Wednesday Q&A: Passive Stretching, Foot, Hamstring, & Diaphragm Cramps, & Ribcage Placement for Breathing

Welcome to Wednesday Q&A, where you ask questions and we answer them!

In this Wednesday Q&A, we answer your questions about passive stretching after a gym workout, foot cramps, hamstring spasms, and diaphragm cramps, and proper rib cage placement for breathing well.

Your questions:

* What should you do after a gym workout instead of passive stretching, if you’re already doing LYT yoga every day? 

* I have a question about a student. She's almost 70 but super fit. She weight trains regularly with a personal trainer, and has been practicing yoga for 20 years. She has arthritic knees, has had two children, and is diabetic. But overall, she's very mobile, eats, grows a lot of veggies, and enjoys exercise. She's been coming to my classes for over two years, mostly recently in-person versus Zoom. I found out that she's been having foot cramps, hamstring spasms, and diaphragm cramps for a few years now, usually when she's active. In my class yesterday she experienced hamstring spasms during bridge and in reverse table. She took some breaks and they went away. But I felt sad to see her in pain during class. She says her toes will curl towards the plantar side of her foot. Sometimes the anterior aspect of her diaphragm cramps, she pointed to the left side, sometimes when she does forward bends. Her hamstring cramps when she does bridge and hip thrusts in reverse table. I did notice that she does tend to have an anterior pelvic tilt when in bridge and in reverse table. She's been to massage therapists, chiropractors, PTs, and nutritionists who, by the way, recommended potassium and magnesium, none of which has really helped. She thinks it's just part of getting older. I recommended that she see a pelvic floor physio. I know that the arches of the feet, pelvic floor and diaphragm are related. And the hamstrings originate from the SIT bones. So I think the pelvic floor might be the connection between them all. When I mentioned the pelvic floor, she said that's the only part of her that's working well and that she's been doing kegels for years, which makes me think her pelvic floor may be hypertonic. Any thoughts on this? Any other physical connections, recommendations for moves in my classes that may help, or other health practitioners that could be recommended to her would be awesome. 

* How do you feel about rib cage positioning, breathing, etc.?

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