On flexiblity

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soll
Participant

June 1, 2009 at 10:13 am

Post count: 3

#1456

Hello, Everyone!

I’m delighted to discover this forum. I’ve been doing Bikram’s about 4 times per week for the past 6 weeks or so. I’m a weightlifter and have tight quads and hamstrings plus I’m fairly new to Yoga so I’m not the most limber person. But, I can touch my toes so I’m grateful for that 🙂

I’m also a student of Thomas Hanna’s Somatic approach to flexibility which teaches that if we push into a stretch then we activate the stretch reflex which causes the muscle we just stretched to contract. Somatics works by showing the brain how to let go of tension without forcing a stretch. I’m fairly new to Somatics but I do notice gains in flexibility in a few sessions that I never got while stretching at the gym or in Bikram’s. However, the release of tightness I’ve experienced hasn’t yet translated to greater flexibility in Bikram’s.

I was intrigued to read the stretching guide on this site. The author basically said what I had suspected, that Bikram’s won’t make you more flexible. If you want to be flexible then do something else to get flexible – in the guide’s case it’s gravity assisted stretches.

So, I’m curious to know what experience others have with gaining flexibility. On my right side I can’t touch forehead to knee, even if I bend my knee. In Rabbit my head doesn’t get at all close to my legs. And there are a few other postures I have to modify.

Have some of you found that Bikram’s didn’t make you more flexible? One woman at my Bikram’s class said that after a year of Bikram’s she still couldn’t touch her toes.

Have some of you found the exercises in the stretching guide helpful and were you able to gain great flexibility in 4 weeks as the author claims?

Other thoughts on gaining flexibility?

Thanks,

Sol

kirstenmd
Participant

June 1, 2009 at 10:43 am

Post count: 16

#4927

hello!

I am no expert and only a beginner at Bikram. But I am pretty inflexible and have struggled with many different types of yoga over the years with no improvement, a lot of frustration and discouragement. When someone suggested Bikram I though I would give it a go as I happened to be in London and could find a studio.

I’ve only done ten classes and while I still struggle with the head to knee pose you describe, I have really found strides in other areas. For example in trying to touch toes I could only get to halfway down shins with a big strain to back, now I can get to ankles and with softening not straining. Similarly with standing separate leg intense stretching pose I can now reach ankles rather than knees. In camel I have gone from being able to barely move to being able to see the back wall, and Bow from thinking what are they talking about getting my leg up there??? to being able to see the tops of my toes in the mirror.

I read the information about gravity poses, and it makes sense, so yesterday I set my intention to use gravity in class and then realised that that is why where you put your weight is so important. So in standing separate leg intense stretching pose rolling the weight forward onto the toes really helps the body to soften towards the floor (I’m still way off head on the floor but hey!). So now I am going to try the long gravity stretches. Gabrielle also mentioned something on another post called yin yoga and I did a websearch and came up with this http://www.yinyoga.com/ which I am also going to try as it looks as if it will help with knee and hip flexibility.

Lucas (the gravity pose guy) says everyone can be fully flexible if they follow the right regime. He says we all have flexibility but have lost it and points to children as an example. I find this slightly frustrating because I don’t drink coffee, drink lots of water, have always stretched a lot, don’t eat meat, hardly any dairy or wheat products and yet other people who do all of this can walk into a class for the first time and outflex me 😉 So I prefer to think that we all have different physiologies and we all have different potentials, plus what has happened in our lives will have affected our bodies too. A lot of the advice on this site, reflects that.

What can I say? It seems like a lot of yoga is about patience, getting to know your body better and measuring your improvements in tiny tiny steps! As far as flexibility is concerned, I have seen improvements in flexibility, but I do think a combination approach will yield better results, balancing the intensity with some deep long holds too.

all best wishes

Kirsten

Feenix
Participant

June 1, 2009 at 2:56 pm

Post count: 26

#4930

Hi Sol,

I am newbie to Bikram as well (I started in the beginning of April) and although I’m a woman I’ve never been very flexible.

I posted under another topic about Lucas’s Yogabody suplement that has helped me a lot. I’ve done his gravity poses maybe three times a week (not every day, I’m working on it) and introduced YogaBody to my diet approx three weeks ago. After first month in Bikram my flexibility improved but after taking this supplement and gravity stretches it has greatly improved. I couldn’t but sit in fixed firm pose since my ankles and knees were so tight. I sat there for six weeks. After yogabody I can now lay flat on the floor – and that was only after two weeks. I also noticed that this supplement helps me to recover quickly. So, I really do believe Lucas has a good thing going here 🙂

soll
Participant

June 2, 2009 at 1:43 am

Post count: 3

#4936

Kirsten and Feenix,

Thanks for your replies. I will check out Yin Yoga and do some 5 minute stretches as I think my body will really like them. And I’m glad to hear, Feenix, that Lucas’ stretching and supplements have helped you.

Sol

kirstenmd
Participant

June 2, 2009 at 7:53 pm

Post count: 16

#4942

I’m also glad to hear that you are getting benefits from yogabody Feenix! I am eagerly waiting for mine to arrive 🙂 Soll here is something the teacher said yesterday in class that I thought might interest you. She said, people think yoga is stretching, but it is really about creating space through extending, lifting and opening. I’m liking the 5 minute poses though I can hardly walk afterwards 😉

cheers

Kirsten

Anonymous
Guest

June 2, 2009 at 10:56 pm

Post count: 98

#4945

I’ve been going to Bikram Yoga since late February. At that time, I couldn’t do Fixed Firm pose. I couldn’t even get my hips to the floor. Heck, I couldn’t even get my hips to sit on my heels in the final breathing pose!!! After 4 classes a week, I can NOW get into full Fixed Firm pose. If that isn’t a reflextion of muscular/tendon/ligament stretching, I don’t know what is!!!
I had really, really tight hamstrings. Now, I can release them with proper technique and when I work them, I FEEL it. And I am more flexible there.
And since “stretching is the object of pulling” (hahaha I hear that every class), it seems that indeed, if you pull, you stretch and if you stretch, your muscles/tendons/ligaments will become longer. Why else stretch?
And even if this isn’t the intended purpose, I sure like it as a side effect!
Kira

soll
Participant

June 3, 2009 at 10:53 pm

Post count: 3

#4956

Kirsten and Kira,

Thanks for your replies. They’re helpful and they give me hope. I think this subject of flexibility is multi-faceted. Maybe some people get more flexible doing Yoga and other get more flexible in other ways and bring their flexibility to Yoga. I know I’ve been biased by my Somatics training to not stretch muscles but that’s not to say that stretching doesn’t do anything for anyone. For now I’m enjoying Bikram for reasons other than getting flexible and I’m doing Somatics and Lucas’ stretching as well and I’ll be ordering a Yin Yoga CD set to add some Yin to my Yang!

Sol
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