Ask Dean #2 – August 29

Question #1:

Hi Dean. I know you have addressed diet before, but , what is an example of a typical day for you. Most yogis do not show the muscle development and low bodyfat that you possess. Thanks! – John

Hey John. My diet isn’t too complex. I eat a lot of vegetables, and a lot of lean meats, like turkey, chicken, and fish. I avoid sauces, processed foods, deserts, foods with a significant amount of grains, pizza, pasta, etc. For breakfast, I have oatmeal or eggs with grilled vegetables. I’ll have coffee or tea everyday. I have a sandwich (yep, I eat bread sometimes) with lean meats and mustard for lunch, and then for dinner grilled lean meat (fish, chicken) with vegetables, usually a large plate of broccoli or grilled peppers. The muscle development that I have comes from a heavy concentration on muscle building poses for extended periods of time. Man Flow™ Yoga sessions incorporate more upper body work, and the poses last longer so that your muscles start getting to the point of failure, which is when muscle development begins. Your easy flow vinyasa classes aren’t going to cut it. 🙂

Question #2:

I’ve been working out to the videos all summer to great success. Following years of squatting at the at the gym to minimal results, yoga suddenly added thickness to my legs in just one summer. Great. But now I’m afraid I won’t be able to do yoga for awhile, as it seems that practice (about three times per week) has resulted in an injury. When I first noticed the pain, I cut back on doing yoga to allow my sore hips to heal, and when I worked out, I paid close attention to bend my knees when in forward fold poses to help my hamstrings. Finally, when I returned to doing the videos regularly, my hips started to hurt again, and my upper hamstrings (the sitting area) are on fire. Not so great. Doing a quick Google search, I think I may have what’s described as a ‘yoga butt’ injury(?)—micro tears in the hamstrings due over stretching. Since many of the exercises on Man Flow seem to focus on the lower body, could you offer some more videos with variations of poses that might possibly cause issues. Or maybe some videos that deal specifically with preventing injury…or what to do to when injured (more variations?, stop doing this…). I don’ t want to give up yoga, so I’m hoping there might offer some variations to some of the lower body poses. Thanks! Great ebook, BTW! – Don

Hey Don. Sounds to me like you need to start focusing more on poses with bent legs, like chair pose and warrior poses. Your hamstrings are toast! More than that, what’s probably happening is that you have knots in your hamstrings. Take a lacrosse ball or a foam roller (or PVC pipe, if you want to get aggressive!) and apply some deep tissue massage to yourself, particularly around the area where your hamstrings meet your butt, because that’s probably where the biggest knots are. Focus more on the opposite side of your legs (your quads). My suggested plan of action is to take 2 weeks off, where you focus on massaging your leg muscles with a lacrosse ball or foam roller on a daily basis, and then do some light yoga without pushing your flexibility limits so that your hamstrings can start to repair. Eat a lot of protein and take some ibuprofen to help with inflammation of your hamstrings. Hope this helps!