Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)

Hello Jacquie

I know the feeling. Most of us have been there at some stage of our practice. There are steps on most people’s journeys that are similar.

You will probably find that at some stage:
@ your grip will slip due to sweat
@ your grip will slip due to learning familiarity with the pose
@ and it may slip due to inadequate finger strength
@ your grip may feel uncomfortable with the inability to find the ‘right spot’.
@ you wipe your sweat off on your pants or top
@ or soak your sweat up by placing a hand towel in between.

You will come out of this. Take a little survey – ask some of your fellow students about their experience. Most are happy to share and no doubt you will discover some inspirational people and stories. You may just find that what seems to be easy for others may be fraught with more challenge than you thought.

During the first few months of my practice I had difficulty with the grip in this pose. As I became more and more flexible my grip would slide up my leg a little. What was worse is that I initially relied on a small hand towel to secure my grip. Please don’t go down that path. Just be prepared to fail a little, maybe fall out, just observe, and then go right back in again. Here is what happened (quoted from another post) when I let go of my hand towel: “For the first few weeks I felt cramping and pain in my fingers. It was hard to hold on. I also felt pain in my shins. It was all short lived. Now there is strength plus ease in the grip and my pose is as good as ever.” Of course, I too believed that the sweat was making it difficult to hold my leg. 😉

The other thing I can say is that the strength in my hands also developed over time and is now completely independent of the amount of sweat on my hands. After a while I didn’t need to wipe my sweat. This means I can have a focused practice and simply stand there without the distraction.

Re: foot or ankle, which do you grip?
The less flexible you are, you grip your foot. The more flexible you are, the higher the grip (the ankle). What you need to do is optimize your grip so that your backbend is the greatest it can be at all times. If you slip your hand to your ankle you run the risk of lessening or flattening out your backbend by dropping your chest closer to the ground. I would firstly create the very best backbend by holding the foot. Kick your foot back and your knee up and try to keep your body as upright as you can as you drive the pose with your kick. When you are satisfied that you have gone as far as you can with the foot hold (there is no pre-determined number of classes that this will happen), then start to move your hand toward the ankle. Make it more about the depth of your backbend.

The best reason to keep the grip at the foot is to develop the strength of the kick and the opening through the ankle. If you hold the mid-foot area your kick creates great traction in your ankles. You can feel them open as you kick your foot against your hand. This is somewhat lost when the grip shifts to the ankle. So create depth first and open your ankles by holding the foot especially if you need that opening for other poses (Awkward, Supta Vajrasana, Half Tortoise, Camel, Eagle, and that is just to name a few!).

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Bonjour

Moi, je ne sais pas le mot exact francais, mais vous pourriez commencer vos recherches a un “Sports outlet” (Decathlon, par exemple) egalement au studio, ou a la pharmacie.

OK no more teasing. I don’t know the French word for the type of product that you seek. Electrolyte is the same in both languages – minus the acute accent. But it didn’t yield much for me in my brief online search. Naturally you could ask at your studio, a sports equipment outlet or a “pharmacie”.

I am glad that we are on the right track knowing that you are fairly new to the practice. It won’t be long now. Definitely walking long distances in high heels would tighten up the back of your calves significantly. Do you get to stretch them when you get to your destination? My guess is no – because you probably have other things to do when you get there! 😉 If you do have a chance you can do some surreptitious stretching while sitting down. Downward facing dog would be great but not very workplace friendly (depending on your workplace!)

Please say hello to Helene and Christian for me!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Thank you so much tcmich for your inspiring comments. It can be the hardest thing for many to let go, find the balance between strength and surrender and simply do what is asked of them without involving the ego. Everyone has their own journey.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

You are really very dedicated, Stefan! :coolsmile:

Don’t you sometimes just miss the heat? 😉 Feels so good in the hot room!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

:cheese: Beautiful. Can’t wait to hear how you go.

Enjoy the process.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello

Amanda pretty much puts different words to the idea in my post, so thank you!

I don’t know if you meant it this way, but I would certainly be very careful to approach the yoga in a way that didn’t encourage too much pre-emptive thought. You are trying to be ‘in the moment’ while making observations about your body position and sensations. So go to the fullest expression of the pose that you can handle (which could either represent change in a ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ direction) make an assessment as to the activation of your muscles and your body position, make corrections and take each day as it comes. Generally we will move forward with progress and rather than being conscious about stopping at a certain point, make the movement come first by setting your parameters with respect to what the pose is asking of you. The prize is in the process.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello happyyogachik

You asked 3 questions. The 1st and 3rd listed next, are answered first up:

Can I get any benefit even if my hand isn’t down near my toe? And should I be focusing and stretching my left arm toward the ceiling and my right side toward the floor?

Triangle is all about the geometry in the body. And because every BODY is different, the way your arms and body are positioned with respect to your legs may look a little different to that of your neighbor.

The problem is that teachers mostly give you a command to bring your fingers down, pointing them between the first and second toes. It seems as though you are being asked to touch your fingers between toes but not touching the floor. More importantly this direction does NOT take different body proportions into account.

What you need to focus on is the placement of the elbow at the knee and work from there. And even that needs some clarification. In order to get the traction through the arms you need to place the arm against the leg in a precise manner.

Bend your arms right now and place your fingers on your elbow point. Now straighten the arms and run your fingers along that particular bone. You will notice that this is a bone from your forearm (and not your upper arm). This is your ulna. What you want to do is to tilt your arms down and then bring the top of your ulna to your knee.

If you contact the wrong part of the arm on the knee – and this is, in 99% of cases the upper arm – then your body comes down too low and you feel very heavy as if you HAVE to touch the floor to hold yourself up. It is also hard to activate your lower arm in this position and the arm may even bend to resist the collapse of the pose.

So focus on the right part of the arm contacting the knee.

Then, work on the traction through both arms. One reaches up and the other reaches down. And BREATHE – as long, slow, calm and deep as you can.

If you have long arms like me, when you enter the pose your fingers will most likely be quite close to your toes. If you have shorter arms your fingers may be quite a distance from your toes but you have still got a powerful position creating great traction and stretch through shoulders, and opening through the hips, etc.

Re: where should your hip point, forward or back?
The more flexible you are the easier it will be to aim to keep your hips parallel to the mirror. This is the most stable position. The deep lunge and the leg positions will give a beautiful opening. I like students to angle the left foot in a few degrees to minimize sliding no matter how flexible.

Newer or less flexible students usually have to roll their extended leg hip down in order to preserve the lunge position. It cannot be helped. As your practice develops your hips will further open. The problem with a hip that is overly rolled down and forward is that it reduces the hip opening of this pose. And most students feel that the weight is placed mostly in the front bent leg, even towards the toes. Try to lift the toes up off the floor. You should feel your center of gravity move back toward the hips where it should be.

Let me know if I have not answered all your concerns. I have assumed you are able to keep your legs in position in my answer.

Looking forward to hearing more

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Edge and Hannah

thanks for your question and response.

You are not alone Edge. Lots of people fall out and / or have some apprehension in this one.

As usual Hannah, you have given us some great observations. I would like to add a couple more distinctions.

What most people do to set up is step one foot forward. But what they tend to do is leave the back foot pretty much evenly weighted compared to the front. This places the center of gravity behind the front leg but not through it. Then when they enter the pose it really feels as though they are diving forward without any safety net. They have to find a stable axis, all while they are moving. This could partly explain the fear factor.

Pretty much people who have the greatest difficulty are those where the back foot rests on the ground while the body starts to launch forward – with the back foot being partly or mostly weighted.

Instead, for correct technique the front foot takes ALL the weight BEFORE entry. With one leg forming the foundation the rest of the body behaves just like a see-saw on its firm unmoving axis. If you have the weight (even partly) on the back foot then it throws everything out because you have no sure balance but are moving the see-saw over a shifting foundation.

The way to set this one up:
@ Arms up (and back) and steeple grip
@ Step forward
@ Pick up the back leg as if you were to take another step forward BUT then extend it backward long, strong and straight. The foundation of your pose has now been set, vertically down through the hip, knee, ankle, foot and into the ground.
@ It is at this moment that you square your hips to the mirror and floor. The toes will either just touch the floor or hover just above it. Taking this moment to align yourself is not taught in class, but will really help you create better alignment in the finished pose. You may have heard teachers ask you to roll a hip down mid-pose – this will help minimize this kind of adjustment.
@ Activate all your muscles through all 4 limbs and stand with a slight arch in your spine, chest lifted. It feels really strong.
@ Now enter the pose with activated body, arms and legs by simply hinging at the hip. Concentrate on preserving this straight line, and if you started with ALL the weight on your front foot then, as you lower your body, your leg raises.
@ If and when you notice any slackness in either the legs or arms or any collapse of the body then retreat a little, re-commit and recover the straight line in your body and limbs. Only go in as far as you can keep your straight line form. For some students they may only make it to 10-20 degrees. Others will get to 70 degrees. It simply doesn’t matter. In fact, it is better to be partway in and strong than body down parallel to the floor with bent limbs looking as if you are a ‘broken umbrella’. Visualize yourself as a see-saw.

Hannah is right about the breath. The exertion in this pose is quite strong and comes on quite quickly. Often students need to be reminded to breathe. Of course with the body stretched out like it is, the lungs and ribcage are also stretched and the belly is often sucked in. So breathing often either stops or becomes short and shallow. Feeding the muscles with oxygen will certainly help ;). Slow the breath down and take it away from the anxiety producing short breath up the top of the chest.

OK, so what do you do if you fall out at 6 seconds? Ideally you go back in as if you had the whole pose to do again. Pretend you have another 10 seconds and listen to the commands. That way you can be more present. Let go of judgment. And just do it. Don’t care if you have only stepped forward on your foot and you are told to release. I do think however that much of your problem will disappear with correct technique.

It is tricky to learn the right speed of entry. Go in fast enough to get there and work the pose but not so fast that you fall out.

Looking forward to hearing your results
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello

I was wondering if you can tell me how long you have been practicing. Because it is generally new students who get the problem with cramps. And guess what? In my experience it usually happens in the belly-down poses! The other time it happens is coming back to the series after a long break.

They can be so painful. All you can do at the time is look after the pain and stretch it out as soon as you can. On a physiological level your body may be crying out for electrolytes. Bring some to class or try supplementing your diet with a powder, or tablet or something.

The good news is that once you get over that hump, the cramps don’t return. Just make sure you take care of the electrolyte issue to ensure you are replenishing your system to promote optimal muscle firing!

Lastly, if these cramps persist then you do need to have some deeper investigations done to exclude other potential disease states.

Kind regards
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello BL

More great stuff.
You are very diligent about your practice and your health. So when it comes to caffeine I imagine you must take it in moderation if at all! :cheese:

Personally I don’t drink coffee. I used to: I grew up on the stuff. Then literally one day after decades of use, it affected me so much that I gave it up. I now only have a very small amount and rarely. I am not a zealot or anti-caffeine campaigner.

We each are sensitive to different agents in the body. And people have coffees for different reasons. I don’t think I have ever had the conversation with anyone to limit or reduce coffee consumption in all these years at my studio. I think that the reduction happens in that same mysterious way that our diet changes (or for smokers, the way they just don’t feel like having as many or any at all) when we start the yoga. For us: Robert (my husband) reduced his coffee, we both were only able to get through half a glass of wine. All these things just happen organically.

Robert tells me that if he is doing yoga in the morning, he cannot have a coffee before class. It seems to limit his ability to breathe deeply. If he has it during the day and he goes to yoga within an hour then he finds it difficult to balance. He jokingly tells me that there is nothing better than a coffee after a Saturday morning class to herald in the weekend.

Most people know that caffeine is a diuretic and will not help you hydrate. Which brings us to hydration. As you have rightly pointed out, hydration is not simply about water it is about keeping up your electrolytes as well. Urine color is a good way to make sure that you are drinking enough. Bright yellow – bad! Light or pale straw color – good! Once you work out what your volume is then proportion it through the day. And increase it on days where you go to class. I tend to add 30 – 50 oz for class but that is just me and just a guesstimate.

I sense that I am probably saying stuff that you already do or know. I think it is best to tune into your body and not be too pseudo-scientific about it. Establish your own personal and practical guidelines. Key yourself into some routines about how much your drink when you get up in the morning for example and how much you drink before and after class. Robert the caffeine imbiber was just saying that the biggest factor to being wiped out after class is NOT drinking enough water beforehand (and coffee would of course compound that effect). I drink somewhere around 30 oz every morning no matter what I am doing. If I end up doing yoga then I know I am set.

I think it best to drink enough before class that you are NOT so thirsty that you have to drink at many instances during class. I see no merit in avoiding water altogether if your body requires the water. I simply ask students to be conscious of their needs. Don’t drink to distract yourself or to avoid confronting yourself in the mirror. Stop, connect and assess whether you really need it. Then by all means drink. If you are already well hydrated, you may just need the tiniest of sips once or twice in class.

Drink well after class. It is an instant pick-me-up.

Re doing the 30 day challenge: check out what Hannah said and the rest of this thread at 30 day challenge 😉

Phew!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Welcome Kayzee

One thing that came to mind is the use of a cushion, soft towels or mats. If your feet are touching the ground then I would put something under your ankles/shins to knee area.

I would take the soft option and use towels because of your ability to fold them according to your progress. I would fold them in a wedge so that where your knees are higher off the ground, they still have something on which to rest.

The cushioning allows you to put your whole weight onto it without grinding your ankles and knees into the ground to cause you pain. In other words you are spreading the load between your feet and knees evenly. This may allow you to ease into opening your ankles.

Use your arms to support you and over time, you will be able to lighten the load through your arms. Over time you make the wedge of folded towels thinner and thinner. The theory is that eventually you will find yourself on the floor without the towels.

I hope it works as well for you as it has for the students who have had serious knee or ankle opening issues at my studio.

Do remember that you do NOT have to have your knees together. You can spread them apart so long as your hips are touching your heels. And please whatever you do, keep your back vertical and don’t lean back on your hands behind you to incline your back.

Kayzee, just had a couple of extra thoughts…

1) you may find that the best way to introduce this technique is by starting with heels and knees together (kneeling). This may be a gentler and a more symmetrical way to open your ankles to begin with. It really depends on how much support you need from your arms if any. Give it a go and let me know what works for you.

Perhaps you can do some trial runs at home. In fact this is the type of activity that you can do at any time at home. Maybe while you are reading or watching television you can sit on those soft towels with tops of feet on the floor and work your ankles open. If the kneeling position is better then stick with this for some time before separating the ankles. I have a feeling that with the nature of your foot condition that you may be best starting this way because it is a better way of ensuring symmetry in leg position. Take this one very mindfully, noticing the angle that each foot makes with the leg. Try to keep the foot as an extension of the leg without deviation.

Oh, and if for some reason you can’t sit down easily then there is no reason why you can’t introduce a little padding between ankles and bottom and reduce the thickness over time in the same way. You are really looking to let gravity do the work for you. If you continually have to hold yourself up then you can’t surrender to the pose.

2) do you have pronated ankles? (Do your ankles collapse inward when you are standing or walking?). Just trying to get a better picture of your issue.

Looking forward to your reply. Really hoping this helps you.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Welcome subyogi!

Isn’t interesting how the body responds to the yoga? It is possible (no guarantees) that your gastric condition is a result of the cleansing effects of the deep work you that you are doing in your body. This same thing actually happened to me within the first 10 days of my yoga practice too. Take it easy in Wind Removing pose. 😉 Seriously though the compressive effects in your abdomen in this pose should be lessened or avoided when you have diarrhea.

As for the dental problem 2 things spring to mind:

1) it is possible that you are clenching your teeth with the effort as you familiarize yourself with the series and the environment. It is stressful to be in the hot room. It could be that it is a reaction to the stress and something that you will let go now that you are conscious of it.

2) the other possibility is that it is a coincidence. I have no idea of your dental habits but if this is a generalized jaw pain that cannot be localized to one point, if it is diffuse over an area or even over the mouth then it could be that you need to floss your teeth. In other words there is a food or plaque impaction between teeth. Impactions lever the teeth apart and stretch the ligaments (that attach the teeth to the bone) and when the teeth can’t spring back (in their normal suspension role) then you get pain.

You can tell better if it is something to do with flossing if, when you next floss, that you bleed or if there is pain. And just for those of your reading this who have blood or pain on flossing: floss everyday until you get NO more pain and NO more blood. Then you can floss 3-4 times per week. Many people don’t floss because they are told to do it every single day. They miss out a day, then give up.

Just a little extra gratuitous and very helpful dental advice :cheese:

Namaste, and keep me posted!
Gabrielle 🙂