(no subject)

[wasabi_poptart]

Is yoga supposed to hurt?

My leg muscles are pretty sore today, as if from a good workout, but my wrists and ankles are kind of bugging me more than they probably should be.

Comments

[noralita.livejournal.com]

you need to build up muscles & flexibility there too, as those that are there arent' used to the work & the stretch. But also concentrate next time on using your core muscles to pull your weight up and off your joints. Butt muscles, stomach, should all be active (not necessarily crazy tense) and working to hold you up (viz. downward dog, & reaching skyward w/yr bottom) As your muscles lengthen & strengthen, they will work better to do just that. After 6 weeks w/ Keri & repeated hands-on posture correction, I realized how different the postures are than what I thought they were, and what I was doing in my head, versus what I was *really* doing with my body. Ask for correction & allow your body to be pulled into the proper alignement if the teacher is a walk-around the room type. And do try to practice at home a few times during the week, even if 5 min in the am and pm. With all the space clearing, give yourself some room & a carpet, send Maggie to the corner and introduce your IPink to this: http://www.yogatoday.com/ I've dl'd a couple - but haven't had time yet to try it...

[tyldak.livejournal.com]

Your joints may just need a couple sessions to adjust. Might want to mention it to your teacher before the next class starts. Maybe you're doing something a little off their instruction and that's causing stress that shouldn't be there?

- Tyldak

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Yoga is HARD WORK. Also, see how easy it is to keep your balance. Lots of straining happens when one is trying to hold a pose off-balance. Might be that there's a better way to handle a pose.

[rubyfive.livejournal.com]

keep at it, your body will get used to it. also, think about distributing your weight evenly through your fingers and toes in downward dog (and in standing positions - feet). one trick is to lift and spread the toes and the fingers and then release them, so you get a better sense of all of the surface you have to work with. you are definitely working some muscles that may not get used so much - particularly the wrists. i think with more practice, the pain should go away, but pay attention.

yoga is a really great way to develop an awareness of your body...

please keep posting yoga stuff!!! i am always happy to help!

[emily-hahn.livejournal.com]

What everybody else said. I've been MIA from my classes lately because of PMS and a cold. I've gone the past two nights and you better believe I'm feeling it today! Keep it up though, you will be amazed as how more flexible you get and even learning to do things like breath (took me 5 years to figure that one out).

[beezus.livejournal.com]

hmm...did it hurt while you were doing it, too? if so, that's not supposed to happen.

if it's just hurting afterwards, that means you worked hard and will get stronger.

as for hurting in the wrists and the ankles.. it probably means that they weren't used to holding your body weight (esp wrists in positions like downward dog) and your ankles may not be thanking you if you did a bunch of things like side planks.

that wasn't really all that helpful, now was it?

i guess i'm saying listen to your body, because at the end of the day that's what yoga's all about.

[wright.livejournal.com]

Yea. What everyone else said. Also remember that we are office potatoes and we don't use our wrists for much besides typing, knitting and drinking beverages of varying sorts. So, putting so much weight on them, it makes sense that your body is really not used to it. Keep at it for awhile and see how it makes you feel.

hmmm

[afoundobject.livejournal.com]

In the first few months of taking up yoga, you may find that you'll have some soreness due to getting used to distributing your weight and utilizing your fingers and toes for stabilization instead of your wrists and ankles.

this happens, usually, because we aren't used to using our fingers and toes for weight bearing... for instance, the correct yoga hand position for weight bearing can be shown like so:

stick your hands in front of you like you're doing jazz hands. all of your muscles in your hand should be tensed. now keep them like that and place them on your desk/nearest surface. now lean on them... is the weight in your wrist alone? shouldn't be.

Now, relax and try the same thing. Now you're only leaning into your wrists... this is generally what most people do in the first stages of yoga practice- basically when you use your fingers and whole hand for balance support, you're letting a lot of muscles do a big job. when you are relaxing your hand and just using your wrists, you've got one small set of muscles doing a big job... so, more pain!

the same can be applied to your toes/ankle. If you're not spreading out your foot muscles *almost like jazz hands with the feet. I think of this as Monkey Feet*, then the same thing is occuring.

This is just my suggestion to try. I know I dealt with a LOT of pain in my wrists and ankles at first, until I asked my teacher and he corrected me. Hope this helps!

Re: hmmm

[afoundobject.livejournal.com]

ps this is basically what RubyFive said :) sorry didn't read comments first. duh!