Lois Steinberg
Q&A May 1, 2020 - Rough Transcription

[00:00:00] If you have problems doing Malasana because your Achilleas are tight. You can use any support like a rolled blanket just to put your heels -  if you don't need support. 

[00:00:18] Don't use anything. I still have to admit people. 

[00:00:25] OK. So. First. 

[00:00:32] Just come to what's called Sankatasana and keep your knees joined at first because when the knees are joined, you can start to focus on releasing the inner thighs, the inner groins down. Release the inner thighs and inner groins down and lift the outer thigh and outer shin up and roll the knees in, and you can even hold the knees. 

[00:01:03] And lift the outer shin and thigh up and let the groins release. 

[00:01:09] Now, when you press on the inner edges of your feet because they tend to come up, you have to keep releasing the groins because the inner foot is connected to the groin. And when you press the inner foot, it will tend to become hard. This will become more noticeable when the legs are apart. Now, let the knees go apart. Let them go wide. Don't be fastidious about maintaining anything. Just let the groins be soft. Let the knees go wide. Let the groins be soft. And then you have to start to learn in a sense, to bury the size of your torso. 

[00:01:50] So you take your right arm, your right elbow to the left and get the right side of the torso down. 

[00:01:59] And then bring you can bring that arm back. And then do the same with the left elbow going to the left. The knees can be wide and then bring the arm around with the sides of the torso going down. Now, the sides of the torso have to connect to the leg. So keep the brain soft. As you press the inner edges of the feet, the groins should be soft. Lift the outer leg up, roll the knee in and the groin should be soft. 

[00:02:30] And you can just do Malasana two, holding the ankles. 

[00:02:35] And take the head down. 

[00:02:37] So you have to learn to do that pose with the groins soft, with the groins soft. So this is like a base pose for the deeper forward bends. Even Akarna Dhanurasana is another good pose. Release the legs straight. So, Akarna Dhanurasana. 

[00:03:03] You can. 

[00:03:06] You can have a blanket folded behind you to support the sacrum. You need to. So for Akarna Dhanurasana, you can just simply put a blanket so that it will support your back. 

[00:03:26] OK. And you can, you know, move the leg back. You can just hold both hands to the feet, the shins parallel. And there's a connection again to the foot. When you move the outer side of your foot to the knee, that helps to open the outer side of the thigh or the outer femur head. When you move the outer foot away from you, that's moving the inner foot towards you. And that works on your inner groin. So you can feel this with the outer foot towards the outer knee. You feel it more on the outer hip and then move the outer foot away from you and feel it more on the inner groin. Then you can deepen that. 

[00:04:12] Sometimes I use a doorway to put my foot on and then I can catch something. But you can also have the chair to support your foot and go deeper, reaching the side of the torso forward. OK. And this will hopefully open your groins for the deeper forward bends of Eka Pada Sirsansana and Koormasana. I do teach these poses in my advanced class and I recently taught all these. And when I teach these, I emphasize the softness of the groins. So that you get that in your practice because if the groin is hard, you're going to cause problems in these other areas. So that was the first question. And next week is my forward bend week. We can go over these deeper forward bends, as I'd like to do. 

[00:05:18] So. Yes. So you asked that question was at any amount helpful? You can answer me back by. 

[00:05:29] Yes. Thank you. OK, good. Then we can go on. I, I'm going to start looking at your questions and just answer them as they come. 

[00:05:39] Somebody was asking about what is a good practice if you get the virus. 

[00:05:48] I remember my teacher telling me that sometimes you don't want to have a practice at times when it could spread disease further in the body. And then at those times, you should really just do Savasana if I correctly member that could be coming from the time of cancer. 

[00:06:05] But see, that was that's misinformation, first of all. OK. And there is research that shows that exercise can be good when you have cancer. The problem is cancer is a heating disease and the treatment of chemotherapy, radiation is also heating. By contrast, arthritis is a cold disease. So you have to give heat, you have to do the opposite to bring balance. And another example is there's wet conditions, which are respiratory conditions are wet conditions of the lungs. So you don't necessarily want to do deep breathing when your lungs have to clear out. So in terms of the virus, don't just do Savasana actually on your back. That would actually be not a good practice at all to do. What you have to do is the sequence I put out, which is on LoisSteinberg.com. If you haven't gotten it already, it's free, you know, download it or use your computer to look at it. I explain clearly what has to be done to maintain a healthy respiratory system. That's one thing. So all those poses you can practice if you're capable to maintain a healthy respiratory system. It's also it's translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Russian. So it's available free. And if you have the virus, though, you should only practice the first - I think it's the first seven poses. I do indicate it. You know, if you're really ill, stop here and then proceed to prone Savasana. Don't just think lying on your back on a bolster is going to help you infect the lungs collapse if you don't support them properly. So when I do show supine poses it, it's also shown so that you move the back to the front body even when you're lying on the back. And you get more access to the respiratory system when you do prone. So it's clearly written in that and I don't think I should have to spend much more time. The interesting thing is, while I was preparing that article or that, document, it was the fastest thing I ever threw together, it was really weird. And while I was preparing it, there was this anecdotal research that just got published that validated everything we already knew in Iyengar yoga, you should do prone poses to get access - what they're calling lung recruit ability. It's got a name lung recruit ability. And so it validated what we already know. We've known this for a long time. OK. Somebody is also asking. Yeah. Well, you've got it, if you can see that. Yes. We tell you if you're not going to. I'm going to spotlight this fact. It should be a student of mine. Yeah. And she's asking what sort of break that was. Was a brick, shaped like this? Yes, that would work fine. That's the size of a square foam. Yeah. Yeah. OK, then I have a different one. These are actually made in Poland. Let me unspotlight you. So these are made in Poland and these are, you know, also good. So anything like that. Because this squareness also gives a spreading and more access to the lungs. But we have to do that anyway when we're doing supine poses. You shouldn't just collapse on that bolster, as good as it feels in the beginning when you're doing it lying down. But then after some time, tension builds up because of this collapse of the organs inside, you should really have a lift from back to front. And if you're a seasoned practitioner, you can work at the level of the skin so that the cells of the skin will be lifting back to front. Can I go on to the next question, Patsy? Is that OK? OK. Let me mute because people are coming in and I have to mute people. OK. So somebody asks: Salamba Sirsasana with two chairs at the wall. I was wondering which parts of the body should touch the wall. Should the back of the head touch or not? 

[00:11:15] You know everybody's going to be different. People are different body sizes, sometimes there is large bodies. 

[00:11:22]  the most important thing is that the heels are on the wall because you shouldn't be leaning back on that wall. 

[00:11:29] You should actually be lifting up and even having the buttocks come forward. The biggest problem with the two chair thing is that it can give a pain in the tops of the shoulders and you have to work with the arms in different positions using the hands on the chair. I'm not going to take time to set it up. Im surprised that was the question. I'm going to go to Parivrtta Trikonasana. I have a hard time spacing the legs enough, the length of one leg, and keeping the back heel on the floor. I lose balance and my back leg muscles seem too short. Is it better to use a wedge, board, or to reduce the space between the legs in order to find balance? Great question. Let's all do Parsvottanasana to start. 

[00:12:25] Let's do Parsvottanasana. 

[00:12:32] I'm going to be a little cut off because I want you to see my leg and you can do this with me. And I'm not mirroring you. I'm just doing the side version. 

[00:12:42] Just right leg forward. Left leg back. OK. See, no problem. Align the right heel to the left arch and the hands down, so you're concave back. Use blocks if you're not able to get the hands down with the concave back. But don't strain. Don't start straining the back of the neck. Let the back of the neck be soft. Your eyes can look down and be soft on the floor. 

[00:13:07] Now, many people have a short Achilles tendon, so that heel comes up. And when that heel is up, yes, you lose balance because you no longer have the earth element of your bones being able to press down. 

[00:13:22] So this person was correct that, yes, they could put support there. You could support so that you become Earth again because the bones have the earth elements. When it's pressing down on something, it becomes air and unstable when it's lifting up. Let's do an experiment now. 

[00:13:46] Stand up in Tadasana and step your legs apart and your Utthita Hasta Padasana. So you stomp the outer edges of the feet down. Now stomp. Now I'm hearing you stomp the outer edge of your left foot. Do not turn it in as you turn your right leg out, and again stomp the outer edge of the foot and go to Parsvottanasana. 

[00:14:11] Go to Parsvottanasana and stomp the outer edge of the foot. Now, if you have a short Achilles, your heel can stay on the ground. And additionally, I want you to keep, this is a good lesson for the knee joint, keep that left knee joint pointing in the direction of the toe. 

[00:14:32] Maintain that left knee pointing in the direction of the toe and from the back of your thigh, turn that right hip forward. Turn the left hip forward. The left femur bone forward and move the right buttock bone back. And just observe the groins. Observe the abdomen. 

[00:14:52] Now, maintain that hands down. But I want you to turn the foot in. The classic position and stomp the outer foot down, keep the knees still in the direction of the toes. Turn the back of the left thigh out and move the right buttock bone back. 

[00:15:10] Now you're more satisfied because you're all Iyengar yoga fundamentalists and you want those buttock bones and the hips square. 

[00:15:17] Now, turn the foot all the way forward. Turn the foot all the way forward. 

[00:15:25] And observe the knee, the back knee, especially the hips, the abdomen. And then turn out to your classic and then turn it out to the Utthita Hasta Padasana. And what you're going to find is that the knee feels better, the hip feels better. The abdomen makes it even softer. When the foot is in Utthita Hasta Padasana. Versus when you turn it in and turn it in. So for those of you with the short Achilleas, when you're trying to do the classic position, I won't demand out of these students to get that heel down on the floor. What I will tell them is just turn that heel in until your heel comes down on the floor. And keep that knee cap in line to the hip or to the foot and then move the forward buttock bone back. 

[00:16:23] And then also Parivrtta Trikonasana is done in this way. OK, so you can work with that. But that foot can be, or the heel can be, turned in until it comes down on the floor, and problem solved. 

[00:16:41] And actually, this is even more correct to have that foot closer, to Utthita Hasta Padasana than so much turned in. 

[00:16:53] All right. There's still people wanting to get in. OK, so does that answer your question? 

[00:17:03] I hope so. People are still coming in. Jesus. All right now. 

[00:17:16] The next question is, this pertains, I guess, to a class that the student was in with me last night, that long holding in Tadasana can improve one-legged balances. 

[00:17:31] I'm going to work on that. Good. After I fractured my right patella, I got most I got back most range but never got back one leg balance. Of course, I'm also aging. Anything else I can do to improve one leg balances? Well. 

[00:17:52] Yes, that would be the short answer. 

[00:17:59] One thing I find I have noticed over the decades is part of our problem, I'm not digressing, this is related, with our assessment system, is the overemphasis on demonstrations. And then when people take my beginner classes or any of my classes. But you'd be surprised to know I don't demonstrate the beginners especially. I do not demonstrate because they're not able to even watch what you're doing. Just have them do the poses. So what if they don't do them perfectly? They're gonna have more fun. So I just moved them. And as a consequence of that, I was getting 18-year-olds, you know, and then throwing out the older people to the other classes because it's a lot of fun, and, maybe their poses weren't picture perfect, but they loved the yoga. That's the point. And then later down the road, you start correcting them. But what I found is when I would go teach other places to students who weren't my usual students, we'd finish a pose, a standing pose as an example. We jumped back to Tadasana and then people were all of a sudden just releasing out of that Tadasana because they were ready to look at a demo. And I'm like, Where are you going? Stand in Tadasana. And this I would see in so many places, you know, and I would have to retrain everybody, you come back to Tossin, you stand in two us and you don't go anywhere. So last night I when I was teaching, we were standing in Tadasana a long time, not as long as I would have liked because the students' concentration isn't ready yet for long holdings of poses. That's why beginners need to move. Don't hold them long. But the longer you hold Tadasana before you go to Vrksasana or Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. 

[00:19:58] Or Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana, those one like it poses, the more likely you're not going to fall over. 

[00:20:08] So you have to do that Tadasana you have to learn to stand on two legs first and make those bones earth element often when let's just quit stand in Tadasana. 

[00:20:22] I don't want to spend too long on this, but when you stand in Tadasana, I can, you know, give you so many points. But one thing to realize is, OK, let's just quick go to Vrksasana and notice how unstable your foot becomes, how the ankle starts to really bounce around. OK. Now, that's because when we've done come down to Tadasana, when we're in Tadasana, we often just press the heels, tighten the knees and go up. We need to spend a little more time on the foot and the ankle and especially the shinbone. So there's so many things to do in the foot alone to make the angles fit in parallel to the floor. Until then, really lift the entire shinbone up an outer shin in even to move the base of the shin bone back and even maintain that base of the shin bone back as you go to your one-legged standing pose. That base, the shin, has to be back. So pay attention more to standing in Tadasana and doing the standing poses and especially spend more time doing the one-legged standing poses because that will increase your foundation strength. And I know this personally because I have very collapsed arches. I have flat feet. 

[00:21:54] I have terrible Bunyon bones and people see my feet. They're kind of shocked and Guruji knew my feet. One time I remember us practicing Trikonasana. And he was sitting in a pose and talking about me to Dr. Nayak and I could hear they were talking about me because it's obvious they're pointing and saying things in their native tongue. And I knew they were talking about my feet, even though I didn't understand what they were really saying. And I said, oh, Guruji, these are my grandmother's feet. These are my grandmother's Bunyon bones. And he said, no, no, no, no, no. He said they're your great, great, great, great grandmother's feet. 

[00:22:37] Meaning that imprint was so strong from so long ago. And fortunately, I had Guruji as a teacher, and it taught me that when you have flat feet, the base, the fifth metatarsal has to move to the big toe. Fulminant if you have overarched feet, which I do not have, the inner heel has to move back. It's not a problem that the arches high. It's a problem that it's short. And so you have to lengthen that inner heal back. So know your feet. So you can adjust them to provide a good foundation for your ankle bones, your shin bones. And then when you balance on one leg, when you practice like this, even better. And Guruji would also torture me because I bowlegs, you know, and you shouldn't just blame your body all the time, but you have to make your asana, your body to fit the asana and not the other way around. And so this was also. 

[00:23:44] done. 

[00:23:45] So that I can get my legs to unbow and they wouldn't unbow. But you have to put that time in. You have to put that time in. And your bone does regenerate. That the nutrients get deposited on the inside of the bone. The hallow side of the bone. And then the nutrients are, then the bone sloughs off on the outside of the bone. And on average, and it takes about two years, like two years ago. Your bones are not the same bones because the outer is also coming, always coming off the inner is being built up. Of course, that changes with age. So the bone can reform. And my bowlegs did undo. And every now and then I would say feel or see that my bones were bowing again and like, oh God, I've got to put that practice back in with the belt. You can't let that go because it was my great, great, great, great grandmother's genes. Genes are powerful. But you can overcome them, you know, trying to turn the current around. So I think that answer gives a lot for that person. 

[00:25:15] I don't understand that question, I'm going to skip it. Chatush Padasana with the block is actually Setu Bandha Sarvangasana. 

[00:25:26] It's not Chatush Padasana. 

[00:25:29] How do you get into the pose without getting that painful compression in the lower back? You could put your feet up on a height. But it's also important that you roll using your arms out, her arms down to lift the back chest, and move the top of the shinbone towards the head. And the more you release the chin down, the more the back chest will lift. Because often in Chatush Padasana all these Jalandhara Bandha poses, we tend to press the back of the head unknowingly on the floor and the chin comes up. And then the spinal column starts going the wrong direction. So actually to improve these poses you really have to tuck the chin down. In fact, if you can, because I've been teaching this in my classes now because I'm having students that I haven't taught before and I feel like a broken record. So maybe I can catch a lot of people all at once. Still, people are still coming in. So if you can, you can set your shoulder balance. 

[00:26:42] I have it already setup. 

[00:26:49] So you have your shoulder balance setup. 

[00:26:54] You're welcome to do this with me. 

[00:26:59] So. 

[00:27:02] You don't need a belt. If you don't, you know, if you're if your shoulders are open, you shouldn't really need about the purpose of the belt is to lift the back. The purpose of the belt keeps your elbows in so that your back lifts. So if your elbows go out, your back is dropping. 

[00:27:23] Understand the use of the belt. It's not just decoration. And mostly what I see when people are using the belt, they're using the belt so tight. And I often have to have them come down and loosen the belt. 

[00:27:36] Let me back up even more when I see a lot of people or when I teach my new students shoulder balance. 

[00:27:47] You know, a lot of people just do this. 

[00:27:50] Ok. 

[00:27:52] This is not the correct way to determine if this belt is going to work for you or not, because where do you where should the edge come to come to the deltoid? Should it come to the armpit? And what would I teach people first, is first put the belt on the arm above the elbow joint, because they have to see that this is where the belt goes, first of all, comes above the elbow joint on the upper arm and then, OK, you can get shoulder-width wide, but then you should make them all try to put the belt behind. 

[00:28:31] Well, they're standing. 

[00:28:34] And roll the inner upper arms and reach the arms down. So that this will determine if that position that you chose in the front is correct, because often people are really bulky in their upper body, like people who are wrestlers. 

[00:28:54] You know, they could put the belt on in front, but then when they put it on behind, it's suddenly choking them to death or maybe the belts to loose. So you have to teach that. OK, then. You don't really need the belt. If you're a seasoned practitioner. OK. If you are needing the belt, fine. 

[00:29:18] But a lot of times, sometimes especially, I find people with the belt too tight, like let's readjust this. They take it off in. Their elbows are in. Why are you even using the belt? Because if your elbows are in, you're going to be able to use your back. And use your arms to lift your back. If the elbows are out, you can't use your arms to lift your back. You're the Incredible Hulk. So once you get that figured out, then. 

[00:29:48] When you're ready to go into the polls, sorry, there's a couple of things, beginners. The neck should be off the blanket because beginners aren't able to lift their legs enough to lift their spine. And if they're not doing that and their neck is on the blanket, they're going to be rubbing the whole neck as painful instead of just C7. 

[00:30:15] Only C7 will be bothersome instead of C one to seven. Do you understand that? Because you've all probably experienced this where you're rubbing the seventh cervical. It's like you're lifting your legs. To lift the whole spine up, this is different than Sirsasana, Sirsasana spine lifts, the outer body drops, Sarvangasana, the outer body lifts, but the spine drops. 

[00:30:40] So that's one of the differences. 

[00:30:44] So if you're a seasoned practitioner, the neck is on the blanket because you should be using. 

[00:30:51] Your legs. 

[00:30:53] So the cervical vertebrae should be going in, not down. Then when you go to the pose, there's a couple of things. Well, many ways to get into a pose, but most people like to go to Halasana. 

[00:31:07] I'm just getting the hair to unstick and then I hold the mat behind. You could put the belt down if you're using and I hold the mat behind, and here- 

[00:31:16] My neck came off the blanket now because I rolled to Halasana. I get it back up. And then I push the arms back and I go far with the feet. People have this wrong practice of trying to make the back straight. And that's going to fail, you look at Light On Yoga. His buttocks are over his head. His buttocks are over his head. So to attempt to further lift the spine, you can take your hands on the blanket to Urdhva Dhanurasana like you're going to Chakrasana and you can lift the back up more so you can feel the shoulder blades lifting. Like, I'm going to push up. I feel the shoulder blades really lifting. And then I keep that. Now I also use my fingertips to lift my wrists and let the chin come down into the notch of the neck. Now, when you come up, it's all going to be undone if you come up two legs at a time. You've just dropped the spine in the buttocks back. 

[00:32:22] So it's hard to get that spine forward and up. So. 

[00:32:30] When you come up. One foot. 

[00:32:33] I keep the knee straight, but one foot I just bring forward and press it to launch the other leg, and that leg goes up so much that the opposite leg should follow. 

[00:32:45] You shouldn't really throw the legs up, then your spine will be really up and forward. 

[00:32:53] Now, there's other ways to get in. In fact, in Light On Yoga, he doesn't get in via full Halasana at all, and sometimes I do this. 

[00:33:04] I'm down here. I have my shirt untucked. 

[00:33:08] So it's ready. And then I go, please mute. And then I go right to Ardha Halasana. 

[00:33:25] But you should be practiced enough. 

[00:33:30] Sorry, I have to mute. 

[00:33:33] You should be able to lift your spine. OK. I hope that's clear for people. 

[00:33:44] I could go on and on about Sarvangasana, especially how I teach beginners, but never mind. Maybe another time. Now, another question. 

[00:34:01] Gomukhasana, if our feet are unable to join together, what can we do? And what is this stiffness of this to make this happen? And what should we practice more to improve the mobility? You know, everybody tends to ask a question like what should we practice more of? Forget the specific pose Gomukhasana. What could I do more of? Do more of everything. Just practice. OK. So, for example, if I want to get better at backbends. One time I, in a phase in my practice life, I decided that I was going to do three Urdhva Dhanurasanas every day, no matter what. Even if it was a forward bend practice, I was still going to do three Urdhva Dhanurasanas because I wanted to improve my backbends. And guess what? They improved. You just have to work on it. OK. And in Light On Yoga, there's a point where in that forward bends section where he does Janu Sirsasana,  Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana, Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana, Marichyasana one, which I call the four forward bends. The four forward bends. So somewhere in that section, or maybe it's some Paschimottanasana, he says that these four forward bends will improve your Paschimottanasana so that you don't have to practice them every day anymore. 

[00:35:32] And then that a light bulb went off like, oh, my God, I should be practicing these four forward thems every day. 

[00:35:39] And then it improves not just Paschimottanasana, but the freedom and my hips, my hamstrings, you know, came. So you have to figure that one out on your own. Whatever you want to get better at. But in Gomukhasana, you can always use a height, you know, if you're really bad in your knees and you're unable to do classic, you can always, sorry, you can always have the bolster, your friend, the bolster or your stack of blankets and sit with the feet going to the side. And trying to get one knee stacked over the other in this variation, the knee is directly on top of the other knee. Ultimately, and that's going to get into your hips more so it doesn't bother your knee. So the hips get open. But for those of you who can practice Gomukhasana more classically. And I have a difficult time with this. So what I do is starting from Dandasana. And you can have a small folded blanket to put above your heels. 

[00:37:03] But when I fold one leg under, I make sure I get the back of the thigh in, and this is true for Virasana, and the calf out, so that the folding, I hold on to this, so that folding will be flatter, will be crisper before I sit on that leg because I struggle with this pose, I can say, oh my body, you know, it's so thick, it's so fat, whatever. 

[00:37:32] I have a lot of viscera fat, but there's no excuses. You just have to do it. 

[00:37:39] Then when I cross the other leg over, now here, one knee, don't worry about one knee being on top. It's not. And I go forward. But the trick is, don't let that top knee come to the floor. This is where you go wrong. When I ask people to do this. Don't let, first of all, you lose the nice holding there, but you do have to lift the buttock up so that. 

[00:38:03] In this position, I move my left foot to the right so that my right foot can come in. 

[00:38:12] And then I use force. No, not I don't say force, but the swishing to get the feet to join. I can't do that just by itself because it starts to grip in other places that shouldn't grip. So I get this out of the way. I bring this one in and then I bring it together. And then I attempt to sit. And then even this one, the groins have to release for the buttock to come down, the groins have to release. The groins have to descend. 

[00:38:45] So I don't know. 

[00:38:47] If that helped. In Padmasana, in Padmasana, I have to do a class just on Padmasana. 

[00:38:53] I have a knee pain after I release the pose and even enter the poses, I feel my ankle pain. What should I do to improve this? And release the pain. 

[00:39:04] Groins and hips the groins and hips have to have a freedom to have Padmasana. 

[00:39:13] So there's poses that you should be working on every day. Supta Padangusthasana, Parsva, especially Supta Parsva Padangusthasana, Utthita Parsva Padangusthasana, and especially when - here is a pet peeve of mine. People misunderstand Utthita Parsva Padangusthasana, especially if you have the rope its nice. 

[00:39:42] Because when the heel goes up, a lot of people and you probably can't see this so well, but the standing leg is behind the bracelet. That's like doing an angular Trikonasana. That's not what you want. 

[00:39:56] At best, you want the right heel in line to the left arch. 

[00:40:02] Even better superior is the left leg very much in front of the right leg. And this is very good for the ovaries, the uterus problems here, OK. And then I teach a million billion points to help you get the hips to open more so that the buttock doesn't stick back. I'm not going to go into that now. But those poses you have to practice and Upavistha Konasana Baddha Konasana. 

[00:40:36] And you'll be surprised to know that even Bhekasana helps Padmasana because the front of the hip flexor also has to be involved. 

[00:40:50] So the front hip flexor, the back hip flexor, so to speak. That all has to get open. Now, it would take me a couple of hours to really teach Padmasana class just to focus on how to get Padmasana. And it's in my knee book. Actually, I have the whole thing in my knee book, but it's really important to sit high so that the groins are moving to the knees. A lot of people just refuse to sit high, even in Swastikasana. You know, if your knee bothers you, it's not correct. 

[00:41:29] Say, even Janusirsasana, then which is another hip opener. Those four forward bands, they get all different sides of your hip to open, but just to put the knee up. Yes, it relieves the pain, but you're moving the groin into the hip, letting the femur head hang out incorrectly and you're going the wrong direction. It's relieving the pain, but you're going the wrong direction, so you're never going to improve. So you need to sit up. Even on a bolster would be better so that the groin comes down, actually. Everybody sit with the left buttock on your blanket and the right knee to the side down and the buttock is off. And you'll find this is more free. You can compare. Both buttocks up. Right knee to the side. Observe the hip region and then the left buttock up and the right knee bent to the side. And the freedom you get. 

[00:42:38] If you can't feel that, I'm sorry. 

[00:42:43] But not only do you get freedom, but you should also work the outer femur head in towards the hip socket. It should go in. Because if the femur head is just loose, then you're inviting problems because the groin will have to become hard. Something has to be firm there. You shouldn't. The whole hip can't be loose. So when the femur head is hanging out, the groin is going to say, oh, God, she's putting me into service again, now I gotta get hard. So you've got to get the femur head in, take its place and let the groin move to the knee, let it get long. So this hip is opening. And then there is no tension on the knee. 

[00:43:31] And then those who have knee problems and I've gone through this, I'll get one more thing before moving on. You know, one time before I even knew something was really wrong with my knee, I'd have both knees have had problems. Now my knees are great because I do the needful. 

[00:43:52] I do the needful. I have this rope. Rope is better than a belt. I double. And I usually put one on each leg. But I'm just having this one right now. My back would normally be to a wall to make sure the sacrum is even the back to a wall is better to make sure the sacrum is even. 

[00:44:12] And I would do this for 40 minutes. Every morning, the practice before the practice to help my knee. 

[00:44:20] It turned out the knee was getting only a little better. And then when I had an MRI, there was a rare tumor that was discovered in the top of my shin bone. So a lot of times when things aren't getting better, you should really check it out because there could be a surprise that something is really wrong. More than just a torn ligament or a torn meniscus. And they can get better. These tears, if you stabilize the knee with rods, which is shown in my knee book because scar tissue can form over these tears if you stop pulling it and tearing it more. Same thing for shoulder Savasana with the weights. Even I had a supraspinatus torn ninety-nine percent down the middle. I went to see a surgeon twice. I was going to surgery. I got talked out of it by my good friend who then put weights on me every day and I don't have the problem anymore. I was dead. My arm was hanging. I couldn't do anything. So you have to give yoga rest. Doing nothing is not good. 

[00:45:22] There's yoga rest and those knee rods the Savasana of the knees, the Savasana up the back, Savasana of the shoulders, elbows, hands, whatever, it's there. And then this going with the rope, pulling it with the hand close towards the thigh, towards the knee, towards the shin. And then one by one and stretch that leg straight. In fact, you would move the buttock bone back, not the buttock flesh out, but the buttock bone back, because that opens a space in the knee joint more. And so I would literally do this for 40 minutes. But not just this. I would then do both and then I would start taking one like Padmasana, then the other until you're in full Padmasana. And I'd have a blanket here. You don't really want to do it like this. I fill the gap. So there's more to this. There's more. That was just a quickie. 

[00:46:23] I have taught classes in the past where it's just a Padmasana class and by the end I've got first-timers in the room in Padmasana. So it's not impossible. In Ardha Matsyendrasana Marichyasana, I know the bending foot. 

[00:46:44] Suppose the toes should point to the inner thigh or point straight forward. OK, maybe I made this person confused. But it's interesting because this last time in Pune last January, even Sunita taught this because people don't believe me. 

[00:47:00] But Guruji taught me and it's in Light On Yoga. I don't think its said. But in the picture in Marichyasana, his toes are in. And that straight leg is on those toes. In Marichyasana three, now Marichyasana one is different. 

[00:47:18] If you're menstruating, that foot should be more in line to the hip or if you have any issues. Otherwise, it's in line to the buttocks. But in Marichyasana three it's turned in because you have to have this closeness to wrap your arm around. 

[00:47:36] I'm not sure Ardha Matsyendrasana. Maybe what they were asking. I teach this little thing. I don't make these up. This was all taught to me by Guruji, but because I have very thick legs. It's kind of like Gomukhasana little tricks when you have that thickness and you can't just say my legs are too fat. I can't do this. This leg, first of all, if you're menstruating, you can do this pose. You can do an open twist if you want to include students in your class. Now, this folded knee under me moves. 

[00:48:11] Opposite to what you think. I'm moving, this is my left leg, I'm not mirroring. This is my left leg going to my right. I even make room. I can step this leg out. I don't turn the hips, so I don't turn the whole body. And then when I cross this leg over, you get more of a Tadasana leg. 

[00:48:28] Otherwise, you're like this. 

[00:48:32] And then also spreads the hips out. You take this the spinal twist out of the spine and you're. You just end up turning your hips. So you've got to get this shinbone up. And then I pull the thigh muscle connected to the shin up. And I jam them together all the while maintaining, I usually use a blanket, the shin and the thigh jamming together. So I think that answered that question. 

[00:49:04] Next question is, I have an issue of PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, sometimes I think. Now they're calling it disease PCOD. Any sequences can build up that I can practice every day to balance the hormones. Please advise. It's in my woman's book. Everything's in my woman's book. But I just taught my woman's class Wednesday mornings at nine-fifteen. We just did a practice last Wednesday that would have been great for your PCOS. You can actually buy it. You can order it. It was just two days back. The 20. What is it? So it was the twenty-ninth of April that the woman's class. But like Supta Padangusthasana with the leg to the side. Parsva where the buttock is raised up on a blanket to lift that ovary. Same thing that I showed with Utthita Parsva Hasta Padangusthasana were that standing leg is in front of the raised leg and then you work that Buttock Forward, so you're opening that pelvic area. I suffered PCOS for decades and I got sensitive enough. Well, talked to me. It wasn't that I was sensitive enough. I think we're all sensitive, though. There is another cyst on my right overy this time. And then I would go back to that practice. I would just start my practice sometimes. I didn't want to just lie on the floor. So I take my leg up and I get that buttock forward and lift that right ovary up to my left shoulder. And that opening and that stretching and pulling and everything. It would be gone until. Oh, there it is. They would keep coming back. But I knew how to deal with it. I could feel it. It's there. I would address it. It also helps if you have Padmasana and you can lie flat in Matsyasana because Padmasana stretches those deep inner groins and also stretches the ovaries. 

[00:51:09] And I also later in my life after menopause, I would get checked every year because I have this doctor who wanted me to do a hysterectomy decades ago, but I never did. I was even headed for a hysterectomy. You know, it had been scheduled because she thought I had a sarcoma in my uterus. My uterine wall. She was convinced about it. And I also had the tumor in my shinbone. So I was going to get the surgery done on my tumor and the shin bone and I was going to have a hysterectomy. And at the time when all this was discovered, it was January. And because I only get health care in India because, you know, the United States is a third world country. And I don't have health care here. So I was like, I am not ready for this. My brain isn't ready for two surgeries at once, you know? So I said, just give me time. So I went back in June. Between January and June, two things happened. When in March. Actually, when I was visiting with a friend and just told them about the tumor on my shin bone. They told me this is not yoga. They told me about taking turkey tail. It's a supplement. You can take in a capsule. It's a mushroom. 

[00:52:34] And if you go to Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Andrew Weil's Web site (drweil.com), he has a study that's funded by the National Institute of Health, a government-funded study showing that turkey tail reduces the tumors of breast cancer. 

[00:52:58] And I was like, why not, it's just a mushroom. So I started taking it and I, I happened to be in Hawaii at the time. 

[00:53:07] I started taking it. And then I went to Australia and I taught in Sydney and then when I was in Melbourne. So this is like two weeks later from just starting the turkey tail. I hiked for five hours. I hadn't been able to walk without pain because of this tumor on my shin bone. I hiked for five hours. It's like, huh? Amazing. 

[00:53:28] And I and I see I could feel this thing. And I stopped feeling it more, so I was like taking that turkey tail. 

[00:53:39] And then I also worked on stretching my uterus, especially doing poses with Padmasana, even lying on a chair and doing Padmasana to really stretch it or on the back bender, not just Matsyasana. But when you do Matsyasana just reaching your arms, you can lengthen. I can feel my uterus. I can stretch my arms in Matsyasana more than any other pose that Supta Baddha Konasana, Supta Virasana. A little more of a stretch. But Matsyasana superior and I had another reason that she wanted to do the hysterectomy was because my uterine lining was going beyond four millimeters. And that is ripe, a ripe environment for cancer. 

[00:54:23] So there I am in Pune and I go get my tests. 

[00:54:28] The tumor in the knee shrunk by half. It went from sixty-seven mm to like 30 mm, the thing in the uterus was the same, it shrunk below half. The uterus went from plus 4 mm to 1 mm. 

[00:54:44] I was so excited when I left this doctor's office that she said I didn't need the hysterectomy and I was with my friend Lynn. You all know Lynn. She just got saved. She's back in Australia now. This particular doctor, she specializes in IVF and the room was full of women trying to get pregnant or were pregnant. OK. And here I am looking like grandma. I go and she sees me. I get this good news. 

[00:55:09] I leave her office and I'm like, I'm so happy. I can't believe I'm so happy. Everybody's looking at this grandma who just maybe got pregnant. Realized, oh, these people are like looking at me like she's so happy. But she's so old. 

[00:55:34] Anyways, I was so happy. Both things I just decided and the need doctor still wanted me to do the surgery because he said the tumor is still there. It's a rare one. 

[00:55:42] It's called PVNS pigmented villonodular synovitis. Anyways, it's rare. 

[00:55:51] It's still there and I can feel it when I stopped taking my turkey tail. If I forget to take my turkey tail, my knee sends me a message like oops. I've got to take that turkey tail. 

[00:56:02] Another friend, too. 

[00:56:05] This is also not yoga who had testicular cancer, a young man, testicular cancer, aggressive. They remove the testicle. But there were lesions in the pelvis and lesions in the lungs. And, you know, that's bad. I sent him my book, the cancer book. I told him about Turkey Tail. He started doing everything. And two months later, you got a C.T. scan all clear. 

[00:56:30] And he's still taking that turkey tail. 

[00:56:33] Another friend. One more story, had a tumor on the outside of her neck. They couldn't remove. And she started taking the turkey tail and even her students were saying that thing on your neck has shrunk. 

[00:56:45] OK. Now back to yoga. 

[00:56:48] Every time I do Salamba Sarvangasana when I stay longer, I am sore on my lower back. 

[00:56:53] What should I be aware of? More in the practice. Thanks. I wouldn't know unless I see you. I would say add more height. Take your legs apart. Do legs wider. Not Upavista. But even a little wider than the hips to spread the back of the thigh and lift the buttocks. So likely it's sinking. I would have to see that. When I do the, this is the same person, when I do intense backbend practices, everything's intense. So I don't know what that is. I have a lower back pain and neck pain when I drop back e.g. Kapotasana drop back action. Is it my leg not active enough. And what should I be aware of? Well, I wouldn't be able to address it unless I see that person. But I just taught Kapotasana a couple of weeks ago in my advanced class. If you notice in Light On Yoga, it's Urdhva Dhanurasana, followed by Kapotasana, followed by Viparita Dandasana. 

[00:57:51] That's the order and light on yoga. So when you work with that, when you do Urdhva Dhanurasana, the straight arms help you to understand the extension of the upper body and the pose. 

[00:58:05] Kapotasana first is approached from Supta Virasana. So then you're straightening the arms first, using your arms to lift like in Urdhva Dhanurasana and that's the order in Light On Yoga. So you should check into that. And only after that do you kneel up and drop back. 

[00:58:24] To Kapotasana. So you actually push up from the floor first, like Urdhva Dhanurasana. And I actually just taught all this. Two weeks ago, if you are. No, I taught this. If you're a certified Iyengar yoga teacher, you can get this. It was the third the last of three teacher gathers. I did. We covered Kapotasana. 

[00:58:48] And sometimes I teach Kapotasana for the dropping back to actually, you know, to. And you've all done this to get those legs to work because the legs. Yes, the legs working get the lower spine, the arms working, get the upper spine to lengthen. But often it's nice to go to Ustrasana first and then to go back to Kapotasana with the hands to the wall. But what happens is people raise the arms up and drop back and it goes right into your lumbar unless you're young and flexible. So actually, when you go to Ustrasana, you can get your hips forward again from the legs and then take the hands to Atman Anjali Mudra so that you reach the arms more back to the wall instead of raising them up. So it doesn't just go into your lumbar, just taut all this. 

[00:59:43] So that was teacher gather part three. 

[00:59:48] So somebody is asking about scoliosis. 

[00:59:53] So scoliosis, there's many different curves. The most common curve is when the thoracic spine goes to your right and the lumbar spine goes to your left. That's usually the classic one. So. Taking like Adho Mukha Svanasana with the lower rope will keep your hips even more or less, but you really have to have a teacher to guide. You only use the single rope. If you cross the ropes and put them on each leg, you're actually letting the groin drop forward and pulling the femur heads back. And that's not Adho Mukha Svanasana. I asked once Riya and Pune why? Because he would say, look at these people. What are they doing? I'm like, well why haven't you corrected them on the people who cross the ropes for Adho Mukha Svanasana. He said it's too ubiquitous. I can't. Although when I left I heard the next month he did. But you could put ropes one by one on each leg straight back if they're even. Or use the whole rope so that the groins have a chance to move back. Then you have to have somebody look at you. Because even if you have the single rope for your dog pose, that hip could still drop because of the scoliosis. So you might have to fill that rope on one side to get the hips even. Once the hips are even, then let's say you have the right thoracic curve. Your right arm goes at a 45-degree angle to the right. To get the thoracic vertebra to go in and the left arm reaches really straight to get the lumbar to extend, OK. Then you have to apply that to every single standing pose. 

[01:01:37] So if you're in Trikonasana on the right, your arms would be like this on the left, your arms would be like this. 

[01:01:45] So I'm just dropping that clue for you. And if you practice intelligently, you can lengthen the lumbar spine because it's the most flexible, thoracics harder to lengthen, but it can be corrected. And the younger you are, the better. As you age, the scoliotic problem, then it comes into your hips and it's awful. It feels like you need a hip replacement when in fact it's really the scoliosis. So if you keep at your scoliosis, you can lessen the impact on the hips as you age. And that's a whole nother project because there's ways to work on those poor hips. 

[01:02:25] For example, if you have a Tressel and hang Urdhva Dhandasana and the Tressel, if you take the legs Upavistha Konasana and then do your arm thing, that gets the hips and the spine all at once. I'm just describing this. I'm sorry, I can't show it. But another thing is I usually use a platform. But say you're at a doorway. At a doorframe. So this is the open doorway. And I sit in Dhandasana and I go to a stage of Parivrtta Paschimottanasana. You don't worry about this hip coming up, but I reach and try to take my left ear down. My left arm. And then I do the other side, and that helps the problems of the hips. 

[01:03:12] That happened later in age for scoliosis. 

[01:03:22] Yes, I'm recording this session, it will be available. 

[01:03:30] OK, so somebody is asking about a chronic rotator cuff issue. You have to absolutely do the shoulder Savasana and hopefully, you can train somebody to be skillful in putting you in it. In terms of what not to do, I mentioned before my supraspinatus was torn ninety-nine percent. And one of my friends, you know, asked me, do I love Chakra Bandhasana more than my shoulder? 

[01:03:59] I love my shoulder more, so I stopped doing Chakra Bandhasana. I don't have to do that. There's so many millions of other poses that you can practice. 

[01:04:12] That you don't have to pull. Keep injuring yourself, so you have to love your shoulder and not keep injuring it. 

[01:04:22] Adho Mukha Vrksasana. 

[01:04:23] Well, again, the shoulder Savasana will start to heal the shoulder. 

[01:04:30] So don't do your Adho Mukha Vrksasana if you're not able to figure out how to do it without tearing your rotator cuff. There's many ways to do it. You know, the hands out, the heel of the hand up on slanting plank each or the heel of the hand up with the fingers forward. Actually, the two slanting planks joined together. 

[01:04:51] Adho Mukha Vrksasana can help. 

[01:04:53] But you would need help to get you up if you're afraid. Because that strengthens this area here. When you do it with the hands joined. I've also taught this was the last. I think the last Q&A I had about how the belt and the elbow versus the belt and the form where you push the form away and the belt, even up here in your Adho Mukha Vrksasana, just the hands on two blocks can give you the height that you need. 

[01:05:28] There's so many things to do. But the main thing is shoulder Savasana. You've got to have somebody put you in it. You have to have the heavy weight. I would put seventy five pounds (34 kg), on each shoulder. For me, you know, because I needed that weight. I muscular some people just a little weight. And the sand if you're using, sandbags, they have to be square. Those long sandbags are no good. They're no good. Remember Guruji was given one of these long, narrow sandbags and he put it on his tall stool and he laid back on those long sandbags. We're actually originally designed for your Gomukhasana to hang the sandbag, you need, I have square sandbags, so it covers more area. 

[01:06:17] Yeah in Urdhva Dhanurasana. In Urdhva Dhanurasana what can help- I showed this recently, is as you put Adho Mukha Svanasana your index finger and thumb up to the wall. You do the same for Urdhva Dhanurasana when you're index finger and thumb are this way. I just got over De Quervain's tenosynovitis and I couldn't do Urdhva Dhanurasana and discovered I can do it with my hand like this on the wall. 

[01:06:46] And then it was like, oh, nothing bothers, I'm going to go on varicose veins. 

[01:06:55] Well, everybody knows it's Virasana. But not just Virasana, OK? I saw somebody's varicose veins more than once. Different people when I did this. And Guruji showed it on somebody, this man with terrible varicose veins where you put the toe up in Adho Mukha Svanasana and you absolutely then really have to work your legs when you do that. But even better, if you have help for each leg, you put a rope around each top of the shinbone. 

[01:07:40] And somebody is pulling that back. And at the same time, stepping on your heel and you have to lift your toe up. That makes you use your legs so much. 

[01:07:49] It's toning the valves, those valves inside the veins that have gone sloppy. It's toned the valves. And I actually would see these varicose veins disappear. I have a student, I can tell how well he's practicing. By how is varicose veins are engorged or not like, oh, you're practicing, your veins look like they're shrunk, you know, so you just practice because that keeps the venous blood return coming up back up. So the valves don't have to work as hard. So, for example, it's really common in pregnancy because the blood volume increases and the bodyweight increases, especially on that hip area. So it closes off the circulation in a sense, and the valves have to push the blood back up. Right. And if there's so much blood volume and it's like it's closed at the top, the valves get weakened. They can't work anymore and they become sloppy. And so the vein engorges, you get those ropey veins different than the varicose or the spider veins. Those are just broken blood vessels. So. When you do Virasana, that will make those. Well, first of all.  

[01:09:20] Increasing circulation, especially in the hip region like Supta Padangusthasana, Utthita Hastha Padangusthasana, Upavistha Konasana, Baddha Konasana Virasana. These are poses that Guruji did every day at the end of its life for 20 minutes for good reason. 

[01:09:37] You know his legs. They didn't have varicose veins. And I once had a pregnant student who she came. 

[01:09:49] After she had a car accident and that car accident did something to her body where one leg was completely engorged with the blood in the veins. And I put her in Supta Virasana. 

[01:10:07] And you saw it completely disappear. 

[01:10:10] And she did it every day until her delivery. Then she disappeared because this was at a time when I used to have a of class just four pregnant students. I changed it to a just for women because I wanted the pregnant students to come back, which they started to do. One day I was walking down the street and a bus was going by and some woman stuck her head out the bus. It was this pregnant student cause she stopped coming back. But she sees me. She's on the bus, she's riding. 

[01:10:34]  "Lois I still do that pose Supta Virasana every day and my varicose veins have stayed gone, bye!" 

[01:10:45] So, Supta Virasana. 

[01:11:00] Gastric reflux. 

[01:11:03] Yes, there somebody saying, are there poses to help? And I could just say yes. And there. But you probably want more of an answer. The best pose is Uttana Padasana. Who knows Uttana Padasana anybody can quickly do Uttana Padasana do it. Somebody let me see who knows it first. This is a test. Who knows their poses. So not all of you can see you're only seeing me, but Uttana Padasana. Is one of the best poses not done classically for gastric reflux. It's also a great pose for the thyroid gland because when you do it correctly, when your head is close enough to your buttock, the thyroid gland gets suspended. You can even feel it hanging there. And it's getting stretched in a particular way. I do it with a trestle where there's two ways to do it. Where your back is arched over the trestle, you can support the head on a stool and the heels go up on the wall. And if somebody really needs more support, you can put something under the buttock. But that's an extreme position to make the back lift to the front. And it really, really works. There's another way to do it very simply with your back. Or you can use a belt. But your back can be on the couch. You can sit up on a height if need be. And you can use the belt for the "V shape" you need. But then you can also this belt's just a short belt. So you want a little more room, but you can rest back on the couch to get that esophagus. 

[01:12:59]  To lift. OK. 

[01:13:05] And, you know, I have some students, they have gastroenteric reflux disease, and when we're doing some poses that she can't do, she just goes right to the trestle and sets things up and does that and everything should, you know, some people can't even lie down in Supta Padangusthasana. So you can make stepwise blankets, so and put a plank. So you lift and then do Supta Padangusthasana. Each of these questions I could do a whole class on. But I'm just giving you some hints. OK. Jathara Parivartanasana, someone teaches it without moving the pelvis. You taught it by moving it. Are two different ways both valid? Yes, but understand the difference when you keep the spine in the center. So you shift the hips and Jathara Parivartanasana. So the spine is in the center as you're taking the legs. That will give more of an organic effect where the kidneys can revolve the gallbladder because that pose can reach deeper organs. 

[01:14:13] The pancreas is actually attached to your spine. So if it's in the center and you're rotating, it's going to get more of the squeezing and the soaking. So it benefits the organic body more. The other one is just kind of, to me, a little more when like when you like to stretch those back muscles more. 

[01:14:33] So if you want more of a superficial extension. 

[01:14:41] I would like to know why the right side of my body is often colder than the left after relaxation or meditation that I don't know, maybe you have Raynaud's syndrome where you have different blood pressures and different parts of the body and that's often associated with autoimmune conditions. So that's my best guess. 

[01:15:10] When practicing Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana, did you say one time in class that you don't recommend using the wall back to the wall instead put your foot on the wall for support? 

[01:15:23] Well, you can use the back to the wall. I don't know that, you know, that was probably some context of the class. 

[01:15:33] But one thing for sure, if somebody can't get their leg high, there's no reason to do the pose this way. Should actually do it bent knee. If your hips and hamstrings are tight, you have to, especially if it's your student, you know, you have to do it bent knee, which is really more of an Utthita Marichyasana one doing it bent knee to get this hip and hamstring to open without pulling and tearing things. You have to give it time and it can be useful to have your back to the wall for this because then you can make sure that your hips are even and you have something to hold on to. 

[01:16:12] And when you're wanting not to use the wall, you can often be close to the wall, you know. 

[01:16:21] So if you fall over, though, the hand can reach there. So if you're not able to maintain your balance, sometimes it's even better to have the arm up for balance. But if you're going to fall, there is the wall so you can quickly use the wall. So I'm not sure what the context was when I was teaching this before. But everything is possible as long as you have a reason for it. 

[01:16:51] Fibroids in the uterus. Well, I know all about fibroids. 

[01:17:00] That's why I wrote, one of the reasons I wrote, my woman's book because in my from my 30s, I had fibroids and I was wracked with pain and also emotionally I was in pain and they worked with each other. And that's why I went to Pune for a couple of years to heal. 

[01:17:24] And when I went to Pune. 

[01:17:28] I was in such pain in my fibroids and felt like somebody was taking a dagger and stabbing me in my abdomen and pulling it to the side. Twenty four hours a day. And I healed through Geeta's help. And that's why the woman's intensive happened because I wanted to share everything that she taught me over the couple of years as well as Guruji. And the woman's intensive happened. But I didn't feel like the message, the information, got out. And then I kept bugging Geeta to write more. And she told me to write. So I did. And so, yes, I'm very familiar with fibroids. I did have two surgeries for them because the pain went away. But they would still grow. You know, you keep having estrogen growing these tumors, which is a good reason not to take hormone treatment for menopause because they grow your tumors. And I had three eight centimeter fibroids and they were pressing on my rectum. And they were starting to what's called necrotizing my organs. So I had them removed through the vagina twice. 

[01:18:42] Until I was buying time to menopause, I didn't reach menopause until I was fifty-nine. So I was still menstruating on the clock ovulating, I could have formed an army, anyway. 

[01:19:00] So it's all in my woman's book. And especially when the fibroids are painful. You have to make sure your abdomen is soft. I did standing poses facing a trestle for like six months. I mean, I was already almost immediately healed through Geeta's guidance. But, you know, she made me do everything right for more time. You know, even though I felt better, I still had to re really undo what was going on inside of me. So I faced a trestle for my standing poses. It's really all in my book. And then, you know, depending on if you a lot of times it comes with heavy bleeding. I could never get my iron above seven because I was hemorrhaging every month from those fibroids. But I hung in there and then I made it to menopause and my doctor couldn't believe it. And she credited the yoga. 

[01:19:57] So read my book and hip bursitis. 

[01:20:02] Came after a deep tissue massage. Well, bursitis is just a fancy name for inflammation in the joint. And so this is the hip. And one thing that's helpful. You know, just to let it come down is like a Supta Padangusthasana. Also, it's like Anantasana. 

[01:20:25] So just getting the hip, I would need more height. But the knee and the hip on the same line, ultimately working to the prone Supta Padangusthasana. So this outer femur head goes in and the inner groin is lengthening out. Better if somebody is adjusting you. But the inner knee, it's kind of back to that Padmasana where the inner groin has to lengthen to the inner knee. So the femur head goes where it needs to in the hip socket. Often people with bursitis or even hip problems, their femur head is sticking way up in the air. You don't even have to touch it. You can just see it. A lot of people with hip dysplasia where the femur head is not in the center of the hip socket. It'll be way up here. And so this has to retrain to go back into its place and that groin has to release and that can help with bursitis. 

[01:21:20] There's many variations on these supports. I do have a low back book that shows some of them. 

[01:21:27] But there's a million. Uttanasana. 

[01:21:37] Your instructions are to push from the outside of the hip to the outside of the foot. I found this interesting. I tried it in the standing and balance positions on one leg and it helps me a lot. 

[01:21:47] But when but when we do with Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana right leg up, for example, is the indication from the outside of the foot towards the hip, just like in Baddha Konasana? Yes and no. So when you're doing Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. Well first, her reference was to something I sometimes teach. 

[01:22:07] You can do this with me if you like. Feet apart is better. Just come concave back. So when you're doing Uttanasana, we often want that spreading because that hamstring has a limit and you shouldn't start pulling it and tearing it. And the belly of the hamstring should really spread out an out and out and out. This point is really clear on people who are really tight in the hips and hamstrings, when you take ropes, pull that middle thigh, that straight away the buttock bones, because this is less likely to get injured here. The belly of the hamstring won't it has it doesn't know where it's at the attachments is when you have the problem. So this you spread and spread. In fact, if you get a pull in the middle of the thigh, it heals quite quickly. So you spread and then you do work your way up to the buttock bone. So you're spreading, spreading, spreading, spreading your buttock bones. But there is this tendency to throw the femur head out. You don't want to throw that femur head out. 

[01:23:07] So you move the outer thigh down, the outer thigh down while maintaining the bone spread. And then also tap thigh bone back and buttock bones forward. So many movements. So that was the reference. And then they were doing it in other poses very good for doing. Now, when you do Parsva Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana that buttock tends to come forward. Or sorry, it tends to stick out. So I could first I would actually teach much more about the standing leg. But I need to truncate this. So you all know the inner leg goes to the wall, the outer leg comes into the hip socket. What I teach for those who are ready for this instruction that the outer thigh comes into the hip socket along the bone, the muscle moves along the bone into the hip socket. At the same time, the muscle along the skin moves away from the hip socket. And when you do this, it actually takes the buttock in. 

[01:24:18] So the muscle along the bone towards the hip, away from the hip, along the skin. OK. 

[01:24:36] I'd like to better understand why you use a folded blanket on top of a bolster for Niralamba Sarvangasana in the woman's postmenstrual practice. 

[01:24:44] That's in case you don't have a high enough holster for the neck to curve around. That's just a technical thing. If you have a plump bolster, that's firm, you don't need to use a stepwise blanket. A lot of people have really flat bolsters and so you can fold blankets and make them stepwise for Niralamba using the wall. So we just my woman's class, which is also available on video, if you missed it, I covered the menstrual sequence in two classes. 

[01:25:14] It took two classes, and then I covered the postmenstrual practice in two classes and it was very good. Maybe somebody can testify to that. Maybe it was very bad. You can testify to it. 

[01:25:27] Ha! OK. 

[01:25:30] Boy, there is a million billion questions that I'm sorry not to get to all of them. 

[01:25:36] This will be the last question because it's already half an hour over and I need to start my practice before the next Q&A. I want to get a practice. But they're asking, how do I teach beginner Sarvangasana? Well, first of all, how I teach beginners is very different. It's not that it's actually not that different. 

[01:25:56] It's Pune style teaching. So my beginners, it's week three, I think. 

[01:26:08] Week three, I say get a mat, because we don't even use the mat for standing poses. I think because I learned on an orange shag carpet the standing poses, you have to grip your femur heads in so you don't slide. I think the sticky mats are bad for standing's if you have a good floor. You should do standing's on a floor because it makes you to really lift your legs. When you do it on a sticky mat, you tend to neglect getting those femur heads in because you've got the sticky mat holding you. So they're gonna get their sticky mat for the first time. It's week three. I'm just doubting. But anyway, and I never demo, so I say everybody get a mat. Open it up this way on the floor. And then I'm sitting. I have a platform. But for this, I have to sit on the floor and position myself were there behind me, you know? And I'm just looking at everybody. And I say, sit up, OK? And then I say, you have to promise me you're not going to turn your head. 

[01:27:17] And I say, promise. And they say, "we promise," they are all young. And I say, OK, are you ready? Are you ready? And they say, "Ready!" I don't even show. I say, roll back and touch your feet. Come up. Roll back and touch your feet. Come up. And I look. And they're just doing it. They're laughing. They're giggling. They're having a lot of fun. And I see who's not touching the floor. Sometimes it's a person, you know, who's just really stiff. Some a lot of people who are heavy bodied can't do it. Now, I don't show them how to do it. I just say, quick, go to the wall. Roll to the wall. Now, I've never had to show that because they're not stupid, you know, because this would not be rolling to the wall. 

[01:28:04] They know to sit this way and get the feet to the wall. 

[01:28:09] And I've had people say if I touch my feet to the floor, you know, even using the wall. Then the next week is their first demo they're ever gonna get. I say, get the sticky mat, get the blankets. And get a chair, OK, and get a belt. All of a sudden they're having to watch and gather all these props because they don't really use props either. And then. I had them come and watch. And how do I get them to pay attention? Because beginners, they don't know how to watch. OK, so I'm like. And then we go through the belt buckling one and one, which I showed you. And then I've got them all set up. And then even well before they're all set up, I'm like, come and watch here. You need to stand down this side of your blankets because you need to make sure that these thick edges are even they're making a wall. You need this wall to stand on your shoulders. That's the key thing. They have no idea what they're going to do. I haven't told them. I just they get all these props, set them up, sit between this chair and the blanket, and you need to make a wall for your shoulders. And they're like, oh, I have to make a wall for standing on my shoulders. So they're like focused on making a wall for standing on their shoulders. OK. Then they'd go do that, and I check everybody's wall. They've got beautiful walls. In fact, one time when some teachers came to observe, one of the questions was, how did you get those beginners to make such nice blanket setups? It's like a trick not telling them what they're doing. Just telling them the props are going to be set up for your shoulders to balance on. So you have to make a good wall. 

[01:30:10] OK, so that fixes, then I give the demo. OK. 

[01:30:14] You know, I, I say you lie down, you push the chair an arm's length away and then you roll. And they've already rolled the week before. 

[01:30:25] And then I show one leg up. The other leg up and then one leg halfway, and then they do Eka Pada. And even I show them Karnapidasana with the chair, because as a beginner, they can't just hold the shoulder balance. They need to get to move even in the shoulder balance. So they learn Halasana feet to the chair. Salamba Sarvangasana, Eka Pada Sarvangasana, Karnapidasana- the first time they're really doing it. I remember this last. I've run twelve courses and this last. It was February. I was showing this and I had a big group. They were all young. But youngsters are also stiff and tight. It's just that they're not sore for weeks on end afterwards. So I like to group them together. So there was one guy, big, tall, lanky guy. When when I said, OK, now let's go do it after the demo he said, oh, that he or no even during he said, Oh, "that looks intimidating," you know. So everybody heard that. Which isn't a good message, you know, for somebody to say, oh, "that looks intimidating." So I just said, well, "no, it's OK. You can just lie down and wait and we can help you. You don't have to do it on your own." And I don't know what came over me, but when I said, OK, everybody lie down. I said, don't worry, you don't have to do it. And then hold your ears. I went. 

[01:31:48] "Now, Roll, everybody Roll!" And they all rolled, even though I said, "you don't have to do it." 

[01:31:54] And then I was like. And they all did it because they need that, you know, they have to have that fire and they all rolled and they all got up the first time on their own, even to Sarvangasana even. I couldn't believe it. Usually it's a disaster the first time. 

[01:32:11] And this time it wasn't a disaster. The next week it actually was a disaster. I don't know what happened, but they already rolled. So they know that. And they have the chair so they don't have to go all the way. I also predict who's gonna need more blankets, because by then I know lose the tight shoulders. You get more blankets who are the type who have tight hips and hamstrings? I put a bolster on the seat of the chair so their feet don't have to come so far down. So you got to get them all ready. 

[01:32:42] That's how I teach beginners. 

[01:32:48] I end here and I'm sorry. 

[01:32:52] I'm gonna have another Q&A at one o'clock. I hope I stay in a good mood because it means I won't be eating at all until I get home after that. Q and A.. So my blood sugar will be down, but we'll see what happens. 

[01:33:09] Maybe I'll see some of you again.