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| When doing downward facing dog I like to take a fairly wide stance; it just feels better that way. However, my hands have a hard time not sliding slowly and I'm constantly readjusting them during the pose. This is irritating. If I take a rather short stance the problem is not so obvious and yet I still feel as though my hands are not truly grounded. (Or, if my hands DO feel grounded it's because my hands are really too close to my feet.)
The problem is so pervasive that I'm actually feeling like I am doing weird things with my arms, shoulders and even my back in an attempt to mitigate the problem.
So my questions are:
1. Assuming that my hands are not overly lotioned and/or my sticky mat is reasonably sticky could it be that I am just not pressing enough with my hands? This doesn't really feel like the case; however, I guess it's possible.
2. What do you all think of using those glove things to help grip? I have a feeling I would love to use these, as it would be great to hang out for an extended time in a nice, really wide DD; however I don't want to start using something that I may become dependent on if it will adversly affect my doing an authentic DD.
Thoughts, please.
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| Two quick suggestions, though I know there will be a million others: - Press down evenly through all ten fingers, bases of the thumbs and index fingers especially. Press through each finger, the knuckles as well, all the way to the finger tips. Feel as if you're almost clawing with your nails, pressing the nail beds into the mat.
- Bend your knees deeply, sending your body weight way back into your hips. You'll be on the balls of your feet. Feel your torso get long with that stretch and the sitbones lift a bit higher to the ceiling. Keeping your weight back into your legs and the neutral curve in the lowback, begin to move your thighs back, straightening the knees and taking the heels closer to the floor. Nothing should've changed in the upper body as you approached straighter legs.
Hope that helped.  |
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| I find that I tend to sweat most from my hands and feet when practising yoga, even when the rest of me is fairly dry. As this causes the sort of grip issues you describe, I use an artificial gymnasts chalk. Do a web search for mat grip ball and you'll see the sort of thing I use.
Fee |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Photos? We could all take a look at your poses. That might help... I have a feeling with the gloves gadget that hands would still slip around inside them, unless they have grippers inside as well and even then, I have doubts. I have socks with the grippers on the outside and my feet can still slide around inside them. |
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| Hello Karmann,
I personally do not care for nor advocate the use of thingies on the hands or feet for an asana practice. To me it is merely another buffer between the physical body and the energy of the earth. There are already enough of those buffers and I find a sense of disconnect with that energy (which is absolutely needed in the body as in standing poses) when gloves or socks are employed.
Of course it is possible your hands just slide. It is also possible you may re-distribute your weight in this way or that way. It is also possible you need to find a mat that better suits you or flip over/clean the one you've got.
To determine an appropriate spacing of the pose, consider coming to hands and knees from the AMS that feels good to you. With the hips over the knees where are the hands in relation to the shoulder joints? For most people, the hands are a bout a hand-length forward of being directly under the shoulder joints. It is NOT universally true. But it would be a good place to start and to give us a bit more feedback about what "wide" means to you.
It is possible to shift weight in this pose from the upper to the lower extremities. How this is accomplished may vary and it feels like an assessment of the student and their pose is mandated in order to shift from conjecture to wisdom.
Edited by purnayoga 2007-12-13 11:34 AM
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getting a grip
