The number of individuals in the US who have contracted a serious injury that was critical enough for them to be sent to the hospital (or their local emergency department and facilities) has increased by over 80% over the last seven years; a new study finds.
Of course, this is an incredibly alarming figure and one that we should all be thinking about the consequences of. The study referenced took place between the years of 2009 and 2016 in Victoria and was carried out by Betul Sekendiz, of the Central Queensland University.
The Causes
Now, my personal opinion of this study leads me to believe that a shift in modern-day culture clearly describes why this increase has taken place. Of course, since 2009, yoga has rapidly taken off in popularity around the world, especially in Europe and the US.
With an increase so sharp, so quickly, now exceeding the two billion people estimate, it seems only natural that the risk of injury is going to increase, especially when you have people practicing at home on their own without qualified supervision or attending classes by people who don’t know the full safety aspects of yoga.
However, there may be a lot more factors than first meet the eye.
One of the biggest suggested contributors of this sharp increase in hospital admissions is the fact that there are so many social media influencers out there, especially on websites such as Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
Dr Sekendiz describes the fact that a lot of people on these channels believe that they know what they are doing and that they can achieve a certain pose properly. However, many influencers are eager to push themselves and make be attempting poses and positions that they simply aren’t ready for.
This is especially the case when they see flexible instructors and influencers on social media and they are trying to replicate what they see. The doctor describes how one study into yoga on social media found that the most commonly found yoga image on social media was the headstand, a pose commonly related to a serious injury.
A poorly executed headstand can result in so many injuries, including head, neck, knee, shoulder, lower back and spine issues. In a worst-case scenario, these could even prove fatal given the right circumstances.
During the study, it was discovered that 118 recorded cases of yoga injuries, ten percent of these were serious enough for full hospital admission, resulting in further treatment. The most common age bracket for these injuries to occur is 20 and 39.
Of course, Dr Sekendiz suggests that these figures mean we should stop doing yoga, far from it, but it does mean that we need to start paying more attention to how we’re performing and executed our poses and how we should be looking after our bodies and doing more to protect our own well-being.
Consider how you would approach a new sport of your choosing, whether that was running, throwing, swimming or any sport you care to name. You would always approach it with care while making sure that you’re not anything out-of-the-ordinary that could damage yourself. The same concept needs to be applied to yoga.
Although this study has not yet been published, it has been cited at a number of conferences around the world.
Minimising the Risks
Of course, as an avid yoga enthusiast, you’ll want to do everything you can to make sure that you’re minimising your own risk of injury. However, this can be achieved in a number of different ways.
Firstly, when you’re practising at home on your own, it’s vital that you’re listening to your body to make sure that you’re not pushing it was or directions that it doesn’t want to go. However, it’s also so important to remember that everybody has a different body, so what rules apply to one person, won’t necessarily apply to the next.
You need to take into account who are you, how old you are, what sort of position you are in life and what sort of yoga skill level you know you are. Of course, this is why many of us choose to attend yoga classes in the hope of sharing the knowledge of the instructor. However, attending a class doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re completely safe.
Since the boom of yoga onto modern society, there are many individuals who have taken upon themselves to teach yoga, and while they may have been practising their entire lives, there’s a huge difference between someone being able to practice yoga and someone being able to teach it in a safe way.
When you’re attending classes, make sure that you’re asking to see your teacher’s certificate or qualification to ensure they are legitimate and are able to look out to make sure that you’re practising safely.