The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Hot Yoga Facts
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in reply to: arms behind the calf muscles #3187
Hi Gabrielle,
For a couple classes now I have been paying attention to this and I would say that yes I do have the stomach against the legs consistently.
I have to squat very very low to be able to get my fingers underneath my heels from as far behind as I can. Then when I necessarily straighten up somewhat (still keeping the knees bent) they tend to edge out from the outsides of my heels. If I don’t squat that low in the first place, I can’t really get the fingers underneath the heels at all.
What I have been doing is to keep my knees bent and try to feel that any pulling is coming from the biceps. I’m not sure I have isolated the shoulders out though, because my forearms are still more next to my calves than they are behind them. I had the thought that perhaps I should try thinking of squeezing the elbows together at the same time I am pulling? I haven’t tried that yet.
What do you think? Just keep doing what I am doing and be patient? 🙂 I know I am pretty darn inflexible in various ways.
Also, I am not sure how to incorporate the idea of “shoulders away from the ears” here… this is always a tricky one for me to feel in Rabbit too, actually. Any tips on how to get a better feel for that?
Thank you so much!
Jenin reply to: Trouble with legs #3157Oooo I will have to try these tips. Especially the idea about thinking of your lower leg as a chair is intriguing to me.
Eagle has been pretty unsatisfying in general but now I have some things to try. 🙂
Thanks Gabrielle!
Jenin reply to: arms behind the calf muscles #3156Hi Gabrielle, I have a similar question to this one about the elbows.
I too have had trouble getting them behind the calves. What I noticed one day when I did a different type of yoga class was that, if I did not try to go all the way to putting my fingers underneath my heels and instead just grasped the back of my heels near the ankle, I could do a much better job of getting the elbows behind the legs. It was almost shocking to me! And I also felt able to pull a lot more strongly through the arms when doing it this way.
But of course, the bikram instruction is to put your hands underneath your heels. I have felt like I am cheating somehow if I do not do this, or maybe like I should do it and just wait to eventually be able to get my elbows back there. I haven’t specifically tried keeping my knees bent as Gabrielle suggested above, but I could see about that next time I go to class. OR, I thought, maybe I should build strength by doing it the way I described above until I can eventually put my hands underneath my heels while still keeping the elbows back.
I often wondered if this was because I am tall (5′-9.5″) or have long legs… 🙂
Any thoughts on this variation of the problem?
Thank you!!
Jen -
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