Yoga, bad joints, and calcium?

[Le Sheng Liu]

Lately I have had a hard time doing the warrior poses mainly cuz my knees are hurting. I don't know why but the only difference I can think of is that I stopped taking my calcium tablets. I started taking them since I never drink milk (except soymilk sometimes) or eat anything from the dairy food group so I figured I had a calcium deficiency. I hope my knees get better so I can do the warriors without one knee on the floor like I used to be able to.

I always see mad Asians in my yoga classes so I know some of you do it. Any thoughts?

[kimtae]

If you eat plenty of dark green veggies, broccoli and kale in particular, which you should anyway, you don't need any calcium tablets. Other calcium rich foods are seaweed, nuts, sardines (eat the bones), molasses (I try not to take in sugar other than in molasses or honey forms if I can help it), and many types of beans. There are also a lot of calcium fortified drinks. In these cases, always make sure you shake the hell out of them. Calcium mixes well into OJ but not so well into soy milk. A lot of people wind up actually not getting much of the calcium in fortified soy milk because they don't shake the box or bottle enough; I mean shake like it's a can of paint you're mixing.
You probably have worn out cartilage which can fixed with glucosamine. There's a lot of products out there and some are definitely better than others. You really get what you pay for so don't go cheap. Take 6 months worth and see what happens. Worked for me and I think Catty was on it too.

[cattygurl]

I've taken gluscosamine because my joints suck (I've got bad knees from years of working wearing heels). i'm lazy about taking pills, but whenever my joints start to complain, i take glucosamine with msm.

I also take supplemental liquid calicum. I prefer to take supplements in liquid form when I can.

[cattygurl]

If poses are giving you a hard time, modify them or stop doing them for a while, then ease into it. Otherwise, you could be straning your joints.

[Kuroyama]

I practice taijiquan, but there are similarities in the forms practice. I reached a point where my knees were getting really pissy about and shifting weight under load. Kind of a bummer when Chen taiji involves so much load bearing movement, stomps, and kicks...

I tried just resting but that didnt kick it. I stopped doing tuolu (postures/movements) and just spent a month doing zhang zhuan (Standing excercises), then I stepped up to chan si gong (rotational exercises). I took it slow but the idea was to strengthen the tendons and muscles around the knees. Not the big body supporting muscles but the smaller ones closer to the knee.

If yoga has standing exercises, and low torsion (for the knees) exercises, then I would recommend that. It worked for me. I too, dont do milk. Didnt change my diet. At 115kg I really need to take care of my knees

[averagejoette]

my mom says the glucosamine works because she has a bad shoulder. I've also had trouble with my knees lately because of my past in high impact sports. (if it gets to humid they start to ache) Like kimtae said, veggies are important. I don't drink soymilk from normal grocercy stores, I get it from the tofu store near my house because there are less preservatives. Soymilk isn't a great form of calcium, I think more protein than anything else.
Also vitamin D intake is extremely important otherwise your body won't absorb the calcium no matter how much milk you drink or pills you take. I know that many calcium pills are also made with vitamin D in them.

I always wanted to try yoga. I know there are different styles of yoga, aren't there?

and always remember to take care of other joints as well. Just because you don't feel it now, doesn't mean you wont feel it later.

[cattygurl]

I like Vinyasa, Hatha and Iyengar Yoga. I'm not into Hot yoga (Birkham) at all.

[Le Sheng Liu]

I'm not into Hot yoga (Birkham) at all.

Bikhram is a western invention to cater to Americans whose idea of health and fitness = sweating and losing weight, which is NOT what yoga is primarily about. I personally can't even stand being in a steam room for more than a few minutes, so the idea of doing yoga in such a setting just seems uncomfortable and dangerous to me.

[Kuroyama]

Hot yoga??? You mean not only do you contort yourself painfully, but you do it at uncomfortable temperatures?

Is this class led by a guy with cloven hooves and a pitchfork???!!!