bunni

One thing to consider – and maybe you already have – is whether any other factors like drugs/medicines, eating habits (caloric intake, allergies, nutrition), work schedule, or stress/depression could be contributing to your symptoms. I also like the suggestion in the prior post of trying a non-heated style of yoga – it might be a good thing to try if you feel comfortable giving it a shot.

Hi there,

When I first started, I was scared to straighten my standing knee because it was uncomfortable and I wasn’t clear on what the dialog meant by straighten your leg “like a lamp post”. The key is not to hyper-extend the knee–in other words, don’t push the knee back too far. You want it straight, not bent forward and not hyper-extended. Think about pulling up on the knee by tightening the quads. It should be a similar feeling to when you sit in a chair and extend one leg in front of you. You know how the muscles above the knee get tight and tingly? That is the sensation you want in the standing poses. Once you master that, try focusing on opposing muscles, such as really tightening the butt to add strength to the pose and prevent your lower back from curving. The first few classes may be uncomfortable as you get used to the straight leg feeling, but keep with it, don’t hyper-extend, and it will feel more natural.

If it is really uncomfortable (for example in standing head to knee), you can modify by not bending over to pick up your foot. If you just stand on one foot while contracting the quad, your knee is less likely to hurt because it is easier not to hyper-extend it if you aren’t bent over. You can always stay at that stage until your knees become more comfortable.

Gabrielle, I would be interested to hear more about the “contention”…fact is, I still struggle with this pose, but more so because I fear hurting my lower back 🙂

Hi Clay,

What happens if you don’t push yourself so hard? Like if you were to keep your effort at around 25 or 50 % for a week or so? Aside from the heat, do you think you could make it through class more comfortably? If it is heat acclimation that is the problem then ramping up slowly may help–once you start feeling better you can push back to 110%!

Oh, and there have been alot of threads on this forum on how to avoid heat exhaustion that are worth reading too.

For me, I felt REALLY hot for about 6 months. Now after 4 years the only times I notice the heat are when I first enter the room, and again during savasana when entering the floor series. The hot sensation gradually just went away with time. It is a very liberating experience to be drenched with sweat and yet very comfortable, thermally speaking! I am sure you can make it there. Have you had any more developments in class?

Your description said you were using shallower breaths, but maybe you were actually using 80/20 (recommended) breathing? Are you familiar with that approach?

My husband and I attend a new studio that recently opened after we moved to a new town. It is much more “relaxed” than our old studio, with people coming and going from class (even during postures) to refill water, etc. We are really grateful to have a studio at all after several months without one, and the owner and instructors are wonderful, but we also feel distracted at times by all the movement and fussing. I always try to think about the distractions as a challenge that I should try to overcome…but it doesn’t usually work. I would LOVE to be an undistractable yogini, never letting anyone steal my peace (as B says). It is hard to know what to do, because I feel people are more vocal in general about the practice being too rigid and instructors being too militant, making those of us who crave predictability seem too strict and uninviting. I can see how it would be a fine lint to walk for teachers/studio owners.

The same thing happened to me when I first started practicing…I thought the instructor was being a total jerk. But the goal is to do the yoga without props and fidgeting, and like the other person who posted said, I ultimately stopped even bringing an extra towel after a few months of practice.

I later became good friends with the instructor who had called me out about the towel. He pointed out that all parts of the posture should progress together–your hands /grip gets stronger as other parts of the posture also improve. With the exception of rabbit (where the safety of your neck is at stake if you slip), using a towel to increase your grip could allow you to progress too far into a pose and cause injury.

This happened to me in standing bow–I used to use a hand towel at my ankle so I could go further without slipping, but I ended up injuring my hamstring on the standing leg. I wasn’t ready to go that far, and the towel gave me a false sense of strength/security. Sometimes it is hard in the hot room to know when to stop pushing because you are much more flexible than at cooler temperatures–so I try to think of the slippery grip as a built in safety mechanism to keep me from going too far. Maybe that’s weird, but it works for me! I hope it helps you as well.

Good luck!

I remember a story an instructor told us once…she could not straighten her leg in the air, but was close. Then at teacher training Bikram gently helped her straighten it, and she has been able to do it on her own since then. Maybe if after class someone could (very gently, no forcing) encourage your leg to straighten, that might help you play with the positioning of hip and back, learn how it feels different ways and start to get some muscle memory? Using a ballet bar to stabilize with the other hand while doing that might also be helpful.

Could it be a heat rash? Maybe some hydrocortisone would help?

Hi there,

I wonder if your problem could be related to fluid. How much water do you drink before, during, and after class? It takes fluids awhile to get absorbed after drinking them, and I have felt pressure/discomfort in the abdomen if I drink too much too fast, or if the water is too cold. Do you think your problem could be related to fluid intake? If so, maybe switching your drinking pattern up throughout the day or changing what you are drinking might help? Have you ever tried not drinking during class?

Hi there…congrats on beginning your hot yoga journey, it sounds like you are really enjoying it. The tendency for the back to curve during stretches with the legs out straight in front can be from tight hamstrings, although your mention of core strength also makes sense. I would expect that you would gain flexibility over time with consistent practice. It is hard to say how fast that could happen. For me the hamstring flexibility comes faster when I practice regularly. But in the pose with my feet touching, my knees have never touched the floor–and I have been trying to get them there since I was a kid! Best advice I can offer is to push yourself, but not so hard that you risk injury…that will just set you back and take away your progress. That has happened to me several times 🙁

I am not sure about modifications for your wrist/hand injury, but maybe someone with a similar story can comment?

Hi Kathy,

I am just chiming in to agree with you both that it is important for instructors to recognize heat related problems can – and do -occur in class. A man in one of my classes had a heat stroke, and it was scary. He was in alot of pain and needed to be carried out of the hot room.

I also agree with Gabrielle’s comment that it shouldn’t be a contest to see who can tolerate the highest temperatures. I don’t mind a really hot class, but in fact some of the best classes I have had were in studios where they “ramped up” the temperature gradually throughout the standing series, and then turned the heat off for the floor series. The room stays hot, but doesn’t get any hotter. Then around camel/rabbit, they began opening the door bit by bit such that by the end of class the room was probably somewhere around 95. It gives the class a nice ebb/flow that I like.

The main reason I have heard fro instructors is to stay present in the room and not “drift off” and let the mind wander…but I can imagine that would be different for different people, as you said it is for you.

Another factor I have noticed and heard a few instructors mention is that closing the eyes in the hot room can lead to dizziness and disorientation. This can also occur in the postures–the first time I did half moon I instinctively closed my eyes to avoid staring into the fluorescent lights during the back bend and almost fell over! I know they say “trying to fall down backwards”, but err…I don’t think they mean from dizziness 🙂

Also it took alot of work for me to feel comfortable looking in my own eyes during standing savasana, but now it seems strange not to do that. For me it has a strong centering effect.

Hi,

My little guy is due in about a week, and I also wondered about this. I plan to keep taking prenatal vitamins, but is there anything else I should supplement with?

It would be great to hear from folks who have worked through this successfully (or not) 🙂