Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)

Hi penname40

Congratulations on finding your yoga! I am wondering about that comment about re-hydrating in a steam room. Does that happen? I thought you would sweat and lose fluid. Happy to hear from others and be corrected.

If you are going to do it, for me it makes sense to use the steam room before class for warming up.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Shannon

The strong pointing of your toes is the problem! Try this: make sure your grip is around the foot and that your hand does not grip around the ankle at all but is below your toes. The force through your kicking leg is through to your hand. That force has the effect of straightening up the line between your knee and your toes naturally, without forcing the point through your toes. In effect (as Sue mentions in her last post 😉 ) your feet are relaxed. The strength in the kick comes from moving the knees up off the floor and the foot trying to kick straight backwards but being stopped by your arm.

Your calves are really not involved in any appreciable way. In Locust try locking the leg through the quadriceps more strongly than engaging your calves. It is subtle but when I engage my calves more strongly I notice that my quadriceps unlock a bit. Let me know what happens for you.

For your sit-up, I am wondering if you are working with straight or bent legs. Please let me know.

Hi Sue

I think you may find something in the above paragraphs. There has been recent discussion about Rabbit pose which relates a similar problem to you. There should be no use of the calf muscles at all. Perhaps work on relaxing your feet fully in that pose, and bring your heels together. See the discussion here: Crampy Rabbit!.

Is there something more you can tell me about what happens and when in Supta Vajrasana?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hello again!

Yes keep the legs bent. I am not sure if you have seen this yet, so do take a look at Lauren in the photos and read the blog post here: Opening Up Your Hamstrings With Hot Yoga – it should help you.

If you can’t arch it then certainly elongating and lengthening your back as much as you can is the way to go.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi sinbinny

You know what? I would exaggerate the bending of the legs in Paschimottanasana. Don’t wait for the pinch. Work on lifting the chest with your legs bent and see what you can do to feel the lower back and what is going on there. Remember ‘straight legs are a bonus!’.

Don’t be concerned about your back in hands to feet pose. If your body is squashed on your legs and you are pulling with your biceps then you are doing the best you can. What you feel in your back (and legs etc) when you lift your hips rather than trying hard to straighten your legs is what counts.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Cindy,

Thank you so much for repeating all that great detail. It is certainly of great value. We are still away and have limited access so I look forward to fully joining all the forum conversations soon.

Hi Jeanette,

I hope that Cindy’s and my input inspires you to get some help beyond simply taking it easy in those poses. I have been there! So has Cindy. It really deserves the attention of someone who can assess YOUR situation. I would like to share some other pose tips with you. I hope you can wait another 36 hours! 😉

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Andrew

When I say externally rotate your arms it is the mechanism that allows you to bring your shoulders down and back. If you want an experience of this in everyday terms:

>> Stand with your arms down by your sides.
>> Notice what way your palms are facing. Those with regular posture should have their palms facing towards their legs.
>> Notice now what you have to do and how it feels in your shoulder joint when you rotate your arms so that your palms face forward, then outward.

This is an external rotation and is what you do in your pose.

So I am wondering what you need to do to feel relaxation in your well positioned shoulders and balance that with a relaxed neck while still creating strength in your arms. Is it possible that there is tension in areas that you don’t need to tense?

What is going on in your jaw? Are you clenching your teeth perhaps? Sometimes we effort our yoga when we can just try!

Anyway, I welcome some more distinctions as to what you are feeling and where, so that I can better understand what is going on.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi by09

Just thought I would add some thoughts! Is it possible that now that you have better skill at the poses, are acclimatized to the heat, your muscles are bigger and your body is more efficient at working that you now know how to work better in class? Perhaps your increased sweating is an indication of a more finely tuned body! Perhaps you know HOW to work in your practice to get your results and so you sweat more.

Of course as BikHead has suggested your studio may be overheated. It could be that the temperature and humidity combine to create a heat index that is simply too high. The sweating could simply be that your body is trying to cool itself from nosebleed high temperatures. This would explain the fatigue.

Hmmm, probably a combination of all of the above. :cheese:

Congratulations on taking the plunge and buying an annual membership.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Andrew

I was just wondering about the arch in your lumbar spine. Just to clarify: You are telling me you have a slightly enhanced curve in your lower back, is that right? If it is then it could actually make it easier to improve your paschimottanasana poses because you can extend and lengthen your spine as you try to bring your body down to your legs. The opposite is where most people get into trouble: Where they imagine that the rounding of the spine is what is doing them a favor. Let me know if that makes sense and if I can explain that better.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Andrew

Yes you should absolutely make sure there is not strain in your feet or calves. The lower legs push into the floor and that should relieve any engagement of the muscles you don’t need.

If you still find you are somehow still activating the backs of your lower legs or your feet then we can look into it again with other ideas to work out exactly what is going on for you here. One could be that it is happening when you are getting your heels together. Pay some attention here and get back to me.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Cleo

Happy, happy, happy to read your news! Get back to me. There are tips to lie in Savasana that can help you. Looking forward to your insights.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Stephanie

I do believe that you can find the poster as part of Tony Sanchez’s suite of products. If you can’t find it let me know because I have found it before, I just haven’t bought it!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Feenix

Thanks for posting your interesting issues. On the public and private forum the other week someone who is also at the computer a lot seems to have a similar problem with their elbow. It may be worth checking out to see if it pertains to you. It is called Cubital Tunnel syndrome. See Pose modifications for cubital tunnel syndrome?

In fixed firm: sometimes students get caught out because they are either coming up with their head first (and maybe too quickly) or they keep their knees together on the way out of this pose. Move the knees apart when you are coming out. This is one of the greatest practice tips I can offer you. You can see it on the Supta Vajrasana Pose Clinic in the archives. But I guess that you are having difficulty right now. So tell me if you can actually just sit in this pose with your knees wide apart and then see if you can go down on to your elbows etc.

Locust: when you have a big bust it can be very difficult to get your shoulders to the floor. I always think of externally rotating my arms. And then the other week someone on the forum worded like this: press your heart into the floor. That seems to give a nice imagery that creates the same effect. Still if you are busty then it may even be hard to do that.

Here is one fairly recent reply to a post called Is there ANY hope for me? and another one also particularly related to large busts: First part of locust: how and why …

I hope that gets us started on the right track.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂