Tomorrow is my first public Asana class as a teacher

[Flolfolil]

Hey all, I know I don't post here very much anymore but you are all still in my thoughts.

 

Some may remember me complaining endlessly about my knee injuries, and feeling hopeless, like nothing would ever make them better.

 

Well, I did it.  I studied the body intensely and fixed myself.  No more pain at all.  Now I am ready to pass on the knowledge of the muscular system that I have acquired to hopefully help some other people.  I have been teaching privately for a while now and everyone I instruct gives me rave reviews.  I take the hyper anatomical approach to asana rather than the "look at the general shape and try to get a feel for it" approach.

 

I am teaching completely for free, so that I may reach as many people as possible and improve more lives without the money getting in the way.  My philosophy teachings center heavily around pulling people out of victim mentality and encouraging them to take back their own personal power.  In the knowledge of the One, we are all untouchable and nothing has to ever make us feel afraid or defeated.

 

Tomorrow I will be leading a class of 15-20 people.  Some are new to the practice, some are more seasoned, one is a hard headed old lady that wants advanced postures without doing the preliminary work!

 

 

So yeah...words of encouragement?  Advice?  Questions about fixing bodily pain and correcting posture? 

 

[Andrei]

fixing bodily pain

 

Diet is the most important because diet is changing the gut flora.

 

Check this on google, you`ll be amazed what you find:

 

Fibromyalgia - gut flora

Artheriosclerosis - gut flora

Rheumathoid Arthritis - gut flora

Multiple Slerosis - gut flora

Alzheimer - gut flora

Parkinson - gut flora

Lyme - gut flora

Edited January 20, 2016 by Andrei

[gendao]

Some may remember me complaining endlessly about my knee injuries, and feeling hopeless, like nothing would ever make them better.

 

Well, I did it.  I studied the body intensely and fixed myself.  No more pain at all.  Now I am ready to pass on the knowledge of the muscular system that I have acquired to hopefully help some other people.  I have been teaching privately for a while now and everyone I instruct gives me rave reviews.  I take the hyper anatomical approach to asana rather than the "look at the general shape and try to get a feel for it" approach.

 

Questions about fixing bodily pain and correcting posture? 

 

Sure, so how exactly did you fix yourself and what do you recommend?

[Miffymog]

I've been concentrating on my Zhan Zhuang practice quite a lot over the last half year. Unfortunately, for the last couple of months I've been working out how to get round quite bad pain in my right knee. After adjusting my posture in a number of ways, when I finally got round to just looking down at my knees, I found that my right one was about an inch in front of the left one.

 

Trying to work out how to solve this I decided to just stand up against a wall, with some upright DVD boxes on the floor to get my feet in the right place.

 

Result? Total transformation in my practice. I slipped my disc 20 years ago and got bad sciatica down the right leg. Ever since then, when ever I stand at a bus stop or any where, I put all my weight down my left leg. This had ended up with my pelvis all over the place and a cork screw down the spine.

 

Standing up against the wall has sorted out the cork screw of the pelvis, aligned my knees, significantly improved the quality of the energy I feel and increased the time I can stand while removing all the pain – I am now a much happier man !

 

So, standing up against a wall with some spacers on the floor might be an idea

Edited January 20, 2016 by Miffymog

[Marblehead]

No advice.  Just my wishes for the best for you (as I think that is a wonderful thing you are doing) and good thoughts for your students so that they will find what they are looking for.

[Apech]

Best wishes and good luck.  Just enjoy it, say.

[Flolfolil]

Sure, so how exactly did you fix yourself and what do you recommend?

 

Learning all of the muscles involved in movement of the ankle, calf, shin, knees, quads, hamstrings, hips

 

Some of the most major changes came from

 

1.strengthening the VMO with knees supported on a rolled up blanket and straightening the leg

2.ankle pronators [muscle that roots the inner edge of the feet, think lifting the pinky toes while pressing the big toes into the floor]

3.deep external hip rotation muscles [Look up how to do a ballet turnout. Learning to engage these muscles is important for stuff like ZZ and martial arts and even without training in any martial form its gotten pretty difficult to knock me over whereas before the wind could blow and I would be crying on the ground.]

4.glute/external rotation muscle stretches, like half pigeon pose

5.strengthen the adductors by squeezing a block or pillow between the knees, putting the block more in between the VMOs than the knee bones. squeeze hard and criss cross the feet over and under eachother, follow with butterfly pose

6. put your fingers in between all of your toes all the way up to the webs in between the fingers past the last knuckle, separating them. squeeze the ball of your foot from this position, then squeeze your hand with your toes. this helps you learn to engage all of the individual muscles that control each toe

7. stretch quads, hip flexors, and hamstrings EQUALLY. any imbalance in these stretches will cause knee pain on the opposite side of the knee that you forgot to stretch enough

8.tuck the tail bone but not so much that it tilts your pelvis. its a very subtle action thats easier to practice laying down

9.firming root lock, sucking in stomach. if you are male eventually youll get to a point where it feels like your ballsack is starting to lift up

10. squats with an emphasis on slightly kicking back with the hamstrings. learn to find the hamstring engagement and then sit with it

11.bridge pose, then once you can do this well taking one leg up. this really blasts your glutes

12. strengthen and stretch the quadratus lumborum. everyone has a different fave way to work with this muscle so ill let everyone look into it themselves

Edited January 20, 2016 by Flolfolil

[liminal_luke]

I´m just (re)starting a yoga journey after a few decades off, and wish I could attend your class. The anatomical approach sounds great. Good for you for taking that next step (often scary in my experience) and sharing your know-how with others.

 

Liminal

Edited January 20, 2016 by liminal_luke

[doc benway]

Tomorrow I will be leading a class of 15-20 people.  Some are new to the practice, some are more seasoned, one is a hard headed old lady that wants advanced postures without doing the preliminary work!

 

 

So yeah...words of encouragement?  Advice?  Questions about fixing bodily pain and correcting posture? 

 

 

Congratulations and go get 'em!

My only advice would be to keep reminding yourself to open your heart to the people who come to you for help or to learn.

Especially for the ones that are difficult!

Reading your post, I'm sure you already do.

[silent thunder]

That is freaking awesome! Good on ya mate!

[Flolfolil]

I´m just (re)starting a yoga journey after a few decades off, and wish I could attend your class

I wish all of you could!!

[Flolfolil]

My only advice would be to keep reminding yourself to open your heart to the people who come to you for help or to learn

I'm too openhearted! I'm always crying all the damn time and spilling my guts to anyone who will listen

[Apech]

I'm too openhearted! I'm always crying all the damn time and spilling my guts to anyone who will listen

 

I've cried in yoga - but through agony!

[Flolfolil]

I've cried in yoga - but through agony!

"Now that you have found your pigeon, reach back to grab the ankle of your back leg and bring your heel to your butt...unclench your jaw"

Edited January 20, 2016 by Flolfolil

[thelerner]

At Burning Man the camp I was in (Whiskey & Dust) had a platform and daily yoga classes.  We had the most foul mouthed yoga instructor possible.  She swore like a sailor, pretty much every pose came with came with a move your damn this or raise your fukkin that.  I found it softened by the fact she and several other yogists were topless. 

 

ah yoga, i could sit back and watch it all day. 

[Kubba]

I have pain on the left side of my lap - in place where leg connects with pelvis. In the left knee too - only when squating, but thats really uncomfortable

Edited January 21, 2016 by Kubba

[soaring crane]

Sounds like you've found your calling, Flo, I'm happy for you :-)

 

Could you please elaborate on this one, I honestly can't make heads or tails of it, but hamstrings are an issue with me, thanks:

 

 

10. squats with an emphasis on slightly kicking back with the hamstrings. learn to find the hamstring engagement and then sit with it
 

[Flolfolil]

Sounds like you've found your calling, Flo, I'm happy for you :-)

 

Could you please elaborate on this one, I honestly can't make heads or tails of it, but hamstrings are an issue with me, thanks:

Okay so stand up and take your leg straight back behind you.  Don't bend the knee.  Its what you do to propel yourself forward when walking.  This is the muscle engagement you want when you are squatting.  Get into the squat, then engage the hamstrings as if you are going to raise yourself out of the squat.  Make sure you are sticking your butt out in a squat, while trying to keep your torso as vertical as possible.  If you round your back forward, this takes all of the force into your quads and gives you front of the knee pain.  Do squats like you are sitting back into a comfy chair.

 

Also for hamstrings, there's bridge pose.  A cue I never learned in any yoga class but figured out from studying is that while you keep your feet in the same place for bridge pose, you isometrically try to drag your heels towards you.

 

There's also Cow pose [as in, cat-cow, but only do this from cow] Where you take one leg straight back and work on getting the inner edge of your thigh up.  Engage your thigh adductors[on both legs] by engaging the muscles you'd use to squeeze something between your knees so that your leg doesn't splay out to the side.  Once you find your balance in this, take your opposite arm out in front of you, palm facing towards the middle line of your body.  Stretch out in both directions, and point your toes back.  Act as if someone is pulling your hand foward and your foot backwards.  This one is good for hamstrings and strengthening the quadratus lumborum.  Easy balance mode for this exercise is to have the toes curled under.  For more core work try the tops of your base foot pressing into the ground. 

 

The squeezing the legs together and rotating the inner thighs up cue is good for practing Locust pose as well.  In that one be sure to suck in your stomach, firm your pelvic floor [engage muscles that stop flow of urine] and tuck your tailbone slightly like a scared dog.  This is another great hamstring pose.

 

 

When walking, try and sink back and use the action of the hamstrings to propel you forward instead of just throwing your bodyweight forward.  Develop a good heel strike, and preferably wear shoes that don't have extra height on the heel-sole.  Shoes that aren't flat really wreck your entire body.

 

Let me know if this helps, if not I'll keep going until I find something that makes sense to you   The hamstrings are one of those muscles you really have to blast with strength training everyday or else they don't see any progress, or even make sense.

 

 

Hope I could help!!

Edited January 21, 2016 by Flolfolil

[Flolfolil]

I have pain on the left side of my lap - in place where leg connects with pelvis. In the left knee too - only when squating, but thats really uncomfortable

When you squat, do your knees collapse towards the center or splay out to the sides?  The goal is to have them in a straight line with your ankles.

 

Try doing a "ballet turnout".  Its hard to describe online but you can find videos.  Remember to keep your leg straight in this one.

 

Can you draw an arrow pointing to the exact area where the pain is on a picture of a human?  Hell, I could do a lot more for you if I could get a picture of your squatting form.  Feel free to PM it if you go that route instead of posting in thread.

 

Go through all of the information in my original post, do every exercise that makes sense to you, and I am sure you'll see improvement.  Also check out my reply I just made to soaring crane about the hamstrings and try all that stuff.  It has a ton of squat form advice.

 

If you are in pain that's not cool!  Lets fix that, ASAP!!!!

Edited January 21, 2016 by Flolfolil

[Flolfolil]

Woooooo totally killed it at my first class.  They asked me to do it every week.  I freaked out until the very second I started and then it was completely effortless.  Can't wait for next weeks class <3

[gatito]

Glad to hear the news Flo and glad to see a thread like this...

 

Asana practice is cool

 

Best Wishes for your continuing success and happiness!

[Flolfolil]

Glad to hear the news Flo and glad to see a thread like this...

 

Asana practice is cool

 

Best Wishes for your continuing success and happiness!

the top quote in your sig is a huge source of inspiration for me

Edited January 22, 2016 by Flolfolil

[Geof Nanto]

Some may remember me complaining endlessly about my knee injuries, and feeling hopeless, like nothing would ever make them better.

 

Well, I did it.  I studied the body intensely and fixed myself......

 

I'm impressed by your ability to work this out for yourself. I hope your classes continue to go well. I learnt corrective techniques from a gifted teacher and witnessed amazing results both in myself and others. It's something that's much needed in our sedentary society. His approach combined meridian theory with yoga based asana. He'd developed comprehensive diagnostic methods and utilized asana in a way to strengthen the weaknesses pinpointed as the root cause of problems.  

 

Something to keep in mind though - and I imagine you're aware of this -  we don't "fix ourselves". The most we can do is to remove the distortions we are inflicting on ourselves. It's improved alignment with nature, with the Dao and hence the freeing of the natural flow of qi that fixes us.   

Edited January 22, 2016 by Yueya

[Spotless]

All the very best to you!