As Many as 1 in 3 Experience New or Worse Pain with Yoga

Many people try yoga hoping to heal an injury, but some wind up with more aches and pains, a new study finds.

The study, which surveyed hundreds of people doing yoga for more than a year, found that two-thirds said that some existing aches improved because of yoga – most often, lower back and neck pain.

On the other hand, 21% said yoga worsened their muscle or joint pain. And almost 11% said it caused new issues – most commonly, pain in the hand, wrist, elbow or shoulder.

The study didn’t delve into specific injuries, but instead asked people about general aches in different body areas. So it’s hard to know how serious the problems were, said Tom Swain, a researchers with the Center for Injury Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “You don’t have to sustain a serious injury to have pain. It could just be sore muscles,” said Swain, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Studies have tied yoga to health gains ranging from lower blood pressure, cholesterol and heart rate to improvements in depression, anxiety and sleep problems. Plus, based on other research, yoga may not be any riskier than other forms of exercise, according to the researchers behind the current study.

The study’s investigators, led by Marc Campo of Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., reported their findings in the Journal of Body work & Movement Therapies.

For the study, the researchers surveyed 354 people, mostly women, who practiced at two yoga studios. Classes there ranged from gentle, “restorative” yoga to fast-paced Vinyasa-style. Each study participant was surveyed twice, one year apart.

Nearly all (87%) said they’d had pain in at least one body area during that year. About two-thirds said their pain had improved because of yoga, while one-fifth believed yoga had worsened some of the aches – often in the wrist or hand.