Leatherstocking

Hello, Gabrielle:

Thank you for the prompt reply. I did just watch your video and think it makes sense, and I can be aware of what you suggest more than I already am (as an aside–I wear heels Mon through Fri because I don’t like flat shoes–my feet spread out too much in them), but I am still not convinced that aligning my foot on the floor is the entire solution.

What I know I do already is to pretty much keep my weight either in my heels or the balls of my feet when in standing balance poses. In other words, I make sure that at all times, I can lift every one of my toes off the ground to ensure that my weight is distributed across the ball and heel. This is something I sort of gleaned from listening to a variety of instructors. Is this healthy? I wasn’t sure from the video.

When you refer to “stacking” the joints, I wonder if there is more muscle alignment/power I could be using in my quads. I just tried it before replying, and I can’t really say that it feels different than the sort of “slamming back” the knee joint sensation I get when I try to do what my Bikram instructors are always saying in class: “Lock out the knee!”

I appreciate your help, as I am on the verge of just giving up on Bikram altogether, as I find being in pain unacceptable. However, before I walk away, I want to be sure that there aren’t inherent structural issues in my body that aren’t the “fault” of any particular kind of yoga, but that are being brought to light [em]because[/em] of doing yoga. Maybe the hot yoga is showing me things that the vinyasa wasn’t showing me. All I know is that I wasn’t in pain before, and now I am.

Thanks very much.

Nina