Thankful For Your Practice

Today is a day for being thankful. There's a lot in life to be thankful for, but I'm specifically thankful for how yoga has influenced my life. Yoga has affected me in ways I would have never thought possible. What started off as a physical practice has morphed into something bigger. Below is my list of things I have yoga to thank for bringing into my life. I encourage you to make your own list so you can see for yourself how yoga has changed your life.

Overcoming my fears: To complete my trainings I've had to be away from my family for a total of 3 months. I'm also very shy and scared to death of being up in front of crowds. Neither of these situations were easy to overcome, but yoga taught me that when faced with fear, if I breathe deep and work through my fears, rather than push them deep down inside or run away, that I'm able to do anything.

Appreciative of my body: Yoga has taught me to be grateful for the body I have. To not judge or be jealous of other yogi's who are more advanced than I. Yoga has humbled me as it has taught me to slow down and listen to my body. Not to push it past its edge, desperately trying to get into a complicated pose. As my body ages and my practice changes, I'm accepting this with grace and I look forward to the next stage of my life rather than trying to desperately hold onto my youth. I accept my aching joints and feel blessed with the body that I have, as others are not so lucky.

The friendships that I have made: Yoga is a community. I've made lasting friends in all of my trainings. Over the years I've met many amazing students and have developed friendships that I'm so grateful for. Yoga, and the people I have met through it, have been there for me in good times and bad. I know when I'm having a bad day that all I have to do is walk into a yoga class and I can feel my stress melting away.

Awareness: I used to go through life not fully aware of all that was going on around me. Not aware of the affect that I had on the world. Yoga has opened my eyes. I'm aware of my actions and how they effect people. I'm aware of how people effect each other. How our words, moods and actions have an impact far beyond what we think they do. Yoga has woken me up.

Letting go: This is the most important of all. I'm a dweller. I like to hold onto bad emotions and thoughts till they eat me alive. Yoga has taught me that it's ok to let go and when I do, I can move through life with more ease. This is a daily practice for me, who knows if I will ever perfect it. I'm grateful though that yoga has given me the knowledge to know when to let go of something before it starts to affect my health and relationships.

Listen fully: What people want most in life is to be heard. Whether it's something simple like telling us about their bad day, or sharing a difficult part of their past. I've seen the power of being fully present with a person and listening. Not interrupting to comment, not letting our mind wander, but to be fully present with that person to hear their troubles. It is a profound thing and the best medicine for an aching soul.

There is so much more that yoga has done for me. It's a practice of not just the body, but the mind and spirit. It opens us up so that we can see who we truly are. It exposes us to our raw selves and teaches us how to make ourselves into a better person. We learn how to work with the world rather than fight against it, that life isn't a struggle, but a journey and we are the guides. We choose our path.

Rethinking Your Downdog

Downward dog is one of the staples of yoga poses. It's like milk and eggs, it's always in stock. I've been to a lot of different yoga classes, of all styles and traditions, and the constant is always downward dog. This pose, when done correctly, has many benefits and is great if you're looking for a quick overall body stretch. But when done incorrectly, it can cause more harm than good. One important thing to consider when doing your downward dog is your level of flexibility.

When we first come to yoga with our tight muscles, most poses, when done correctly, are safe and good for the body. As we gain flexibility these same poses can cause us harm. This happens when we have stretched our muscles past their stretch point. When this happens the muscles no longer respond to the stretch and you are doing more damage than good. The stretch that you feel, is the stretching of your tendons and ligaments rather than the muscle. This weakens the support structure of your body leading to chronic joint pain. Ask around in class and see how many seasoned yogi's have SI joint pain or issues with their knees or shoulders.

Downward dog when done correctly has its benefits. However, if you are hyper-flexible you should consider switching from your traditional downward dog to what is called high dog.

High dog is a pose from the YogAlign method. You'll still get the lovely stretch of downward dog without compromising your joints. The first picture is high dog. Notice how she is able to maintain the natural curve of her spine. This puts less strain on her SI joint and knees, preventing any damage to the joints.

The height of her heels allows for the stretching of her fascia lines, helping to release tension throughout the back side of the body.

Next notice her shoulders, they are strong and engaged rather than dropping. This allows the upper back to get a nice stretch. If the shoulders are dropping, like in the second picture, you are stretching the tendons in your shoulder joint rather than the muscles in your upper back. If you do a traditional downward dog and don't feel any stretch in the upper back, you're doing it wrong and your shoulders will pay the price.

 

Above is a picture of our fascia lines. When we do high dog, verse downward dog, we're getting a better stretch through the back fascia lines. This in turn helps to maintain a better posture. I'll write in another blog ways to stretch the front fascia lines which significantly improves your posture.

To find the stretch in your upper back in your high dog (or downward dog) come into table top.

Flip your palms up and expand the shoulder blades down and out slightly. You should feel a good stretch between the shoulder blades. Once you've got the stretch, flip your palms back down and come into dolphin with your heels up. Make sure when you've made this transition that you didn't lose the stretch in your shoulders. If you did, return to table and find it again.

Next move into high dog and see if you can maintain that stretch in your upper back. If you lost it, go back to dolphin or to the table position and find it again. It will take some time to train your brain to remember to engage these muscles, especially if you have been practicing for years and you've gotten into some bad habits. If you're new to yoga, this is a great habit to get into and will prevent joint pain.

Every time you come into your down dog, or high dog, make sure you're feeling the stretch where it is intended. You shouldn't feel anything in the knees, low back or shoulder joints. If you barely feel any stretch at all, engage more in the legs and upper back. Don't push harder trying to find a stretch (you'll be stretching connective tissue), but engage the muscles to help build strength.

How do you know when you've reached the point of flexibility and you're no longer stretching the muscles? Pay attention to where you feel the stretch. If you don't feel it in the belly (middle) of the muscles, you've reached your stretch point and your connective tissue will pay the price. Be mindful in your practice, always pay attention to what is going on in the body.

I've only been practicing this new high dog for two weeks now, and I can honestly say I notice a difference. My low back, shoulders and neck hurt less. Why? I'm hyper-flexible and by engaging and positioning my body better I'm putting less strain on them. High dog isn't much of a change from your regular downward dog so you can still flow through your classes with ease. But with high dog, your joints will be much happier.

Changing Negative Thoughts Into Positive Ones

How we perceive ourselves isn't always the way that the world sees us. We often pick the most negative things about ourselves and dwell on them. Our hair isn't the right color, our nose is too big or we're too fat. These are all perceptions that we have in our minds, but isn't necessarily what the world sees when it look at us.

I watched a great clip this morning on a forensic artist who drew a woman as she described herself. He then had her leave and talk with a complete stranger. The stranger then came in and described the woman to the same artist. The two pictures that he drew were dramatically different. The picture he drew of the woman that described herself looked sad, angry and her features were unforgiving. The picture he drew that the stranger described was happy, open and beautiful.

We have a bad habit of finding things about ourselves, be it emotional or physical, and blowing them out of proportion. What we see as a bad hair day, to others our hair looks just fine. When we think our anxieties are out there for all to see, the world might see us as under control.

We can't necessarily change our physical aspects, but we can learn to accept them. Perhaps even come to realize that they aren't as bad as we make them out to be. Instead of finding fault with yourself in the mirror each morning, pick something that you like. In yoga we have what is called the monkey mind. It's the part of our mind that likes to trick us into thinking and doing things that don't make sense. You have to trick your monkey mind. If you don't like your nose, focus on how beautiful your eyes are. Distract the monkey mind.

As for our emotional quirks that we wish we didn't have, well, those will take some work. The first step is to talk with someone. Find out if your anxiety, judgment of people or mismanaged anger are as bad as you think they are. Honest feedback isn't easy to hear, but at least you know where you stand. You can begin to work on your strong emotions and work towards the person you want to be so you can move through the world with confidence.

All of this applies to our yoga practice or lack there of. If you believe that you can't do yoga because of physical limitations or you believe that you don't look the part, you'll never make it to a class. Yoga is for everyone. There are a lot of classes out there and even some online. I have to admit that some classes are more flashy than others, but there are classes out there that are a safe and nonjudgmental place. Not all classes are from the cover of Yoga Journal.

When you do make it to class, have patience with yourself. If you can't do a certain pose, don't get angry and frustrated, just accept that your body is doing the best it can and be thankful for that. Enjoy what your body has to offer instead of beating yourself up for what it doesn't have. You'll enjoy your practice and get more out of it.

I showed the artist clip to my five year old daughter. She loved it and watched it over and over. I hope to instill in her that no matter how she thinks she looks, she is beautiful. You may not be a model or have perfectly controlled emotions, but that doesn't matter. What does is how you feel about yourself, as that can make all the difference in the world.

Tired of Achy Feet?

How often do you think about your feet while you're doing yoga? Probably not often, which is a shame. Our feet have a hard job, they're in charge of holding up our bodies, which is a big job for such a small body part. They're our pedestals and if we don't have a solid base it will affect our entire body. If you aren't balanced on your feet, you can send that imbalance all the way up your body causing low back and neck pain. Think of a stack of books (the books being our spine), if the bottom book is tilted it will cause the whole stack to tilt. Same thing applies to our spine. If we're not standing evenly on our feet, like if our arches are caving in, it will have a ripple affect up our spine.

It's amazing to watch people's feet in a yoga class. They crunch their toes, collapse their arches and put uneven weight on the balls of their feet. This feels natural to them because they've been doing it for so long. I'll cue to relax the foot, lift the arch and distribute the weight evenly and they'll all adjust, but as soon as they move into the next pose, the issues return. Why is this?

Sadly for our feet we live in shoes. Shoes are great as they protect our feet from stepping on sharp things, but they're restrictive. Improperly fitting shoes can pinch and cause many problems, the worst offender is high heels. Because the shoe is doing a lot of the work for us, the muscles in our feet become weak and our arches loose their support. A happy foot is a comfortable foot.

Our feet are designed to go barefoot. They're built to absorb impact and to evenly balance the body when walking. Walking or running barefoot will strengthen the feet and give your body a better sense of balance as you can actually feel the ground under your feet, which is impossible to feel in a shoe.

So what to do with those achy feet? Walk barefoot more. Feel the earth under your feet or just walk about the house barefoot whenever you can. With winter coming you'll want to wear socks, but don't take off your shoes just to put slippers on. Your moving from one shoe to the next. Allow your feet some freedom.

Give them a massage. Grab a hold of your foot and slip a finger between each toe like you're holding hands. Come from underneath, it's more comfortable. Rock the ball of the foot back and forth for bit, when you're done, squeeze the fingers and pull them out. If this hurts, it means that the muscles in your foot have atrophied and need to be strengthened. While rocking the ball of your foot, use the thumb of your other hand to rub the arch of your foot. Any crunching you feel as you rub the arch of your foot is your fascia. When fascia gets tight it creates adhesion's, which is crunchy when you rub it. Do one foot and then extend both legs out, closing your eyes. Notice the difference between each foot. Then do the other side. If you get a lot of foot cramps, this exercise is wonderful in relieving them!

Another way to massage is with a tennis ball (don't use anything harder, it will bruise your foot. No golf balls!). Step evenly on the ball (make sure not to lean to the side and that the hips are level), begin to roll the ball on your foot. If you find a crunchy spot, stop rolling and step on the ball. Take deep breaths while you do this. Make sure to gage your pain, if it's too intense don't push as hard. Make sure to massage the whole foot. The heel, front of the heel, inside, middle and outer arch, ball of the foot and finally flex the toes on the ball. This exercise will release the fascia in the foot. This strap of fascia goes from your foot all the way up to your head. Fascia is energetic so you release one part of it and the whole thing releases. This is a great way to relieve tension in the body and is cheaper than a reflexology massage.

Lastly, pay attention to your feet during your yoga practice. Make sure your toes are always relaxed and that you're using your entire foot for balance. Keep your arches lifted and don't put all your weight on one side of the foot. This mostly happens when you're balanced on the ball of your foot when you're in a lunge. People like to put all their weight on the big toe mound.

Taking time to love your feet will have an affect on your entire body. I do the foot rub every day and I have very happy feet. If either of the above exercises hurt, don't worry, they will eventually feel better. Start off gentle and soon your feet will love the attention. Also consider your foot wear. We love our stylish shoes, but is the pain worth it? Check out Vibram's Five Toes shoes. They take some getting used to, but they're great in exercising the muscles in your feet. Try them at the gym instead of your regular running shoes. They even make dressy ones for work.

Whenever you get the chance, take off those shoes, give your feet some love and walk around barefoot. The difference you'll notice will be amazing!

Relieving Pain in the Neck

I was not blessed with a good neck. I had sever whiplash when I was 18 combined with years of sitting at a desk. The result, chronic pain in my neck. Previous injuries aren't the only cause of neck pain. Poor posture and sitting for long periods will cause you just as much angst. Take some time today to watch the people around you. Notice where their heads are. Are they positioned over their shoulders or is their head out in front like it's trying to get somewhere fast?

Maintaining correct posture is challenging. Without even realizing it our heads will drift forward as we sit at our desks putting pressure on our necks. The head is the heaviest part of our body and it can easily strain our muscles when it isn't in the correct position. The front and back of our neck along with our chest and upper back become tight leading to tension headaches. Looking at the picture below it shows how much our head weighs if we're holding a correct posture (12lbs) verse if we begin to slouch, the weight gets heavier causing more strain. No wonder we're so tense.

There are a few simple stretches you can do to help relieve the pressure caused by poor posture. They're simple and quick. You can do all the poses listed below, or just a few of them. I recommend you do them every hour or when you feel tension creeping in. Don't wait till you have a headache as it will be harder to get the muscles to relax. Also do a posture check often. Our bodies are sneaky and before we know it we're slouching regardless of our best intentions to sit upright.

Tension can be released with some simple arm movements. Move with your breath as you do these.

• Standing or sitting, inhale and extend the arms up, exhale and release them down. Repeat 5-7 times.
• Standing or sitting, extend your arms out to the side, palms down. Relax your shoulders down and extend out all the way through your finger tips. Inhale extend turning your head to the right, turning that palm up, exhale bring your palms together and face forward, inhale back out turning your head to the left, turning that palm up. Repeat this 5-7 times. Whichever palm you are looking at is facing up while the one you are looking away from is facing down.

The picture above isn't the best, but I used it to give you an idea on the arm movements. For the arms up picture, don't rest them in your lap, drop them to your side and extend down through the finger tips, then inhale and reach up. For the second picture you can face your palms down when your arms are in front of you, but you will get more of a stretch if you turn the palms to face each other. 

• Stand tall with one arm up and the other arm extended out to the side. The arm that is up have the palm open (the ref (yes I used a picture of a ref, it was the only one I could find...) in the picture has the wrong hand in a fist), the arm that is extended out to the side, ball into a fist. Really extend out each arm. Switch sides. Make sure to do deep breathing while you do this stretch.

• Sit or stand tall. Turn your head towards your right shoulder. Inhale and look up, exhale and look down. Slow movements with the breath. Bring the head to neutral and turn towards the left shoulder. Inhale and look up, exhale and look down. Do 5-7 on each side.
• Lace your fingers behind your head and allow the weight of your arms to pull your head down. Hold for a few breaths.
• Grab the side of the right side of your head with your left hand. Pull your head down to stretch, turning your chin towards the center of your chest till you find a good stretch. Extend your right arm down, stretching it towards the floor. Repeat on the other side.

• Sitting or standing place your left hand on your clavicle and pull down while you turn your head to the right and look up. You should feel a stretch in the front right side of your neck. Repeat on the other side.

 

In order to relieve chronic tension you'll need to stretch. Experiment to figure out what stretches work best for you. Never force a stretch, especially when the muscles are tight. Ease into the stretch and work with your breath. Be mindful of your posture and give yourself little breaks throughout the day to help stretch out the tension. Your neck will thank you.

Be Your Own Guru

I was taking a yoga class once, which is a rarity, so I really love to relax when I take them. We were in warrior II and I was experimenting with facing my palm up verses down (which is traditional). The teacher bellowed out, "make sure to face your palms down." I of course ignored her as I knew palms were supposed to face down, but I didn't want to do that. Next thing I know my yoga bliss is interrupted as I feel my hand being turned down. I open my eyes to see the teacher smiling at me. She says, "Turn your palms down." As she walked away I had some not so nice thoughts in my mind (very unyogi of me, but I am human). Rather than speak them, I just turned my palm up in protest.

You'll find in some yoga classes, especially traditional ones like Ashtanga or Bikram, that they love getting you into the perfect pose. The New York Post ran an article highlighting a Bikram teacher who took it to extremes. When a student veers from the prescribed pose they're viewed as doing it wrong. It's considered wrong due to the students lack of flexibility in the pose and the teachers lack of openness that not all students are Gumby, so they will push a student farther than they can go. When a teacher sees a student doing a pose in a way other than how they are teaching it, they think the student doesn't understand the pose. They will adjust the student to fit their idea of the perfect pose. What the teacher doesn't realize, is that the student is experimenting with the pose or going as far into it as their body allows. What looks like the perfect pose in the teachers mind, may not be so perfect for the student's body.

Some teachers will tell you over and over again to do it a specific way. Tuck your tailbone, reach for your toes or straighten your knees. They will push you to your edge and beyond, all to fit the mold of a pose.  But what if that mold will hurt you rather than give you the release that you are looking for? What if all that pressure to do the pose perfectly is distracting you from the real reason you came to class, what if you just came to relax? Many people avoid coming to yoga altogether because they don't think they will be able to do it right. The pressure to do perfect yoga is high. It's intimidating to walk into class with the slender, super bendy yogi's in their designer yoga pants.

A yoga class should be a place of refuge. A place you can go where there is no judgment. You should feel safe and not have to worry about injury. As a teacher, we must respect that. When a teacher is giving instruction, especially new teachers, we are teaching what we were taught. We were taught how to give cues and make adjustments to get our students into a pose. However, it's easy to let the perfection of the physical practice overwhelm the other benefits such as the breathing or meditative aspects. If a teacher is so focused on how you look in the pose or barking at you to breathe, how are you ever going to relax or explore? In order to learn from your teacher, or from yourself, you need to feel comfortable.

Teachers can be easily idolized, especially with new students. Students will latch onto them as their guru's, hoping to learn from them as much as possible. They believe everything that comes out of their mouths as pure truth. However, as the research of yoga is growing, we're finding that some of what we're teaching isn't giving us the results we preached about. Teachers can be full of knowledge and help us move along in our yoga journeys, but the true guru's aren't necessarily our teachers, but ourselves. A teacher can't feel what is going on in your body, but you can and you must speak up for yourself. This is necessary to avoid injury and to achieve success in your physical practice.

Specific styles of yoga are going to teach perfectionism in their poses, that is just the way they are. If you are a lover of those types, but a bit sick of having your poses nick picked, let the teacher know, especially if you are a regular. Explain to your teacher that you like to explore within the poses and ask them to please ask before adjusting. You'll want to do this so you can relax and enjoy your practice without interruption. You may be exploring in a pose, but to the teacher you may look like you're out of alignment. When they come over to fix you or speak across the room to ask you to adjust, you'll lose your concentration, your rhythm of breath. You'll stop and think, wait, am I doing it wrong? You'll have gone from a great place of exploration to a place of doubt.

Ask the teacher that she only make adjustments on you if you look like you are going to hurt yourself. You should never feel a stretch in your joints and it's important not to put too much pressure on them or your spine. A good teacher will give verbal cues before making adjustments. That allows you to be the one to decide if you want to make the adjustment or continue exploring.

I love watching my students explore in their yoga poses and encourage them often to do so. Especially if they have been practicing for years. I tell them to find something new in the pose. Rotate a hip, expand through the chest or perhaps do something as simple as rotate your palm up. You never know what goodness you'll find. Perhaps you'll discover a great stretch for that muscle in your back that is constantly causing tension.

Yoga is not a prescription. You don't have to do exactly what the teacher says. Don't wander off the path so much that you are a distraction to the class, but allow yourself the opportunity to play a bit. You know your body, so listen to it. If something hurts, back out of it, even if the teacher is telling you to go deeper. If something feels really good and the teacher is telling you to come out of it and into the next pose, perhaps linger for one more breath. A good yoga teacher will allow you to explore, but also keep an eye on you to make sure that you don't hurt yourself.

A teacher can enlighten you to the wonders of yoga, but only you can find it's true beauty. Our goal as a teacher is to create an environment that will allow you to relax and enjoy your practice. Yoga affects us all in different ways. The path one takes to enlightenment won't necessarily be the path for you. Explore, ask questions and most importantly, follow your gut.

Is Your Body Ready for Winter? Ayurvedic Tools to Soothe the Transition

Fall is slowly drawing to a close and winter is creeping in. We're making the necessary changes with our homes and clothes, but are you making any changes with your body to prepare it for the winter ahead?

In Ayurvedic medicine they believe that our bodies are in line with nature. Therefor with each season our body changes. Our bodies are made up of constitutions that determine how we react to things physically and emotionally. This system is in depth and I recommend if you are interested, to do further reading as this blog will only scratch the surface.

The three constitutions, or dosha's as they are called in Ayurveda, are pitta, vata and kapha. We have a bit of each dosha in us, but are generally dominated by one or two of them. Each dosha represents a season. Kapha is strongest in late winter and early spring. Pitta peaks in late spring and summer and vata is strong in the fall and early winter. When we're feeling healthy our dosha's are in balance, when we're sick or feeling a particularly strong emotion over a long period of time (like depression), our dosha's are out of balance.

When you're in a dosha's season, that dosha can easily get out of balance. We're coming into winter so we're still in the vata season, which started in fall and will continue till kapha takes over in late winter. If you have a vata constitution, you're more sensitive to the affects of this season, but even pitta and kapha dominate dosha's can be afflicted with excess vata. To find out your dosha, take a quiz here.

When vata's are out of balance, we feel out of control. Our nature is to constantly be on the go, but when we're imbalanced we're like an aggravated bee hive. We can't focus, our anxiety levels rise and we tend to over extend ourselves causing fatigue. We'll toss and turn when we sleep and become short tempered because we're tired all the time. With all the chaos, we may not eat well, causing us to lose weight and our digestion will become irregular.The best thing for a vata, when we feel out of control, is to ground ourselves.

Vata's are flighty, so in order to balance us out we need to get our feet on the ground, literally and figuratively. We're also cold and dry by nature so we crave warmth and moisture. We need stability  and consistency in our lives, which during the holiday season can be hard to find so we have to make a point to pamper ourselves before we implode.

Make sure to dress warm and most importantly cover your head. We lose a lot of heat through our head and vata's get cold easily. Stay moist by doing a sesame oil rub each morning, this will keep your skin moist and prevent the dry cracking skin vatas are afflicted with in the winter months. Eat warm food with a bit of spice like ginger or garlic. Get regular sleep by going to bed and getting up at the same time each day. Optimum sleep times are from 10pm to 6am. Vata's tend to tire easily as well, so when you can take a nap and don't go to the extreme with exercise. I find that in the dark days of winter, instead of going to bed at ten, I make sure to be asleep by 8:30 or 9. I know it sounds early to go to bed, but I'm more refreshed the next day.

To calm your out of control vata go get a hug. Vata's love to be touched by those we love. Snuggle up with someone in a nice warm blanket or if no one is home to cuddle with, head out for a massage. Play some soothing music and light some candles. Vata's are calmed by sweet, heavy smells such as lavender, cinnamon, citrus, cloves, pine, sage and vanilla.

A balancing yoga practice for a vata is slow and deliberate. Focus on the feel of your feet on the ground and your breath. Your inclination may be to move fast through the poses, but what you need most is to slow down. A restorative practice is perfect for this.

I'm a high vata so I tend to struggle this time of year. I feel like I'm constantly rushing to get something done, when all I want is to sit still as my reserves feel depleted. When I get overwhelmed, I make sure to carve out some time for myself and I find that it helps considerably. When I can't take a break, if I'm inside, I like to take my shoes off and give myself a quick foot massage and then walk around in my socks a bit to feel my feet on the ground. I make myself take a slow breath or two. If I find myself speeding through this routine, I'll start over. The effect is amazing. It calms me and I feel like my thoughts have slowed down and I can concentrate better.

Instead of fighting the changing of the seasons, embrace them by knowing how to tame your dosha's. Happy dosha's make for a happy person.

Is Your Forward Fold Damaging Your Hip Joints?

People come to yoga for various reasons, mainly to reduce stress, increase flexibility or to recover from an injury. But what if your yoga practice was causing you injury? If you ask someone who has done yoga for years if they still do the same practice that they used to, I bet you their response will be no. The general response is that their old practice was causing them pain.

The practice of yoga is thousands of years old, but not all of the poses are. Some have been added and adapted over the years. The popularity of yoga has put it in the spotlight and because of that a lot of studies have popped up. People are paying more attention to statistics. One alarming one is the amount of injuries. Pushing yourself in any athletic endeavor can lead to injury, but what if you were doing it right and still got hurt?

Michaelle Edwards, the founder of YogAlign, has been questioning the physical practice of yoga. She studied the poses and their affect on the body in relation to how they impact the spine, specifically the joints. What she found, is that the position that some of the yoga poses put us in, specifically forward folds, are damaging our joints. When we lengthen the spine or straighten the legs, we're pulling our hips and thigh bones out of their natural alignment. So when we fold forward the head of the femur is pressing into the hip socket causing damage to the joint.

Typical problems in our joints come from the joint being misaligned, either due to poor posture, excess weight or joint deformities. Femoroacetabular impingement or F.A.I., is a common injury popping up in yoga. It’s caused by the neck of the femur (thigh bone) swinging too close to the hip socket (due to hyper-flexibility or improper positioning of the head of the femur in the hip socket), damaging it every time it hits. This  damage to the cartilage in the joint eventually results in hip pain.

What Edwards found in her studies, is when we do a standard forward fold in yoga, with the spine and legs straight, the neck of the femur is forced into the hip socket. This repetitive impact leads to F.A.I. She says this injury can be avoided if we maintain the natural curve of our spine and position of the hips when we go into our forward folds. Below is a picture of how Edwards says we should do forward folds and how we typically do them. 

Notice in the first picture how the spine is retaining its natural curve. When the yogi goes into her forward fold she'll want to keep her knees bent and her spine curved. This will allow the rotation of the head of the femur to rotate naturally and not smack into the joint capsule. In figure two, notice how the head of the femur is already pressing against the joint capsule, so when she folds forward it will grind the joint, causing damage. 

This same consideration of posture should be done in all forward folds. To test the theory, come into a standing position. Bend your knees deeply while standing and begin to fold over fully into your forward fold. Slowly begin to straighten your legs. As you do so, notice where the stretch is and where it ends up when your legs are completely straight. You'll notice that it goes from the hamstrings to the low back and hips. You're no longer just stretching your hamstrings, but your connective tissue and this is not a good thing. Also notice in Edward's image below how the head of the femur is pressing into the hip socket.

If we stretch our ligaments and tendons, they won't be able to support our bone structure as well and we'll become unstable. Instability leads to our bones grinding the joints which will inevitably lead to pain. The problem is, we don't know that we've done the damage till the pain lets us know.

 

So if you are thinking, why should I change up my practice if I'm not feeling any pain? The reason you should, is to prevent more damage and the possibility of future pain. What you enjoy as flexibility now, could turn into pain later. If you try Edwards approach in your forward folds and find that you get no stretch at all, that is an indication that you have over stretched your hamstrings. A muscle only needs to stretch so much. If this is the case, you will need to work on strengthening your hamstrings. I'll write in later blogs on how to decrease hyper-flexibility.

Check out Edwards book, YogAlign, Pain-free Yoga from Your Inner Core (Book with DVD). Whether you're a teacher or student, it could prevent you from causing injury to you or your students joints. Her website is also an informative read. I've yet to decide how this will impact my teaching or personal practice, but I know I will read her book, adjust my practice accordingly and see how I feel. As is, I already have damage in my hip and shoulders and I believe that yoga is the cause. I love my practice and would never give it up, so I'm excited to try her theory and hopefully prevent more damage. 

A New Look at Yoga Postures; Are Some Postures Causing Us Permanent Damage?

I recently read an article by Bill Broad on hip injuries. He is the author of the a great book called The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards. In the article he talks about the hidden dangers of yoga, specifically the damage yoga is doing to our joints. He referenced a yogi named Michaelle Edwards, the yoga teacher that created YogAlign. I was fascinated as I read her website and her view on yoga. She contradicts a lot of what I’ve been taught over the years, however what she has to say makes sense.

The main difference between her style of yoga and that of the traditional practices, is that she believes that when stretching, you should maintain the proper alignment of the spine and the skeletal structure as a whole. She believes that when we fold into a forward fold (you'll hear the teacher say, lengthen and stretch the spine), that by straightening out the spine, we're doing damage to our hips.

Bill Broads book The Science of Yoga explores how yoga injuries have been on the rise with the growing popularity of yoga. One of the most reported injuries is pain in the hips. In some yogi’s the pain is so bad that it requires surgery. When we think of hip surgery we think of our grandmas, but these surgeries and and complaints of chronic pain are happening in 30-40 year olds. 

Michaelle Edwards was like any yogi, she had a vigorous practice that she loved, until she got hurt when she tore a ligament in her knee trying to get deeper into a pose. While she was healing she began to ask questions. Questions about how the practice of yoga was really making her body feel. Was she seeing the results she was hoping for? Was yoga just a physical practice or was there more to it? 

She eventually resumed her practice but the focus of it had shifted. She became more interested in anatomy and physiology, how the body moved and what stretches and exercises worked best for it, what helped the body maintain its natural functional posture. She noticed that advanced yogi’s postures, despite the wonderful claims of yoga, where still stooped over. Rounded shoulders and sore low backs from sitting at a desk all day didn’t perk up with a regular yoga practice. There were lots of complaints of SI joint and hip pain. I am one of these yogi’s, so my interest was heightened. I wanted to know why, with all my years of yoga, I was in pain and had to repeatedly remind my body to sit up straight.

 

With her research Michaelle made an interesting discovery. The position that some of the traditional poses put us in aren’t stretching our muscles, but our connective tissue. They weren’t balancing out our muscles groups so that our bodies could stand upright with ease, but were adding to the problem. The poses stretched and weakened muscles that were supposed to support us.

Our bodies are strung, from head to toe, with connective tissue, like the lines of a pulley system. The photo below is a picture from Michaelle's website. It shows the front line of connective tissue and the back line. If these tissues are in balance we can stand upright with ease, but in general, the front line is tight pulling us forward. This is due to our bodies sitting for long periods of time, hunched over computers.

When we feel tight in one area, we stretch it without much thought to all the other muscles and tissues connected to it. Michaelle's method teaches us to stretch an area of the body, not just a small section. She shows us how to stretch just the muscles, not the connective tissue and to maintain a healthy spine and hip alignment. Her approach is a new way of looking at yoga. I'm excited to do more reading and have already ordered her book, YogAlign, Pain-free Yoga from Your Inner Core (Book with DVD). In the next blog I'll talk about her thoughts on the forward fold and the damage we're doing to our hips. I encourage you to check out her website, it's an eye opener, especially if you're a yogi dealing with chronic pain. 

Yoga is ever evolving and what we've done in the past isn't necessarily the right thing. The popularity of yoga is initiating more studies. Studies showing the benefits and dangers or a regular practice. Change isn't always easy, especially to traditions that are thousands of years old. However, the advantage of science is that it can help us to improve. I feel that blending the philosophical traditions of yoga along with the new findings in anatomy and physiology that we can create a practice that is truly healthy. I'm excited about the future of yoga.

Cultivating Patience in an Impatient World

 

 

I was checking out at the grocery store this morning, when a woman came in and started asking the teller about what she should do with the bottles she wanted to return. This of course distracted the teller from helping me as she was explaining to the woman what she needed to do. The teller then tried to finish helping me, while taking care of the woman’s bottle return, because the woman made it clear she wanted to be helped right away. All I could think about while this was going on, besides being late for work, is how impatient our society has gotten. Instead of waiting to be helped at the customer service desk or waiting in line at the checkout, this woman interrupted what the teller was doing and wanted to be taken care of.

Sadly this isn’t a rare thing. Take a day and be aware of all the times people are impatient, I think you will be shocked. People pulling out in front of you, interrupting you while you’re trying to speak or like my situation this morning, too impatient to wait their turn so they cut in line. Why are we all in such a hurry? How are our needs more important than another’s?

I’m not immune from impatience, when I’m running late I find myself doing the very things that annoy me about others when they’re impatient. However, I find when I’m impatient I feel physically and emotionally awful. When I’m running around and getting irritated because I have to slow down and wait for someone, my body physically reacts. I get anxious, my heart rate speeds up, I feel tension creeping into my shoulders and I get short tempered. None of these reactions are going to get me where I want to be any faster. All they’ll do is give me a headache when I get there.

 We’re human and it is natural to be impatient. How we choose to react is up to us. Take a moment to ask yourself why you’re being so impatient? Are you angry with the situation? Are you judging someone’s actions because you don’t agree with them? Maybe that check out person likes to go slow because it soothes them as they had to rush to get to work and they want part of their day that isn’t hurried.

 

Dig deep and see what you can find. I wasn’t always listened to as a child, especially from my older brother. When I’m talking and the other person isn’t listening, I get pretty upset. This has caused me to grow up constantly interrupting people because it's the only way I feel I can get a word in. When I’m dealing with impatience, rather than work myself into a fit, I stop myself from reacting like I normally would and take some calming breaths. I’ll also try to do something nice for someone. For example if the person in line behind me looks more impatient than I am, I’ll let them go in front of me or when I’m in a conversation with someone I really listen. I don’t interrupt and I make eye contact, this isn’t always easy for me, but I know it makes the other person feel good. It’s the little things in life that make a difference in our days. In order to receive patience, we need to cultivate it.

Fully listening was one of the things that was repeated over and over again in my yoga therapy training. We often tone out when someone is talking to us. We're either thinking about something else, looking at our smart phone or thinking about how we are going to reply to this person before we have even fully heard what they’re going to say. Therapist’s couches are full of people who just want to be heard. Perhaps we’re all so impatient because no one is listening to us. If no one is patient with us, why should we be patient with them?

There is the lovely trend out there of paying it forward. Someone does something nice to you so you do something nice for someone else. So on and so forth until the world is full of nice and happy giving people. That same thing can work in a negative way. I could take the frustration I had with the lady at the grocery store and cut someone off in traffic. Instead I let a car in that had been trying to merge. Rather than feeding my anger, I let it go and did something nice which made me feel better and hopefully the guy in the car in let in.

Learning patience in our yoga practice takes time as well. Especially if you are changing from a faster paced class to a slower one or if you’re in a class where you don’t really like the teachers style. Don’t let your impatience ruin your practice. Instead see what you can learn from it. If you normally like to go fast, see what interesting or new things you can find in a pose from slowing down, try focusing more on your breath and letting go of your thoughts. If there’s something you don’t like about the teacher, perhaps she talks too much, see if you can tone her out a bit by focusing on your breath.

 

If you're new to yoga and are impatient about learning the more advanced poses, use your time as a beginner to make your practice perfect for you. Explore your body. Where is it tight? Do you have previous injuries? How is your breathing? Enjoy the journey from beginner to intermediate student. Use the time to educate yourself about your body and how it works best in a pose, or for that matter if your body should even be doing that pose. If you rush, you will hurt yourself. Take the opportunity that impatience gives you to turn it into something good. Take the patience you cultivate on the mat and bring it out into the world.

I think for the most part people don’t realize that they’re being impatient. It’s an ingrained habit and can be hard to recognize, even in ourselves. So when you feel your body tensing or realize that you’ve interrupted someone, apologize. You’ll feel better and so will the person you interrupted. Take a few deep breaths and wait your turn, just like your mom and dad taught you.