sinbinny

hi gabrielle,

Re: Tree pose –
I have a little revelation on this pose! (from studying the pose gallery)- I realised that I have not been having my heels in the centre but a bit off to the side. I still can’t get them under the belly button, mind you but I manage to get the heels at my crotch and I felt exactly ‘a tremendous amount of leverage on your traction to open up your hips’. I can even get my hands in prayer, what a difference a couple of cm makes! but whilst up there my feet are horizontal (my toes are the same level as my heels), not vertical like yours in the pose gallery.

In this case, am I good enough to go to toe stand from here?
Actually, I did have a little go (how can I not, I waited for a year!) – I could bend forward with my leg straight (and my bent leg not slipping!) until my palm touched the floor but once down there, I was very wobbly. is it a matter of strength? I read this post https://www.hotyogadoctor.com/index.php/site/forum/viewthread/209/
I have short, short arms too.
also I have very weak toes. they are often so strained in the Awkward pose that I have to crack them right after, if not they will affect my Eagle pose. so that kind of put some fear in me, how should I explain it – I am pre-empting my lack of balance/strength here due to a known weakness?

Re: Standing head to knee-
my right leg now can comfortably lock out for 60 secs but my left leg has always been my weaker side (yes, I am definitely lopsided, my right leg has always been more muscular than the left). Having said that I can now hold the left leg for the whole of the second set. but in the first set, the strain is on my lower left bum muscle, god it burns after a while to the point that I have to break the pose, sometimes I feel the strain on the back of my left knee too. I have always try to ‘center’ my weight (learnt from the pose clinic) and not lean too much on either, or at least that is what I think I am doing. so I guess, I have a weak left hip muscle? even with Head to Knee pose, it is often harder for my left leg to push the ankle out, lock out and lift the ankle whilst my right leg could do all that without much difficulty.

namaste 🙂

binny

hi Gabrielle,

sorry for the late reply. as you know pre-christmas and post new year periods are always a bit hectic.

you were right that my problem was my neck and shoulders, and yes they were tensed only because after my summer holiday I’ve forgotten to drop my shoulders in the class! And i had watched the ‘elbows in the back pocket’ vid before.

please allow me go back a bit –

I first tried your suggestion on microbending my arms in half moon, but only after a few classes did I realise that (with the help of microbending arms) I have been tensing my shoulders, not scrunched up but lifted/tensed. not at the start of the pose either but only when I started to bend, somehow my shoulders lifted up to compensate the inadequacy of my core (working on it).

with this discovery, I decide to I downloaded your 90minutes yoga class and went through it and It proved to be a relevation –

I was scrunching up my shoulders right from the beginning of the class, yes at Pranayama breathing, not at the inhale but the exhale. After that discovery, i just keep dropping my shoulders, even at Savasana which is new to me – ‘shimmy your shoulders in’ as per your instruction on the digital yoga class and it made a real difference – not only can i breath deeper during savasana but it also prepares me to keep my shoulders down in the next poses.

as I said I watched your ‘elbows in the back pocket’ vid but I only remember it for the standing savasana.

so after that, my shoulder blades have stopped hurting and clicking, my toes stopped straining in awkward and eagle poses (yes, I was scrunching up my shoulders here, thus my balance was off and my toes did extra work to make up for it, hence the strain).

generally after which all my poses improved, I am even able to arch my back now at standing separate leg stretching pose. like you say in you vid, it transformed my practice.

and my back now feels great both during and after the classes.

so from now on, I hope not to forget to drop my shoulders but sadly my yoga teachers here don’t emphasis much on dropping the shoulders apart from the occasional poses. (you will be appalled to see how many scrunching up their shoulders here), I will be lucky if they mentioned it once a while in the class. i think because of that i gradually forgot to drop my shoulders and eventually getting all these strains and clicks.

they say yoga is a personal journey and it is definitely very true for Bikram yoga, and thankfully this website has been the guiding light for mine.

Thank you very much Gabrielle.

a happy 2010 to you!

Namaste!

binny

Hi gabrielle!

Thank you for the advice!

1) Re: Standing Sep Leg Intense Stretch
for the past couple of days, I find that if I keep my knees bent first then rest my body as close to my hip as possible then elongate and lengthen, i can arch my back a bit! I can even then straighten my knees without the back of my knees pinching. It’s great! I am finally making progress 🙂

2)Paschimottanasana
still no luck with getting my back straight, I even tried after class when I have a bit of time and peace on my own, rather than having my instructor shouting at me to straighten my legs. so am just going to keep trying.

thank you again!

Namaste!

Hi Gabrielle,

thank you for the quick response.

1) I had my legs straight in Standing Sep Leg Intense stretch when the back of my knees pinched, so now I bent them slightly whenever I feel the pinch.

2) yes I look just like Lauren in the Paschimottanasana Pose Tutorial.

3) I suppose I might have the same problem with the last posture in the half moon, but I won’t know as I am not able to see myself in the mirror in position.

ok I will try your technique tomorrow when comes to Downward Dog, I usually hold it about a minute, not long.

thank you again!

Namaste!

Wow, 4 classes after your last reply and what can I say! putting ‘elbow in my back pocket’ has indeed transformed my practice! thanks to it, I have upped my game (as the American would have put it). I can’t thank you enough!

It is especially noticeable at –
Head to Knee stretching pose – my hip left joint stopped pinching!
Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose – I am able to put my hands under my heels.
Hands to Feet – My arms are tidily tucked behind my legs
🙂

I have been practising bikram for a full month now. I notice that I have already shaped up especially around the abdomen, so very pleased!

here’s another observation –
my half moon pose looks and feels so much better when I lift my heels a little, should I keep lifting them?

also my elbows hurt at the camel pose, maybe I am leaning onto them too much, should I bend them?

thank you again!

Hi Gabrielle! thank you so much for the replies! sorry for my late reply but all the notification mails went straight to my junk folder, I just found them and the whole time I have been waiting eagerly to hear back from you!

And WOW, I am really grateful that you have given my problems so much thought! and there are so much to read through! and they helped immensely!

I have so much to share with you now! little discoveries about my body!

Ok since then I have done 3 more classes, 2 before reading your posts so I was just working on the new locking of legs – ‘bring the knee cap up’ and it already helps loads!!! 🙂 the joints stopped pinching as much! and my knees feel less tight! and when I lunge forward in the triangle pose, they stop hurting too! I was absolutely thrilled!

No I am not flat footed but after watching your video of ‘great posture from the ground up’ I have to admit that I do have lazy posture and I let my feet drop inwards, especially when holding one leg up. But by ‘bringing the knee cap up’ helps correct that a bit.
it is true in your video that you mentioned that our feet got underused. when I first did those awkward poses, the bit where standing on the toes, I was shocked to find muscles straining there! It was painful to say the least, I am one of those who is always going for foot reflexology.

In this morning class (the first one after reading your posts) I have tried lifting my heel up slightly in all the standing on one leg poses, especially noticeable in the tree post – I lift my knees up to the height of my crotch and parallel to the floor, not twisting all the way down and having my feet between my crotch and femur – even just standing there holding my foot, ‘locking my knee’ on the standing one and slightly lifting its ankle, I am already feeling little muscles that I never felt before! it’s incredible! I am loving it. I have also not let my big toes taking all the weight.

since the above are all new/long-forgotten sensations to me, I would like to ask, when I am doing the above – standing on one leg, knees cap up, ankles slightly up, weight off the big toe – where should I place the weight on my foot?

and yes, I have never been a person with perfect balance, maybe it is because I have small feet – Europe 36, UK 3 or US6.

I never thought that I have had any problem with my hamstrings but after reading all your posts and doing all these little adjustments to my postures, I finally realised that my hamstrings are a bit tight in the Standing Bow Pulling Pose, and I have never noticed that in any poses. I reckon I have been unwittingly compensating my hamstrings with letting my knees taking all the strain but now with all these conscientious adjustments I can no longer cheat my body. so there you go, I would love to hear if you agreed with my thoughts here.

I was a bit late this morning to do too much warm up before the class but after it I tried the half pigeon pose that you recommended in one of your posts to help opening up the hip (and hamstrings?) and I have to say on my cycle back home my knees and hip felt a lot less tight! hooray! I am going to do that before class tomorrow and I will let you know it it helps in any of the poses at all.

At the moment I am not straightening my knees at the Hands to feet pose, Standing Head to Knee pose, Standing Sep Leg Intense Stretch, Standing Sep Leg Head to Knee pose, Head to Knee Pose with Stretching Pose and all the sit-ups.

I have round shoulders and I read somewhere on your site that it affects a lot of the above poses?

What I do now at Hands to Feet pose (after the half moon pose) is just getting my arms and elbows in the right position (facing back), straightening my back but not straightening my knees at all. but maybe because I was just bending/holding there, my knees become stiff everytime I release the pose and try to come back up, wasn’t very pleasant and i am wondering what would you recommend me do here to help me progress in this pose?

the same goes to Standing Sep Leg Intense Stretch, I bend down grab my ankles and try to straighten my back and that’s it for the moment, any tip will be appreciated too?

and then I have been taking your advise on just kneeling during the fixed firm pose. I have to say I never noticed that pose hurt me before but after reading your post, my left knee pinches! how strange, think you warned me in time. so now I just kneel.

Ok, thank you for all encouragements and above all, Gabrielle, you are a star for helping us novice bikram yogis. I cannot imagine what damage I could have done to my body without your guidance. I am so happy to have found this website/community.

Namaste