|
Home > Archive > Yoga > April 2006 > New to Yoga, a few questions
You are viewing an archived Text-only version of the thread.
To view this thread in it's original format and/or if you want to reply to
this thread please [click here]
| Author |
New to Yoga, a few questions
|
|
| robert.grant3@gmail.com 2006-04-05, 11:40 am |
| When I am in a kneeling position, siting on my heels, I get a strong
pain in the top of my feet because they are being pushed down to the
floor. Is this a normal stretching pain or a problem with my feet?
Thanks for the input.
| |
|
| On 2006-04-05 05:29:36 -0700, robert.grant3@gmail.com said:
> When I am in a kneeling position, siting on my heels, I get a strong
> pain in the top of my feet because they are being pushed down to the
> floor. Is this a normal stretching pain or a problem with my feet?
> Thanks for the input.
Its a normal stretching pain in Vajrasana. It should go away with
practice. You may want to practice on a blanket or thick mat to
cushion the bones.
You may want to try another beneficial stretch for the feet. Sitting
on your heals, tuck your toes under (try to press all toes into the
floor evenly). If you can't rest comfortably on the heels, put a
blanket between your heels and your butt. Initially this will feel
comfortable but after a minute or two it will become excruciatingly
painful. Breath through the pain. This is an excellent stretch for
the bottoms of the foot.
Also, if you find when sitting on the heels the feet splay out, you may
find it beneficial to loosely tie a belt around the ankles.
--
~Stu
Check out:
http://beauty.expertvillage.com/vid...-heros-pose.htm
| |
| LawsonE 2006-04-06, 1:32 am |
|
"Stu" <Nospam@towel.com> wrote in message
news:2006040517205316807-Nospam@towelcom...
> On 2006-04-05 05:29:36 -0700, robert.grant3@gmail.com said:
>
>
> Its a normal stretching pain in Vajrasana. It should go away with
> practice. You may want to practice on a blanket or thick mat to cushion
> the bones.
>
> You may want to try another beneficial stretch for the feet. Sitting on
> your heals, tuck your toes under (try to press all toes into the floor
> evenly). If you can't rest comfortably on the heels, put a blanket
> between your heels and your butt. Initially this will feel comfortable
> but after a minute or two it will become excruciatingly painful. Breath
> through the pain. This is an excellent stretch for the bottoms of the
> foot.
>
> Also, if you find when sitting on the heels the feet splay out, you may
> find it beneficial to loosely tie a belt around the ankles.
Ingyegar yoga says to "break through the pain?"
Now THAT is counter-TM for sure.
| |
| danijel dubicanac 2006-04-06, 1:32 am |
| put rolled mat beneath your ankles and lessen the pressure which gives you
pain
with time, use less support
<robert.grant3@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1144240176.279315.276350@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> When I am in a kneeling position, siting on my heels, I get a strong
> pain in the top of my feet because they are being pushed down to the
> floor. Is this a normal stretching pain or a problem with my feet?
> Thanks for the input.
>
| |
| robert.grant3@gmail.com 2006-04-06, 11:37 am |
| Thanks for all the input! Can anyone reccomend some Yoga books? Right
now I am using Hittlemans book on Yoga. Thanks!
| |
| howdydave 2006-04-07, 1:34 am |
| Howdy!
You might want to consider some of the books by Vivekananda.
If you are zeroing in on a specific yogic discipline you can consider
these 3:
Raja-Yoga by: Swami Vivekananda ISBN: 091120623X
Jnana-Yoga by: Swami Vivekananda ISBN: 0911206213
Karma-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga by: Swami Vivekananda ISBN: 0911206221
Or you could get all of them in one book:
Vivekananda: Yogas and Other Works ISBN: 0911206043
The Four Yogas by: Swami Adiswarananda ISBN: 1594731438
Self-Knowledge (Atmabodha) by: Swami Nikhilanda ISBN: 0911206116
How's that for a start?
Dave
| |
| howdydave 2006-04-07, 1:34 am |
| Howdy AGAIN!
My favorite resource for yoga books is:
http://www.dkagencies.com/
D.K. Agencies is in India and is an outstanding resource for books
published in INDIA.
It takes longer for the books to get to you, but you will find books
there that you will never find anywhere in Europe or North America!
Even after you include the shipping costs, most of their books are
cheaper than the new ones you can get here!
Dave
| |
| howdydave 2006-04-07, 1:34 am |
| BTW: Vivekananda is the man who first introduced yoga to the west
between 1893 and 1902.
| |
|
| On 2006-04-05 20:23:05 -0700, "LawsonE" <nospam@nospam.com> said:
>
> "Stu" <Nospam@towel.com> wrote in message
> news:2006040517205316807-Nospam@towelcom...
>
> Ingyegar yoga says to "break through the pain?"
Did you mean <breath> not <break>?
>
> Now THAT is counter-TM for sure.
Just a technical note: There is no such thing as Iyengar Yoga. Mr.
Iyengar considers his school of yoga a teaching method. Its generally
referred to as "Iyengar Method Yoga".
There are different sorts of pain one encounters when they do asanas.
There are the sharp pains that indicate one is doing something they
shouldn't. They are pulling a ligament, or muscle on their way to
causing permanent physical damage. Very often this sort of pain takes
the form of not going away. It is very important as a practitioner of
yoga to recognize this pain.
On there other hand there are "good" pains. Good pains indicate a
stretch is bringing circulation to an area. This foot stretch is an
excellent example of this sort of pain. (Iyengar trained teachers often
use the word sensation rather than pain.) We put a lot of stress on
the bottoms of our feet, and the muscles on the bottom of the feet
become short and stiff. Bringing circulation to the area brings
intense sensation. We hold the pose and bring equanimity to our mental
state. One method of doing this is to bring attention to the breath,
keeping it unstrained and rhythmic. Thus we deepen our stretch as well
as discipline our minds to physical sensations.
I can think of no better training for finding this body/mind equanimity
than the practice of TM. At the heart of TM is an effortless technique
that allows the mind to settle into a pure equanimity. With practice
it is fairly easy to find this mindful balance in the normal waking
state.
--
~Stu
| |
|
| On 2006-04-06 04:59:49 -0700, robert.grant3@gmail.com said:
> Thanks for all the input! Can anyone reccomend some Yoga books? Right
> now I am using Hittlemans book on Yoga. Thanks!
"Yoga the Path to Holistic Health"
By BKS Iyengar. It details the way to use props like the rolled up mat
to learn the asanas.
--
~Stu
| |
| LawsonE 2006-04-07, 1:34 am |
|
"Stu" <Nospam@towel.com> wrote in message
news:2006040620235816807-Nospam@towelcom...
> On 2006-04-05 20:23:05 -0700, "LawsonE" <nospam@nospam.com> said:
>
>
> Did you mean <breath> not <break>?
I completely misread, sorry.
[...]
> I can think of no better training for finding this body/mind equanimity
> than the practice of TM. At the heart of TM is an effortless technique
> that allows the mind to settle into a pure equanimity. With practice it
> is fairly easy to find this mindful balance in the normal waking state.
I don't disagree entirely with what you say there, though the ultimate
outcome of TM practice isn't to make it fairly easy to "find this mindful
balance" but to create long-term changes in the way in which the brain works
to allow spontaneous, continuous samadhi during the waking, dreaming and
sleep states.
The latest EEG research from MUM shows this quite clearly. Non-TMers show
relatively incoherent alpha activity in the frontal lobes of the brain.
Beginning TMers show an accumulative effect during TM practice that
increases over the first 4 months or so of practice. Long-term meditators
don't show much, if any, greater alpha coherence during TM than people who
have only practiced it for 4 months, but show a definite accumulative effect
outside meditation during waking, dreaming and sleeping that resembles the
effect on EEG during TM, superimposed on the normal EEG of someone in
waking/dreaming/sleeping states.
It's not a matter of finding equanimity during waking state: your brain has
rewired itself over the years to permanently be in this state due to
consistent exposure to the pure (more or less) state during TM alternated
with normal activity.
| |
| omjaroo 2006-04-07, 1:34 am |
| Hi,
I would recommend you read and practice everything you can find by
Hittleman. Patience. It's not where you get but how you get there :-)
Jared
| |
| tech-yogi 2006-04-16, 11:24 am |
| I have been practicing for a year, and still
I have to keep a towel under my ankles.
Dont worry, you are OK.
|
| |
|
|