Childs pose help

jogdish

Hi,
So I am trying to do a half decent childs pose, Im male and not that flexible not overweight. I will describe what I am having trouble with exactly:


I go on my knees, big toes of my feet touching, knees spread apart (find it more comfortable than close together ), as I lower myself to sit on my heels I feel pain/or real tightness on the top of my feet - along a line from big toe back to the ankle joint. Not being able to sit down any lower makes it hard to get a decent strech on my spine.


Hopefully the above explains it, but its like being in bed with the sheets tucked in too tight, I don't seem to have any flexibility to point my toes towards the end of the bed to make my foot ankle and leg all be a bit more flat.


Searching online has told me nothing, anyone have any ideas or am I just not able to do this pose? Or is there some small tightness I need to work on first?

dontpanic

hmm that is curious. It's hard to say without seeing a photo of what you're doing as that would give us the best idea of your posture, but it does sound like a small flexibility issue with the feet.

You could have a look at exercises to improve plantar flexion. (Easy for women I'd say as we wear heels!!)

I think lots of upward facing dogs instead of cobra will help in time.

For the moment, I would probably keep the knees closer together and rest your stomach on them in child's pose to give your spine the rest it needs and work on the foot flexibility in other poses. As your foot flexibility increases, you should hopefully fall further into the pose with the legs apart.

jogdish

dontpanic wrote: »

hmm that is curious. It's hard to say without seeing a photo of what you're doing as that would give us the best idea of your posture, but it does sound like a small flexibility issue with the feet.

You could have a look at exercises to improve plantar flexion. (Easy for women I'd say as we wear heels!!)

I think lots of upward facing dogs instead of cobra will help in time.

For the moment, I would probably keep the knees closer together and rest your stomach on them in child's pose to give your spine the rest it needs and work on the foot flexibility in other poses. As your foot flexibility increases, you should hopefully fall further into the pose with the legs apart.

Will look into this, but also here is me attempting the pose this is as far as I can go getting my bum to heels, don't really feel any stretch along the spine and the whole back never feels flat - just uncomfortably humped.


https://unsee.cc/7b55a1ae/


any insights?

dontpanic

Oh I see yes that does look quite uncomfortable.

The problem is in your hips from what i can see. Your feet are at an awkward angle (like you're forcing them to touch) when they should be straight, this is just because your knees aren't far enough apart - the hips aren't flexible enough yet.

Here are some good exercises which should hopefully help
https://gmb.io/hip-mobility/

To be honest it took me about a year to get what the big deal about child's pose was...until I got more flexible and it felt more "right". I think it will really help to make heavy towel or blanket into a roll you can lie your stomach on. This will feel more comfortable, elongate the spine, and you'll still be working on the flexibility in your hips.

Don't worry about keeping your toes together, and don't worry about perfecting each pose - these are details you can keep adding as you get better, and it keeps yoga interesting as you have something more to add. Stick with what feels good and your body will do the rest in time. As I'm sure you know, the most important part above anything else is breathing, without that your body isn't going to budge an inch in flexibility

dontpanic

images.jpeg



See how happy this man looks, this is how happy you should look in this pose

jogdish

dontpanic wrote: »

Oh I see yes that does look quite uncomfortable.

The problem is in your hips from what i can see. Your feet are at an awkward angle (like you're forcing them to touch) when they should be straight, this is just because your knees aren't far enough apart - the hips aren't flexible enough yet.

Here are some good exercises which should hopefully help
https://gmb.io/hip-mobility/

To be honest it took me about a year to get what the big deal about child's pose was...until I got more flexible and it felt more "right". I think it will really help to make heavy towel or blanket into a roll you can lie your stomach on. This will feel more comfortable, elongate the spine, and you'll still be working on the flexibility in your hips.

Don't worry about keeping your toes together, and don't worry about perfecting each pose - these are details you can keep adding as you get better, and it keeps yoga interesting as you have something more to add. Stick with what feels good and your body will do the rest in time. As I'm sure you know, the most important part above anything else is breathing, without that your body isn't going to budge an inch in flexibility

I'll be honest, I read this and thought they don't understand my hips are fine, watched the video link and tried some of the them - WOW am I super tight, WOW. Did a quick go of a few of the exercises and yup can push the knees further and notice my bum getting much lower. Will work on this over the coming weeks.
Still have the pain/stretch issue on the foot but seems to be lessened with the hips/knees further apart.