Trouble with legs

Hello Barb!

It can be frustrating to find that you are not progressing despite all the effort. Firstly of course you may just not be ready to get the full wrap. And that is OK. Just keep trying. It could be a question of technique. Remember the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Perhaps it is time to look at it a little differently. 😉

Try this:
Don’t “squat” low in set-up.
When you sit ‘low’ in the hips, scoot your butt behind you but keep the chest up as high as you can. You are trying to sit low in your hips, but your feet have to feel really firm and evenly weighted. To break it down further, you are trying to keep your center of gravity over your feet. Many people sit low but drop the chest forward over their knees. Please avoid this at all costs as you will pay the price in the pose spending your whole time neither being able to get an effective wrap, nor be able to balance easily. You will spend the whole time trying to get your chest right back to where it should have started. So, sit hips low, chest high arching the spine to keep the chest over your hips.

If your head bobs up when you wrap your legs then you know you have sat too low in set-up. In other words, once you have ‘sat’ down, your head should stay still at the same level when you wrap the legs. Then it moves vertically down as you sit lower and lower.

Wrap the leg where it wraps.
No matter how you slice it, you can only wrap the legs so that they twine. In fact being asked to lift the leg as high as possible seems to go against what you are trying to achieve. If you are sitting in a chair when you wrap your legs, you will start by crossing them with knees in proximity. You now have to do that while you are standing.

Think of your lower leg as a ‘chair’
Sometimes I find it clicks with a student to tell them to push down with the top leg on the bottom one. Use the bottom leg as support and seat the top one heavily on it. Pressing down, you may feel the belly of your hamstring muscles shift and spread a bit as you exert this downward force. Or it could just provide you with the visualization that you need that gives you better balance as you sneak your toes around.

Chest up high to start, slide the back down the ‘wall’
I guarantee that if you start with your chest up high (when setting up with hips low and feet firm) that when you start to move your hips down, your chest will be in the optimal position. You will be able to sit lower, your wrap and balance will be better.

Kind regards
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Donna

Thanks for your inspiring words. It reminds me of a fabulous piece of work by a Chilean biologist called Humberto Maturana! He has this great theory of change, which you have distilled in your own post. That is, a system changes when you PRESERVE what works. All the other stuff just falls away.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

I’m going to try these tips tonight!

I had been practicing off/on for 4 years, (followed by a 3 year Savasana)and have only been back for 2 months, but not being able to re-grasp Eagle has been really frustrating for me.

Does not being flexible play any part as well?

Kristin

Thanks helcat for posting that. I have muscular legs as well and have wondered if I would be able to completely wrap my legs due to my calves. It’s given me hope to read that you accomplished that. Any other tips will be greatly appreciated. Oh and I love love love the stretch on my shoulders and forearms in eagle pose!! I hold a lot of tension in that area and it’s so relieving once I’ve completed that posture…now for my legs :-/ –Namaste Babz

Hello

Although the end point is to tuck the foot behind the ankle it’s not as important as good alignment. For some to get their foot in they will straighten the grounded leg and as a result their whole body contorts into a twisted shape.

I am sure you can find some useful pointers in the “Eagle Pose” forum postings. Try here first: Trouble With Legs.

Hanging your foot on the side is fine. Here’s something you can do to help: Lie on your back sometimes – maybe even after class, or just at home on the floor – and wrap your legs without the need to create balance. You could benefit from opening up your hips so take a look at 3 Hip Openers That I Just Love.

Oh, and don’t be in such a hurry! 😉 Have the goal, but then let the attainment of it go as you work towards it. It simply doesn’t matter. There is a ton more stuff you can work on rather than unnecessarily taking your conscious attention up… work on balance, the position of your hips and body, spine arch etc …

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Ilonka

It’s possible that you are experiencing using your feet again. Do you spend a lot of time sitting? Maybe you live in a cold climate and have your feet in shoes the whole time. Is it at all possible to spend more time without shoes on? If shoe wearing is not the culprit then you can still benefit from exercising your feet while sitting down by raising your heels off the ground and leaning in to your toes. There are all sorts of other things you can do if you need to exercise your ankles too. What have you tried so far?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Ilonka

Yes sitting on a lounge, a toilet, a desk or anywhere will allow you to lean into your feet putting all your weight on different parts of your foot and opening up your toes, your arches, your ankles. You won’t have to be concerned about balancing either.

I would love to know how you go. We can explore other ideas together.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi,

I have been distracted a bit from my yoga practice and don’t have an update yet (said sheepishly), but am returning to class today and looking forward falling back into regular practice and strengthening my feet as you suggested.

I did have a thought about a difficulty I have with my feet in another position, (I think it’s called fixed firm pose, though I know it as saddleback) and wondered if this is related to the difficulty I’m facing here.

I am fairly flexible given that I’m overweight (about 25 pounds) and prior to starting hot yoga in Sept., haven’t had regular exercise in years. So I’m frustrated in fixed firm when my butt is on the ground, my knees are fine, but I am limited from bringing my shoulders back because of an almost painful tension in my feet – I would approximate it to be across the front of my ankles, when I try to lower down. Is this normal?

I realize that maybe this should be posted in the fixed firm pose strand, but thought as it might be related to the other weakness in my feet in eagle, maybe it should go here?

Thanks, as always, Ilonka

Hi Gabrielle,

I’m going to post the other thread in a moment, but wanted to first give an update on my feet, in eagle pose. In my last two classes, I’ve had a new sensation! Instead of going numb, I am now happily experiencing muscle pain in my feet. Hot yoga makes me say funny things!!

If that wasn’t clear, I’ll try to be a little more specific. Before, my feet would have the sensation of falling asleep, especially the one on which I was standing. Now, I am experiencing a sensation of burning/toning along a band of muscle that stretches underneath my feet from behind my toes towards my heel, towards the outside of my foot. I am excited because it feels like I am toning muscle, where before, it just felt weird.

Thank you for the advice, it has helped a lot.

Thanks, Ilonka 8)