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Hi Sheila
I have never attended any rolfing sessions although I wanted to! But that doesn’t help you. 😉
I do know that working on such deep levels in the body can be uncomfortable or yes, even painful. I also know that with the yoga itself you are doing some deep body work on your own. You can consider too, going for a course of massages. Or just keep going to yoga. Your results will come in time. Whatever bodywork you embark upon in addition to your yoga is very likely to actually lessen your ‘pain’ experience in rolfing, massaging or other body work.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Heart Problems #3868Hi Julia
How to keep the dizzy feelings at bay?
One way is to be slower and more mindful with your movements where you change your positions (from lying to standing, or where your head changes position from upright to inverted). I know that with my low blood pressure that I have to finish a semi-inverted or inverted pose, take a whole breath or 2 in position after having released the tension of the pose, while staying down there, then release coming up slowly. For example I will relax all my muscles, take the breaths then re-engage whatever muscles are required to move on to the next position. You have to be quite deliberate.
I make sure also that the breath is coordinated with the movement. Inhaling steadily and smoothly as I come back up off the floor, or lift my arms up. Exhaling steadily and smoothly as I bring my arms down. You get the picture. Your blood pressure seems quite normal but taking it easy on moving around should help you, while working on breath. You want to breathe through the nose (have you seen my recent breathing video?) and experiment with the quality and depth of your breath so that you continue to get oxygen to your body. You will work out what you need to do to your breath, make it more shallow or more deep in certain conditions.
You could see if you can find more of a static style of yoga for a while, if you are doing a lot of the type of pose transitions that continue to bother you.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: tight hips and sciatic/piriformis issues #3867Hello bikraminseoul
Letting you know that I am on the case but had a few things come up for me. I want to ask some questions and hope to do that in the next day or so. There are A LOT of issues tied up in your post and I want to take the opportunity to stew on it, come up with some questions for you to clarify the situation and also some ideas to work on…
I would like to know if you are doing any other exercise besides the 60 min Bikram classes. Do you sit at a desk for your job or do you move around a lot? You mention your injury (IT) is on the right side. Do you know how much longer your leg is than the other? Which leg is longer?
Both feet are hurting, right? What about your sciatic/piriformis conditions are they on one or both sides? When you say that hot yoga exacerbates and heals, do you mean that while you are doing it feels good but out of class it doesn’t feel good, or something else?
I appreciate that you are doing your best in the poses! Do you feel as if you are struggling at the moment in your effort to get where you want to get? Is the class giving you the joy of working your body? Or is it becoming hard work?
Whatever you can give me is good! Get specific. Poses that are simple, impossible, getting harder, or easier with time. Post here or send me an email. Doesn’t matter!!!
PS seems I got carried away and wrote some questions now after all :cheese:
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Heart Problems #3865Hi Julia
Would you be able to tell me what actually brings on the dizziness? For example are they standing poses, semi-inverted ones, no particular pattern, a particular pose(s)? Are there poses that never cause these feelings? Did you start feeling the dizziness after the diagnosis or go to the doctor as a result of the dizziness? If you don’t mind it is an important subject and I would really love to have as much information as I can. Perhaps throw in anything you feel is relevant. You may know your blood pressure too.
I do have some very solid ideas for you but I would like to request more info to see if I am barking up the right tree so to speak! :cheese:
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Cross-train? or just Bikram for weight loss? #3864Hi Jules
Wow, that is great. 5-7 times per week is a mammoth effort which has its wonderful rewards as you have already discovered.
See if you can hold on, because what normally happens is one day you will look in the mirror and you will be amazed at how much shape change you have had. It doesn’t always happen gradually or predictably. In my experience you can’t help but get the changes on such a committed schedule. And you have only been going one month. Many don’t see the physical changes for 5-7 weeks. However, there are no hard and fast rules.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Can't Keep My Palms Together #3860Hello kellybelly
A lot of your ability to gain palms together with your arms over head has to do with shoulder, neck and upper back muscles. What you want to do is to hold your arms in a way that is not going to cause damage, and at the same time encourage the opening. Little by little you will find that IF you work your arms in the correct fashion that you will get your palms together, your arms behind your ears, and EVENTUALLY your elbows locked out BUT ONLY IF you are not introducing undue stress and strain into the system. Doing it incorrectly also risks damage to your shoulders.
If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend taking a look at my instructional video: A transformational technique for your practice.
This information is so CRUCIAL to your WHOLE practice that I have devoted pages to shoulder anatomy and the correct movement of the arms in my manual Hot Yoga MasterClass Manual.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Bikram Yoga and Philosophy #3851Hi BonMar
I can totally confirm what you are saying. In my experience the strongest opinions about this yoga come from the people who know the least about it. I am guessing it has something to do with the fear of the unknown and practicing in a heated room. Of course the bad press that it gets sometimes doesn’t help.
Come to think of it, many of the poor reviews in articles I have read have been written by people who have decided to try it out. They go once and once only. The results are usually directly related to what their radar is seeking. So if they are writing it because they have friends who have told them it is great, or if it is in response to hearing the negative side, then the article reflects what they generally anticipate.
Of course what many of us learn as a result of going regularly is to drop the judgment and just observe. It is obviously just one of those human foibles – and a healthy cynicism can sometimes just be a little too healthy. :cheese: The trick, as we all (now) know, is to go several times before taking a stance. Or to stand back and let your body do the talking. I know that many say that they hate it at first and then can’t work out why they turned up the next day. 😆
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Going to class when ill? #3845Hi droma 🙂
it is a fine line isn’t it?
As you say, that is an easy compromise, but you are the one being compromised. You get to know that others are sick but then you have to leave. I know it is your choice.
I like the use of the word ‘resolution’ because it gives all parties’ needs a chance to be taken into account.
This is a difficult one to make a decision on. Hey, I have never heard of it before, but I wonder what people would say if there were a small number of classes per week where people with minor infectious ailments were simply not permitted. This would potentially give a chance to immunologically suppressed students to feel 100% confident. Just throwing it out there as a point of discussion as I had never until now thought about it in this way.
Tell me what you think, no holds barred. Who knows where it might take us.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Lower back pain do not heal and I am strange… #3829Hi Stefan
Normally I would say focus on backbends but your posts seemed to indicate that you were having trouble with them.
Because others are not privy to our other emails, I can say that your recent emails to me have told me this is what you are doing and it is working for you. So I am relieved that you are feeling better.
Keep us posted on your progress
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Crampy Rabbit! #3828Hi Bonnie
Your grip, your head and your arms! These could be worth focusing your attention on. Oh how a live online pose clinic complete with webcams would be great. Hmmmmm :cheese:
How comfortable is your grip? What can you tell me?
Is your chin tucked from the beginning to the end? Or do you feel that at some point you loosen the tuck to help you gain some kind of stability? You may have to get down on the ground now to work that one out?
You mentioned in a previous post that your arms were bending and you would work on that? Bonnie, how is that working out? Are your arms stretched out and relaxed? Are your shoulders relaxed away from the ears, moving up toward the ceiling?It is great to sometimes have someone step on your feet. What were you able to do differently when your teacher was there? You said that you “stopped pulling on them”. Can you explain to me what you did and what your sensations were at that time?
Whew! What a lot to think about. 😉
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Rob
Your wife is a real tease! :cheese: And you are very welcome. Good news is that there are only about 3 weeks to go! 😆
Rob, take a bottle of water in with you and drink when you are thirsty. Don’t interrupt your poses, and work out if you are actually thirsty at all. You actually haven’t indicated that you are thirsty, you have said that you are worried about dehydration. With the amount of water you are drinking through the day I doubt you are dehydrated but you could consider taking electrolytes if you aren’t doing so already. Have you been taking any supplementation? In Oz you can buy products like Endura.
I was talking to Robert who sweats a lot more than I do. He says he has to drink in class because otherwise his eyes dry a little and he loses visual focus. Everyone is different! I always take a bottle with me but I don’t always drink.
A great place to knowledge up is to read Lesley Funk’s Article on exercising in the heat. It may help you decide how to best handle your situation.
Try to balance your action of drinking water with your understanding that the most common self-distraction ‘technique’ preventing self-connection is reaching for the water bottle unnecessarily. But since you are used to practicing without your bottle then you should be right.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: The sound of Pranayama Breathing #3824Hi Martina
Thank you so much for your excitement about Hot Yoga MasterClass!!! Firstly if English is not your first language IT DOESN’T SHOW. Your English is beautiful. I do know however what you mean, the nuances of a second language may not be as easily or as instantly understood.
The hairdryer noise is a great description of the EXHALE. I know others like the term Darth Vader breathing. 😆
Just for the benefit of the people who have not yet seen the video Effective breathing in hot yoga I mention that you don’t need to make a singing or buzzing noise in the back of your throat.
But you do need a constriction of your throat to take advantage of a particular scientific principle that WILL help deepen your breath. There are diagrams in the video that explain this principle. In my experience I had to stop using my larynx and find a better way because my throat felt itchy and irritated often causing me to cough or stop my Pranayama exercise. This is when I started using proper Ujjayi breathing principles also described in the video.
The constriction of the throat doesn’t happen at the larynx it occurs higher up more accurately at the back of the mouth, or the top of the throat. So if you make noise through the larynx you are really just using energy that you could be using to deepen your breath. The noise you create is one of rushing air or that lovely sound of the sea.
I guess you could say it is like normal breathing but stronger – but in order to make it stronger you have to do something with your throat, and that is, constrict it!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: special water? #3823Hello
I guess I didn’t shop around :cheese: We just have our friend send them! Thanks for the tip.
Anyway, trace minerals are a great idea. Especially these days where the quality of food that we ingest may no longer have all the minerals we need.
Actually here where we live, I get beautiful organic vegetables delivered which are MINERALLY REPLENISHED. Our guy has been organically enhancing the soil for a few years now to create a better quality soil and therefore a better quality produce. And the taste of his tomatoes and broccoli (and his other stuff) is so much more delicious than the regular organic stuff (which is not mineral replenished) that we can get elsewhere.
I don’t think Andrew delivers to the US though 😆
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: special water? #3817Hi!
We don’t get Emergen-C here in Oz, but we have it sent out to us. It works for us and I have found it to be very affordable. The product referred to above seems very good. Dollar for dollar there is a significant difference between these products.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Belly Breathing #3812Yes Bonnie, it is amazing how the best answers to our problems are often the most simple. I am happy the ideas in the video are helping you.
I imagine you feel quite disappointed with news of the delayed studio opening!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Belly Breathing #3810Hi Bonnie
The instruction for sucking in the stomach is an odd one. Many misconstrue it for being THE way to encourage core strength. So consequently you hear it again and again.
When you can manage to draw in your core it is more subtle than a full-on suck-in-the-stomach action! It involves the deep abdominal as well as perineal muscles (and others!). One of the ways that ‘sucking in the stomach’ helps is by holding firm the spinal muscles due to the hydraulic pressure of the organs against these supportive structures. Or thinking of it in another way, if you have no abdominal tone then you have a whole raft of fluid filled structures sloshing around down there. You may be getting a sense of how important it is to have some ‘control’ in order to gain the required stability.
So drawing in the belly in one part and then letting the rest stick out may be a difficult way of visualizing what you need to do. Be patient with yourself BonMar! When you try to activate these deeper abdominal muscles with the aim of stabilization rather than sucking in the stomach you may find you have a greater freedom with your abdomino-diaphragmatic breathing. Hopefully your breath in Half Moon will flow more easily.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Bikram Yoga for people with transplantations? #3808Hello Katja
Thank you – I am touched and grateful for your comments.
This is a question I am reticent to answer definitively. I have been thinking about the issue carefully. Someone who gets an organ transplant has to take anti-rejection drugs to stop the body rejecting or attacking the new organ. In rare cases such as in transplants where the donors are identical twins, anti-rejection drugs are rarely needed.
The problem is if the lymphatic system is overstimulated the body can reject a transplant. Having said that I know that this yoga helps bring the body into balance. We know that deep breathing and organ massage and many of the movements actually make the whole body work more efficiently. According to the rejection theory this could mean that you may want to avoid the stimulation that comes from the yoga. Who knows if working your immune system into good balance is the same as over-stimulation.
I am going to look for any anecdotal evidence that says that someone has benefited from the yoga AFTER they have had a transplant. It is logical that you would GAIN benefit BEFORE the transplant procedure immunologically, and after the transplant in terms of feelings of wellbeing.
This is such a complex situation because even this person’s personal convictions about how well they are or how the yoga can help them may effect their healing. The mind is magical and often defies science.
So even if your student went against what they were advised but BELIEVED congruently that they were healing themselves, then who knows what might happen?
The issue for me is also one about life balance. One has to enjoy their life and feel active and vital. Some amount of activity or exercise has to be had. The benefits of FEELING good cannot be overemphasized when it comes to healing. Any exercise is going to stimulate your lymphatic system to some degree. The subjective effects are going to have to be monitored by the person themselves, and the satisfaction that they gain with their yoga will have to come into the equation. They may decide to do some Bikram yoga and decide that they either feel fantastic or that it is too much for them.
I know you are looking for answers. To be honest, this is such a gray area your student needs to do the research and come up with their own intuitive response, then follow it through. The answer they may come up with is TESTING different styles of yoga for a number of weeks of fairly regular practice to see their body’s and mind’s responses.
ALRIGHT: I have just now done some research. I would like to direct your yogi to a website that has a forum where transplant recipients are talking about yoga. They are having a conversation about less vigorous forms of yoga, and they seem to enjoy it as you would expect. One of the primary issues seems to counter the effects of osteoporosis with weight bearing exercises. Here is that link: Transplant buddies forum or the search page: Transplant buddies forum search. Good luck.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: pain in legs and feet #3806Hi Bonnie
Thanks for reporting back. :cheese: You must be over the moon that your progress is so quantifiable. A little bit of effort, surrender and the right technique all mixed together make for a very satisfying practice. I am very happy for you.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Janayah
Here are a few ideas for you 😉
I am wondering if this strange sensation you are talking could possibly be muscle pain and the stretching of your connective tissue as you learn to breathe more fully and your ribcage and your lungs are expanding more.
Does the ‘digging in’ of your ribs feel like a tightness, or a resistance of your ribcage that is not quite ready to surrender to your growing lungs?
Just a thought. How easily are you adapting to using your diaphragm and your abdomen when you breathe? You may find my new instructional video helpful in deconstructing breathing technique. Here’s the link: Effective breathing in hot yoga
Another thought: I don’t know how flexible you are, but is it possible that when you are in your big half moon side bends or your back bend that you are feeling your ribs digging in. If this is the case then we can talk about the way you can set up to create space in the poses that this can happen.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Haven't Been Sleeping Well #3795Oh wow Natasha
I love to hear your successes. Gotta love that Camel :cheese: it works a treat. We are with you – counting down and celebrating.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Lower back pain do not heal and I am strange… #3790Hi Stefan
It is not too long to wait til your appointment. I would consider not doing any poses that are aggravating to your back. And if your intuition is to not do the yoga at all, then don’t. Just do what feels right. You have been doing this yoga for years. You decide.
Also it does seem unusual for a practitioner to say ‘take stronger pills and if that doesn’t work, I will take x rays’.I don’t have the full story so I cannot comment more than that. A full work up for your condition is what really seems to be needed right now.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Lower back pain do not heal and I am strange… #3788Oops…. or maybe a nerve problem?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Lower back pain do not heal and I am strange… #3787Hi Stefan
From your other posts you have said you have been to a chiropractor. Has anyone taken x rays of your back yet?
I am really concerned for you and wonder what else it could be, like you (and like your chiropractor). I REALLY want to help but am so wanting to know more. It is hard for me because I am forced to assume certain things about your practice and your technique only by the words you offer. For example I have been assuming that you practice perfect yoga technique. This may or may not be true. There could be little things that cause problems.
On top of this, you have a profession that I can only guess has caused some effects in your spine. Over 20 years of professional skateboarding with those wonderful trick maneuvers and all that world class competition skating must have done something. The trick is to find out IF this is the case – and if it is something that needs attention – WHAT can be done about it.
I know for one, if it were me, I would feel so much better if I had all the information I could get about what is going on (from Western as well as Eastern medicine doctors).
I wonder if it is a problem with the vertebral discs, or maybe even a core strength issue. As you say there are unusual ways that your back is responding to regular activities like walking and sitting. Are you getting a sense that it is a muscular or bony problem?
What are you thinking Stefan?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: the secret to head to knee pose #3779Hi Martina and Amy
Amy I am glad you feel it and love it. Once you get this pose it is just impossible to do it ANY other way.
I know we are going to get there with you Martina…
May I ask you if you have read the VIP Members’ Forum where I have answered this one in detail along with photos?
My very first thing for you to would be to ask you to try it right now without your thumbs interlocked. Remember to push the head into the knee at the same time as pushing the heel away and pulling the toes back, elbows in and down as if pointing under the knee and the shoulders relaxed.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Thumbs don't stay interlocked, is that OK? #3778Hi Martina
You are so sweet! Thank you!
What an incredible way to be cheated: to feel that you are cheating when you are getting the most out of the poses!
I do believe that you should interlock the fingers in Wind Removing but not the thumbs. Mind you for some people this will be OK. You will get a LOT more work against your knee, strengthen your fingers plus release your shoulders.
RELAX!!! And go back to your cheatin’ ways 😆
I am just about to answer your head to knee question…
Oh and I just checked on your manual delivery. Get in touch with me on my personal email if it is not there by early next week.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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