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in reply to: Chronic sinus block and energy levels #8961
Hi Paul
Can you tell me what type of investigations? It may help to see what further ‘intelligence’ we can get on the subject. 😆
It seems that you are not ‘blaming’ hot yoga for the problem as it is with you all the time. So can you tell me how long you’ve had the problem? Was it with you during your first stint?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Foot collapses #8959Hi Valeria
Nice to ‘see’ you again! Humble thanks. By the way your English is very good.
It could be that your left foot is less strong than your right. Can you tell me what happens when you go up onto your toes in say, Awkward part 2? Does one ankle or foot wobble more, or does one feel more stable than the other?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Final Stretch , help! #8958Hi Colleen
Try this instead. Forward arm: Think of dropping your shoulder away from your ears AS YOU extend your arm forward and up. I get the feeling from your description that you could be engaging accessory muscles unnecessarily.
And for the arm behind: Think of LETTING GO of your arm so that you focus on the movement of the back leg allowing the arm to lengthen and shoulder to open.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Building muscle tone & resting #8956Hello again Anna Denise
There do appear to be some issues regarding strength. I would bet that most of it is technique related. You’re right I do need more information. I would guess that with the right approach you would work out SOME of the hip irregularity.
Most people have a difference between sides of the body. So what you’re explaining regarding your hips is not unusual. Perhaps the enormity of the difference is more than it could be. Let’s see where this all takes us by nutting out more details.
I also won’t rule out at this stage, the need for some professional involvement in the form of a physiotherapist or osteopath.
I am also concerned about your backbending description. So, next classes please focus on LIFTING the chest and the heart rather than going back. It does appear that you could be sinking into your back. A change of focus is often all it takes.
In the meantime, will you explain more about what you do precisely to lock your knee?
I would like to send you a private message to go with this… look out for it.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Timing of the Poses in Hot Yoga class #8955Hi Lisa
Thanks! I am blushing… 😆
As you said it yourself: There are no rules. You have 60 minutes. Fill them with some yoga. It’s what you facilitate in your students that will make the difference not the poses themselves.
You can play with any order. You could also take a look at the 60 minute class in Volume 1 DVD. I love that class. It’s got great challenge and an interesting order without being an exhausting experience. Sometimes that is called for, say, if you’re leading a lunchtime class where people are expected to move back into work soon afterward.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Screaming Elbows! #8954Hi Meghan
I do know the feeling. I sleep with my arms bent and sometimes wake up with them hurting. I have also had many students who have similar issues with different causes.
The way to fix it is with countering the movement. This is why locust hurts so much! A way to do it is interlock fingers behind your back and then extend your arms while your rotate them so that your palms face behind you. There are other ways including placing your hand (with or without wrist or forearm) against a wall and then turning away from the wall. Get a good stretch. Even opening up your arms as if you were in full locust will do it.
If your hands are also hurting that first exercise above and variations of that are excellent. Even a good straight arm behind you, palm on the floor, heel of palm in close to spine as in Spinal Twist.
You could do this several times per day.
Let me know if you need more ideas.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Various ailments – knees, elbows and ankles! #8953Hi squareonex
Yikes! Didn’t get back to you and you have been in pain. My humble apologies.
My oh my, there are a good few issues in there.
Let’s try and tackle these things. Starting with the easiest ones: Locust. You don’t need to be in pain. What you’re doing is correct. Little by little your arms will move closer inward.
Have you found that your weight is dropping? It is true that your joints would be under more pressure with the excess kilos. I can remember that my knees hurt a little when I was pregnant because of what I was carrying!
I would be interested to find out where you were confused with the video. Perhaps I can iron that out for you. While I think of it, did you try tiptoeing around to see what that felt and looked like?
Your Q angle means that the so-called stacking of joints is not quite regular (that’s the simplified version). It would be a question of mechanics. Some of this will be handled when we dissect if there are technique issues we can fix together.
Here’s something I would like you to do for the moment. Just kneel with legs and feet and knees together instead of getting hips towards the ground in fixed firm. Tell me if that makes your knees feel any better.
I need to know more about what is exactly happening in Stick pose. Which knee is hurting? (I imagine the standing leg but I don’t want to assume.) At what point is the knee hurting? I can’t see your set up so I don’t know what you’re doing. It seems to me you attend script recital classes so at the very least quote to me what your class leader is saying.
Oh, please tell me how you lock your knee. What does it feel like? Maybe there’s a nuance in there we can locate, some detail to help you get a more effective stabilization.
Again, my apologies for not getting back to you. I skimmed your post and didn’t see you were in pain!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: weight gain, water retention, bloating… #8952Hi Deb
Would I be right in ascertaining that the bloating feeling came on after you increased to 5 times per week? That’s how it appears.
Can you test what happens when you go back to 3 times? I also have a hunch it has to do with salt and water balance (as you do).
May I ask you to tell me what salt you actually do take?
I would take a gamble on the Himalayan salt. Have you used that? That is harvested from salt reserves that are way above sea level (from an ancient body of water I believe). It is very much worth investigating.
Otherwise I would put you in contact with someone specific (or at least ask them myself) who knows about the purity levels of many, many different sea salts and their method of harvest.
The other salt that would not have changed its harvest methods is the Fleur de Sel from the Atlantic harvested off the cost of Bretagne (Brittany). There is the celtic salt but the fleur de sel variety is hand harvested off the surface of the water.
Let me know ho you get your salt and we can go from there. Also tell me your water habits.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Shoulder pain/injury from hot yoga, to stay or go? #8951Hi Kathy
Your instincts are correct. Start with arms further and yes, place those knees on the ground. You can bring your arms back as and when they’re ready.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Nancy
Thanks and welcome to the forum! There are so many body and mind responses to yoga (any type). What I would be interested to know is if, after now 3 weeks since posting (oops, I plead busy) that same response has been sustained. Are you still buzzing around? 😉
I have had students who walk away from classes invigorated in a peaceful way, calmly and efficiently approaching everything they do in that fashion. Other times even the same students will be wiped out.
It changes. I would love to know how it is for you.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: achilles tendonitis #8943Hi Marilyn
Plantar fasciitis and problems with achilles tendon can be confused and even overlap!!! See what the medico says. In the meantime do a search on this forum for ‘plantar’ and you will find some worthwhile discussions and ideas.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: achilles tendonitis #8941Hi Marilyn
Yes, it could be a good idea but it does depend on a number of factors. What is your partner’s approach? Is he still running?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Final Stretch , help! #8940Hi Colleen
Thanks for posting! You sound like you work very hard in your practice.
Three questions:
What specifically are you pushing?
What specifically are you pulling?
Why is the standing splits so important to you?These are not flippant questions. I am wanting to get some ideas of your techniques, your focus and your practice intentions!!!!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Jennifer
How is your body feeling now? It’s been a few days. I need a little more information about what’s going on.
So, it is very possible that the issues in your joints could be that your body may not be strong enough in the right areas yet to fully support your joints in the exercises your body is discovering.
Your running would definitely have made a difference for you and possibly negatively in this case. While you are building your yoga prowess your muscles and joints are possibly trying to do things you have never asked of them before.
Your exhaustion could just be telling you that you need a rest.
Core strength is always an issue. And generally where you lack strength/flexibility in your body then the rest of your organism needs to compensate.
You also have put your joints through a lot (of different activity) for many years. So in some way, we will have to find a path that’s a little more graded for you.
Does that make sense? Let me know if any of that resonates.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: bikram yoga next teacher training #8938Hi Christina
I think if you scratch the surface you’ll find your fears would in all likelihood be realised. On the one hand we wish to send our children to schools with small manageable classes, that have teachers who uphold and foster basic teaching conditions such as proper behaviour exhibited and expected along with proper learning outcomes.
Perhaps you can examine what you might be able to get from a class of 400-500 students with one teacher at the front. Or even in a pose clinic of 50 people watching someone doing the pose well.
If you want a perverse way of looking at it, imagine standing by the side of the pool watching someone swimming so that you can learn how to swim. Learning just doesn’t work that way.
While I could talk about how great the Hot Yoga Doctor Pro program is :cheese: I really don’t think that it’s the right thing to do here. I suggest that you check out what my lovely newly graduated teachers had to say because what you want is your outcome. You can see that (and what having a ‘personal approach’ means) at the Hot Yoga Teacher website!.
Learning poses and how to fix your own practice is definitely one way to be able to improve your ability to teach a class. I think it’s imperative. If you’re going to any teacher training one of the main outcomes is learning to teach.
We spend a lot of time on that, and partly by using your own practice to get you there. Plenty of hands-on experience is required in order to do that. And what we also do is to relate that strongly and deeply to the workings of the body so that you can take just about any pose and work out how it works and how to teach it.
Christina, there are hundreds of people who do teacher training courses just because they want to improve their own practices. A good proportion go on to teach but not all. I am just curious as to where, on that continuum, you stand!
Feel free to ask further questions! I would love to welcome you to Costa Rica if that resonates with you!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Trouble sitting cross-legged (or Indian style) #8933Hello Helen
How lovely of you to share your success! Thanks so much for taking the time to come and post. :coolsmile:
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Shoulder pain/injury from hot yoga, to stay or go? #8926Hi Kim
What you’re doing (yoga wise) should help you IF YOU are doing the poses in a way that will resolve your problems. Firstly counteracting that bent typing position is important. There are plenty of ways to do that at your desk and of course it happens in your yoga class. There are ways to use a wall too.
However (and that’s the second thing! 😉 ) you want to make sure that when you’re trying to straighten your arms over your head (and in many of the poses) that you are NOT aggravating your problems by creating tightness in your head, neck and shoulders.
There are literally dozens and dozens of posts if not hundreds in this forum about how attending ubiquitous script recited classes is a way to exacerbate this problem (because they remove your ability to create resolution in the body … my techniques however will do that). Please go and look at the free video(s).
You’ll find the one called A Transformational Technique For Your Practice, For Your Life at the bottom of the page.
See if that seems to resonate for you.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Stacey
Oh dear! You can try to write to me at help @ … you can work out the rest!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Shoulder pain/injury from hot yoga, to stay or go? #8920Hi Kathy
Great! I am glad you have now had a chance to prove that to yourself. The problem is that you’re currently needing to build more strength in the torso, shoulder, neck area because right now all the burden of your planks (lowering from high to low) is being borne by your shoulder muscles and causing problems. Stronger muscles are compensating for weaker ones and some muscles top upper back below the neck are probably feeling some strain too.
So, wait til your acute pain has abated. Always focus on proper shoulder positioning (all the time in and out of the studio – if in doubt how, ask). When you start attempting plank and push ups, try first with the knees down, and rather than putting hands under shoulders create a lot more distance between your hands. It will feel as though you are pounds lighter! Over time bring the hands in closer and closer.
Can’t wait to hear how it all works out
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂in reply to: Shoulder pain/injury from hot yoga, to stay or go? #8918Hi Kathy
You know, I think it’s not the downdogs it’s more likely to be the high to low push ups. Before we go on could you tell me whether you lower your body down to the ground from high to low push up? And also tell me if you are doing that with your knees on the ground or with your body in plank? Do you place your hands right in line with your shoulders?
OK, it’s Kim’s turn :cheese:
Are you practising with static poses in the hot room or does your practice involve sun salutations, and downward facing dogs etc?
My initial thoughts are that you both have different issues. Kim, yours will definitely benefit from hot yoga with the counteractive effect of opening up your elbows and shoulders.
Your situation could improve even with a small number of classes per week. I KNOW what it’s like getting stuck at a computer. Have you ever put a timer on for say, 50 minutes and then FORCED yourself to get up and take a ‘bio-break’ and spend 5 of those refreshing rejuvenating minutes doing some yoga that involves your arms and shoulders.
There are some great things you could do either sitting down or standing up without getting out your mat or attracting too much attention. Actually it’s really about maintenance for you. If that resonates for you we can work out what you can do… (my guess is that you’ll have an intuitive hit about what would work)
I shall wait to hear back from you both
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Michelle
I imagine you’d be very excited about your wedding!
Can you tell me please: What changes are you expecting? What do you focus on in class? What is your nutrition like? Hydration? Electrolyte consumption (what from)? Do you get the feeling you are bloated?
What do you mean you’ve been doing bootcamp? Is that gym or in a group exercise situation with running and other exercises?
Oh, how about telling me how you’re fitting into your clothes or whether you feel or look the same size but if you’ve become more toned…
I realise I have asked you a few questions and some of them about the way your physical body is. It is also possible there is a mental switch that we can find to push. (*Hey, that could even be “2 months to go – what kind of person will I be when I have what I am searching for?” …. so, are you clear about what you are wanting?)
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Stacey
Let me clarify: When your knees are together in Supta they hurt and when they are apart they don’t?
It’s interesting that the doctrine ‘the yoga will fix it’ is rearing its head again. Is it possible that your instructors are saying this because they simply don’t know what’s going on?
Because most people’s training (I don’t mean all teachers here) is lacking there is a standard reply or stop gap approach: When in doubt tell the student that they should stick with the process and that it’s their stuff and that the yoga will fix it. With all due respect, this approach doesn’t wash with me!!!!
It seems that you have some issues with your knees or at least have possibly developed issues. Going back in Supta is not working for you.
I would until further notice (and that means evidence of EASE in your knees) sit in a classic kneeling pose with knees hips and heels together in Supta. Sounds like a cop out but what we want here is some resolution.
Anyway, get back to me but I just wanted to start with something that takes care of your knees. I have something I want you to do too which I will send by PM…
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Stacey
Stage 2! 😉 Are you seeing a physio therapist / osteo or chiro? It seems as though you could benefit from some hip work to try and affect the relative rotation. (I have had this). One hip is almost certainly rotating anteriorly with respect to the other.
If you have a scoliosis then it is possible that one condition affects / exacerbates the other.
When you go back into Supta are your knees together?
‘See’ you soon
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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