoga if I suffer from herniated disc and bone spurs?

Why are there bone spurs or herniated discs? Have you noticed that most patients develop it after they get a little older? That's because as we get older, the calcium in the bone becomes less and less abundant, the density of the bone is not enough, coupled with long-term poor posture, or sudden accidents (such as impact or heavy lifting injuries), the baby's back cannot withstand the load and deforms. This is what we call bone spurs or herniated disc problems.

Sciatica occurs because the vertebra is deformed and compresses nearby nerves. It can cause numbing or painful feelings in the lower limbs. Some people will have such discomfort for a long time and must use external forces to relieve the condition.

Generally speaking, for severe bone spurs or disc herniation, rehabilitation doctors will use physical therapy traction to pull apart the deformed bones that are squeezed and deformed. However, for people who are not too serious, Western medicine usually prescribes two medicines to patients. To relieve pain, doctors usually give muscle relaxants; to relieve tingling, sometimes doctors give nerve blockers. However, these medicines have one good but no two good. Eating too much will of course cause a burden on the body, and it is not advisable to take too much.

To prevent bone spurs, disc herniation, and even how to maintain them? Doctors suggest that in addition to paying attention to supplementing more calcium in normal times, you can also eat more colloidal foods (seaweed, fungus, etc.) and dark vegetables to fundamentally improve your physical fitness, which is the solution to the root cause.

Many people often ask,"Can I do yoga for sciatica and herniated disc?" This question is difficult to answer and must depend on your situation.

From the standpoint of Western medicine, they will ask patients not to move until after rehabilitation is completed, so as not to displace their bones. However, some yoga instructors believe that it is not that the sciatic nerve cannot be moved. On the contrary, some places need to be moved more?

Why do we need to move more in some places? Because sciatica can cause our distal nerves and blood vessels to begin to atrophy, that is because it is difficult for blood to carry nutrients to the distal nerves. If you pay attention to people who have been troubled by the sciatic nerve for a long time, many people will have thinner and weaker lower limbs. This is the truth. In order to prevent this situation, we must actually endure the numbness, pat or even move our lower limbs more, and reduce the problem of worse blood circulation at the end.

For bone spurs or herniated intervertebral discs, appropriate movement should also be carried out. Because it is not moving, it makes the condition more rigid. Not only will it not help the affected area, it will also harden other parts of the spine. For example, the injured part may be the fourth segment of the lumbar spine, but if you dare not exercise your back for a long time, it will make the cervical and tail vertebrae stiff, which is not a good thing.

So what yoga movements can I do? I suggest doing more pull-ups, side pull-ups and simple forward bends. Except for pulling up to extend as far as possible, these other movements don't need to be done too deep, depending on which section you were injured. Depending on whether it is left or right, you can ask an experienced physical therapist to move more at home.

As the old saying goes, never stop practicing yoga just because you are injured, or let your original activities be greatly affected, because that will only lengthen the road to rehabilitation. (Internship Editor: Liang Huiling)