Yoga Butt
One of the more common complaints from Yoga practitioners is Yoga Butt. Or what would be a better description is a tear to the hamstring attatchments around the sit bones.
A tear in this region can happen for many reasons, and some of the most common causes can be from over stretching, folding forward with improper technique or from an accident where a leg is over extended.
When this happens, the stretch goes from the belly of the muscles ( which is what we want ) to the attachemtns of the muscles along the tendon to where it attaches to the ischial tuberosity.
The hamstrings
Depending on the grade of the tear will speak to how mobile you will be after the injury. If you have had a full rupture ( where the muscles is detatched from the bone ) then surgery will be required.
Most tears aren’t that severe and require a period of strength work, massage and ‘intelligent stretching’ to bring enough oxygem and blood into the region so the healing process can begin.
You will know when you have a hamstring attachment tear as it will often feel:
Painful folding forward ( in more severe cases where even a slight bend foward hurts ) where there is a ‘sharp’ pain sensation around the sit bones.
An ‘itchy’ feeling in this area and generally uncomfortable as you extend the leg.
Can sometimes be painful walking and also contracting the hamstring.
A full rupture will have severe bruising / swelling and an inability to walk.
The good news is that with most tears the healing process is straight forward but can take some time. I would say in most students I have seen with this it can range from a few weeks to a few months depending on the tear.
Also it can be felt in different positions, depending on which of the three hamstrings is effected.
For instance, some practitioners can feel it with a basic standing forward fold with the feel hip width such as Padangusthasana, and not at all in a wide legged forward folds such as Prasarita Padottanasana. It really depends on which hamstring is injured, but the treatment is the same.
Prasarita Padottanasana
Padangusthasana
Let’s talk about technique
More often than not, especially with new practitioners to Yoga it is from incorrect technique where the stretch goes to the attachment. This happens due to improper engagment of the legs ( the best way to stretch a muscle is when it is active, as in eccentric stretching ). When this happen and a student is ‘hanging’ from the joint rather than actively pushing through the feet and legs this ‘sends’ the stretch upwards and can cause pain and injury. This is not what we’re looking for.
Also if a student is hypermobile this can happen even more so as there isn’t enough feedback from stretching that a stiffer practitioner would have, and this can also lead to over stretching.
Sometimes, even with all the best will and technique in the world, things happen, and some days we just happen to take the body a little further than it was ready for that day and you might hear a ‘pop’, followed by a sharp pain in this region.
Also I would say, unless you are an experienced practitioner I would not suggest ever really stretching your hamstrings cold. Some parts are more sensitive than othes and with the hamstrings it is easy to find your max range quite quickly. So warm up properly.
So what can we do about it?
Learning how to fold forward correctly is a must and the student needs to spend time on embodying the correct techniques.
As I said previously, there must be the necessary engagment through the feet and legs that takes the energy up into the lower belly where you meet Uddiyana Bandha ( the lower abdominal muscles ) so that you ‘lift out’ from this area correctly. Check out my article on folding forward:
Rehabbing the injury
What we need to do is to stimulate blood and oxygen into the area.
Blood and Oxygen heal the body
What I reccomend is to continue your Yoga practice, stretching the hamstring very carefully. Just go up until the point where you ‘feel it’ and then back off. Do this over time and gradually increase the stretch.
A full description of this technique is in the following video:
Along side your your Yoga practice you will want to add some strengthening exercies to accelerate the healing process and to desensitise the injured area.
There are multiple ways to do this but what you are mostly looking to do is to contract the upper portion of the hamstring and the lower portion of the glute max muscle. See the image below where the yellow circle highlights the area we are looking to contract. This contraction is what is going to stimulate the muscle fibres and get that blood and oxygen into the area.
Contraction of the glute and hasmstrings
The method
As you can see in the image below I am liftting up the ‘injured’ leg and bringing it parallel with my upper body. As I lift my leg in this way I am contracting my hamstrings by attempting to bring my heel towards my bum. Hips are level.
yoga butt rehab exercise
This contraction is what we are looking for. As I contract the muscles in this way I hold for a second or two and then release. You can perform this exercise 8 to 10 times for 3 to 5 reps. I would say also you can do this before your Yoga practice as a warm up or 3 to 4 times a week. This is one exercise of many that I have in my Better Mobility Guide video Library that target different portions of the hamstrings.
For a full breakdown on this rehab tutorial and access to The Better Mobility Guide check out the link below:
