Pain in Back of Thigh

Hi brooklynyogini

Firstly, I want to say that you should stop beating yourself up about ‘not doing [your] best’. I am certain you are doing the best you can. And posting a question is evidence of that. Sometimes that kind of comment comes either out of comparing yourself to what you have been able to achieve before, or comparing yourself to others. Either comparison is not really that useful (except I guess in knowing that you may get an idea of where you are heading!).

And now for your problem: I hope I can or someone else out there can help you.

The poses that you mention are ones which are often misunderstood. I have no idea how you are approaching them so I will ask you to do a little yoga homework for me and come back and tell me if it feels any better.

If I remember correctly you have been doing this yoga for about 2 months so it is probably safe to say that your body is still opening up. I mean we all do create new space with regular practice but in the beginning there can be more of an avalanche of things occurring. It may even be an old injury surfacing.

Anyway…
some homework

For Hands to Feet: try bending the legs a little more, getting the fingers as far behind as possible so you can pull your body on to the legs with the biceps. You should always feel the stretch everywhere but I would try less to straighten the legs, but simply lift the hips til you feel just that little resistance. Aim more for the solid squish of the body on the legs coupled with the elbows trying to touch behind your knees!

For Separate Leg Stretching: have you by any chance read my article? Opening up your hamstrings with Hot Yoga. There is also another forum post entitled One hamstring much tighter than the other. There are some clues in both about how maybe your legs are too far apart in this pose; how you can use long duration stretches to ease into this muscle safely. See if this makes sense to you and get back to me in a few classes.

For Floor Head to Knee pose: If you are pulling with bent arms, elbows pointing down, with interlocked hands pulling against the ball of your flexed foot and the heel moving away from you this should work. Despite its name there are still many students who don’t have their heads pushing down on their knees. So I know it sounds basic but please start with that. 😉 Bend up your leg slightly more for a couple of classes and focus more on working the arm strength against the foot and extending heel. Although that may not seem different, you should feel the difference it makes in class.

Please do a few classes and see how you go. I have received many emails about the unexpected progress people have made when they reduce the leg distance for Sep Leg Stretch pose. I look forward to hearing from you in a few days.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Ruthie

Thanks for that great remedy.

Brooklynyogini, I realized I forgot to remind you about an important aspect of Separate Leg Stretching. Until you have no more pain through your hamstrings it is best to keep your feet parallel instead of pointing them in. It should help offer you a little more relief.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi brooklynyogini

I have been trying to work out how best to explain why it is not the best thing to do to keep your legs locked if your back is rounded.

If you could think of Standing Separate Leg Stretching as if it were Hands to Feet with your legs further apart then you can see why I am asking you to keep your legs bent. Hands to Feet is capitalizing on reciprocal inhibition to open the whole back side of the body by keeping the body on the legs and pulling with your arms. Most people will have their legs bent. By default their backs are straight (or almost) as the body is sandwiched against the legs and safely supporting the spine. If their back and legs separate then the pose is not only ineffective but the back is rounded. It is similar for both poses.

In Sep Leg Stretching to REALLY capitalize on this incredible stretch you need to work on pulling with bent arms and a straight back. All my students work on the principle that if there is the smallest rounding in the back then they back out to straighten the back. They TRY to straighten the legs by lifting the hips all the time but the PRIME MOTIVATION is to keep the back straight. The legs get the stretch no matter how bent they are if the back is pulled straight and the arms are bent out to the sides near the shins. Straight locked out legs are just a bonus – the icing on the cake.

With your painful hamstrings you are opening yourself up to injury and further strain if you are hanging there with your legs too wide apart and a rounded back. Your stretch is safer, when you keep your body (aka straight spine) on your bent legs with Hands to Feet. You want to emulate this in the other pose. In this way you nurture your lower back muscles and those that run down through your legs (the ones that get inflamed with sciatica) and stretch them safely at the same time.

Also when the legs are too wide your hands usually reach the feet with extended and straight arms. This means that you cannot engage the proper technique because you are using your shoulders, exacerbating roundedness with the pull and transforming this pose into one that has a lot less benefits. And with straight arms and wide legs it is difficult to get your hands gripping at the heels and approaching from behind.

I am sorry I can’t actually be there with you in the room to help guide you into it personally and tweak this pose so that you can FEEL the difference (and never go back 😉 ). The most gentle and effective way to open your hamstrings is to keep your legs bent, lift your hips up, and pull with your bent arms pulling your straight back down towards the floor. Even people who can’t reach their feet at all (with either straight OR bent arms) are better off bending the legs and gripping behind the ankles to engage the best and most effective body stretch (this is in preference to hanging there over locked legs without any grip at all).

Putting your hands in front of you will give you a stretch but it won’t be as effective for many reasons that can be proved with anatomical principles! You have to do what feels right. If you want to take photos and send them to me via email please feel free to do so. Ultimately you (and I!) want to heal that pain in your leg.

I understand that if you have teachers who are adamant that their way is the best way, it can be hard to work against this when they are singling you out in class. Sometimes it just seems easier to go with the flow regardless…

I would really recommend attempting it the other way after class when you are warm and you can test it out properly. Thousands of satisfied yogis can’t be wrong :cheese:. Seriously though, if you aren’t getting any relief then it is worth a go!

Have fun experimenting and please get back to me…

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂