Hi all,

Just wanted to get everyone’s input on the possibility of injury from the over/miss use of Ujjayi.

Recently I returned to practice and have been doing full primary twice a day, though the last few days I’ve had a cold and have been doing less in my afternoon session, so it could be that I’m just overdoing it in general 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’ve noticed over the last two or three days that the ujjayi sensation usually felt in the throat finds its way lower to the root of my throat between my collarbones and sometimes into my chest. Now I’ve developed some kind of internal muscle pain specifically in these areas that is exacerbated by swallowing and deep breathing.

It doesn’t feel like that inflamed feeling you get from a cold, but it does get irritated by contact. And I remember when I studied traditional hatha my teacher advising against long-sustained ujjayi breathing during an asana practice because it, as a form of muscular contraction, increases bodily stress to an extent. I thought maybe it was just a combination of overdoing it in “chest opening” and having a cold but I recall pretty much every instruction on pranayama coming with a warning against over/miss use...but then this is also the first time this has happened in my years of on-and-off practice 🤔

So, discussion: can our extended use of Ujjayi in asana practice cause injury?