Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)

Hello Ian (is that right?) 😉

I hope you are feeling good after your surgery. Congratulations on starting your Bikram Yoga journey.

Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that your bottom is not on the floor and you are taking yourself back part of the way and using your arms to prop you up.

You know, I think you may be going too far with this pose at the moment. A rule that is never transgressed in my studio is this: if you can’t get your butt on the floor between your heels, then you must stay seated and upright.

Stay completely upright, vertical. Your hips must always touch your heels even if your hips are not on the floor. There should be no separation so you can avoid over twisting the knees. Your ankles, knees and hips obviously need some more time in this position. And the best way is to harness the forces of gravity to help you. The moment you incline your back backwards you remove much of the powerful vertical vector of force that is driving directly downward through your spine and hips and ankles helping to open everything up.

If you sit backward, then due to the tightness in those areas your hips are likely to lift a little and you are likely not to benefit at all. There are a myriad of other problems with going back early but I will leave those for now. But the one that is clearly bothering you is strain on the back. You may even have some strain in your neck as a result.

One thing you can try is to sit with your hips and heels in the right position and draw your knees further apart. This can lower your hips. Make sure that the hips always touch the heels and that there is a straight line from your knees to your toes regardless of leg angle (which will change if you move your knees apart).

The good news is that even the very inflexible yogis who start in this fashion may not take very long to open and awaken their bodies. It is quite common for these folk to be lying down on the floor looking comfortable – you’d never guess that they had trouble before! 😉

It can be hard to stay put when everyone else is ‘progressing’ beyond the first stage and if it looks as though that is what you are supposed to do. Patience will yield you very much better results.

What you are working towards is having your butt sitting on the floor, not just skimming the floor. Then, and only then should you progress: by putting hands on feet, fingers forward and going back onto your elbows.

What you are doing to get into those other poses is perfect. Only you can feel the vulnerability in your back. Hopefully as you heal further you will build some good strength in your core to support you even better in your forward bends.

Keep me posted on your progress.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Barb!

It can be frustrating to find that you are not progressing despite all the effort. Firstly of course you may just not be ready to get the full wrap. And that is OK. Just keep trying. It could be a question of technique. Remember the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Perhaps it is time to look at it a little differently. 😉

Try this:
Don’t “squat” low in set-up.
When you sit ‘low’ in the hips, scoot your butt behind you but keep the chest up as high as you can. You are trying to sit low in your hips, but your feet have to feel really firm and evenly weighted. To break it down further, you are trying to keep your center of gravity over your feet. Many people sit low but drop the chest forward over their knees. Please avoid this at all costs as you will pay the price in the pose spending your whole time neither being able to get an effective wrap, nor be able to balance easily. You will spend the whole time trying to get your chest right back to where it should have started. So, sit hips low, chest high arching the spine to keep the chest over your hips.

If your head bobs up when you wrap your legs then you know you have sat too low in set-up. In other words, once you have ‘sat’ down, your head should stay still at the same level when you wrap the legs. Then it moves vertically down as you sit lower and lower.

Wrap the leg where it wraps.
No matter how you slice it, you can only wrap the legs so that they twine. In fact being asked to lift the leg as high as possible seems to go against what you are trying to achieve. If you are sitting in a chair when you wrap your legs, you will start by crossing them with knees in proximity. You now have to do that while you are standing.

Think of your lower leg as a ‘chair’
Sometimes I find it clicks with a student to tell them to push down with the top leg on the bottom one. Use the bottom leg as support and seat the top one heavily on it. Pressing down, you may feel the belly of your hamstring muscles shift and spread a bit as you exert this downward force. Or it could just provide you with the visualization that you need that gives you better balance as you sneak your toes around.

Chest up high to start, slide the back down the ‘wall’
I guarantee that if you start with your chest up high (when setting up with hips low and feet firm) that when you start to move your hips down, your chest will be in the optimal position. You will be able to sit lower, your wrap and balance will be better.

Kind regards
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Regan

You are welcome!

Without knowing you or your practice I had to cover a few options to work out the exact problem. My suspicions were correct. 😉 It is all about your body and not at all about being warmed up – as you have no problem with any other backbend.

Many times, the teacher will give a blanket command to squeeze the head with the arms. In your case, when you squeeze you are actually causing an increase in the problem, an exacerbation of the pain and strain. It is going to be hard consciously trying to relax when the technique in use is making it difficult or even impossible.

Notice that the problems arise when you straighten the arms, squeeze the palms. Notice how the muscles on top of your shoulders and around the neck close the space as your shoulders rise. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you also notice that when you have the pain that your chin drops a little as you shrug your shoulders up.

I am going to give you some general pointers about your arms and shoulders and later on what to do in the backbend.

The arms over head:
Here’s what you have to do:
1) when you bring your arms over your head, interlace fingers and bring the arms back.
2) be more concerned that you can drop your shoulders down and back, broadening the scapulae (or shoulder blades) than bring bringing the arms close to the head.
3) in order to get the right shoulder position, you will most likely have a small bend in your elbows, and you will find it hard to squeeze the palms together. Hey, but you won’t have any pain in your neck. You will see space around your head and neck.
4) keep the chin up parallel to the ground.
5) keep working on getting the arms back without creating strain, pain, or dropping the chin.

With this technique you will definitely start to open up your shoulders. Your neck will decompress and lengthen. Your chest will open. Little by little, over time, you will be able to work the arms longer and straighter and the space between palms will tighten. Please use your dropping chin as a sign that you need to let go of something: either adjust the shoulders down and back, lift the chin up, or bend the elbows a little.

The backbend:
When you set up for your first backbend, really relax your arms and let them bend a lot as your put your head back. Settle your head back. Then lock your legs and push the hips forward. Then stretch up to the ceiling on an inhale (to create the space in your vertebrae) WITHOUT totally straightening your arms. The more relaxed your neck and shoulders the more you will be able to straighten the arms. One day you will lock them out. Track your progress!

Regan, this very important issue is going to pervade your entire practice. You can apply these principles to just about every pose. Even though it causes you most pain during the backbend, I am positive that you will benefit by dropping the shoulders (slight elbow bend) and lifting the chin in Half Moon side bends too.

Practice now with new shoulder awareness in ALL your poses, feel free to post in pose-specific threads if you encounter any problems!

Cheers
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Hannah

There really wasn’t any other way of saying that was there? 😆

I was wondering if you had any particular regime that you follow. For example I find using food combining principles is my best bet at comfort. I find that digestion is always quicker and easier and over a very short time you learn so much about your own body. My intuition about what I really need has become very strong.

I am sure that many on the forum (me included) can come up with some resources if you need help. There are thousands of books available.

Cheers
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi

The good news: is that I think your problem is manageable especially because you only experience it on certain poses.

Standing Head to Knee is quite a strenuous pose. And from Standing Sep Leg Stretching to Triangle to Sep Leg Head to Knee we have possibly the most strenuous standing poses of the series – all 3 in a row, PLUS 2 of them are inverted poses.

The first thing I would like you to focus on is your breath. You have no problem with your capacity. Often with anxiousness (and if you are feeling a little dizzy you could be triggering a slightly anxious state even on an unconscious level), students can alter their breathing. So focus on a fluid breath. Make it keep moving no matter what.

The second thing is this. In both the inverted poses that you mention (your separate leg poses) please make an effort to do the following:
when the teacher signals the end of the pose (they may say ‘release’, ‘change’ or whatever) stop where you are for a couple of seconds to let your circulation start to move around your body again. Then come up a little more slowly. I know this has worked for me and others who have had your problem, particularly in Sep Leg Stretching (let go of the grip and stay still, take a good breath or 2, then come up). You may find that you get to the left side of your mat again a second or 2 or 3 after everyone else.

The fact that Triangle is sandwiched between 2 inverted poses and is very strenuous could be the reason for your dizziness.

The other thing that is common (and remember I don’t know you or your practice so I am just going on my experience) is going too hard in the first part of class. It is very hard NOT to work hard in a Bikram class: there are the Savasanas between each pose which seem to invigorate us just enough to carry on with great gusto and energy.

The above issue is often related to some students who “muscle in” to their poses. This is more common with men. Yoga is about balance – and in this case there has to be a balance between strength and surrender. Give in to the work that your muscles are doing. Pull and create the tractions and also let go enough for the stretches to do their work.

I am eager to hear if these techniques work for you. I would like to know how you go before we go down the path of skipping poses.

And what’s that about poor english? Huhh? No problem there!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello

Isn’t strange how the body responds to movement? It is said that the body is a storehouse for crystallized emotion. So we can set things free with the yoga.

If it helps you at all, you may be interested to know that the same things happens to me after Camel pose, BUT only when I haven’t done enough yoga! Incredible. There are times where I don’t get to the hot room because of a holiday or some kind of forced break. It seems that the yoga just cleanses me physically and mentally in a profound measurable way. I get the headache and it disappears after a few classes.

I wonder if that rings some bells for you and am interested in your experience.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello Julie

I was wondering if you had any joy discovering the yin yoga poses yet?

As for your latest post if it were me, I would probably do some hip openers after each class whenever possible. It also sounds as if you would really benefit from continuing Tree pose for second set for a while. However if you are intent on attempting the interim pose then I would probably do it only one in every 2-3 classes. With only one hand on the floor it may not be quite stable or symmetrical enough for your body. You be the judge. Keep your focus on lifting up your hips to square and drawing your knee backward.

When in Tree, really try to pull your foot up with your hand, by bending your elbow backward. You need to relax your shoulder down and back away from the ear and isolate the pull to the biceps. As you pull up, work your knee down and back. This creates a wonderful traction: the pull on the foot as the knee moves down, you can feel the hips and pelvis open as you tuck the tailbone under and squeeze your bottom (ie don’t arch the spine). In this way you will make more progress more quickly to ready yourself for Toe.

Kind regards
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi there folks

You know that if you are having difficulty in Toe stand there are alternative ways to work on your hip opening:

I have mentioned in other threads the great benefit of hip-opening yin yoga poses. In particular you could ask for some help, or research (online or in some lovely yin yoga books) pigeon pose and another favorite of mine, square. Square is intense but incredibly effective.

The ‘secret’ to yin poses is to stay in them for extended periods of time. Perhaps your teachers can give you a couple of hip-openers to ‘enjoy’ particularly AFTER CLASS when you are already completely warmed through.

What I really like with these poses is that you witness your body opening – you really feel it in the hips. They are self-regulating poses where you can only go where you can go, no further. And as your body opens your leg positions adjust to accommodate even better stretching. The stretches are safe because you are warm (after class) and the prolonged time in them works magic.

Julie, there is an interim pose that you can do in Toe which is a beautiful stretch through the hips. Bring your hands to the floor ready for Toe, but keep the standing leg straight and locked. Stay there inverted with hands on the floor, hips toward the ceiling. Make sure you keep your hips even and square and keep working your knee back in the same way you do when you are in Tree pose.

Let me know how this works for you.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Barb

You know something else? That after a while your sweat will sting you less. I know many students have had the exact problem as you: one day it doesn’t sting anymore. Just a little FYI. 😉

Cheers!
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello

Oh, isn’t that annoying. I think it happens to us all. Maybe someone else will formally agree! 😉

There really isn’t much more you can do than wipe your nose if it happens. As you say it doesn’t happen very often and only when it is very humid. Breathing through your mouth hasn’t helped probably because you can’t draw in enough oxygen.

I don’t like to recommend wiping sweat ever because it is the way the body stays cool. And if you allow that in class then people start to use it as a crutch and often an excuse to interrupt their meditation when they can’t stick it out and just breathe! It is very distracting to have this extra unnecessary focus.

You could try having a tissue around and when conditions are particularly humid you could blow your nose before this pose. You will blow out the extra drips that are there which would accumulate and the tissue will soak up potentially offending drips around the nose and above the lip.

So really, just take care of it, but don’t ever let it become a habit you perform religiously every class.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Woo hoo!
I look forward to reading how you went.

:cheese:
Gabrielle

Hi Y’all

I thought I would add in a word or 2 about the timings.
You will notice and probably wonder why there is such a wide range of times for some of the poses.

Well, it is for this reason. Each class I teach unfolds in a slightly different way. Having longer timings on some poses one class and sometimes shorter on those same poses in another. For me it boils down to the needs and the flow of that unique class.

If there is a range then always do the minimum.
And generally you start timing when you are in the pose. Starting your timing as you slowly enter may be one way (albeit unconscious) you have learned to procrastinate. Be efficient and then you will get maximum time in each pose.

Have fun!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂