Friday Q&A: Death of a Student

Q: I am a yoga teacher on the East Coast & have been teaching for 6 years. Last week, I found out a young student in one of my gym classes died (suicide, 2 weeks ago). He had been attending this class fairly regularly for the past 2+ years. The class is small, but it is not the type of environment where the students have developed close relationships with one another. They show up, practice & leave (it’s an evening class). We would have a few minutes before class to sit & wait for the earlier class to finish, but that’s the extent of any interaction that I’m aware of taking place.

I am struggling with whether or not I say anything to the group or let it go. He occasionally attended the class with a young woman, who it seemed he knew from outside of class, but I'm not sure how.

Any words of wisdom would be appreciated!

A: Firstly, let me express my sadness at your loss. Although I have not lost any students to suicide, I have had students who died suddenly, and found I was impacted by the loss more than I would have anticipated. Then, of course, there are two questions that seem to arise: Do I share this with the rest of the class? And, from a teaching perspective, how do I cultivate community in settings where it does not yet exist in a very tangible form?

I don’t think there is right answer to the first question, as many variables might influence the decision to tell the group of the death of a fellow student. But I, too, teach in a gym setting twice a week and have done so for almost 10 years now. I sometimes feel a lack of community there as well, although in reality, I have some students who regularly attend these classes, some for many years. Remembering this encourages me to speak with this group in the same way I do my studio students where community is perhaps more obvious. And every time I do share some difficult or personal information that has some relevance to our work together, I am invariably delighted with the feedback that I receive, and the interactions amongst the students that ensue. So, if you’d like a greater sense of community, situations like this and many others are perfect ways to get students connecting in ways beyond just their asana, pranayama and meditation practices.

One of my favorite sutras, which I have probably alluded to before, but which has some relevance here, is 1.33, where Patanjali gives some of the only guidance in his collection of sutras about how to behave and interact with one another. 

1.33. By cultivating friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery, gladness towards virtue and indifference towards vice, the mind becomes pure.

Here Patanjali suggests practicing compassion, karuna, when encountering suffering (misery in this translation), dukha. How one applies that, he does not say, but the reality of this loss to suicide, shared and discussed openly, may have the beneficial effect of making all of your students feel more connected, less lonely, and perhaps could conceivably prevent another such loss. All the best to you, your students and all of our readers this holiday season!

—Baxter

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Keeping Your Sacrum and SI Joints Happy and Healthy

by Shari

Keeping His Sacrum Happy and Healthy

Now that I’ve described how the sacrum moves (see Yoga and the Sacrum), let’s look at how the sacrum and sacroiliac joints work in some of the typical yoga poses we encounter in a class, and how to keep your SI joint healthy and happy while you do them. Hopefully this will provide help for people who are already suffering from sacroiliac joint problems as well as for people who would like to avoid developing problems.

Note that if you think you might be having sacroiliac join problems but are not sure, I would recommend that you should not try to diagnose yourself. Instead, please try to consult a health care professional for a diagnosis. And although this injury is more common in women, it definitely occurs in men as well, so you guys should also get yourself checked out. Finally, for any of you pregnant yoga practitioners or teachers who teach pregnant women, all of these suggestions that follow are beneficial for pregnant women.

Now let’s get started at the beginning of a typical class. Warm ups are often asymmetrical because we work first with one leg and then the other. A typical warm-up series might include hip openers, reclined leg stretches (Supta Padangusthasana), Figure Four pose, and so on. Any type of hip opener that is asymmetrical will put different stresses on your SI joints. So for our Figure Four pose, when we stretch the piriformis on the right, the sacrum will be turned to the side that is being stretched, the right side. And conversely the sacrum will be turned to the left when we stretch the left piriformis. That’s all well and good, except if you have a piriformis that is already in spasm. Stretching it more only inflames that poor little muscle, so avoid this asymmetrical position if it hurts (or if starts to hurt while you’re in the pose, come out).

Leg stretches are also poses you may need to approach with care. If you are really tight, when you stretch your hamstrings, the hamstrings pull on your ischial tuberosities ( the sitting bones of the ilia), which flattens your lumbar spine and pulls your sacrum into a flexed position. This may cause you pain because as your sacrum is pulled down into the ilia, the two sides may not be moving equally (one side will be moving more than the other side).

When you take your leg out to the side and are stretching your adductors, try not to roll onto the SI joint of the raised leg and have the opposite side of the pelvis roll forward. Learn to move from your hip joint and limit the stress through your sacrum. If one side is tighter than the other, this may also create an asymmetry in the sacrum that will cause pain. In this case, less stretch is better (use a wall to stop the stretch on the raised leg, or use a block, chair, or bolster to limit the stretch).

For standing poses, if you are having SI problems, focus on symmetrical poses and using props. Also, be kind to yourself—think I am going to do 50% not 125%. Standing poses which are done with wide legs and an asymmetrical pelvis position may strain the ligaments holding the sacrum in place, which can then cause subsequent pain. Try firmly contracting the back leg to give some stability to the sides of the sacrum. Although Wide Legged Standing Forward Bend (Prasarita Padottanasana) is a symmetrical pose, how deep you go into the pose and what position your spine is in will all contribute different problems to the sacrum. So, when in doubt, try to keep your spinal curves in neutral and use a chair to take the torso’s weight and do less stretch than more.

In seated poses, spinal position is paramount. You want to keep your spinal curves in neutral and have enough height under your ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) to encourage your ilium to rotate over the femoral heads (hip joints). And never use your arms to pull yourself into pose, but instead rely on your abdominal muscles and spinal stabilizers. This applies to all practitioners, as both a preventative approach for those of you with no current problems as well as a therapeutic approach for those of your with SI problems. As Baxter mentioned, you want your sacrum to move with the ilia, not to be “held back.” If you are currently having symptoms, I would avoid revolved seated poses for quite a while until the symptoms are gone and you understand your vulnerabilities.

Backbends will either feel great or terrible, depending on your issues. Backbends and forward bends position the sacrum into very different positions. In forward bends the sacrum is less stable. In backbends the sacrum is more stable. But stability doesn’t mean it is going to feel good if the inherent alignment of the bones is not congruent.

If backbends feel good, pay attention to symmetry in how you go into and out of a pose. And be careful not to tuck the bottom of your spine—you lumbar spine needs to be in lordosis (curved) when you do backbends, which then puts the sacrum into a more optimum position. And less is better than more as you are healing.

However, if backbends feel terrible, don’t do them. Rather than putting a block under your sacrum in an easy Bridge pose, try an active Bridge pose and slowly evaluate how you feel afterwards. Less lifting is also crucial.

I hope this advice is helps you keep your sacrum happy and healthy!

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Yoga and the Sacrum

by Shari

Nina asked me to expand a bit on Baxter’s previous post on sacroiliac challenges with asana practice (see Friday Q&A: Sacroiliac (SI) Joint Injuries). I wanted to start by giving a little more background on sacroilac anatomy. As Baxter previously stated, the sacrum is nestled in between the two ilia bones that comprise the pelvis. The front of the pelvis is the symphysis pubis and the back is where the sacrum is located.

The sacrum is affected by many different forces. Along with the pelvis, it forms the bridge between your head, spine, torso and arms with your legs and feet. All forces from the top of your body pass through your sacrum and out to your lower limbs, and at least sixty muscles directly or indirectly affect the sacrum.

However, the sacrum does not move on its own but moves only because of the connections it has to the two ilia bones as well as the muscles that either directly insert onto it or cross over it. This means that the sacrum can only be passively moved. The sacrum’s passive motions caused by muscle action directly onto the pelvis and coccyx (think pelvic floor muscles also) include pivoting (forward and backwards motion) and rocking (spinning on a certain axis).

When you go into a yoga pose, how you set your legs and pelvis up is going to directly affect forces on your sacrum. So if you are turning your pelvis to the right, unless your legs are in the same direction as your pelvis, your sacrum will get conflicting forces through it. There are too many muscles to go into in here, but it’s important to understand that the leg muscles that cross from your pelvis to your femur and the abdominal muscles that attach to your pelvis will have a profound affect on the position of your sacrum. The spine also has a direct effect of moving the sacrum, especially L5 (the lowest of the five lumbar vertebrae) as well as the two ilia bones.

Why the sacrum is so important for yoga students is that we put undue strain on the ligaments that are firmly holding the sacrum in place with the two ilia and on the ligaments that hold the sacrum to the L5 vertebra, particularly when doing asymmetrical poses. And one of the main muscles that has a direct affect on the sacrum is the pesky piriformis. Now why, of all the 66 muscles, am I singling out the piriformis? Well it is one muscle that many yoga students have heard about, and it is one of the main muscles that we stretch when we do Thread the Needle or Figure Four pose. The following figure shows the muscle in red (and you can see how it connects the sacrum and to the leg):

That's it for now! Tomorrow, we'll look at how the sacrum and sacroiliac joints work in some typical yoga poses (see Keeping Your Sacrum and SI Joints Happy and Healthy). Hopefully this will provide help for people who are already suffering from sacroiliac joint problems as well as for people who would like to avoid developing problems.

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Bringing Yoga to Her Community: An Interview with Muriel Zimmerman

by Nina

Starting this blog with Brad and Baxter was the beginning of an adventure. Naturally we hoped there was an audience for our information on yoga and aging, but we didn’t think too much about who those people would be. Now, just over a year later, we find that we have readers not just all over our country, but also all over the world. And the information we’ve been providing has not only influenced the way people have been practicing and teaching but has inspired a couple of people to start yoga classes in their community. I have to say that hearing about new community classes  touched me more than just any of the other feedback we’ve received about our blog.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet one of those people, Muriel Zimmerman, in person, and when she shared with me some of the details about the yoga class she had started in her community, I just knew I had to interview her.

Nina: Can you tell us something about yourself and your job?

Muriel: I have been the Executive Director of the Children and Family Center of Northwest Missouri for ten years. The Children and Family Center of Northwest Missouri serves victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. We provided 4065 direct services (crisis management, case management, court advocacy, shelter, hot line and support groups) to 636 females, males and children this past year). Prior to that I was the Adult/Community Education Coordinator for the Maryville RII School District for eighteen years. For me, life is a balance between physical, emotional and spiritual. I’ve love all parts of my life—being a caregiver, patient advocate, work, being a parent, and facilitating support groups, teaching a variety of classes—while trying to balance taking care of myself.

I’d always been physically active, but hated to “exercise” and never seemed to find the time to take care of “me.” For eighteen years, work days often went from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. with an hour break early evening to be home for dinner with the children. Being an emotional eater, meds from cancer treatments, hating cold weather and exercise resulted in a forty-pound weight gain. I have a library of self-help books, yoga tapes, etc. And I avidly believe in “lifelong learning.” I don’t even want to think about how many times I’ve journalled a “healthy me” program, involving keeping a daily food record, taking time for my spiritual journey, planning an exercise program, weighing myself. I’ve even taught nutrition classes. And when I haven’t felt successful, I’ve gradually given up.

But approximately seventeen years ago, I found a yoga teacher who taught classes one night a week. And I was “hooked” on yoga and all it had to offer. I was flexible and gradually found I was gaining more upper body strength, flexibility, and reducing stress. I found a good yoga routine and put it to music for a twenty-minute routine that I could do at home. I even have a chair yoga tape that shows movements for slow, medium, and advanced. But it sits on my shelf. Going to the gym and doing yoga in a class works for me. I think it has to do with the fact that I’m “missed” if I am not there, and I need some social interaction as one of the “vital needs” in my life.

Nina: What inspired you to start a yoga class?

Muriel: As an Adult Education Coordinator, I had the option to develop any community education classes for all ages I wanted to. A lot of my friends were complaining that they had no upper body strength, no balance or flexibility, fell often, were stressed, and problems they blamed on aging.  Their vocabulary focused on the words “could”, “should,” “would”, “but” or “if”.  WRONG.  I didn’t think this had to happen. I went to the Community Center and talked to staff about the number of individuals in the community who were “rehabbing,” needed or had knee replacements or hip replacements, or were overweight, had health issues, and other numerous “excuses” or “reasons” why they could not exercise. I knew from my previous health issues that those issues would only get worse. We had a choice: to have a quality life or not. We needed a safe, nurturing place to explore yoga with well-qualified instructors who would teach, monitor, explain and encourage us

Nina: What is the yoga class like?

Muriel: I think individuals are more apt to try something new if they know it will meet some basic need in their lives. Our chair yoga class is informal. It is currently taught on Wednesday and Fridays at 10:00-10:45 a.m., which is the same time and location that Senior Circuit Training is taught. That, itself, reduces stress for adults. There are lots of windows on the south side of the classroom. We sit with our backs to the window and the lights off, soft music, fans turned down and folding chairs with plenty of space between us. We are mostly older adults. We feel safe and nurtured in a small class (twelve maximum).

The instructor always tells us to do things at our own pace. At the beginning of each class she suggests that we might set our intention for the class: to breathe easily, to reduce stress, to strength, to become more flexible, to balance. This will be different on different days. What does our body tell us today? We are learning to be aware of our bodies.  She encourages us to put aside all the multitasking thoughts we have and focus on the moment, to be mindful and come back to our breath when our minds start to wander.

She always has a quote posted on a small white board at the front of the room stating the benefits of yoga or thought for the day.  She talks a lot about working with adults in nursing homes; as we do different stretches she tells us how that movement will benefit us (such as, the benefits of lying down flat on a bed to nap rather than sitting on our spine in a recliner chair with our feet propped up and our backs curved). She keeps reminding us to breathe easily. She always shows alternate movements and reminds us of small movements we can do at home.

We always start with a sitting routine. About half way through she will give us the option of doing the Warrior and other positions either sitting or standing behind the chair (using the chair for balance).  She tries to challenge us within our abilities. We always work on balance and strengthening and upper body and lower body movements. We find that some of these same movements are in the senior circuit classes, especially the relaxation movements at the end of class. It all works together. At the end of each class has enough time for relaxation that we all seem calm, relaxed, and peaceful. She always stays around for a few minutes after class so we can ask individual questions or comment on the class.

Nina: Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers?

Muriel: We all have choices to a healthy lifestyle—how we spend our time, our talents and our money. We have our addictions (like chocolate, playing free cell on my laptop propped up in a recliner chair, etc.), our excuses, our priorities, our habits and routines. I just need to keep saying to myself, “don’t be judgmental or critical of myself and definitely not of others,” take it a step and a day at a time, determine what my vital needs are for a healthy life, and give myself a pat on the back when I take advantage of opportunities to improve my health.

The benefits of yoga for me? I’ve strengthened the muscles around the torn ligaments and my core. I no longer wear leg braces. My balance has improved. I’ve lost 25 pounds. I can “transfer” more easily (get out of bed and stand up straight without pain), go on walks without first thinking how far I might be able to walk and will I have the energy or strength to get back home. I’m finally starting to focus on “me” and feel I’m as important as anyone I care for.  I’m learning to understand my body, accept my strengths and weaknesses, keep a positive attitude and not feel guilty when I take time for yoga and myself. I feel more confident, have more energy, and definitely feel better about myself. I look forward to checking out this blog and learning how to age gracefully and enjoy each moment of my life. I just hope my story helps someone make the decision to explore the options of yoga and what life has to offer.

Muriel Zimmerman has always lived in the Midwest, and has worked as a teacher, Adult Education Coordinator, and is Executive Director of a domestic violence center, and active community volunteer. Her favorite pastimes are her perennial flower beds, spending time with family and friends, traveling, and being “Granma.” She is transitioning into retirement.

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Friday Q&A: To Roar or Not To Roar (Lion Pose)

Q: I am a devoted Swedish yogini and also a physiotherapist, and I am following your posts with great interest. I was searching for the "roaring lion pose" but did not find any on your site. I understand that there are a lot of benefits to this yoga exercise and I am interested to know how you think about it. I am really into yoga "as medicine" and I am very devoted learning about yoga so I can inspire and help people. So what do you think about the pose? When would you apply it in a sequence? What are the contraindications?

A: Thanks for such a great question! We have not yet talked about Lion pose (Simhasana) on our blog, but your inquiry gives us the perfect opportunity to tackle this interesting and somewhat whimsical pose. I personally like this pose, but I keep in mind that it is the modern version, with its roar, that I particularly like. In its earliest form, in the first books on hatha yoga (the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita), the roar is not mentioned. And, unlike the two versions of the pose found in B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga (version 1 has the ankles and shins crossed underneath the thighs and version 2 has the legs in Lotus pose, then rolling onto the tops of the knees into a backbend), the original texts are not so clear on the leg position.

To give you a bit more historical context, the author of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika considers Simhasana to be in his top four of the fifteen poses he mentions in this text. According to Richard Rosen’s Original Yoga: Rediscovering Traditional Practices of Hatha Yoga (my top pick for Christmas yoga books this year!), the Hatha Yoga Pradipika author “praises the pose by saying its honored, even worshiped by the “best yogis.”” In addition to the lack of the roar being mentioned in our two old texts, neither one mentions sticking the tongue out either. The mouth is to be open wide, and one of the books mentions tipping chin to chest in the Jalandhara Banda chin lock or Net-Bearing Bond.

Richard cites another text that may explain the absence of the tongue and roar of modern times.This text suggests:

 “the traditional pose represents a condition of alert readiness often seen in cats, in which the “lion is sitting quietly, waiting for something to happen. This is the mental attitude the mind has to adopt in order to enter deep meditative states.””

In Light on Yoga, Iyengar shares a colorful myth regarding Vishnu helping out a devotee being tortured by a demon by appearing as a creature half lion on the upper half and man on the lower half. This modern teacher claims the benefits of the pose to include curing foul breath and cleaning the tongue. With regular continued practice, speech becomes clearer, so he recommends it for stammerers. It is also supposed to help master the three bandhas, even though they are not described as being activated in his instructions. However, he is pictured with his head tipped in Jalandhara Bandha in the book.

I tend to include the pose in a sequence if I am using a theme that it would work nicely with, such as finding one’s voice or working with power or anger or some such focus. I also include it in practices where sound is being utilized. I usually sequence the pose in the middle of a practice.  Or, I will put it at the start of group of sitting poses that could be placed near the end of a full practice.

As far as contraindications, they would be mostly regarding keeping the knees, ankles and feet safe as you try the first and second variations from Light on Yoga, especially the second, which utilizes Lotus (Padmasana—quite a challenge for most adult’s knees. As an alternative to both legs options, you can do the pose in Vajrasana legs, with the shins under the thighs without crossing the ankles. A blanket is always a welcome addition for comfort under the shins. 

Be sure to read more in both Original Yoga and Light on Yoga. And have fun cattin’ around!

—Baxter

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Yoga, Stress, and Weight Management

by Nina

Chocolate-Almond Candy Heart by Brad Gibson

Are you planning to relax over the holidays? Because if you’re not and you are worried about gaining weight, perhaps you should set aside some time for yoga.

You see, I’m helping Baxter with research for his upcoming workshop on Yoga for Healthy Eating at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference in January and I’ve learned exactly how stress can induce weight gain. Of course, we all know about so-called “stress eating,” but I wanted to know why that happens (I’m like that, you know, always wanting to the whys and hows as well as the whats). And I found that it’s due to the combination of hormones that are released in our bodies when we’re under stress.

These hormones include  adrenalin, which gives us instant energy, along with corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol. While high levels of adrenalin and CRH decrease your appetite at first—we usually don’t have much of an appetite during a crisis—the effects usually don’t last very long. That’s when the cortisol—whose job is to help you to replenish your body after the stress has passed—kicks in, increasing your appetite and driving you to eat more. And because most of us no longer expend extra calories while in the acute phase of stress (we’re no longer actually fighting or running when our “fight or flight” responses are triggered), we don’t really need to replenish our food stores. So the increased appetite results in, you guessed it, unwanted weight gain.

In addition, while we’re under stress, we typically have an impulse to do something, to move. So unless you respond to your impulse to move with actual physical activity—yoga asana, anyone?—eating often becomes the activity that relieves the stress.

This is why both relaxation and exercise are recommended for reducing your appetite. When you use yoga or meditation to trigger the relaxation response (see Stress, Your Health, and Yoga), your parasympathetic nervous system reduces the levels stress hormones in your body. Exercise is also excellent for stress reduction as it, too, triggers the release of biochemicals that counter the negative effects of stress hormones. In addition, exercising will satisfy your impulse to move and hopefully prevent you from turning to food as a way to relieve your stress.

My prescription for preventing weight gain during the holidays? An active yoga practice followed by conscious relaxation (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga). And if you’re short on time, try even 10 or 15 minutes of conscious relaxation.

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Yoga is a great thing but...

by Nina 

Stop Sign by Brad Gibson

“Yoga is a great thing but it is not everything or the only thing.”

That’s the sentence that popped into my mind while I was practicing yoga yesterday afternoon (a very enjoyable backbend practice, by the way). In the back of my mind, I was obviously mulling over a post I read on the It’s All Yoga Baby blog (see when the yoga doesn’t work: depression, failure & the purpose of practice), in which Roseanne talked about her depression and her feeling that she is “failing” at her yoga practice.

“Underneath it all, however, is a vague sense that I’m failing at my practice, that I’m as broken and fucked up as I was before I committed to yoga (chronic and clinical depression was what drove me to practice in the first place), that the practice isn’t working. There’s also the vague sense that I’m not allowed to be feeling this way – there are many stories of miraculous healing from depression (and everything else) through yoga, but nobody talks about the relapses. I feel like I’m doing something wrong.”

I’ve already mentioned in a couple of previous posts (see Practice As Many As You Can and Authentic Yoga) how reading Yoga Body by Mark Singleton brought home to me once again that most of what we consider to be “yoga” these days was developed in the 20th century. This means that, contrary to what some teachers claim, the yoga we know and practice these days is not some thousands-of-years-old practice that is the answer to everything, including depression and anxiety, as well as physical injuries and illnesses (though it can definitely help with those things for certain people). And I think those in the yoga community who promote it as such, do us all a disservice. Because the result for people like Roseanne is that when yoga doesn’t provide the answer for them, they feel as if they are at fault, that they are doing something wrong, or that they have “failed” in some way. And the truth is, yoga was probably only used to treat depression and anxiety starting in the 20th century.

When I teach yoga for emotional well-being (including depression, anxiety, stress, etc.), I always add that I while I consider yoga to be a powerful tool for improving mental health, it may not be the only answer for you. In fact, you may need to use it as a supplement to western medicine, including drugs and/or therapy. And I recommend that if you are in a crisis, you should consult with your family doctor or a mental health professional. You need to do whatever it takes to help you get better. And, please, no guilt or shame about this!

The truth is, many years ago, before I became serious about yoga but while I was taking regular classes, I had two nervous breakdowns (the diagnosis was agitated depression), within a five-year period. And I’m convinced that, especially during the second breakdown, that my family doctor and the drugs she prescribed for me prevented me from being hospitalized. Later on, life style changes, including a regular home yoga practice, helped me reduce the stress in my life that seemed to be the main trigger for my illness. And I’ve been well since then. But just as important, I believe that yoga has also helped me come to a state of self acceptance regarding my condition. And this included both overcoming my feeling of shame about taking medication for depression (my therapist encouraged me to stay on a low maintenance dose) and starting to talk—and write—about my experiences as a way of possibly helping others.

I want to be very clear that I’m not here giving any medical advice here. This post is not intended to tell anyone what the best way is to heal from depression. I just felt that it was very important to state that as wonderful as I feel yoga is, I believe it has its limits. And there's no shame in that. Really, all I’m trying to say here is summed up by the sentence that I opened this post with:

“Yoga is a great thing but it is not everything or the only thing.”

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