Sarah Starnes is a self-proclaimed yoga enthusiast who has practiced since she was 12.
Now 27, she says the act of aligning her body and breath has helped her achieve a sense of calm, clarity and peace that continues outside the studio.
She is so dedicated to yoga, in fact, that she now teaches it. Starnes specializes in a form called Anusara, which focuses on slow, graceful movements aimed at “opening the heart,” she said.
Still, as much as she advocates the ancient art of enlightenment, Starnes said those who are looking to it either as a way to stay fit or get focused should know exactly what they are getting into and pay attention to signs of stretching gone awry.
“Yoga is definitely dangerous,” said Starnes, who teaches at health clubs, holistic centers and corporate events in the Chicago area. “You can really help yourself or you can really hurt yourself with yoga.”
Starnes experienced the “hurt” firsthand. In 2004, both her shoulders were injured by a traveling “master teacher” who forced her already flexible body into a very deep pose she wasn’t ready for, Starnes said.
Before that, in 1998, she lost her ability to walk for a few months after a different yoga instructor lifted her from the floor in the midst of a pose called “full bow.”
“He basically lifted me off the floor without warning of what he was going to do,” Starnes said of the resulting severe back injury and pain. “My back basically folded in half.”
Yoga injuries of that severity are uncommon, according to Starnes and a number of yoga instructors and students. But as yoga, particularly Bikram and quicker-paced Vinyasa forms, rise in popularity, practitioners and their instructors have to be more cautious.
Yoga-related injuries sent 4,459 Americans to emergency rooms, doctors’ offices and clinics last year, according to a report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It’s enough to give the medical community some cause for alarm, according to a local spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
“Yoga, the way I think of it, is a way to discipline the mind and body,” said academy spokesman Dr. Michael Schafer, chair of Northwestern University’s orthopedic program. “It was never meant to be a cardiovascular type of program. … When people try to do too much too quickly, they can injure the big five: neck, shoulders, lower back, legs and knees.”
Schafer said he has seen an increasing number of patients in his practice who suffer from yoga-related injuries.
“I had a patient who tore the cartilage in their knee, and it did require surgical intervention,” Schafer said.
Miguel Latronica, owner of yoga-teacher training center Eight Limbs in Evanston, said shoulder rotator cuffs are particularly delicate and prone to tearing during yoga gone wrong.
“Certainly people can tear, on a cellular level, a lot of muscles,” said Latronica, adding that the more advanced you get, the greater the risk of injury. “It happens when you do not warm up properly and try to go too deep into poses.”
Schafer said the majority of people with yoga-related injuries he has seen in his practice are Baby Boomers trying to find a way to get fit fast. But younger aspiring yogis are also at risk, Schafer said.
“With our younger population, it’s human nature to want immediate gratification, so we overdo it,” Schafer said. “Start slow with yoga, build up. Don’t just do it once a week. Really get involved.”
Starnes learned the hard way that instructors don’t always know what’s best for your body, but she is grateful for what her injuries taught her.
“I joke around with my students from time to time, and I say ‘If your face looks like this,’ and I scrunch my face up in mock pain, you’re pushing too hard,” Starnes said. “Yoga is supposed to challenge you, but it is not supposed to be painful.”
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kkyles@tribune.com
