Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)

Hi!

Funny story. The other week, a friend of mine offered me the antioxidant-rich superfood: dark chocolate covered goji (or wolf) berries. There were delicious so I bought a handful. Warning: they are rather addictive.

The other day I ate less than 10 of them as a little snack and indulgence. While being very good for you (!) they obviously have a fair amount of caffeine in the dark chocolate. My sensitivity to caffeine although fantastic as a young adult has increased now so that when I did some outdoor yoga shots that afternoon (more about that another time) my heart rate (usually about 50) was definitely faster than normal and I felt rather uncomfortable. Balance was definitely more difficult. And all because of a few grams of dark chocolate!

I definitely agree that the change was obvious enough to affect my practice. I won’t be doing that again in a hurry (no pun intended 😉 ).

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Edge

I was wondering if your friend took the plunge and tried her first class.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Stefan

What the yoga does is help you find a balance between strength and flexibility. So although you build your muscle you are also stretching them out at the same time and creating length. So what you should find is that you are developing well toned and sculpted muscles without the bulk. Generally speaking, bulk comes from shortened muscles.

You ARE building strength! And the lengthening process is helping you build safety into a wider range of movements (helping you prevent muscle injury in your own sport for example). In other words you have a healthier more resilient body.

I guess the question is whether you feel you are lacking strength or whether you feel you would like to look a little more pumped.

What are your aims Stefan? There are other kinds of yogas that provide more of a workout for your arms and shoulders (Ashtanga yoga, other styles of Hot Yoga). Bikram Yoga doesn’t have a whole lot of the weight bearing poses that can build muscles more significantly.

Let us know if you think you are needing to build more strength or if the desired result is more aesthetic!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi marinyogi

Congratulations on doing the challenge. Your results are good. I wish you felt better about them. I mean, you lost shape, and toned up. That is GREAT. :cheese:

Muscle is more dense than fat so it is common to put on some pounds. That is a surefire indication that you burned fat.

Feeling sad about your success must be disappointing for you. But if I may be a little provocative, let me say that you are possibly making some harsh judgments and you owe it to yourself to let it go and give yourself a break.

I did struggle with shape (notice I don’t say weight gain!) in the past (before Bikram Yoga). But I found that the moment I threw away the scales and started focusing on how I felt, and how my clothes felt and fit, and how my body toned, my life changed.

Maybe a re-frame on weight to shape could work for you too. Don’t be discouraged. The shape changes when it changes. And often it sneaks up on you. I know in the past, that when I am expecting it to happen I keep looking and looking and then one day all of a sudden I see the change. Incremental (physical and mental) change day by day can be hard to judge. And luckily with the mental benefits of this practice the physical stuff usually ends up being just the bonus to a sharper, clearer and calmer mind.

Is there anyone else out there who would feel encouraged by a similar result?

Hey, have you kept up the yoga since then? How many times a week do you go now? 7 a week is a bit hard to sustain, but can you manage 4 times?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Tani-Sue

Thanks for the question. We made the e-book in question available to our mailing list a couple of months ago. It was very popular and elicited lots of positive comments.

All it takes is to head on over to our sister site: quickfityoga and sign up for the Free Guide.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Kayzee

Here goes with my recreation two posts I made last month. I will crystallize it for you in the following points:

The main thing is that you want to know if you can fix your hips to be square even though you can’t fix your leg. Your spine starts from the hips so ultimately you need a solution which gives you a solid base. You have uneven legs (3/4 inch difference). Some people have relative leg length differences because of the way their pelvis is positioned – where it could be tilted. You however have an ACTUAL leg length difference which causes the hip and pelvic malposition which therefore has your spine emanating from your hips misaligned. So your muscles and bony development has created the best balanced body it could create given the circumstances.

The bottom line is, is if you want to effect good change in your hips and therefore your spine you will have to seriously consider evening out your body from the ground up. Now I know you said that you HATED your orthotics but as an adult you may have the capacity to cope with them (mentally and physically). In other words, your leg length is only fixable through artificial means. But it means that (I believe) the fixing of your other problems will stem from addressing this issue.

It WILL be difficult to do this because your spine is already ‘set’ in its curves, so anything deviating from this will be uncomfortable and sometimes painful. Basically it will be your body attempting to create better balance and in doing so will use different muscles. You will have to work strongly on your alignment and go against what is ‘normal’. Having gone through something similar but obviously much less problematic I can tell you some things from personal experience. I had a moderately severe scoliosis and a RELATIVE leg length difference of 3/4 inch. Doctors said it was a leg length difference. But I am sure the difference is less than that because I was able to almost totally reverse the effects. I still have a mild scoliosis, my hips and shoulders are slightly different heights which means my arms reach over my head differently.

Originally I would prop my foot up a little in yoga class (by sneaking a little folded facewasher under my main yoga towel as the teachers would say, the yoga will fix it! However the difference in the beginning was too large to feel balance in the poses). I also started wearing orthotics with a height difference under my right foot to prop it up. I also went to AS MANY YOGA CLASSES AS I COULD, from 6-8 per week for 5-6 months.

I could FEEL MY SPINE REALIGNING. It was painful at night turning in bed but it was MAGNIFICENT. I loved the feeling that it was realigning. It started at the bottom of the spine and little by little worked its way up to the top.

What I think is this: if a 3/4 inch orthotic is too high for you to cope with then don’t do 3/4 do 1/2 an inch. Millions and millions of people live with a slight leg difference and cope well. It may make the difference that creates some relative comfort for you while you heal. This should mean that you can slide something into your shoe and not change the shoe itself but that is a matter for you and your practitioners to decide. You have to be happy with the treatment, you can help design it in a way that is practical and encourages compliance – ie set yourself up for success by creating a program that will have you using the damn things! 😉

The other thing I remember recommending considering was wearing some kind of device on your shorter leg to give you better height in all poses during your yoga classes. It is fiddly working with a towel having to move it around. I made reference to finding something: eg my daughter wears a neoprene shoe with a rubber sole at the beach that probably wouldn’t slip around in class. You could get something modified to adjust your leg to proper height for the yoga class. And also use it for walking around the house when you want to be ‘barefoot’.

Finally, regarding heels and toes together.
In my mind there is absolutely NO QUESTION, DON’T have your toes and heels together. I would strongly recommend setting your feet so that
a) your feet are square to the mirror, a straight line from heel through toes parallel to side walls; hips and knees if possible facing forward.
b) your feet are far enough apart that your knees do not ‘lock’ together.

If you widen your stance without fixing leg length then your poses will still be better, but you won’t affect the change in your hips and spine.

To summarize:
1) Do something about going at least partway to evening out the legs in class and out of class.
2) Stand with feet apart in class preferably finding some way to adjust leg height.
3) Go to as many classes as you can per week so that you can make changes to your musculature and skeletal structure. Robert likes to say, like butter out of the fridge, the more you take it out, the softer it stays (ie the more often you go the more change you can effect in the spine and supporting musculature).
4) Create the change and then go on a maintenance program to keep your spine healthy and in alignment.

Kayzee you may have other questions (perhaps pose specific ones). Feel free to refute, comment, add, or ask anything at all.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Binny

I am not going to overload you with information (just yet). I would like to see how the instruction regarding locking the knee helps you. I would like to offer you a couple of bits of useful bit of advice though.

You mention looking at one spot in the mirror or the floor. There is so much going on mentally in the class that in the beginning most students can’t look themselves in the eye. So naturally they look elsewhere. Looking at the floor in a standing balancing pose is possibly the worst place to look. It tends to greatly upset balance. If you can’t manage to look in your own eyes (and that may not be for some time yet 😉 ) then I suggest that that LOWEST place you look is at your standing locked knee in the mirror – and no lower. This will definitely help you focus your attention on what your knee is supposed to be doing and allow you to recommit whenever it unlocks.

In Balancing Stick you will look down but never look at your toes or just in front of your feet. Do try to extend your visual focus forward at least 4 ft and even more toward the mirror. There are some good instructions at this forum link About this balancing stick posture about limiting the degree to which you move into the pose, which may be what you need while you learn better balance.

The other little thing (which translates to a big thing) is to try to calm your breath, slow it down. You are already trying to calm your thoughts so that is a very positive step and great noticing.

Looking forward to hearing your results so we can delve a little deeper if that is needed.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Dan

There IS a lot going on. I think that what you meant to say was that your vertebrae were touching when you did your backbend and not your discs. Because of the way your discs are arranged it is usually the forward bends where we have the problem with herniated discs and therefore the possibility that discs could touch. I do not really want to comment too much on your x-rays without seeing them. But what I do want to say is that there is the possibility in a backbend that we hinge backward from the lower back. This can cause problems. The best way to approach backbends is to find extension first and then move carefully backwards. Inhale stretch up. Drop the head back on an exhale. Stretch the torso up again and then go back.

No doubt with your myriad of problems there is some fear associated with backbends. So yes, take it easy until you regain your self-confidence. If you are feeling strain through the front of the body then it is possible that the fear is causing you to hold your head up to some degree. This recruits muscles down the front of your body and really lessens the benefits of your backbends. The way to alleviate this problem is to look back as far as you can.

Fear often has the effect of compelling you to not only check into your fear sensations but identify with them. This is reflected by the very common action of looking up to the ceiling, or even down toward the tip of your nose, instead of back. As soon as you do this the muscles in the neck and through the front of the torso strain and the backbend lessens markedly. All of a sudden the weight of your neck is a burden to your back where before it was safely nestled there. What you have been doing in Camel is good. Not going back and keeping your hands on your hips is going to support your lower back effectively, particularly if you let your head go and look back. I don’t know if you are doing the same in the Half Moon backbend but it certainly would be a good idea if you feel the need.

I remember telling you that if you have piriformis problems then in Separate Leg Stretching pose please keep your feet parallel and DO NOT pigeon toe them in.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Jacquie

You have made some great observations (the fingers, the cupping, the elbows!). It’s all part of the process. The trick is not to get stuck on it. Sometimes it’s easy and you wonder how you haven’t ‘got’ it before. And then the next day you can feel sapped of energy and need to pull out all stops to do the smallest thing. Don’t reason why. Don’t think. Just notice. That’s it.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Edge

How much of a distraction is it to your practice/focus concentration to roll up and down your pants? Just wondering. You have been doing this yoga for some time now. I guess it is OK to take responsibility for it all now and just put up with whatever you are wearing. It may just mean you have to focus more strongly on the FEELING rather than the visual cue. One of our great challenges and aims is to ‘get into our bodies’.

There’s always somewhere else to go! 😉

Would love to hear your take on it.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Susan

You should always squeeze the bottom and push hips forward (in 99% of cases).

Squeezing your butt provides support from the base of your spine as you go into your backbend. It gets you out of the pose by helping propel your body forward without straining your spine, neck or abdominal muscles.

Judging hip position in space is one good way to gage your progress in the pose and provides a very good focal point – for concentration. If you go back and your hips are positioned behind your knees then you know it is too early to put your hands on your heels.
Always try to keep your hips forward of your knees (except for passage to Full Camel). Relaxing the bottom is for those who are very close to achieving Full Camel.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂