|
|
Discussion forum for topics related to yoga and holistic health moderated by Deborah Metzger, Founder and Director of the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health. www.princetonyoga.com
Daunted in yoga by tight hamstrings and back muscles? A former competitive athlete looking to increase flexibily through yoga sent out a plea on another blog. Here is my response:
In yoga, less is often more! A key element in yoga practice is patience and ease - very different from our culture’s no pain/no gain fitness mindset. Many yoga classes, particularly in gyms and health clubs are best characterized as ‘yoga based exercise’ – and tend to feature a one size fits all approach.
Tight hamstrings influence your back, your thighs, your posture. Forcing poses with tight hamstrings, especially in forward bends can actually strain the back – all those ‘strings’ are connected!
There are great yoga warmups and poses on the back for tight hamstrings – and a great article on this (including the perils of overdoing it yoga poses with tight hamstrings) on the Yoga Journal site: http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/147. It features a pose called Reclining Big Toe Pose. Bound Angle Pose, Warrior I are a sampling of poses which will stretch tight hamstrings and loosen hips.
Another Yoga Journal post relates to making sure yoga poses are helping and not hurting your back. http://www.yogajournal.com/health/125?page=1.
Breathing is just as important as the yoga poses themselves – Notice if your breath is forced or strained as you practice or if you are holding your breath. Notice how your experience changes when the breath is even smooth.
Stretching at home is great – however, I’d recommend finding a well trained and compassionate yoga instructor either in a group class or a couple of private sessions to get you started with good habits of healthy and safe alignment for your unique body. I’m partial to folks trained in the Kripalu tradition – those instructors can be located by zip code at www.kripalu.org, however, there are many wonderful yoga traditions and teachers, each offering specific ways of presenting the poses. A site which lists yoga teachers trained in the basic recognized standard for yoga teachers in the US is www.yogaalliance.org. Just check out their experience and training.
And, men, don’t be daunted in a yoga class with lots of women – women tend to have much more flexibility than men. Yoga is not a competitive sport - and, the "mental" aspect of the practice, watching your mind chattering while in a yoga pose - comparing or gloating or thinking about your shopping list or what's for dinner - is another way to make use of your yoga practice in the service of living a fuller, more enjoyable life.
Finally, experiment with putting a smile on your face as you practice and see how that changes your experience! If you're grimacing, you're efforting too much.
Good luck in your foray into yoga practice and congratulations on contemplating this commitment to yourself through yoga.
Deborah
Deborah Metzger, M.S.W, A.C.S.W, RYT
Founder and director of the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health, Deborah Metzger, is a certified advanced Kripalu Yoga teacher and certified Dharmic Yoga Instructor and Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist, 500 Hour Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance, a licensed social worker and holds an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. She has completed the Yoga of the Heart: Cardiac and Cancer Certification Training, and additional courses in Structural Yoga Therapy and Reiki. In addition, she has studied with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program 7 Day Residential Retreat and the 9 Day Summer Intensive Practicum with Melissa Blacker and Florence Meleo and co-leads MBSR and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy programs at the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health. She is currently enrolled in the 2 year Hakomi mindfulness based psychotherapy training program.
She teaches Kripalu Yoga, co-leads Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programs and offers private Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy sessions at the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health. www.princetonyoga.com
In addition to teaching throughout the area and at the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health, Deborah has led related workshops in corporate settings such as Johnson & Johnson, Merrill Lynch, L’Oreal, Merck, Summit Bank, Devry Institute, Princeton University, and State agencies, as well as local community groups, and has assisted programs at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA.
She founded and served as the first president of Womanspace, Inc., a program for victims of domestic violence and served as Mental Health Planner and Liaison to the Department of Health for the State of New Jersey Division of Mental Health services and Mental Health Administrator for the County of Mercer in New Jersey.
To comment on this article, you must be a member and signed in
About pcyhyoga
About Deborah Metzger:
PCYH founder and director, Deborah Metzger, ACSW, 500 Hour RYT, is a certified advanced 500 Hour Kripalu Yoga teacher, a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist, a licensed social worker and holds an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to teaching throughout the area, Deborah has led related workshops at Princeton University, in corporate settings such as Johnson & Johnson, Merrill Lynch, L'Oreal, Munich Re America, Summit Bank, DeVry Institute, and State agencies, as well as local community groups, and has assisted programs at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA. PCYH is an independently owned and operated affiliate of Kripalu Center. Deborah recently completed the Yoga of the Heart Cardiac and Cancer Certification training and the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Intensive with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli as well as the 9 Day Summer Intensive Practicum with Melissa Blacker and Florence Meleo and co-leads MBSR and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy programs at the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health. She is currently enrolled in the 2 year Hakomi mindfulness based psychotherapy training program.
She founded and served as the first president of Womanspace, Inc., a program for victims of domestic violence. She was Mental Health Planning Coordinator and Liaison to the Department of Health for the Division of Mental Health Services. Prior to thsi, she served as Mercer County Mental Health administrator.
|
|
Grant Information
|
This Web site was made possible in part by NIH Grant Number R43 DK70418
|
|