Hot Yoga Forum

Feet cramping & vertigo

2009-08-03T02:48:38-08:00

I have just started Hot Yoga at home using the MaterClass DVD & book as I live too far away from a studio to make it practical to attend classes. I have been practising a variety of yoga on and off for years as well as intermittently running for fitness. I find that I regularly get cramps in my feet, sometimes in my calf as well as vertigo.

I have been to my GP several times for this and had many tests with nothing definitively wrong.

I was wondering if anyone else experiences these symptoms and has any ideas of how to alleviate them? Salt tablets don’t help

PS
I am loving the Yoga and am attempting to get the whole family to join in - although we can only practice at 31C, I still get a good sweat up, just need to warm up alittle slower

Labral tear (hip)

2009-09-08T10:54:50-08:00

Hi!! I have been practicing Bikram Yoga for 5 years. In addition,I do weight training (moderate weight/hi reps) I have just been diagnosed with a labral tear in my hip. It is so painful!! Could I have gotten this from yoga?? and…should i lay off of yoga? My doctor says yoga is fine, but unless you do Bikram Yoga, you don’t know how intense it is. I have continued my practice but just modified some poses. Thanks, Lynne
Thank you so much for your quick response. my doctor is recommending orthiscopic surgery to repair the tear. I am unable to do triangle pose on my right side. Can not bend my knee totally and have that much weight on right side. Standing head to knee (my favorite pose) is actually ok on my right side, I can not do the complete pose on my left side…go figure. Forward bends I just have to bend my knees which i never had to do before..just a bit discouraging.. thanks for your help

Glute strain/tightness

2010-06-08T09:18:12-08:00

I have recently been experiencing glute pain in my left glute muscle. Last summer, I did a lot of weight training and running, and I first experienced glute pain with sciatica on my left leg, and a chiropractor diagnosed me with “piriformis syndrome.” I stopped weights and running, and when i was fully recovered, I started Bikram yoga (this past October).

Recently, since practicing Bikram about 4-5 days a week, my left glute strain/pain has started to bother me again. I don’t have sciatic pain, and my massage therapist says my glutes are just “tight.” I have backed off on doing Bikram, but I am wondering if I’d be ok to start up again? I’m just wondering if it may be too much strain on my glute muscle. I am a waitress, so I am on my feet for about 8 hours each day…

Thanks for your response!!

LIsa

Bikram Yoga in new modified ways

2010-06-03T22:02:28-08:00

I posted in another topic about my backproblems. Now I am experimenting with for me a little different approaches.

1. I take the stretches to a very light stretch, and put my attention on where it stretches. This is what Maharishi Mahesh Yogi recommended, as the stiffness will in time “melt away”, and the attention on the ligth stretch will foster selfreferral.

2. I have posted in other posts about my backproblems, and they seem to be aggravated by backbends and the Head to knee pose. I now do the following modifications:

Half moon pose:
In the backbend I only let me head go back and I lift up my chest and this creates a very slight backbend.

Standing head to knee pose:
I only grab the knee, as suggested in the Hot Yoga manual. I have to struggle reaching the foot, so grabbing the knee and working on getting the leg high up seem to be a good idea.

Balancing stick pose:
I take it very easy in this one.

Cobra, Locust pose and Full locust pose:
I take it very easy in these ones, lifting very little.

Floor bow pose:
I can’t reach my legs, but only from twisting. I take it very easy in this one, only kicking very little, hardly lifting legs from floor.

Fixed firm pose:
I can’t sit with my butt on the floor, so I don’t go back in this one. After 8 years of Bikram Yoga I can’ sit on the floor… but I used to go back anyway, but stop doing that now.

Camel pose:
This one kills my back… now I only let head go back. The upper front of my legs feel tight.

HELP, HELP, HELP, HELP, HELP!!!
Head to knee pose with intense stretching posture:
This one I don’t know yet how to perform. Even when bending knee a lot to reach head to the knee, I afterwards get so stiff in my back. When I do the savasana afterwards my back hurts, and the lower part don’t reach the floor, and I get cramps. Maybe just stretch and the leg, twist and just sit there, not even attempting to bend forward? And in time bend slight forward without putting head to knee? Like in regular stretching?

Savasana:
I lay on the floor with my legs on a chair. Is this OK? It is very relaxing and in Svaroopa Yoga they say you can do this. What does Bikram Yoga say and what does Gabrielle say?

After each pose, when getting into Savaasana, I have looked in the brilliant Masterclass manual and follong the careful instructions about how to get into savasana from backbends. I did some wrong before…

Any feedback on this? I am not giving up…

Tight Groin and Cross Training Options

2010-06-01T17:36:35-08:00

I am a new yoga student. And I have come to realize after a few classes that my inflexible groin area is very limiting to my practice. I struggle on many of the floor postures and a couple of the standing postures. I am so inflexible that when I sit crossed legged on the floor my knees are up by my face…most people’s knees are resting on the ground.

So my questions are as follows: 1) Can I expect my flexibility in this area to improve significantly over time? and, 2) Are there exercises or stretches that can be done outside of class to improve my flexibility?

Also, on a separate topic…my schedule allows 4 yoga classes per week. That leaves 3 days for cross training. I am curious what others have found to be the most complimentary exercises to their yoga practice. I can pretty much do anything from spinning to swimming to weight training…I would prefer to do what compliments yoga best…and am open to suggestions.

Thank you for your feedback,

Paul

Backproblem worse from Bikram Yoga

2010-05-31T14:07:11-08:00

I’m a professional skateboarder and have backproblems off and on. I love Bikram Yoga as it it has helped my back and also builds strength, muscles and endurance and helps with balance and coordination.

I’ve been doing Bikram Yoga for 8 years and my back problem got better, but 2 years ago I got backproblem again. Stiffness and pain, especially in the mornings. Bikram Yoga did not help, chiropractic gave some relief, and Tahitian Noni helped with the inflammation. I get stiffness after exersice or yoga poses that works the back muscles and from all backbends. I x-rayed my back and it is slightly compressed and my back is a bit flat, no real s-curve.
Recently I tried another Yoga, called Svaroopa Yoga, and their sequence “Yoga for Your back”, and it felt good. Sun salutations before my skateboarding and Svaroopa after. But this is “furniture yoga”, done partly on a chair and to a wall, and does not feel like “real” hatha yoga… And I miss the balancing standing postures and the strenght and endurance benefits.
But the backbends in Bikram Yoga makes my back stiff and painful, yet many say backbends is very important when healing backproblems… the only backbend that feels good is the shortly held cobra in the classic sun salutation.
Bikram Yoga helps me a lot with my skateboarding as it builds strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, builds muscles, increase the cardiovscular fitness, tones my whole body. And I really love the athletic approach. But it causes me stiffness and pain in my back on no yoga teacher really knows why.
Any tips and suggestions I might not have heard yet? Should I modify my Bikram Yoga by no doing any backbends whatsover? Not in the halfmoon, no cobra, no Locust Pose, no Full Locust Pose, no Bow Pose, no Fixed Firm Pose, no Camel Pose?

I even get lots of stiffness and pain from Savasana. But not when I put my legs on a chair, as in Svaroopa Yoga…

hamstring, glutes, and s.i.joint

2010-05-17T17:04:03-08:00

I am a runner for the past 10 years and have recently discovered hot yoga. Unfortunately for me, I probably should have discovered it a long time ago.
I am now at the point where I am no longer running my usual 3x/week (avg mileage is about 20 miles), and I have been told to stop the hot yoga indefinitely. I have always been a very active individual but I have never been very good at cross-training. Two years ago, due to orthodontic appliances,braces and jaw issues, I was down to 7% body fat but still continued to run/exercise which is when all of my injuries/issues began to surface.
It began in my S.I joint in my lower back, progressed through my glutes and it seems to have settled in the insertion points between my glutes and hamstrings and at times shoots down my hamstrings to the back of my knees.
I have been obtaining regular massages, chiropractor when my SI joint has bothered me, and am now onto acupuncture and hot yoga. In the meantime, I have stopped running altogether.
My question is this….the chiropractor that also does my acupuncture has advised me that there is a possibility of me having a small tear in my hamstring that continues to re-surface and that perhaps I need to stop hot yoga. AAARGH!!!
I, however, have to say that since I started hot yoga 2 months ago (I am going 3 times a week, sometimes 4) I have seen allot of improvement in my mobility and have even had days/periods of time when my hams/glutes feel pain free…and it has been a long time since that has happened. I actually feel my lower spine, hamstrings and glutes release while I am in the class, which I think has contributed substantially to my ‘pain free’ days.
Ultimately I want to fix what is broken and my goal is to be able to be active once again…but if I stop hot yoga will I end up back where I was before ??? Or can I still proceed with modifications ???

Hip pain

2010-03-16T14:55:54-08:00

I have been practicing for almost a year consistently (4-6 days a week) and just finished a 60 day challenge. I took one day off and have kept going, i think today is day 74 or so. For about 3 weeks, I have had pain in my right hip joint during and after class. It isn’t super painful, just a dull ache, but it is starting to concern me because it doesn’t seem to be getting better and it is affecting some of my poses. I have noticed in standing bow when balancing on the left leg, I can’t kick my right leg up as much as on the other side. Also, in floor bow (which used to be fairly balanced for me) when I catch a peek in the mirror, my right leg is about 6 inches lower than my left, and no matter how I try to adjust it I can’t correct it. I spoke to a teacher and she said I am just “opening up more” and not to worry. Should I worry, or perhaps consider taking a few days off?

Hip flexor discomfort - question

2010-04-11T01:27:38-08:00

Hi Gabrielle,

Firstly thanks for maintaining this fantastic site.

I have not posted before, but I have a question (well, maybe two) which you may be able to assist with.

Some background
I am 35 and I have been practicing Bikram Yoga for two years. Historically I have always had very poor flexibility, and even as a child could not touch my toes. As a young adult I suffered from back and right shoulder pain due to poor posture when practicing music (a lot). In more recent years my lower back felt extremely stiff. Bikram yoga has greatly improved my flexibility and has alleviated a lot of the stiffness I used to feel.

Nearly a year ago I started to get some pain in my lower back on the RHS in backward bends, and my back bends also felt restricted. After treatment by an osteopath for issues with my sacroiliac joint I started to get sciatic pain down my right leg. X-rays showed a posterior disc bulge at l5/s1, and less so at l4/l5.

With the help of a chiro, and remedial pilates, I am now feeling MUCH better, but I still have sacroiliac joint instability.

In yoga I currently experience pain in my right hip flexor in the first part of wind removing pose, restricting me from pulling very much with my arms. Also, in separate leg head to knee with stretching, after the first part when I do the sit-up in the middle, I experience pain in my right hip flexor when pulling forward towards the head-on-knee. Bending my right leg avoids this. I never feel this sensation in any of the other sit-ups. So my question is - do you have any idea what would be triggering this pain, and what I can do to heal myself?

My other question is - in yoga we are instructed to tighten our glutes to protect the lower back. I have been told that I have a pelvic tilt where my pelvis is lower at the front, and I suspect that tightening my glutes in yoga is reinforcing habitual pelvic tilt. What are your thoughts on this?

Thankyou and namaste

Rachel

knee pain from yoga

2010-04-27T10:21:34-08:00

Hi there. I’ve been suffering from piriformis syndrome in both hips for the past several years so I decided to try bikram to open me up. It has done amazing things already to start increasing range of motion. But, as a consequence of my tight hips, my knees have become very tight as well. Yesterday I did the floor bow pulling pose and my left knee felt the worst sharp pain. After class I felt a tweak in my knee and a throbbing feeling. Not sure what this means…..I’ve been icing and taking advil. Am I going to be aok?