Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)

Hello K! 😉

As a comprehensive forum(!) I welcome you placing whatever questions you have about any pose.

You know, I practiced the Advanced Bikram series a dozen or so times in the US. It is almost one of those secret cults or exclusive clubs! and practicing is generally limited to those who have a sufficiently advanced practice to make the grade. All Advanced classes tend to be ‘invitation’ only. It is very rare indeed (in fact I have not heard of it done) that someone gets invited along who can’t do all the Beginner series very well.

It certainly is a comprehensive and challenging set of poses, offering something quite different to the Beginners’ series.

Being geographically isolated as I am and my studio is (in a resort town), it has always been difficult to get enough sufficiently advanced students together to practice the advanced series together on a regular basis (besides the fact that I have a young family). So instead of doing that, I focused on being out there in the yoga community practicing other styles when I can and grabbing the opportunity to be taught by others, rather than always being the teacher. Other styles I have learned include: Ashtanga yoga, Hot and Power yoga (Baron and vinyasa flow), Iyengar, Yin, and other more non-descript styles that teachers lump under the heading “Hatha”.

Although I remember poses, I don’t remember their names so hopefully together with folks out there who are Bikram yoga fanatics, we will all enjoy opening up the forum to discuss these great poses. We can keep the discussion to the Chit Chat area and if we get enough interest I will dedicate a separate section to it.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi!!!

This morning Robert and I were practicing yoga in our private studio at home. About 25 minutes in I made a decision to consciously address what was feeling different in my body today, rather than simply just observing it.

Hmmmm…. I was feeling a little tighter, less surrender, less ease, and just a little struggle. My poses weren’t as deep. Now that really doesn’t matter does it? because your body IS the way it is at any given moment. So it wasn’t an ego thing – I was just noticing.

Then it hit me. I had forgotten to take my YogaBody Naturals! Sheesh. I couldn’t believe that the difference would be so palpable.

It really was great to accidentally discover that this stuff really does work.

And you know what? Robert also forgot to take his – with similar results. He may choose to post about his experience, so I won’t tell you what he said because I don’t like to put words in his mouth.

If you are interested in reading about it or ordering your own, then here is the link: Yoga Body Naturals

I don’t recommend products that I don’t use or can’t vouch for. Such a simple product and soooooo good! Really!!!

Thanks Lucas

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Susan

Your wrists have to be straight in Dhanurasana! Why? Because it is a sign that you are doing the pose correctly. If your wrists are flexed then this is a sure sign that you are muscling your arms in this pose making it impossible for you to surrender to the kicking forces. If you use the wrists, then you are most likely using the arms and the shoulders, which completely goes against the intent of this pose.

Instead of holding on to the feet, think of yourself as ‘hanging’ from your feet. This pose is about the KICK. You kick your legs up and back behind you. This pulls on your arms. The arms have hold of the feet only through the grip of the hands (the only active part of your arms). The kick of the legs pulls the arms back allowing a surrender of the shoulders so that they get pulled behind you as well.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Susan

I understand that you are a Bikram yoga teacher asking for some further tips for your classes. Thank you for asking.

When you are moving your arms in Pranayama I don’t think there is much room for thinking what should be moving in what way. We each have our own degrees of flexibility and movement in the myriad of joints from the shoulders down to the fingertips. So, we really do what we can. Someone with inflexible fingers will have an entirely different envelope of movement to someone with inflexible wrists.

Work the arms up. And rather than worry about curving wrists I would be paying more attention to how the elbows can move up at the same time as relaxing the shoulders down and back. This is far more impactful on the pose and the benefits that can be gained.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Mammaren

You obviously are greatly in tune with your body. This is great. Once again, do what seems right. There are always varying standards of knowledge and teaching. Going into a pose and feeling strain (no matter how insistent your teacher is that you should follow their direction) is NOT ON. Please don’t put yourself at risk.

I wouldn’t mind knowing what it is they are expecting you to do with your hands when you round over. AND are you saying that you bend up your leg and just stand straight without doing anything with your arms or hands? These questions answered would certainly help us both understand each other better.

When you can’t hold your foot, then the knee is a real option. The traction work creating space in your spine and opening your central nervous system, the strength in your fingers, the ability to focus wholly on locking out your standing leg while also opening your hip are just some of the good reasons to do it.

Ciao for now

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Mammaren

That is a great question. It all boils down to the instruction and what is trying to lead you to. Many things commanded at a B Hot Yoga class are rote learned commands from a dialog. And in my opinion lots of things are said that just don’t make sense.

Here is why:
When you do this pose you are really trying to align your shoulders one behind the other. The intention is to stretch your body apart. If you are really going to get the traction in this pose then you are going to kick back and up with your leg (see other posts for detailed instructions). If you are just using your grip from the hand, the kick should pull your arm backward from the shoulder if you can also consciously release your shoulder. As for the front arm you extend it forward (and up to improve the backbend component) and this is how we try to get one shoulder behind the other.

If you are trying to get your chin to your shoulder then you are most likely introducing neck or shoulder tension. Your shoulder needs SURRENDER. Front arm traction occurs because you are using a very active arm to pull against the backward moving force of the kicking leg. You are going against this surrender if you have to move your shoulder up or move your chin down. Both are connected through a complex nexus of muscles in the head, neck and shoulders. For best results (for opening the body and resolving any muscle tension) keep the chin parallel to the floor the whole time.

Thanks for referencing the poses on our other site. Those photos (of me and Robert) were taken 7 years ago!!!!!!!! I know that at the time of the photos I did not have sufficient shoulder opening to lift my front arm higher, nor was I able to line them up – it was simply impossible! Robert actually does a better job here of aligning his shoulders. But these photos illustrate another point. If I couldn’t lift my arm higher, or if I couldn’t extend my arm further, then what am I going to do to get my chin to my shoulder. I would have had to shrug my shoulder upward or tuck my chin down and back. I have a very long neck and if I did that I would be looking at the floor. The risk of muscle damage to that area would be huge.

OK, I really hope that clears it up. Sometimes you just have to do YOUR practice! Part of being in the room is learning to take responsibility for your own actions. We learn to take on feedback and work out whether it resonates for us. Check into your own intuition.

And I have some good news for you, we are currently working on taking new photos! We will keep you posted.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Tani-Sue

Just wondering about that pain in your knee…

What other poses does that happen in?

And, have you read the post called Lock the Knee. It may help explain the technique (should you need any assistance there, that is 😉 ).

Looking forward to your response when you get around to it.:lol:

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi there

I stumbled across this question today and realized it doesn’t appear answered. It is one of our server crash casualties – lost in the meltdown.

So here goes my second take on the topic!

Summit82 is correct that in a backbend your vital organs are vulnerable and unprotected. This is an innate response of all of us. It takes practice in these backbends to breathe through what can be a very intense experience. And it comes in different forms, nausea is just one of them. Shortness of breath is another. Many people sense some kind of turmoil somewhere on the front of the torso. They react by dropping the eyes and or the chin which starts to bring them out of the pose.

There is a little ‘trick’ besides focusing on the breath!! Look back as far as you can and register where you can see on the ceiling or the wall and don’t let your eyes come up from there once they settle. Any ‘upward’ or ‘forward’ movement of the eyes (down the nose) will have you identifying with your sensations rather than just simply observing them. There is a BIG difference there. Where your eyes look is crucial in this pose not only for lessening risk of muscle strain or damage but for making sure you can facilitate being able to stay in the whole time so that you have the chance of breathing through the intensity.

Hope that helps!!!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Heather

I am very happy for your positive results. All it takes it to practice and notice one thing at a time. Gradually all these little elements will come together into your awareness to give you a very powerful and satisfying pose.

Keep us posted
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Tani-Sue

Thanks! Isn’t it great to see and feel the evidence of your hard work?

There are several reasons why you find yourself supporting your weight on the outside of your feet when you are trying to balance. One of course is the fact that your hips are tight.;) During the one legged balancing poses you are trying to keep your feet facing directly onto the mirror which can be a challenge to say the least. It would certainly be much easier to balance (and wrong!) if you were to allow your foot to fan outwards. So good on you for trying to keep your alignment.

Probably the biggest reason why one’s weight is rolls to the outside of the foot is because most of the weight has been transferred to the standing (balancing) leg before or during the pose. Commonly teachers say, “Shift the weight to your (left or right) leg. Now, lift up your other leg”. Does that sound familiar? Try this: DON’T shift the weight, just lock that leg. Then just lift up the other one preserving square and even hips before and after you have locked the leg and lifted the other.

Another technique: You may have already tried this either consciously or unconsciously: trying to spread your toes to distribute the weight through the foot and to press your big toe into the floor. This brings the weight forward and more central. It stops you leaning into your hip.

You can also try to counterbalance your weight by not only pushing your foot and especially the big toe back down but by lifting up through the hips so that you avoid slumping into your standing leg. Share the weight evenly through both hips. In this way you are using your connective tissues, your musculature and not just your skeletal structure to support you.

It can take some months (and not just weeks) for the ankles to build sufficient strength to support you both steadily and centrally. As you get better and better at balance you will find less movement through your ankles (all those gross micro muscle corrections will be less obvious and become finer) and you will be able to direct and stack the weight vertically through your legs down through your ankle to the floor. And your foot will more willingly stay firmly planted and directly facing onto the mirror.

Your little problem is part of the journey towards better balance and a more open body.

Falling is learning how not to fall. And those movements through your ankle and foot are indicative of your progress to improve your core muscle strength as well as your balance.

You have not been doing the yoga for very long. Thinking back to my own experiences I can say that years of cooping up my toes in closed in shoes took MONTHS of practice to have them finally relax and open up (rather than being slightly clawed under) to feel grounded.

Finally, make sure that even if your big toe is pushed into the ground (as suggested above) that you don’t lean backward and that you make an effort to bring the weight centrally forward. With all the things you need to do in these standing balancing poses it is common to lean to the outside and back of the foot. Bring your weight forward over your foot, while pushing back through the back of your locked leg.

By the way, did you download the Free Complete-at-Home-Stretching-Guide? There are definitely exercises in there that will help you coax those tight muscles into a more open state.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Heather

It is less important to get your forehead to your knees than it is to keep your chin tucked! What you need to do is simply work on the roundness in your back, particularly your lower back as this is probably where you have flatness. It may get easier in the future (and it may not!) but technique is the key.

You must make sure that the stretch you feel is felt expanding your mid-lower vertebrae in preference to a strain or stretch across the shoulders. Let me know if you are feeling it in the right place and we can go from there. Also let me know if you feel that your head is resting or pushing into the floor.

Other things to pay attention to:
@ Make sure you pull strongly against RELAXED feet.
@ Make sure your shoulders are away from the ears.
@ And you push your shins and knees into the floor as you raise your hips.
@ Sucking in your stomach aids in compression as well as helping you round up.
@ Try to work your heels together.

That’s good for starters. Please answer the other questions above to confirm we are on the right track!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi again brooklynyogini

thanks for your message.

Before I go and tell you anything else I have a question for you.

What differences do you feel in the 2 approaches? And is there one way that feels better to you (less painful, more opening)?

Well, that was 2 questions! 😆

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂