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 Strange questionModerators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 2 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> Bikram Yoga | Message format |
gilclopez |
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| I took a break from Bikram for about a month. For the past few weeks I've been going every single day of the week. In the past 4-5 days I've been having a strange response during camel pose. About 10 seconds after I come out of it.. my eyes tear up and many tears end up coming out. It's almost as if I'm crying... but I'm not. I usually just feel a little dizzy or light-headed after coming out of that pose. I can get deep into it. I've heard instructors say that it can stir up emotion. The thing is, I haven't felt this emotion before. It's an overwhelming feeling and I have to really wipe the tears away for at least 3-5 minutes after that pose. A guest teacher rushed to me thinking something was really wrong. He was wondering if I pushed myself too hard or was injured. I wasn't. It was embarassing, he was really freaked out. I had to assure him everything was perfectly fine (it really was) several times. At the end of class he said I just looked really sad. It has a slight hint of sadness maybe? I've just never had tears come out like that before... well maybe once or twice during really bad times. I didn't actually cry or go through that whole process. I didn't make any sounds.. it's just tears. It's really bothering me. It does affect the rest of my class.  Today I immediately flipped over into savasana after every pose. I put urgency into my flip. When I did it after camel... I felt a little buzzed... which was good. I thought I had escaped it. I was wrong. After that buzz the tears poured right out. Ugh. I'm not able to make it go away, I need help. | |||
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| Nick |
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    Location: London, England | |||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442   | Wow Gil - that is a really interesting thing to have happen! It is true that chest openings do tend to have that sort of reaction and I believe the explanation is that they open the heart chakra. You said your teacher thought you looked sad, but seeing as you are not feeling sad but just overwhelmed by the experience, it could be that you are simply overflowing emotionally with all sorts of different emotions. OTOH, you could still be unconsciously holding back the sadness that is still there. I would imagine you have as much sadness as anyone stored away so it would make sense that it would want to get out. The (wonderful) choices you have made in your life to radiate happiness and loving kindness outwardly may now be manifesting in your body by letting go of all the stuff you have stored up so that you will be able to give that much more to yourself and others. I don't know really. I am just making this up as I go along.  But it sounds cleansing and freeing and that, in the long run, should be good. Have a big hug (((*hug*))) | ||
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| scoutsmom |
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| *Fifi* |
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| Nick |
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Location: London, England | |||
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| Nick |
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Location: London, England | Hi deb, Camel pose is a backbend in which students often assume a faulty head/neck posture. In chiropractic, before the neck is adjusted, the patient is asked to look up at the ceiling. if dizziness is experienced, it may be that the vertebral artery which travels to the brain through the cervical spine, is being compressed by the spine itself, pointing to bony changes, perhaps due to osteoarthritis. There are other clinical options, such as vestibular dysfunction. A good move is to set a good posture of the head and neck when the student is about to go into the pose. Then the tongue is pressed against the roof of the mouth (tongue up, teeth apart, lips closed-TUTALC). As you move into the backbend, regard any movement that pulls the tongue from the roof of the mouth as being a movement that will compromise the safety of the neck's various structures. As students take hold of their feet, they often lean on the feet and push themselves up into the posture. The trouble with this is that the shoulders are drawn backwards and the head/neck is pushed forwards-then, the student throws their head back to try to get into the pose more deeply. Instead of this, the student should try to put their hands on their feet (fingers pointing towards the toes), and pull into the pose by extending the hips-this promotes back safety and helps to extend the shoulders, rather than pull them backwards, they are being extended to stretch the chest muscles. You know you are getting it rigth when you stretch the front of the hip and thigh, no back pain, and the gluteals are tightened to extend your hip joints. The abdominals are also used to pull the pubic bone towards the chest. It's a 'legs, bums, and tums' posture  Take care Nick | ||
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| scoutsmom |
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| Cyndi |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 5098 Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | |||
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| Nick |
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Location: London, England | hi all, The instruction to bring the tongue to the rof of the mouth that is used in yoga and in zoebird's t'ai chi class is not a diversion of the structure of the tongue-the roof of the mouth is actually the tongue's resting posture. When the tongue rests on the base of the mouth, a forward head posture often results, placing strain on the neck muscles. You will then notice that the tongue presses upwards more strongly according to the effort that you are using to lift into postures. You can then use the pressure of the tongue to determine the level of effort-a bit like when you breathe more powerfully to make advanced postures easier for you to attain. The tongue up posture also helps to relaese muscles that are often tight in neck pain patients, such as sternocleidomastoid and the scalene, and levator scapulae. This should gradually result in a neck with good range of motion and less pain (hopefully!). Remember, scoutsmom-you say you have no trouble bringing the hips forwards-Iwould just like to clarify the movement of the hips. If you were to watch someone doing the camel pose, at first sight it may appear that they are simply bringing their hips forwards. In reality, what should be happening is that their pelvis should be extending, because of the gluteal contraction that Zoebird was talikg about. it is important not to simply tighten the gluteals, which would definitely push the hips forwards, but to tighten them so that the pelvis extends, throughing the upper body backwards as the thighs are driven forwards. you will feel the extra stretch on the quads and hip flexors!! Camel is a good pose to find out if you have good technique in back bends-if your back hurts, then you are doing it wrong. if you immediately go into child pose, then you are doing it wrong! if you feel great, that is a good sign. It is a great stretch when done well. Take care Nick | ||
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| *Fifi* |
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| Nick |
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Location: London, England | Sorry Cyndi, I meant you not zoebird! don't know what came over me-are you related? Take care Nick | ||
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| Cyndi |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 5098 Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Nick, I love ya man, but I need help with translations....could you like explain that in English, I think I understood most of it. I always thought that with camel it would be your lower back that would hurt first if not the most when doing this posture wrong. This is my favorite posture and if I had to choose a daily posture, this would be the one, then cobra then fixed firm, and of course, Savasana. Me and Zoebird related.... might as well be. She's a dragon, so am I, she's a cancer, so am I, she was born in July, so was I, and we are exactly 12 years apart...she's the oldest, and I think we are both blondes too,  | ||
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| Nick |
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Location: London, England | Hi Cyndi, Isnt that the wonderful thing about the net though-you can translate everything, and I can rabbit on like everybody cares! Perfect!! I think you are right, it is often the lower back which is painful if this posture isnt done correctly. The trouble is, if the neck is irritated by some condition, I think that the student is almost predisposed to getting neck pain in this pose. Sometimes students are lucky enough to get both!! They get a cookie! Wow, you and Zoebird are peas in a pod!twins born twelve years apart! Now that's a long labour! Take care Nick | ||
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| *Fifi* |
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| Cyndi |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 5098 Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Fifi, is there anything that we can't get past you??? Okay, you're right, sorda...but I'm not in my 20's or 30's...I lied, | ||
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| *Fifi* |
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| Cyndi |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 5098 Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | BB, your're so smart, I mean like Brilliant, | ||
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| GreenJello |
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| ZB's a Blonde, and in her 30s (29,30), I'll let everybody do the math to figure out how long Cyndi's had to grow so wise. | |||
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| aussiepearl |
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| sideshow |
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| Bay Guy |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 2479 Location: A Blue State | |||
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| Nick |
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Location: London, England | Hi all, Hey Sideshow, Maybe you could use the piercing to your advantage-just aim the piercing towards the roof of your mouth and it will remind you to keep it there! Bay guy has an interesting point to make regarding the gluteals in camel pose. It seems that some forms of yoga tell us not to tighten the gluteal muscle in backbends. i believe the reason for this is to try to avoid stressing the lower back. But the trouble is, the gluteals are the muscle responsible (along with the hamstrings) for extending the hips-this makes them the antagonists of the hip flexors, which are probably the major muscles to stretch in most backbends. By not tightening the gluteals, we are probably not targetting the hip flexors properly-a rule of human movement is a principle that is called reciprocal inhibition-this means that when a muscle activates on one side of a joint, the muscles on the oppposite side will stretch. This is an interesting concept for yoga students because it allows us to concentrate on the contraction of muscles to bring stretch, rather than merely stretching. The role of the gluteals has been poorly understood in yoga circles-as i said, it is a hip extensor, as well as an external rotator of the hip joint. It is one of the biggest muscles in the human body, and is one that is particularly well developed in the human, the only animal on this planet to successfullly stand upright. Without it, we could argue that we would not have developed into the fine creatures that we are today. In relation to backbends, I believe the answer with the glutes is not to use them to push the hips forwards, which puts what is called shear force on the lumbar spine, and greater compression on the same vertebra. if we use them to extend the hip joint instead (a posterior pelvic tilt) then the lumbar spine is decompressed, and the shaer foces are greatly reduced. plus, you get to stretch the hip flexors which may be the culprits for causing back pain in the first place-when tight, the hip flexors contribute to what is called the lower crossed syndrome-this is where the hip flexors and lower back muscles are tight, causing an anterior tilt of the pelvis and increased lordosis of the lumbar spine. This is accompnied by weakness in the abdominal muscles and the gluteals, which then contributes to the bad posture. So i think that whilst bay guy is right in that we should not use the glutes to produce what is known in movement circles as the midnight tilt (for obvious reasons  ), we should recognize its worth in reducing back pain by increasing its functional status in our yoga postures. Stretching it in most forward bends, will decopress the lumbar spine, and tightening it to produce the posterior pelvic tilt in most backbends will also de-compress the lumbar spine. Any thoughts? Take care Nick | ||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442 | |||
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