bonmar

ufb – I say, immerse yourself in the yoga!

Having run 11 marathons, I had my chip for my 12th and my lower back seized up. My physiotherapist recommended I check out a new type of yoga that had come to town – that was eight years ago! No more running for me, lots of yoga. :cheese:

I have that exact same pain right at the base of my neck quite often in Standing Head to Knee, which makes me try to roll my shoulders back a bit and, you’re right, it’s easier to look down. Of course, I don’t though or I’d fall out of the posture. I try to suck my lower stomach in more and round my back more, before I straighten the leg out and straighten my back.

I think it is my chest size that stops me from doing this pose correctly. I noticed last night that when the teacher said, really push your shoulders down into the floor at the same time as you push your hands down. When I push my hands down my shoulders pop up and my back arches. It’s hard to describe, but I can’t lift my legs up more than maybe six inches and that’s it. I have NEVER felt anything good in this pose, I’ve felt lame in trying it for eight years. I’m thinking more and more I’d better order Gab’s manual and study up on it. There must be some way I can improve…

At this point in time my VERY favourite pose is Savasana. I’ve got that one mastered. Boy, am I good at relaxing!!!

I find it interesting that people who have negative things to say about Bikram yoga – after you talk to them for a few minutes, you find out they’ve NEVER ACTUALLY ATTENDED. But sure enough, they have an opinion on it and it’s negative!

I guess that goes for everything in life, people have negative things to say about issues they really know nothing about.

I guess I’m still engaging my shins and my feet in Rabbit as the teacher came and stood on my feet while I was in the pose today!

I immediately stopped pulling on them. I can just imagine how I must look in some of these poses!

Hi, Gabrielle:

I wanted to report back that I didn’t make my 30-day challenge for various reasons, but by Day 25 the pain in my hip flexors was completely gone and it hasn’t returned.

They haven’t come back to let us know if it worked or not since their last post in September ….

I am going to try to sneak in that little space between the feet, because I always find that my knees want to separate just a bit, and I’ve always wondered if that was good or bad, but supposed it was because I must be tight somewhere and that is some sort of compensation for that. And I WILL come back and post whether it worked or not!

When I want to bolt from the room, I narrow my mind, breathe slowly, listen to the words and just tell myself to concentrate on perfecting the form, just do the pose a little bit but have perfect form, just listen, concentrate, listen, concentrate, perfect form ….

Made it across town to yoga today. I haven’t been for three days, after my Day 25.

Boy, I found class hard.

I really wanted to run out of the room after Toe. Had to force myself to stay. I then thought about the fact that I always wanted to quit halfway through a marathon as well, especially if they had the split at the halfway point, 1/2 marathoners this way, full the other. So many times I almost veered to the half, even though I was fully trained and had paid to run a full. But I never once quit a marathon, why do I want to quit halfway through a Bikram class? hmmm. I’ll have to ponder this.

Day 23 today.

My job for today cancelled so I was able to get to the new studio across town and to an earlier class (2:30 p.m.) and avoid the monstrous crowds that attend the 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.

Today we had a new instructor, she had an Australian accent. Right away I could tell she’d been teaching a long time, remembering people’s names and she had an excellent dialogue. She told me after class she’s going to instruct at a new studio Bikram’s setting up in India, she’s leaving in a few days. I wondered on my way home whether she speaks any Indian languages or will be teaching in English with her Australian accent and whether the attendees will be able to understand her …

She said something I found interesting today – most people have a misconception about yoga, that its intent is stretching. She said it’s mostly for building strength, mental and physical, and the stretching is a nice side benefit. hmmmm.

I didn’t get away with turning my towel sideways for Triangle, she made me move it. That’s okay, my legs are so strong now, I don’t slip. And now that I’m keeping my leg and butt strong and not turning my hip inward, as per Gabrielle, it’s not too bad.

No matter how hard I try, I TOTALLY use my lower legs in Rabbit pose! I barely can keep the shins on the floor. I MUST try and stop that and relax my legs.

So, there I was, complacent and happy going to my local studio after many years, and on Halloween I go there and there’s a big sign on the door that it’s closing immediately, due to a rental/lease dispute! Yikes. Now I’m having to travel half-way across town in traffic to a smaller studio and it’s jam packed with people, of course, all coming from my studio. Today it was packed to bursting at the 4:15 class, but I’m on Day 21 of my challenge, so I can’t stop now! As I was leaving I heard them turning away people from the 6 p.m. class as it was completely full. Oh dear, at least I got to do my class.