It would be nice If I could recieve some direction

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Alright well my spritual course has been as interesting as anyones I suppose. Recently I have been pointed into the direction yoga… I am a bmx rider, not sure if many of you are familiar with park/freestyle bmx, but I would like to begin bringing my core and lower back into better condition as well as my ankles. Recently I picked up yoga magazine with the core of support fold-out walkthrough… it has been somewhat helpful but I just wanted to hear any personal recomendations. My ankles are often going through shocks and minor damages, If anyone has any reccomendations for strengthening or and sort of advanced daily stretching I could be doing to them, it would be most helpful.

I am sorry if you get these frequently, but I assume that many of you are welcoming.

thankyou.
:smiley:

#2

Hi rkbmx,

Welcome!

I always think it’s great when people come from a different background into Yoga- I think it helps in dispelling the myth that we’re all floozy types who sit around all day chanting and occasionally pull ourselves into contortionist postures :smiley:

As for giving you some guidance into practice, the first thing I’ll say is to find yourself a good class! Learning at home is good, but it has it’s limitations. In a class not only do you have a tutor to teach you the postures correctly and adjust you if you need it, but they can also help you identify your physiological strengths and weaknesses and suggest suitable postures to develop felexibility, strength etc. There’s also the opportunity to learn from others (especially in partner Yoga, where you use someone elses’ body to facilitate your own posture) and also ask questions. So, if you can, pleasedo get to a class, you won’t regret the investment!

However, in addition to attending a class, personal practice is also really important and you can learn a lot. I always maintain that the greatest teachers of Yoga are the postures themselves, and they communicate to you what you’re good at and where you’re flexible, and what needs working on. You highlight lower back, core strength and ankles…great news! nearly every posture works those things!! A resource you might find helpful is Yoga Journal. If you go to the toolbar at the top, you should see a button marked ‘poses’. Click on there and you get taken to an index with a list of common postures. You can also do a search where you can submit an anatomical focus (eg ankles) and it will come up with potures that will work that part of the body. I ran a search for you, see here:

Asanas for Ankles

Asanas for the Abdomen

Asanas for the Lower Back

Click on any of the postures to bring up a photograph and description of how to get into it.

Hope that helps!

#3

Welcome to the board.

What is the purpose of turning to yoga specifically for this ankle-core-low back thingy you’ve got? What are you seeking from yoga?
There are many ways to stabilize and strengthen the body (and the specific parts mentioned). But you also mention your spiritual path. So what is the correlation please?

I would not go so far as my peer above and say every pose works these areas. For example supta padangusthasana which primarily works the hamstrings. But it would be foolish for a yogi to just do poses that work three areas of the body as this is not balanced and therefore not yogic in nature. It is, in fact, in it’s very nature, imbalance.

Obviously what you are experiencing in your body may be a direct result of BMX, especially the shock on the feet and ankles. It’s a pretty jaring sport (at least the landing portions).

There is an appropriate asan practice out there for you. But I think it’s one of balance. Your body does it’s best healing in balance. Are you familiar with the term “homeostasis”? This is an equilibrium state the body effoprts to maintain in order to offset disrupting change. That having been said, a balanced asana practice will support your body’s natural wanting to heal itself.

I think a certified, qualified teacher should be working with you around these issues, don’t you?