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  • kirstenmd
    Participant
    June 2, 2009 at 7:53 pm
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: On flexiblity #4942

    I’m also glad to hear that you are getting benefits from yogabody Feenix! I am eagerly waiting for mine to arrive 🙂 Soll here is something the teacher said yesterday in class that I thought might interest you. She said, people think yoga is stretching, but it is really about creating space through extending, lifting and opening. I’m liking the 5 minute poses though I can hardly walk afterwards 😉

    cheers

    Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    June 1, 2009 at 4:59 pm
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: video not there? #4933

    Thanks I have got it now! very helpful. I was just getting a blank space before.

    cheers

    Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    June 1, 2009 at 10:54 am
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: tight shoulders and neck! #4928

    This is really for anyone who is having the same problem who might have logged on to this thread. I watched the video as Gabrielle suggested and yesterday really focussed on rotating the arms. (I noticed that everyone in the class had elbows facing forward not back in the standing resting pose!) Anyway not only did it help me with many of the poses, including this one which I was struggling with, and tree where for the first time my shoulders were equal, but that on getting to corpse pose, I felt my body perfectly aligned rather than scrunched up and collapsing. I was able to go straight into the pose with everything flat rather than wriggling around and stretching bits out to get there. Also my shoulders were totally relaxed after class, I needed less water, I was more focussed. It helped in so many ways. So if you are struggling with neck and shoulders then really, do watch that video (its free after all!) and try it out!

    Thanks Gabrielle for the most helpful tip!

    regards

    Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    June 1, 2009 at 10:43 am
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: On flexiblity #4927

    hello!

    I am no expert and only a beginner at Bikram. But I am pretty inflexible and have struggled with many different types of yoga over the years with no improvement, a lot of frustration and discouragement. When someone suggested Bikram I though I would give it a go as I happened to be in London and could find a studio.

    I’ve only done ten classes and while I still struggle with the head to knee pose you describe, I have really found strides in other areas. For example in trying to touch toes I could only get to halfway down shins with a big strain to back, now I can get to ankles and with softening not straining. Similarly with standing separate leg intense stretching pose I can now reach ankles rather than knees. In camel I have gone from being able to barely move to being able to see the back wall, and Bow from thinking what are they talking about getting my leg up there??? to being able to see the tops of my toes in the mirror.

    I read the information about gravity poses, and it makes sense, so yesterday I set my intention to use gravity in class and then realised that that is why where you put your weight is so important. So in standing separate leg intense stretching pose rolling the weight forward onto the toes really helps the body to soften towards the floor (I’m still way off head on the floor but hey!). So now I am going to try the long gravity stretches. Gabrielle also mentioned something on another post called yin yoga and I did a websearch and came up with this http://www.yinyoga.com/ which I am also going to try as it looks as if it will help with knee and hip flexibility.

    Lucas (the gravity pose guy) says everyone can be fully flexible if they follow the right regime. He says we all have flexibility but have lost it and points to children as an example. I find this slightly frustrating because I don’t drink coffee, drink lots of water, have always stretched a lot, don’t eat meat, hardly any dairy or wheat products and yet other people who do all of this can walk into a class for the first time and outflex me 😉 So I prefer to think that we all have different physiologies and we all have different potentials, plus what has happened in our lives will have affected our bodies too. A lot of the advice on this site, reflects that.

    What can I say? It seems like a lot of yoga is about patience, getting to know your body better and measuring your improvements in tiny tiny steps! As far as flexibility is concerned, I have seen improvements in flexibility, but I do think a combination approach will yield better results, balancing the intensity with some deep long holds too.

    all best wishes

    Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    May 30, 2009 at 9:05 pm
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: help for a newbie to this pose! #4913

    Thanks again Outward1. This really helped a lot and actually by relaxing more and not worrying about the arms, I was able to almost get them together and straight after I had the forehead down right! Plus the pose felt a lot more comfortable and with your and Gabrielle’s advice my shoulders were relaxed after class for the first time. Thank you so much!

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    May 30, 2009 at 4:41 pm
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: tight shoulders and neck! #4912

    I just wanted to say thanks again Gabrielle, because your suggestions here and in the Pranayama forum really helped me today. For the first time since starting hot yoga I wasn’t completely worn out by triangle and had much better breath. My shoulders were more relaxed all the way through which totally helped with almost all the other poses too. I’ve realised that some of my previous yoga practice was probably making my neck and shoulders worse not better. Intention and attention equalled improved skill today. Thank you for your input.

    all best

    Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    May 30, 2009 at 4:37 pm
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: home practice/no studio? #4911

    Thanks Robert.

    It is very reassuring to me to hear an experienced practitioner talk in this way. I’m hoping that by attending classes each day for the next month I will be able to keep going on my own. I’m delighted to have found the manual and DVD’s which I am sure will be of extensive support! I also plan to join the master classes on private membership as soon as I am more settled in August.

    I totally see the benefits of having a mirror and have always used one anyway when I did previous yoga practice at home before finding hot yoga! It is very interesting the difference between what we feel and what we see!

    thanks again for your support and both of you for all your work on this forum. It is especially great for me when I cannot get to regular classes to have found this!

    all the best

    Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    May 30, 2009 at 11:02 am
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: help for a newbie to this pose! #4907

    Thank you Gabrielle.

    I do have a slight twist in the lower spine due to an accident years ago. which mainly affects my pelvis. My main intention at the moment is to keep my shoulders down and I work a lot on this outside of class also squeezing the shoulder blades back which helps a bit. What is amazing compared to other yoga practices I have done is how quickly this one makes you feel how everything in your body is connected and affects everything else. My intention for today is to feel stretched not tense in class. THANKS!

    Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    May 30, 2009 at 10:58 am
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: tight shoulders and neck! #4906

    🙂

    Thank you! I love all the advice about no tension as I do believe that really helps with yoga. The two best teachers I have had talk a lot about softening into the poses and using the breath to help you do this. I’ve just come from a Hatha yoga retreat in India where they said it was ‘stubborn yoga’ and you must force yourself! It was quite scary. I do find it a strain to tilt my back on the inbreath at Pranayama as I feel my neck and shoulders pinching and did read the tips on that in the forum thanks!

    I made a post in the general forum asking about creating a regular practice when there is no studio available. I just looked and it had 48 views but no replies. I just wondered if this was because a lot of people had the same issue. Advice on this would be really appreciated.

    cheers Kirsten

    kirstenmd
    Participant
    May 29, 2009 at 11:42 pm
    Post count: 16
    in reply to: help for a newbie to this pose! #4901

    thank you so much. This is very reassuring. It is what I instinctively felt but it is really good to hear it from an experienced teacher. I can now focus better on this practice I am sure with the intention of eventually bringing both sections into line. Sincere thanks for taking the time!

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