Hi Rosemary, first of all, just wanted to say that you’re my favorite teacher on Yogaanytime.com! All your practices I’ve done had a great impact on my immediate and long-term state. I have a question - when doing sitting forward bends, do my legs should be toned or I can relax them? I have difficulty to keep my quad muscles toned and I wonder if have to. I have difficulty to pull up the knee cups when I sit with outstretched legs, and it becomes even more difficult when bend forward. Same goes for the pigeon - honestly, I still can’t find a position where I feel the gluts or hips stretched, and since it’s a very deep pose, I assume that i just do it wrongly and that is why I don’t feel the stretch where I should. I tried the props under the hip but it didn’t help, so again I think that something is incorrect in my approach to the position. I will appreciate you response, Olga
Thank you for your kind works, Olga B . I appreciate the question and the subtlety of awareness you are bringing to your practice. In most seated forward folds, the quads muscles are gently engaged. Since we are stretching the hamstrings muscles, we want the counter muscle group (the quads) active. I suggest playing with it in degrees rather than tightening them intensely.
Pigeon is different. Although officially a forward fold, it is more specifically a hip opener so the focus is on relaxing all the muscles around the hip joint, especially the glut muscles! I'm curious that you have yet to find a post that stretches the hips/ gluts. How do these poses feel: Badhakonasana, Uphavista Konasana, Malasana, Double Pigeon? Let me know and hopefully we can solve this! Namaste.
Rosemary: thought of you today on a morning Philly ride. So many recent grads running. One had a Tufts shirt. A little bit later I fell—nothing more than a bit of embarrassment—but so many little bits of pain and soreness to throw into the fire. This was hard as well, which is why I clicked on the video. Time to eat and drink. Namaste, David