Q: Richard Rosen’s post on yoga and Parkinson’s Disease this week was very informative. Do you know of any ongoing yoga classes especially for people with Parkinson’s Disease? A: For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, CA, has two weekly classes for anyone with PD or for caregivers, taught by Vickie Russell Bell. Classes are held on Tuesdays 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm and Thursdays 1:30 pm - 2:45. Advance registration is required. Both the Tuesday and the Thursday classes are now full, but a waiting list has been started. For more information or to sign up for the waiting list, call (510) 658-8899 or send email to yoga@pdactive.org. Also, the PD Active blog has information about classes and support groups for people with PD. (PD Active is a group of Berkeley/Oakland-based people impacted by Parkinson’s disease who act to build and strengthen their local community through advocacy, dance classes and other activities.) Readers: If you have information ab...

Acrobats in Gray by Fernand Leger* Q: I am working with a new student, in class and privately, that suffers from severe restless leg syndrome (RLS). She is on heavy medications (1 is a Parkinson’s drug) and is just starting a yoga practice. She is 70, a little bit over weight and wants to lose some weight. She is very sharp, great attitude, lovely person. She has had RLS for at least 20 years. She does get leg / foot cramps frequently. Do you have any practices and / or advice for working with people that suffer from this advanced condition?  I'm thinking Reclined Leg Stretches, Hands up the wall (Yoga Glue) and Legs up the Wall could be part of her regular practice. Thanks for any help you can send my way.  A: Let's start by taking a look at what restless leg syndrome (RLS) is and how it affects people who have the condition. Then I'll discuss  how yoga can help. Basically restless leg syndrome is a condition that affects your lower legs and sometimes your feet and uppe...

Q: Once a substitute yoga instructor stated that she didn't do anything every day, and that yoga can be bad for backs. Could you clarify why this opinion might be so? I love doing yoga, and would really like to know what's going on here. A: Yoga isn’t "bad for backs" but not all yoga asanas are appropriate for “bad backs.” As an example, let us look at a very common group of yoga poses, forward bends, which can be thought of as both “good” and “bad” for someone with a back injury. Forward bends can be bad in the sense that if too much force is generated by trying to come into the position at the vulnerable area in the back, this will most likely cause more pain and injury. Not bending from the hips to come forward but using the arms as a lever force to pull into a position is unsafe. However, learning to move from the hip joints and keeping the spine in its neutral curves is a very different way to practice forward bends. This is safe because soft tissue restrictions ...

Judi Friedman, Age 52, photographed by Robert Sturman Q: Nina asked me what I thought about the recent conversation that she and Ram had via email (see Are Backbends Stimulating or Relaxing?) and I couldn’t help but chime in! So here is what I, Baxter, have to say about the effect of more intense poses and practices on the response of the Autonomic Nervous System and therefore on vagal tone: A: Nina, I agree with your anecdotal observations as well as your theoretical ponderings (and on a few things, with Ram, too). And my reasons are multiple:  Some students are going to be more challenged by advanced back bends and aerobic flow classes due to a) musculoskeletal issues that make backbends harder for their bodies to do, and b)aerobic fitness levels that are not equal to the intensity of the flow class they are taking. These situations are going to trigger the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) branch of the Autonomic Nervous System.  All the other reasons Ram mentions could cont...

*Borrowed from webmd.com Q: I have Dupuytren's contracture in my left hand. I am unable to place my hand flat upon the mat. The fascia in my palm underneath my ring and pinkie fingers has become knotted and tight and will not stretch out. Because of this, the alignment from my fingers to my shoulder (and maybe farther!) is thrown off when I do poses on hands and knees and at the wall. How can I practice safely for all body parts and make sure my body is well aligned.   A: Baxter and Nina will answer your question together because while Baxter is the medical doctor and yoga therapist, Nina actually has had this condition for a number of years herself. We'll begin by discussing the condition. Dupuytren’s contracture refers to a condition of the fingers and hands in which collagen is gradually deposited in the fascia just below the skin near some of the finger tendons on the palm side of the hand.  These deposits, which appear as nodules, puckering, or cords on palm, lead to gra...

Q: You say that people should not do the same poses all the time. What about programs like Dr. Fishman's osteoporosis study, which has participants doing the same sequence of poses every single day?  A: Thanks for this question. Indeed, if a person does the same sequence day in and day out, you could run the risk of a repetitive strain injury. The fact that Dr. Fishman's sequence is only supposed to take 10 minutes a day to do means that the practitioners are not holding the poses terribly long, which would reduce this risk considerably. However, a review of the poses taught (see here) reveals several poses that I feel could be potentially injurious to the wrists, neck and lower back, these being Upward Bow pose and the deep seated forward bends. I would consider other poses if I were to design such a practice, but Dr. Fishman does mention tailoring the sequence to students individual needs. I would suspect that this had to be done quite a bit.  Recall that the number of patie...

I am finally back from my retreat in Mexico, where we practiced meditation at the beginning and end of each of our two asana classes daily. Via my iPhone (don’t you just love technology, sometimes!), I was able to share some simple meditation practices with you last week (Short but Sweet and More Short Meditations from Mexico). These posts spurred one reader to ask the following: Q: I have a question on meditation. You have been running articles lately on meditation but have never precisely defined what meditation is. Savasana doesn't seem to count as meditation, but why not? If someone is in a restorative pose like legs-up-the-wall or supported bridge and is focusing on the breath, is that considered meditation? If not, why not? I hope you can clarify this for me. In addition to the posts I did last week, Timothy and Ram have addressed certain aspects of meditation in earlier posts (see Starting a Meditation Practice and Achieving Stillness in Turbulent Situations). But, our reade...

Legs of a Seated Model by Thomas Eakins Q: I teach a gentle/restorative class on Wednesday evenings and a couple of weeks ago I had a lady come to class who has edema only in her right leg. She had done yoga off and on and was interested in starting back up with yoga. She had limitations of course, but told me that she has had this edema for 4 years and after observing her in that first class, she knew her body well...in what she could do and not do.  Well... she came back for the second class (I am still amazed when they come back) and after class offered for me to feel how much heavier her right leg was than her left... just looking at the leg, it was 2x as big, maybe even a little bit bigger... SO... I lifted her left leg and then the right leg with the edema and I was AMAZED at how heavy that leg was... all that extra weight she was carrying around.  One of the poses I taught that evening was Viparita Karani and she told me it helped her leg. SO... do you have any suggesti...