Patrick: So this situation happens to me a lot. I am talking to someone and getting to know them and they ask, "So, what do you do?" And I say, "Actually, I am a yoga teacher." And they say, "Oh really." I say, "Yeah you should try yoga sometime. You will like it." And they say, "Ah, I am too tired for yoga. I just could never do that. You know I am just too tired." This answer kind of drives me crazy and here is why.
Imagine a fat person saying to you, you know I know I need to lose some weight but I am just too fat to go on a diet. It doesn't make any sense, right? The reason you start to diet is because you are overweight and the same is true in this situation. The reason you start the yoga practice is because you are tired. So don't let that stop you. In this video we are going to give you some tips.
I am Patrick and this is my weight patient and somewhat inflexible friend, David and today we are going to show you some variations. If you are one of those people who can't touch their toes and feels like yoga or something you could never do.
Let's start up with Staff Pose. The ideal image for this pose is your toe is completely pointing up, your leg is locked and straight and your back at a 90 degree align. But you can see David has tight hamstrings so his pelvis isn't allowing him to come up into the fore-seated position. His back is curved and his toes are pointed forward. To help him out, we are going to put a block or a blanket underneath his pelvis and put him against the wall. This will going to help him find that natural align and the elevation from the block allows his pelvis to tilt a bit and makes the space for the legs. From there just keep your head, the back of the head on the wall and you can see the line becomes much nicer.
Along the same lines is the Seated Forward Bend. The same thing is going to keep David from having a success in this pose. His hamstrings are so tight that the pelvis is kind of locked in that backward tilted position and he can't get down there. He is having to work from his back not his hips. So we are going to use the block and the wall setup again, and this time add a blanket behind the lumbar. This blanket serves to keep David honest. If he tilts and stretches from his back too much, he is going to lose the blanket. It's going to fall through. So it kind of encourages him to work from the hip sockets rather than the spine.
From here take a deep breath, make some space in your stomach and as you breathe out go deeper into the pose. It may not look like much but David is getting a much purer stretch this way other than straining his back enough.
So the rule of thumb here is that when you are having trouble working from your hips because of tight hamstrings you need to elevate your pelvis with a block or blanket or something like that and it will really help you natural alignment.
Another result of tight hamstrings is that David can't get his hands down to his foot. This means he is kind of hanging in the wind. There is no stability in the pose; he is just kind of going left and right. You can't get a deep stretch. So in this situation, all you do is get a strap, out it in the arch of your foot and use the strap, not to pull or to yank the pose deeper bit to provide some stability. Just like before, the action is all coming from the hip area but this strap gives David something to hold on to and makes the pose a little more comfortable and controlled.
So another good rule of thumb if you are having trouble with the pose is to go ahead and use a strap but you are not using it to pull, you are using it to add some structure to the pose, making it easier to stretch the targeted muscle movement.
Up next is a pose that gives tight people all kinds of trouble because it hits all of their weak points, downward dog. You can see my heels are down near the ground and my back is pretty flat if not curved inversely but David, because of his hamstrings and his rounded shoulders is having a lot of trouble getting in that shape. The back of my body looks like a V, but the back of David looks like a C. This means that he is not really getting the outermost stretch out of the dog pose.
In order to remedy this we need to break the pose into two pieces. Piece one is this variation right here. As you bend your knees you are allowed to focus more on your back. You can try to find that inverse curve that really gives the shoulders and back a good stretch. Piece two is the legs like David is showing, using the power from the ground and the arms, you want to really push up and make the legs as straight as possible as really strong like a piece of iron. By alternating between these two variations you are going to work the different sections of the pose and finally bring it all together for the final version.
This is a good thing to remember for all poses. The forms are not set in stone. You can change it to fit your needs and please feel free to do that.
Another pose that often frustrates tight people is the standing forward bend. Because people really want to touch the floor, they tend to strain their back and their necks, kind of missing the point of the pose which is the hamstrings. So what we are going to do is essentially raise the floor by putting some blocks down. With some support from the blocks David can stop worrying about where his hands are and start to think about flattening out the back and actually working the backs of the legs. This version will allow him to gain flexibility a lot faster than just trying to unskillfully touch the floor.
You can use this idea of support for all kinds of poses. For example, in Camel pose David's back isn't quite rendering up for him to get the support of the hips. Now you can always put your hands on your hips. But I like to do something with the chair. This keeps the original flavor of the pose a lot more than having your hands on your hips. So we rest the chair against David's buttocks and allow him to reach back and use the chair for a little support.
It may not look like much of a curve but he is really feeling it this way. In most of these variations where you are adding some support for the body, what you are doing is taking away strain from the back. But you will need to do it in a more pleasant and safe pose.
Just one more example of this is something like plow, because David can't touch the floor. He is getting a lot of strain in his neck which is both disagreeable and not really safe. So we will bring the chair out again and you can guess what's going to happen. He is just going to rest his feet on the chair. As you practice yoga you will start to understand the difference between good pain where you are getting a proper stretch and pained pain which is when something is wrong with the pose and there is strain on one part of the body that shouldn't be there.
So a good general rule for varying poses is to always give your body the support that takes pressure off from your back and puts it in the correct muscle and we will finish with an inversion the shoulder stand. David's core is a little bit weak so he is having trouble getting his legs into the full upright position. This will put undue pressure of the neck and take away from the general open light feeling of the pose.
So an easy variation you can do is to bend your knees. This will allow the core to have some weight taken off it and to make the back much straighter. You can use this variation for any pose that requires you to lift the legs such as Boat pose or Firefly pose. Bending the knees will allow the core to become stronger on its own pace. I hope you can use these modifications in your practice if you are a little bit tight. Remember whatever your age or ability, just start. Make a start today. Even once a month is better than never a month or never at all. You know I also teach meditation.
David: No, no I am too stressed to meditate. I am just too stressed.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services