Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)

Hi Beverly

Thanks for being patient. OK, for ease I am putting what you wrote in here so that we don’t have to go back and forth:

I hurt my left shoulder a couple of months ago attempting to do floor bow. Before I tell you about that particular injury, let me tell you the entire history of that arm.

The day before my 13th birthday I broke my left arm just below the shoulder. It wasn’t a complete fracture, so they immobilized my arm by tying it to my body with an ace bandage and stuck it in a sling. About a month later we moved about 2000 miles from Tennessee back home to California. As a result (an perhaps because it was the 70s) I never got proper physical therapy on that arm.

I also have tendonitis in my left wrist which I got from hefting 9 & 10 lb newborns.

Fast forward 30+ years to January. I somehow injured my left knee so badly I could barely walk. While I was waiting to see the orthopedic surgeon, I went to see a chiropractor who specializes in extremities to help manage the pain. As well as adjusting my knee, he recommended going to hot yoga to rehab the knee. I started doing hot Hatha in February, and I’ve been doing it about 3x per week since then. However, I did not do floor bow because of my shoulder.

One day, I decided to give it a go and it hurt really badly, so I decided I shouldn’t be doing the pose. Then a couple of months ago I went to class and I was feeling particularly strong, so I decided to try again. I pulled my triceps so badly, that I spend the rest of class crying and trying not to scream out in pain. By the end of class the pain went from my neck down to my wrist. Immediately I went to see the chiropractor and he’s been working on it ever since. He says I can come every three weeks, but I come a lot more often than that. He showed me how to adapt some of the poses so they’re not so painful. The last few weeks I’ve been doing the poses normally.

This week, however it seems to have gotten worse. I can hardly get through half moon before that arm starts hurting. Even having my arm at parallel while doing the warrior poses is excruciating. Today having my arm in front of me during unsteady hurt and I had to put them down between parts of that pose. I’ve ended up laying on my mat for most of the class because of the pain.

So, I’m wondering what to do that will not strain that arm and rehab it during hot yoga. If I’m not in class at least twice a week, my knee starts hurting.

And now, I think I feel some questions coming on! 😉

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi John

What a glowing review for Sara. I am so thrilled for her and you! (blushing)

When you hydrate: Is it just plain water?

Now as for the BP. Taking BP is not always reliable. There are so many factors as you can see. The reliability of the equipment then there are all the factors that could be causing different readings. Sometimes the anxiety of the test itself can create false readings. You have probably heard of white coat syndrome!

So, John, have you decided that you’ll continue the yoga for a while at home? Perhaps heating your room to less high levels?

Is that something that appeals? Once you start home practice it is just as rewarding as going to a public studio.

I can promise you there are greater advantages to heating the room well (reasonable and effective levels) than just going to a super-heated public class or opting for an ambient temperature room. Perhaps in more controllable conditions you can continue to thrive and keep checking your BP too. You can really see if excessive heat and humidity is the problem.

I am sure you’ll find by looking around the forum that you can play with the temperature conditions. In short: Buy a good humidifier and then you can heat the room to mid 30s (celsius of course ;)) and get all the benefits you desire – especially that one about feeling great

Let me know what you think

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Guillermo

Well you definitely need a day per week to recover. In my opinion some change in your practise technique and if you continue to feel that issue (especially if you feel pain outside of yoga class) then you MAY need to see somebody for what could be an injury requiring hands on attention. Let me know and we can go down that track. But first rest for a day (or if you think you need it 2 or 3, whatever you need). Then get back to yoga.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Anna

I was just going to check in with you and I realised I don’t know if you do challenges which are 30 days straight or with 1 day off per week. Let me know please

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Megan

Thanks for the post. You are very aware of what’s going on. I liked your analogy of the tupperware lid! 😆

OK, so I have to say yes, you’re doing it right. I was a bit alarmed by the ‘arm screaming’ phrase. I would like to know if you are experiencing pain there. Perhaps you could let me know.

When you get the leg up high and you press the leg back then the shoulder gets pulled back and then when you push the hip down the are reseats a little into the shoulder socket. And then voila, you have to go through the process again. It really doesn’t stop. There is no real end point.

Here’s what I would like you to try: Stop holding onto your ankle or shin. Start holding onto your foot around the arch area. I am positive you are going to find more strength and opening when you do that. You will find a new challenge and I just know you’ll find that you have more ability to get that hip into the position you’re after. I always do the pose this way now. It gives me a lot more.

Try it and get back to me. The idea of getting into the standing splits is just aesthetic. You can do more than that. The satisfaction you’ll get back by holding at the foot will really be great. Oh, there may be a few moments where you wonder if it’s the same pose! Ha. Let me know how you go

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Cristy

I have had good reason not to be active on the forum so please would you simply update me with your issue?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Guillermo

47 in a row. Sounds like until recently you were making progress.

What a classic problem! I promise this happens ALL the time and it’s because the mechanics of the body are not understood by most. (And the ‘rules’ of challenges seem to have morphed into something more ego-driven that goes against the principle of yoga, more about that in the coming paragraphs).

The way you have been doing your yoga, the way you’ve been shown or are being taught is causing your problem. You seem to have developed signs of sciatica. Won’t set that one in stone because I haven’t asked you any questions yet but let’s move forward.

I am going to say this at the risk of offending people: I believe it is not right for anyone to tell you that the yoga is uncovering existing injury. While this is possible, it is unlikely. In my experience this person or these people do not know how to help you so they are giving you something that on the surface may sound plausible. It’s an excuse that usually covers up that they really don’t understand the workings of the body.

Beware, you are likely to hear ‘the yoga will fix it’. Once again erroneous advice which works for some things and not others AND is DEPENDENT on doing the yoga with best technique.

Your first port of call should be to look at the blog post Opening Up Your Hamstrings With Hot Yoga. Normally I will ask some questions to clarify what you’re doing.

However in your case we’ll leave that for today because you are exhibiting the CLASSIC problems that occur when the legs are straightened in certain poses in preference to a straight back or where you are not engaging the correct pose mechanisms to OPEN up the body.

Pulling length into your muscles is not helping you, it seems. Look, it is possible that we need to go back to questions in coming posts etc but for starters I just wanted to give you some info ASAP so you can start to help yourself.

The blog post above is very useful and I recommend looking at posts on proper sit-up technique, janushirasana (and particularly how to enter it), and standing sep leg intense stretch. Look at any poses where you have pain. There should not be pain (just discomfort, and a comfortable one at that, if you know what I mean) and there should not be strain or struggle. What you’re going through is a sign that you’re doing something wrong.

Let me know how you go every step of the way and I will lead you in the right direction to the best of my ability.

As another person has just asked me with a similar-ish issue, I answered her as I advise you, that you MUST take some time for your body to recover. These 60 day no rest challenges are not the way it is supposed to be. You are supposed to feel better not worse. You are supposed to take a day off per week.

Anyway, without further adieu I shall post this and look forward to hearing from you

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Heidi

I am about to go out for the day so I can’t answer this in detail yet. Please go hunt around the forum. You could use the word “challenge” in the search facility and see what comes up.

In a nutshell: I don’t believe in 30 and 60 day challenges that rely on going 30 and 60 times with no break or doubling up.

You MUST have rest and recovery in some way. A day off usually does that for others… but read on.

Also if you’re feeling pain and stiffness then I can tell you with great certainty that there are particular techniques that you are practising that are causing your body to tighten up, that are creating damage in your body.

This is usually a result of going to scripted classes where teachers use the dialog. I know I am going to get a lot of people’s noses out of joint by saying that but so be it.

Get back to me here and let me know if you have discovered some more here on this forum. There are particular poses and techniques that you will find will change that pain to the opening up AND strength that the yoga is supposed to create.

See you back here

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Heather and Wendy

Remember to take sufficient sea salt in your diet. As the salt acts as an antihistamine (along with water) you may find that this little thing helps you (especially if it is an allergic response). Wendy, I think the word you were after could be ‘habitual’! :cheese:

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Paula

Please try this. Overlap your fingers around the back of your neck. You could interlock them but my students find their fingers get squashed. You’ll basically create a sling with your hands! Your elbows will be above your chest and they should be able to come together. That’s your starting point.

Now inhale at the same time as winging your elbows out to the side (they do come up a bit) and keep your shoulders down the whole time, lift your sternum and feel the breath expand your lungs.

On the exhale, open the mouth (a little, as you would in ‘normal’ circumstances) and lift your chin as you allow your head to go back with your neck beautifully supported in against your fingers as your elbows travel back towards each other, touching in front of you. Remember shoulders down.

Then continue. Inhaling and exhaling. You will feel satisfied that you can get through the whole exercise without any neck pain. It’s a self-limiting exercise so you won’t have to try to work out what anyone means when they say “be careful” and “don’t go back so far”. Always be careful when someone asks you to do that because it’s not specific and has no instruction that you can actually follow.

This exercise will never feel as satisfying as the regular one simply because you can’t get as full a movement. Just know it’s a wonderful intermediate step. It’s FAR, FAR BETTER than just breathing without using the arms and head movement and it’s far better than skipping it all together.

In normal circumstances using this technique you can, as your neck feels better, start to allow your fingers less overlap, or keep the overlap and move them further down to the bottom of the neck. At first they will start higher towards the top of the neck so that you can perform the exercise without fear or pain allowing the neck to open up safely. As you improve you’ll find you can just move them down, even in the middle of a set.

Let me know how you go!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Allison

One way to set yourself up for success is to actually pack everything you need for yoga and put it in the most appropriate place. Have 2 sets of clothing and 2 sets of yoga towels ready. One in the bag (next to the front door, in the car or wherever) and the other lot ready to place with your mat when you get home.

That way you’re good to go. The other thing is to have a proper plan. Don’t just say “I will go to yoga 3 times this week”. That is possibly not as powerful as “I will go to the 5:30 pm class this Monday and Thursday and the 8am class on Saturday”. Set it up and make it happen by being as specific as you can.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Heather

Can you tell me: Where is your visual focus when you are lying on your tummy? You may need to go to class to work that out (so if you have to guess, don’t, just report back). When you feel the anxiety, what happens? Do you feel nauseous, is it reflected in heart and breathing rate, can you feel palpitations? When does it stop? As soon as you get up off the floor? I am sure rationally you know there is no danger, so what else could you tell me about your inner workings?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Claudia

The first thing I need to ask you is how is your stance generally. Are you countering a longstanding rounded upper back at all.

One thing at a time!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂