I have been coming to hot yoga about 5-6 times a week for almost 3 months now and have taken a lot of fire classes. For about the past 4 weeks, I have had pain in my lower arm intermittently on the outside bone. Sometimes it is sore to the touch. I first noticed the pain when trying to perform full locust. It is hard for me to do this pose without feeling a lot of my body weight pressing through my arms underneath me. It seems like my arms take on a lot of pressure. I feel like I may have injured my forearm. Has anyone else experienced this in class? Do any of the instructors have suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong? Any advice will help!

Pain in lower arm on outside (hairy side) of forearm right?

Without seeing you, I think this is caused by engaging you buttock in locust.

Locust is more upper back focused, so try disengaging the butt (in other words the hip should stop digging into your forearm). Try to engage the upper back by pressing your fingers into the floor and engaging your lats (feels like the shoulders pull down and back). once the chest feels like its pushing down the legs can come up.

In the beginnning the legs often come up because the butt is pressing down. The chest will eventually be doing this, but we have to learn how to shift forward and relax our butt so it basically lifts with the leg. In the meantime an engaged butt will probably be creating a pressure point and possibly bruising that arm. Once you stop using the buttock the leg and butt will work as one, and will feel connected to your upper back as it holds you to the floor.

We can also try to feel our abdominal muscles engage here and that will help build this connection faster.

Just rember no butt strength in locust and your hip will eventually lift off the forearm. So if you feel you hip digging in the is a sign that the butt is engaged and your upper back is not.

Jennifer. I have experienced this exact pain you are describing and Chris is correct. It was due to incorrectly entering half locust. Find a teacher you connect with and have them watch you get into half locust so they can explain the proper adjustment in a way we simply can't on these forums.