Follow up on Yoga for Thyroid

So I posted about this workshop concerning balancing the Thyroid and 5th Chakra. I went to the workshop and disappointingly found it to be not as informative as I wanted it to be. I feel there is so much conflicting information out there and this further confused me! Also, because we ran out of time there was little info on diet and nutrition. So in this post I will go over my own findings and reinforce ideas that I did not find conflicting information on.

Great Yoga poses for balancing the Thyroid hormones. This applies to different thyroid conditions as it is a balancing effect. Shoulderstand, fish pose, camel pose and plow pose.

Now the rest of this is for Hypothyroidism -that's what I have. Slower metabolism -basically. So what sucks is, I gain weight easily. I find that Yoga is great for it. I felt the most balanced during the months in which I did teacher training. That was about 4 months of practicing Yoga 5-8 times a week. Also, it created balance in my appetite. I felt it was the most manageable and also more realistic. Doing any type of weight training makes me ravenously hungry. So overall -more Yin type of exercises -anaerobic, slower paced was helpful. However my personal wants are to do more Yang type activities like Martial Arts, so its a balancing act. I just stay away from weight training. I had to give up kettlebell training a year ago.

As for diet I found all the conflicting info. So the best I can say is, stay away from processed foods. This is hard! But I try to eat lots of raw fruits and veggies. I try to go organic for certain staples like eggs and milk. Also being that I have to take thyroid medications every morning I have to be sure not to take any supplements or soy products until about 4 hours after the medication because they affect the absorption of the meds into the body.

Shin splints and funky toe shoes.

I once got this really annoying injury called plantar fasciitis not from running but from walking around in flat shoes for an entire winter, when I tried to go back to normal shoes, the problem arose. Now this happened to me because I have a bit of an arch and my feet do not like flat shoes, especially ballet flats. My feet really like to either be barefoot or in a good sturdy 2.5-3" heel. I am not a doctor or anything, but I know what my body likes. Something we constantly have to remember in Yoga in order to prevent injury. Well I went to a podiatrist and he told me in order to allow it to heel I was to stay off heels. Well I will tell you the problem did not even begin to get better for 2 weeks. I could barely walk until I finally decided to walk around my house in comfortable heels...fixed in 1 week!

However, when I tried to get back onto the treadmill I started getting shin splints. One of the most annoying injuries ever because it takes forever to heal itself and it feels pretty miserable. I all together gave up running for a long time and though I sort of hate running, I do get runners high and I feel awesome after finishing a run. Lastly running is one of the few exercises where I see immediate results in my weight. After careful examination on the whole running situation I started to see that I was a heel striker. When I'm in running sneakers, I would strike my heel down first, then slap the rest of my foot down. I read all kinds of stuff about it but I also realized how much it applied to me. If I got on a treadmill with running shoes and tried to run for 10min at the speed of 5, I would feel the shin splints. I noticed in Capoeira class they had us warm up by running around on a wood floor barefoot, no pain. I started to realize, when I was barefoot I was no longer landing heel first. Further researching the whole thing I came upon theses weird toe shoes...Vibram 5 fingers. They have totally changed my whole view on running. I LOVE them. I still hate the task of running but once I get going and finish I feel pretty awesome. I don't recommend this for everyone, but it totes works for me! I have 2 pairs.




















Above is the pair I use to run outdoors, which I do once in a blue moon. I have a friend who runs outdoors in them regularly, up to 10 miles...and then any more than that she swaps them for running shoes, but ultimately goes back and forth bc the Vibrams trained her to run more properly, thus preventing injuries. This also greatly helped my knee pains. Heel striking was really hard on my joints!

Now 2 great poses for shin splints.
1. Sarvangasana. Shoulder stand. Yeah one of my least favorites but I am pushing myself to do it more and more.
Lie flat on your back with arms by your sides, palms press down to the floor. Swing the hips and legs over head. Try to straighten legs, and flex feet, try to get the feet to touch the floor behind you. Interlace the fingers and walk the shoulders in towards each other. Now bring the hands to the lower back. Make sure you're not on your neck but you are on your shoulders. Bring legs straight up.

2. Viparita Karani. Legs up the wall pose. Sit with one side against the wall, legs extended, with one leg touching the wall. Lie down on your back and swing legs upward, positioning your butt where the floor and wall meet. It also feels really good to put a pillow or bolster under your sacrum.

These poses are both great to stay in for a long time as it allows the blood to flow back to your center, which helps the inflammation from the shin splints. Try it! Legs up the wall is also generally a great alternative to headstand or handstand.

Because its officially September!

Lately, I have been too sweaty in class to do Crow pose. Actually, I have been able to do it, but not so well, due to the slippage. But I thought I'd share my tips on the pose:
1. Bring your feet so that they are 1 foot length behind your wrists.
2. Come up onto the balls of your feet and align your knees to your arm pits
3. Engage bandhas. Or just engage your abs and feel the lift.
4. Look forward
5. Bring up one foot at a time, slowly
6. Bring toes together when you can balance and look forward.
YAY! Bhakasana!

Tricks:
I like to put a blanket in front of me so that I am less afraid to face plant. Also gives me a focus point and reminds me to look forward.
Having heels on, actually is a nifty trick, because it already brings you to the balls of your feet!
You are already lifted to align your knees into armpits. OK, so maybe you don't want to bring heels to yoga class... start standing on a block then.
Really engaging the abs or bandhas makes all the difference!

OH, yes, and breathe.

And now onto one of my least favorite poses. Shoulder stand. I might hate plow pose more...or it could be just that its leads to shoulder stand a lot of times. Anyways, I hate it! I feel all clausterphobic in my throat area and I get bored and anxious staying up there. Often times you will see me skip it in class and do supta baddakonasana instead. Nonetheless, I know I should do it, so I do.