Right hamstrings/buttock pain

Dear Gabrielle, Thank you very much for putting all this wonderful info on this web site. It really helps.

I fell in love with Hot Yoga almost a year ago and was attending regulary (60 days for the first two months, then 3-6 times a week, then 30 days challenge, a break for two week vacation, then back to everyday of Bikram). Now I am backing off because of the injury.

From the very beginning I found Separate leg stretching pose as the most impossible for me. Well, not from the very beginning, but from the moment the teacher told me that my knees must be locked first from the setup. It was very hard to follow this advice and keep legs far apart because then it would hurt all over and I would hang in there without any firmness in the posture. I felt that something is not right with me doing this particular posture. I even developed a fear of this one.

Then one of the instructors commanded differently on thsi posture. He told that the priority is on the grip and the width of step should accomodate the grip. I tried it and I felt MUCH better! I had the foundation finally, something to rely on! My center of gravity was finally defined and stopped swimming around!

My problem is that we are told to respect instructor and do as instructor says. When instructor speciafically corrects you for the width of step then what? Disagree? I am not even talking about bent knee! This would be a No-No! Anyway, I am going to try to stand my ground and will do modification of this one. Thank you one more time for these instructions!

I also have issue standing on one foot now. When so much weight is distrubuted over the hurt area of the right leg (it is not only the hamstring, I believe it is a combination of glute and hamstring), it is not fun. I feel it in my hip. It is not a sharp pain, rather a dull, pulling pain and uncomfortable tightness during and after class. This tightness persists through the night and bleeds into the next day, but goes away after the gentle run on the soft grass for about 50 minutes. Well, I know that yoga people do not approve on running, but here it is. I have been told repeatedly that I need to stretch the hurt area and not to shake it through running, but the fact is that Hot Yoga now exacerbates pain and gentle run takes it away.

So for now I do run one day and do yoga another day. Do you have any suggestions on which poses and how to modify, because I do not want to break my yoga commitment now?