Shakira was right. Hips don’t lie.
When your hips are “off,” then you know it. Every aspect of your movement, your posture, even your sleep will be affected when your hips are injured or stressed.
Speaking from personal experience, I’ve been going through rehabbing my left hip for about a year now. It’s a torn labrum, with bone spurs. One on the acetabulum (the socket) and one on the femoral head (the ball) — quite the one-two punch. Luckily, the labral tear is only a partial.
I’ve been doing PRP therapy, which is a series of 3 injections, using my own blood, spun down. The plasma is re-injected into the ailing body part. Even though it’s only 3 shots, it will take months to heal - or nearly heal. There are no guarantees. All I know is that cortisone failed (which I knew it would). And no - there’s no hip replacement for a torn labrum.
This has been incredibly humbling. For the last 6 months, I’ve been teaching yoga from a chair. I walk with a cane. My muscle tone needs major work, on that left leg. And even though I’m working on it, progress is incremental.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with incremental progress. Incremental movement, no matter how small, is unstoppable — check water polishing a rock, the glaciers moving over the land, the small movements babies make as they figure out this great big world.
I think this has actually been good for me as a teacher and for my students. They see me in a slightly incapacitated position and they know that in reality, an injury can happen to anyone. Yoga is great for a lot of things, but it’s no cure-all. I’ve hurt myself in yoga more times than I can remember. And it helps us all realize that getting older is indeed not for sissies!
As a teacher, this has helped me refine my teaching. I have, for many, many years, defaulted to just showing the pose while talking through it. Now, though, about 90% of the poses are being cued verbally. I can’t just hop into a Warrior or Triangle, especially on the injured side. So I have to be very precise with my cues. The advantage is that now, I pay more attention to my students.
If you’re taking classes now, talk to your teacher if something has come up with your body. If you’re rehabbing from an injury, or if you’re not sure yoga is right for you, talk to your doctor for clearance and then find a teacher and chat with them. You should never feel pressured to practice. You should only practice within your capabilities. And your teacher should know how to modify a pose or give an alternative.
Hips don’t lie. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have alternatives.
