One of the issues with exercising after recovering from injury, even if that injury was years before, is that sometimes, as in my case, it can make your muscles weaker and more prone to what I call 'pinging'. For me, this means having a bit of a crap back and neck. I am fully capable, but occasionally suffer silly acute muscle spasms from, say, lugging a heavy rucksack about for too long, or, in this week's fun times, probably from extending beyond my normal range of movement during a yoga workshop.

It was a two day workshop, really informative and useful, and during it we tried out various pose options. One was matsiyasana, fish pose, up against the wall. We were encouraged to place our head against a block and rise onto our tiptoes as we did it, to enable increased stability through the lower back. In my case, however, I suspect this extension was too much for my neck (even though on the floor I can fully tip my head back). I didn't feel it at the time but I have now had a headache since Sunday night and have pain when turning my head to the right. I can feel a painful lump somewhere on the curve between the neck and the shoulder. Sigh.

To resolve this, I'm planning to see my physio this week if I can, and have been taking light painkillers and using hot water bottles and generally being careful and trying to avoid quick movements like glancing to the side. I'm at mysore tonight so will talk to the teacher and probably avoid twisting to the right in any pose. I do think from what I know that it's important not to stop turning my head as that will just cause ongoing tension.

It just shows - you have to be careful when exercising. I'm sure this is an injury anyone could get, I'm just a little more prone to them with my historic whiplash issues. I also didn't tell the guy leading the workshop what happened, though I think I'll feed back separately. Always tell them, otherwise they'll keep implementing poses but without knowing it could cause problems for students.