Yoga in hot room harmful, say US doctors

[Guest guest]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/591729.cms

.... Heat allows you to stretch more said Gotlin, director of

orthopedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center . But

once you stretch a muscle beyond 25% of its resting length, you begin to

damage a muscle.

Each week, Gotlin sees as many as five yoga-related injuries. Postures that

require extreme bending of the knees squats and sitting backward on folded

legs are the most likely to cause tears in knee cartilage. In Bikram yoga,

students practice the “toe stand pose,� a single-legged squat and the

“fixed firm pose,� sitting backward with bent knees.

 

“Basically, the knee is a piece of bone with two strings of muscle, and

you can only tighten those strings so much,� Gotlin said. “The more

you

flex the knee under load, the more pressure is exerted on the kneecap.�

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/health/30YOGA.html?ex=1081227600 & en=ec

68208553093a2f & ei=5062 & partner=GOOGLE

.... Heat increases one's metabolic rate, and by warming you up, it allows

you to stretch more, " said Dr. Gotlin, director of orthopedic and

sports rehabilitation at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. " But

once you stretch a muscle beyond 20 or 25 percent of its resting length, you

begin to damage a muscle. " ... Postures that require extreme bending of the

knees — squats and sitting backward on folded legs, for example — are the

most likely to cause tears in knee cartilage. In Bikram yoga, students

practice the " toe stand pose, " a single-legged squat and the " fixed firm

pose, " sitting backward with bent knees. " Basically, the knee is a piece of

bone with two strings of muscle on the top and bottom, and you can only

tighten those strings so much, " Dr. Gotlin said. " The more you flex the knee

under load, the more pressure is exerted on the kneecap. "

" Learning where your body is and what your body can do is what yoga is

about, not reaching for an ideal or modeling yourself after a picture in a

book, " Mr. Bauer said. " If you are just flexible and not strong, at the end

of your range you are going to tear a muscle. "

Indeed, part of the Bikram yoga philosophy is the push to go a little

farther every time a posture is performed. Each pose is done two times per

class. Participants arch backward and bend to the side in " the half-moon

pose, " for example, and then do the movement again, trying to bend the spine

even more.

Practitioners maintain that the spinal flexibility and strength cultivated

in Bikram yoga can be vital in warding off the effect of aging on posture.

Some physical therapists, however, question the value of excessive joint

flexibility, saying it can lead to inflammation and pain.

" The extreme range of motion yoga develops does not necessarily have an

advantage, and it may be counterproductive, " said Dr. Shirley Sahrmann, a

professor of physical therapy at the Washington University School of

Medicine in St. Louis.

Like dancers, practitioners of yoga cultivate overly flexible spines, which

often cause problems in resting posture.

" In my business, " Dr. Sahrmann said, " I have more problems with people who

have excessive mobility than limited mobility. "

The thigh socket, or ball-and-socket joint, at the top of the leg is another

overworked joint in yoga. Bikram's " tree pose " requires standing on one leg

and drawing the opposite foot to the top of the thigh. The point is to

rotate the joint of the drawn-up leg outward as far as possible; but what

looks good may not be what is best for the body.

" More is not always better when it comes to joints, " said Lee Staebler, a

licensed physical therapist on the North Fork of Long Island, who is

studying movement impairment syndromes at the State University of New York

at Stony Brook.

" Warmer tissues will yield more easily, but stretching beyond optimal limits

can compromise joint tissue, " Mr. Staebler said.

Ligaments, tough bands of fibrous tissue that connect bones or cartilage at

a joint, do not regain their shape once they are stretched out, Mr. Staebler

said. A loose joint can be like a loose door hinge that prevents the door

from closing tightly.

Still, warnings about torn cartilage or painful wobbly joints are unlikely

to keep Bikram devotees out of the saunalike studio they claim to find as

pleasant as the beach.

" People either cringe when you describe the heat, or they come and get

addicted to it, " said Ha, a New York television reporter who first

took up Bikram three years ago. On her doctor's advice, Ms. Ha has now

stopped doing Birkam because she is pregnant.

Physicians caution that exercising in heat 2 to 7 degrees above the body's

core temperature of 98.6 can be dangerous.

Dr. Nieca Goldberg, chief of women's cardiac care at Lenox Hill Hospital in

New York, said that because of the stress that extreme heat places on the

heart through the demand for increased circulation, people with medical

disorders should not do Bikram yoga.

" If you smoke, are overweight or have high blood pressure, this is not the

exercise for you, " she said.

Some practitioners of Bikram report dizziness, nausea, muscle weakness and

cramping. Dehydration is the most probable cause, said Dr.

Compito, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at New

York-Presbyterian Hospital.

In extreme cases, losing electrolytes through perspiration can cause cardiac

arrhythmia.

" Your body can only tolerate so much fluid loss, " Dr. Compito said. She

added that in high heat, the normal mechanisms for restoring the body's

optimal core temperature cannot function. Evaporation cannot cool the skin.

Cool air currents cannot move the hot air away from the body.

Over time, Dr. Compito said, adherents of hot yoga may be able to condition

their bodies to work out safely in the heat, but she questioned whether the

practice offered any advantages over other types of exercise. For stalwart

Bikram devotees, however, she recommended drinking more water than the

single bottle most take to class.

" Drinking before, during and after is really the way to go here, " Dr.

Compito said.