Grabbing the foot in Standing Bow

[zrm311]

#2609

I used to do hot yoga about 8 years ago mostly every day for 2 years. An injury in a class made me stop but now I want to get back into it again as I miss how good it made me feel.

I am extremely inflexible, stiff and misaligned. I couldn’t get into the start of many poses, even after the 2 years of practice. This only bothers me for one pose: Standing Bow

I cannot grab my foot and so some teachers would make me skip the pose (which I felt I wasn’t getting any benefit just standing there). Some would allow me to use my towel to crank up my foot to where I could grab it.

Any suggestions as to any stretches or poses I could do to help me be able to grab my foot? I can barely grab it if my palm is turned inwards, but not when its turned outward as the pose requires.

I’m not sure if its my hips and/or quadriceps that are too tight. I cannot sit on my heels, there is a huge gap between my ankles and rear. If I’m standing and grab my ankle and pull it up I don’t feel any pain anywhere. Its just that under its own muscle power my leg can’t bend up enough for me to be able to grab it with wrist turned outward.

I’d love some advice.

Zubin

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10858

Hi Zubin

It’s great you’ve made your way back to yoga and here for that matter! :cheese:

A couple of questions for you before I get into any techniques:

Can you describe what you are doing for Floor Bow please? Are you able to grab onto your feet? Are you using a prop such as a towel?

Can you tell me where on your foot you are managing to hold it when you are grabbing your leg from the outside? What is your arm doing? Is it straight or bent?

When you are trying to sit on your heels and there is a large gap, how are you able to stay there and go any further in the pose? What are you doing? Are your hands on the ground? Can you sit upright? Is it painful or uncomfortable? What is the position of your knees? Are your legs together or apart?

That’s it for starters.

See you soon!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[zrm311]

#10859

Hi Gabrielle,

Thanks so much for your reply! Here are the answers:

Floor Bow: I have to bend up my right leg at the knee, angle it to the side and then do a lying side bend to grab the shin and walk my hand up to the foot. I repeat on the left side and then finally bring both legs back together before I can start the pose.

Standing Bow: When grabbing from the outside, I’m actually only able to grab at the shin above the ankle. My arm is straight, but my thigh isn’t straight down. i.e. I’m lifting my thigh towards my chest, bending the lower leg up, and then grabbing from the outside.

Sitting on heels: I keep my hands on the ground to support some weight and bend forward a bit. On the second set of the pose I don’t have to use my hands and can sit up straight for about 10 secs. Teachers would tell me to try my legs apart, but the standard position of knees touching and feet apart is more comfortable. I feel tightness in the top of the thighs and more so in the calves.

If I sit at home like this for a minute, pain in the calves slowly builds up, so I have to ease off for a few secs and then I can lower back down for another minute.

My arm and wrist tightness is also a block towards being able to grab my leg from the inside. I can only turn my palm a few degrees away from front-facing. At home I lie on my palm-down hands (like the start of locust) a few times throughout the day to try and address that.

All my issues probably stem from being very obese as a kid and no exercise but just sitting in front of the TV or computer for hours a day. This yielded complete stiffness and misalignment in my hips, back, shoulders, legs, wrists … basically everything 🙂

I’ve been a normal weight for 15 years now, but growing up with all the extra weight may have over-tightened my calves (just a guess) since I can hike uphill for hours without getting tired, but heading downhill my quads tire too easily.

Sorry for the lengthy response! I just wanted to describe everything as much as possible in the hopes of finally getting some insight 🙂

When I used to do hot yoga many teachers would give up on me making any flexibility gains or even single me out to just lie in savasana instead of doing certain poses. I felt me struggling to start a pose was preferable. I was making slight progress, and at least helping my balance and alignment issues slowly but surely.

namaste,
Zubin

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10861

Hi Zubin

Apologies? Not necessary. On the contrary, I love the details as it makes it much easier for me to get to the heart of the problem which I hope I will do! 😉

A couple more questions:

When you do grab your shin in Standing Bow, what do you do then? Are you standing there? Is there somewhere you take this pose? What if anything have you been instructed to do?

Can you please describe to me what you do in Camel?

So, just so you feel optimistic, I am confident that barring some strange condition that has not been revealed, there is no reason why you cannot gain flexibility. It comes down to creating your yoga poses using the right mechanisms to open the body. I can see there are things that you can change. Just would like the answers to the above first.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[zrm311]

#10862

Hi Gabrielle,

When a teacher is ok with me using a towel, my preference for Standing Bow is to loop the towel around my ankle and pull my leg up behind me. When I do that, holding the towel with one hand, I am able to turn the other hand outward and grab the shin from the [strong]inside[/strong] and walk my hand up to the foot. Then I can drop the towel and go a little into the pose (point forward, push the foot back into the hand as the leg rises and I feel the backbend).

A couple teachers didn’t like me using a towel and would ask me to just stand there with arms at my side through the pose 🙁

In Camel I just keep my hands on my lower back and can barely bend any amount back from vertical.

What I sometimes do for backbends is lie across a chair at home. The seat supports my lower back and I hang my arms over my head and relax. After about 2 minutes like this I usually hear/feel a pop and my back stretches out and down a little. It feels good, and it gives me hope that there’s openings in the body just aching to be released.

Usually the backbends in hot yoga (since they’re only held for tens of seconds instead of minutes) don’t yield the same release. But I’m open to some combo of practice at a studio with home exercises or even a modified at-home practice to work out all the body’s issues.

If you can help me then you can help anyone, since I’d readily put my name up for the most peacefully content person saddled with the most tight and uncooperative body out there!

namaste,
Zubin

[zrm311]

#10866

Does anyone else have any suggestions or experience with this? Has anyone started off not being able to grab the foot in Standing Bow and then eventually being able to? If so, did you do any modifications or extra stretches to help?

I tried almost daily hot yoga and while I gained flexibility in some poses, this was the only issue that I made no changes in over two years.

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10873

Well Zubin, I am up for the challenge!

It means though, that I need your cooperation. 😉 There may be times where I ask you to do something that goes against the strict Bikram teaching approach, where I will give you things to do that may not be following the script to the letter*. Stuff that could, for example go against the ‘don’t touch that towel’ approach that some teachers may have.

Thanks again for the details. I have a sense of what you’re doing and I know what you can do to start to open up your body.

PS I meant to post this the day you responded but I forgot to “submit post”. I am unable to give you all details today but suffice it to say that your poses should be opening up your body. If they are not then there are natural body reflexes that are not being activated and that means simply that there are pose techniques not being attended to. Step by step you WILL get there!

So monsieur, are you willing to do what it takes? :cheese:

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

*Those techniques I will give you respect your body and will make the poses better for you… You may even start to get (more?) compliments about your poses. Let’s see eh? 😉

[zrm311]

#10878

Hi Gabrielle,

Thanks for the response! Sorry for the delay, was in the middle of moving.

I am definitely up for the challenge and eagerly await any advice, tips and pointers you provide.

In my new neighborhood I’m walking distance from a good hot yoga studio, so apart from my home practice, I’m eager to get back into a class setting and get more serious about my practice.

Zubin

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10894

Hello Zubin

So let’s start Standing Bow 101. 😉 What directions are you currently following? Do they go something like this: “Charge your body towards the mirror, try to touch the mirror, bring your body down from the lower spine and your abdomen and chest are parallel to the floor”

That was quick! Your turn :cheese:

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10903

Hi Zubin

We seem to be playing ‘forum tag’. I will be here when you find the time! Life is busy! I just need a few answers so that I am as clear as I can be to give you a targeted answer.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

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