The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Injuries, Restrictions, Ailments, Pose Modifications › Illnesses/Ailments › I don't want to stop!!
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Hi Gabrielle, Robert and everyone,
I, like many in this community, am sold on hot yoga. I started a year and a half ago and went daily for a few months, then took a pause for several months. I have had a daily practise since October 2010, until a week and a half ago.
I have always had problems with my right side hamstrings. I have purchased your Masterclass kit (thank you mille fois!), gone to physio, had IMS treatment, worked on strengthening and proper modifications. I am now going 4-5 times a week, trying to give my injury/problem time to heal. I sit out most forward bends and try to leave my ego at the door. I used to be quite happy with my practise, and pleased with my progress. I am quite flexible naturally. Now I can only do 3/4 of the poses and I have to fight my frustration on top of the heat during class…
Yesterday, my physiotherapist sat me down and told me that this yoga is not a good exercise for me. I have hypermobility in some of my joints, most importantly, my pelvis. Something about being a congenital issue. I have resulting psuedo-sciatica. She is of the opinion that given the chronicity of the problem, I should discontinue this form of yoga. She feels that pilates is the best thing for me. I really need to strenghten my core, and supporting muscles, tendons, ligaments etc. around the pelvis. I can see the rationale for pilates. However, firstly, it’s very expensive. Secondly, one of the main reasons that I am involved in hot yoga is because I have severe anxiety problems, amongst other issues. I have found this to be one of the best treatments for dealing with it. I really do not want to go into major details about this publicly, suffice to say that it has been many years of suffering and I have finally found a helpful tool.
I have been crying since yesterday. I feel like I have lost my best friend! I do NOT want to believe that this is true-that I have to quit. I asked my PT, what if I take a break for a month and strenghten the heck out of my core etc., then can I go back. She said that it will take 6-8 weeks to notice strength gains and even then, she is doubtful.
Please can you tell me if there is some option for me? Is it worth it to continue and eliminate ALL forward bends while I work hard on the outside strenthening the supporting sturctures? I realize you are super busy, and that you will likely need supporting information. I am most happy to provide it, when you get time.
Cheers.
I’m interested to hear what Gabrielle has to say on this.
Personally, I’d see what you can do to put your focus on building that core strength in class as well as trying some Pilates or other exercises as well. Like you, I find Bikram classes to be very good for my mental state, not just good for my physical body. So even if it meant modifying things a lot or sitting out a number of poses, I would see if I could come up with a way to do that and keep going. The key however is deciding that you are happy to work on those other things and let the exercises that bother your hamstrings go. If you can’t, and are just making yourself miserable wishing to do things you can’t, then don’t torture yourself.
That said, I’ve heard some warnings on the dangers of “too much flexibility” as well. With my last knee surgery, they were modifying the physical therapy protocols to basically leave some stiffness in your knees permanently, in an effort to protect the joint. Meaning, whereas previously we worked to get my ~5 degrees of hyperextension back in my post-op knee to match the other one, there was someone saying well, maybe it’s better if you just get to 0 degrees, they don’t match and it’s not your natural range of motion but you might be safer with less flexibility. Same with regaining full flexion in my knees or doing full squats – the attitude became, well, what do you really need that for anyway? You don’t really NEED to squat down past 90 degrees. Just leave it stiff – your joints won’t be as loose.
But in the years following that, I seemed to develop more and more stiffness and pain, and it was moving from my knees to hips to back. My personal theory was that these things are all interconnected. When my knees are stiff, I compensate by tightening up my hips and back – almost like I’m flinching and it travels through my body. Once they get used to doing that – everything starts feeling locked up and stiff. Ugh. That can’t be the answer.
I DO understand that you must have strength with flexibility, not just flexibility. I think we need to develop/maintain flexibility while developing and maintaining strength to keep our bodies working properly.
Hi Brenda – oh goodness, I FEEL your sadness!
Gabrielle is away, but I’ll talk with here shortly and request advice asap!
OK first question – has your PT attended any Bikram classes, if so, how many?
While I won’t take on an expert directly, I will always qualify anything they say with an understanding of their own model of the world.
Secondly – Pilates COULD help your core … but you know we’ve had issues with people getting injured in Pilates too, so let’s not jump to conclusions.
And thirdly – there are some shortcomings (physically) with the Bikram series – and core development is one of them. It’s actually possible to become externally “good” at the poses, yet still be very weak in the core.
So you would be advised to practice some core-strengthening exercises every day, outside of your yoga. I’ll ask Gabrielle to post some idea of her recommendations in this respect – but your PT should be able top give you some (and not just tell you to do Pilates).
Re: Hypermobility – I believe it’s a question of where your body has become too “loose”. My ankles for example are a mess and if I run anywhere for any length of time then they HURT and eventually can get damaged … running just isn’t for me (as my PT says!). My PT has no issue with yoga (actually believes in it) BUT we have to work on areas where we need STRENGTH – so in my case, there is little point in me working on ankle “flexibility” just to show depth in a pose – I’m better off in Awkward for example, really working on lifting my arches and ankles to develop strength.
Same thing applies to you – you can focus on two things: Core building WITHIN your hot yoga (possible, but needs good direction) and STRENGTH building around your mid-torso (also possible within class, as well as outside of it).
Regarding the forward bends, as Connie says, it’s still worth doing what you can, even if, as she says, you end up sitting out. There are some poses I simply cannot do in the form required due to a minor tear in my meniscus in my left knee (I use modifications), but it’s been so long now I forget that I do these things differently – the yoga still works for me!
I’m sure Gabrielle will have some ideas about the hamstring/sciatica and forward bends modifications … personally I think the PT is right, it probably would take at least 6-8 weeks to build your core – and it would be well worth it – but in my opinion, you shouldn’t need to give up your yoga too … with a big proviso … IF you can work on your core within yoga AND you work on precision and strength (abandon any further depth in poses) AND find some modifications so you don’t exacerbate anything with forward bends.
OK that’s my 2c worth – I shall ensure Gabrielle gets to this as soon as she can!
Thank goodness you have the Hot Yoga MasterClass – now you REALLY want to get as precise as possible in every pose 😉
Namaste,
Robert
PS. Never give up hope … cry for the friend you may have “lost” and appreciate the new friend and lessons you have found on your journey.
Hi Robert, Hi Connie,
Thank you both for your care and understanding. It’s so great to have a forum to exchange info and concerns with people that truly “get it”. I am not understating my love of this activity; just this afternoon, while dropping off one of my children at the local rec centre for an activity, a woman walked by me and said, “hey, its the yoga lady!” I did 119 classes in a row and then had to take a break because the pain was excruciating.
I have given consideration to what you have both posted and at this early point, I am going to go back in tomorrow and talk to the studio owner and teachersto explain my situation, as I understand it. I will abstain from any forward bends completely to start, and work on my core strength and stability as well as precision in each pose that I can do. I hope it is well received as I worry that I may be a distraction for others practising fully….we have a very strong membership with a lot of hard core, dedicated yogis.I will also supplement my yoga with exercises for my problem at home, as I have been doing for the past few weeks.
My PT did give me a lot of exercises to do daily. As for your question Robert, yes, she has been to one Bikram class (at the studio I attend) and did not particularily care for it. She has also done a 2 week trial at a Hot Yoga studio in a nearby community, but it has a variety of classes and is not as hot as what you would expect at a Bikram studio. She did like that studio. I have never been there so can’t really comment on the difference although I expect it has deviations from the Bikram method. I am not prepared to try it either, as the distance is a problem for me plus I have alread paid for an annual membership at my local Bikram studio.
I have scoured over posts for several weeks, and yes Robert, I know you feel my pain, as I had read your posts about your hypermobility issues. I am encouraged by your perseverance and sincerely hope that I can make similar lasting changes to improve my practise! I cannot accept a finality to my practise without making an honest effort to fix my problem first.
I would love to chat with Gabrielle when she is back to go over a few poses that I am unsure about. I should say that I have read all that I can about “opening up the hamstrings with hot yogs”, back, gluteal, SI problems, watched the “flatten your belly and protect your back” (and it looks like I will have to start employing some of this work for my core for sure!) so I think I have done my background work thusfar.
Cheers,
Brenda
Hello Brenda – Gabrielle is away as you know and she’s only had her phone for internet access … yikes!
So I just spoke to her (she had asked me to read out your posts) and gave me some initial responses.
Also Gabrielle had done something to her left hamstring herself about a year ago and tried to use her yoga practice to fix it … didn’t work and after seeing a physio she made great progress with some specific hamstring strengthening exercises. (You can read her very brief post about this here: https://www.hotyogadoctor.com/index.php/site/forum/viewreply/4472/)
So:
1. Have you been given some RH-hamstring strengthening exercises at all? eg Lunges etc?
2. Gabrielle suspects that your hamstrings in general need strengthening (and of course in Bikram, there is a great focus on STRETCHING them!) – poses such as Awkward are great in this respect – especially concentrating on very slow descent and ascent in part III. So this would be worth working out how to strengthen and not stretch those …
3. Gabrielle asked me to clarify that when we talk about core strength, the exterior (abs & tummy) is often mistaken for the entire thing – which is far from the truth. Even people with a 6-pack can have a dangerously weak internal core (intra-abs) – from what you have said, I’m sure your reference to “strengthening the outside” wasn’t specific to core strength, but we wanted to be sure!
You can work on internal core strength by making sure you are lifting your pelvic floor & getting some help in activating the internal muscles. Gabrielle wrote a newsletter once all about how a quiet “Ahem” just BEFORE any pose entry (or even sitting or standing) will help to train those internal core muscles to switch on (they are hard to spot functioning – but the individual can sure FEEL them!
4. Feel free to post a list of forward bends/poses you are not sure of or how to modify here and we’ll take them one at a time – if necessary, we can PM if there is anything you don’t want public.
Finally – Gabrielle also thinks Pilates could be useful and suggests the reason for some of them being expensive is that they use a machine (not necessary to Pilates) – she herself took some Pilates classes for HER hamstring repair – these were held quite inexpensively at her physio’s premises.
But your PT should be able to give you all the Pilates exercises needed anyway and since it seems you are very disciplined for doing these at home, you should be able to keep the costs down once you are certain you are carrying them out OK!
I hope that helps to start with – Gabrielle is back fully online on Saturday!
Namaste,
Robert
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