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| I have a hard time doing this and still being able to breathe. I'm 5'10" and about 175, so it's not as though I have a huge gut, but I definitely have a really hard time pulling it in when I do most of the standing exercises.
Any advice? |
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| I suspect you're realatively new to Bikram and are still mentally and physically sorting out the nuances of the asanas. Give it time. It's difficult to align you body, remember to breathe AND suck in that gut--I've successfully left the gut sucking to last and am proud of it! |
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| This is like trying to pull a rug out from underneath you. It is very superficial queue. Can not do it because it does not express what you want to be doing clearly. This can best be explained by core dynamics or abdomen psoas balance. You always want to let the inside lead and the outside of the body follow, which is the reverse of this queue. The core shows the general balance of the body which is why we can not act on it directly. If the abdomen has poor tone then the person has a collapsed core or bloated core. This is how most people are in society. And I do not mean tight abdomen like six pack abs but a abdomen that is supportive of the core. If the core is not being supported from below, good balance from the legs, then some place in the body has to hold to make up for the non support. This holding can be, but not limited to, upper hamstrings, plevic floor, periformis, lowerback , middle back, upper abdomin/bottom of rib cage. and occiput region. There is a general pattern in the body that any area that is tight or holding will have a corresponding slack area or untone area. So what to do with this info. You can not just force the slack areas to get tone. You have to notice the areas that have a large energy buildup or holding and try to distribute it evenly through out the body. When we focus to much on one part or parts of the body we can miss the big picture that have simple answers to our questions. In the process of doing yoga we are bringing unconscious patterns into awareness and releasing them by finding more supportive/natural ways of being. Not adding more distortion to the mix. |
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| I kinda see the Bikram suck-in-your-gut thing as a similar thing to uddiyana bandha in ashtanga, and ideally you are suppose to do it during the whole sequence. And in Bikram I find that just by sucking in my lower abdominals I am able to support my lower back a lot better, especially during the standing poses, and it also helps me with spinal twists. I find that if I try to breathe up into my chest and expand my ribs upwards and sideways, I am able to hold the sucking in throughout the respiratory cycle. Wonder what everyone else's experience of this is. |
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| The suck in your gut thing happens when the ribcage is raised from the pelvis. If it is done from the grounding with the earth the breath is not distorted. If it is done in a way that holds the breath it is distortive. That is why I do not queue it. When the mind tries to do it directly, it is a mess. It should be seen with the whole body (physical and subtle) in perspective. Anything that deals with the core is so simple it is not easy to explain. I guess that is what the practice is for. A great realization for me was to realize a balanced breath is one that breaths with the earth. |
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Suck in your gut!
