Bringing it back

The other day, I wondered aloud 'what would Guruji do' with my hibernating Astanga practice and gimpy shoulder. As it stands, I've taken a 20-day hiatus, my strength is diminished and I've fallen out of the routine of this practice. As soon as I asked the question, I knew the answer: start over again. Surya Namaskara and the fundamental standing poses.

On Saturday evening, I unrolled my mat and gave it my best shot. But instead of stopping at the standing, I went right into my 8 Intermediate poses, then did lots of backbending (as much as I had time for) and closing.

It was an interesting practice because it was SO different from my practice 20 days ago. I wasn't in any pain at all! It felt novel and fabulous to practice without the throbbing pain in my shoulder. I could move my arms around without discomfort and the bind in Baddha Padmasana was accessible to me. I also noticed that my body is open in new and different ways.

The biggest boons:
-My hamstrings: The gimpy hamstring is history. I have full flexility back in all forward bending poses, including Parsvottasana and to a certain degree, Krounchasana.
-My neck: It's bendier! Sarvangasana felt awesome and my knees were on the floor in Karnipidasana. I'm going to give credit to Bikram's Sasangasana for that one.
-Balance: ROCK SOLID. I've really gained some mad skillz in this area! I did Uttita Hasta Padangustasana for fun and I didn't fall over once (but I also couldn't hold my leg up at the end (strength FAIL).
Backbends: Urdhva Dhanurasana was not as deep as it was 20 days ago, but I come into it from the floor without shoulder pain and I can stay there endlessly because I'm actually breathing! Deeply! I can feel my lower ribs puffing in and out as I hold the pose.

I could write a whole post about the Bandhas. I thought I would lose my connection to my Bandhas during Hot Yoga Month, but to my surprise, I'm more aware of them. In hot yoga class, there are a few cues that are repeated often. One of them is: 'Suck in your belly!' Each time I heard this, my brain registered: "Oh! You want me to engage my BANDHAS!" And I did. With good results. It's amazing and it makes me want to do it *more*.

Overall, my first Astanga practice in 20 days felt great. I felt all happy and floaty afterward! I was excited to repeat the experiment on Sunday, but alas, it didn't go quite as smoothly. The soreness from Saturday practice was already setting in.

I know what you're wondering and it was on my mind too: what does my gimpy shoulder think about all of this vinyasa-ing? To be honest, I don't know yet, because EVERYTHING about my shoulders hurts right now. I've lost considerable strength. I can still *do* everything I could do before, it's just harder and I tire more quickly. I'm back to following up my practices with long salt baths to sooth my tired upper body.

I practised again on Monday and I was definitely feeling sore. I could detect some sensation in the right shoulder, near the area of the injury, but that's not completely unexpected.

I'm easing off on the Astanga practice for the next few days. This will give me a chance to recover from the initial soreness and get a better sense of the state of my injury and my overall level of fitness for Astanga.

On a mental level, I'm vacillating between elation that I can *do* my practice again and anxiety that the injury will still limit me in significant ways. I'm genuinely worried about my planned visit to D&J's Shala in March. Part of me wonders if I should even bother, given the poor state of my practice. But another part of me is certain that this in itself is a GOOD reason to go: I need the advice of these teachers now more than ever. I need help with alignment to prevent re-injury. I'm certain that D will know what to do.

More than anything else, I want to keep Astanga sustainable over the long haul. I love this practice. I want to return to it and keep doing it in the years ahead. This injury was a good wake-up call: I no longer care if I EVER have floaty jumpbacks. I'll be happy with smooth, efficient, pain-free vinyasa.

I'm scared, but I'm hopeful.

********************
On a lighter note, I have a new 'injury' to report.

Last Saturday, hot class went over by more than 10 minutes and I was at risk of arriving late to my noon class. In my rush to get there on time, I stupidly sprinted across a street and when I stepped onto the sidewalk, I landed HARD on my right knee. I didn't notice anything was amiss until later on in the afternoon when I saw this dark maroon bruise.

The knee is fine and the bruise hasn't affected my practice at all - it's just a surface ache. But it's oh-so-colourful with a new kaleidoscope of hues emerging daily.

Pretty! ;-D




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Astanga

Ah ha! Back to Astanga today. My arm is feeling better! I didn't over-do it though - I stuck with the Swenson 30-minute short form, by the book. For some reason, it always takes me much longer than 30 minutes. Today, I was on the mat for about 45 minutes. And boy, I felt stiff. The muscles around my left hip are still very crampy.

I'm developing a theory around that and it's not a happy one. A lot of the crampiness is around the sacrum. I hope this isn't that elusive Sacroiliac Thing that plagues Ashtangis. That would totally spoil my plans for January!

After my practice, I bundled myself up and bundled Princess Fur up, then we went for our daily walk, stopping at the pet store for dog food. Did I mention that it's cold out? It's COLD out! But I'm not complaining because I was the one being all annoyed last week because winter wasn't kicking enough ass. We have snow on the ground and ice on the sidewalks. The windchill is -17. Enough!

I made Princess Fur wear her fancy red polarfleece dog coat, made by the signature Canadian company, 'Roots' (Stop laughing, Australians!) and her hot pink dog boots which I found on sale at PetSmart two years ago. I hate the colour but half price is half price.

Don't worry, I'm going somewhere with this. In fact, I'm going here:

PunK RoCk PrinCess

Boy, she looks indignant! Clearly, I was having waaaaay too much fun with the clippers that day!

This was fun! So, henceforth, Fridays on this blog will known as 'Princess Fur Fridays' and will feature a story or photo of my favourite downward facing schnauzer. At least, until I run out of good material and we all know *that* will never happen!

Astanga

My hockey team won, 4-2 last night, but I wasn't there to see it. It was a late game, a cold and rainy night and I was already tired. When games run past my bedtime, it's hard to motivate myself. This morning I got the update from my defence partner, E. They had full lines despite the late start. I'm glad this team is doing well because it means we'll get one of the 'early slots' for the finals at the end of the month.

I turned on the soundtrack from Slumdog Millionaire this morning and did a self-led Astanga practice, the short form of the Primary Series. Very fun. I loafed around in the poses I particularly liked, took breaks to drink tea, cooed over my dog and enjoyed a long Savasana.

The rest of the day has been a perfect combination of feeling lazy, while still being fairly productive. I did some cleaning, finished the laundry, bought groceries.

The beginning of November marks the start of Subway Pass Season. Bruce, the folding bike, is now sitting forlornly in a corner, headed soon to storage. Using my shiny new pass, I hopped on a train after my noon class and headed up to my favourite grocery store. No more hauling groceries around on the handle bars of my bicycle, or stopping at any old store I pass on my ride home.

I know that by the end of the winter, I'll be dying to get back on my bike, I'll miss the delicious freedom of my wheels. But for now, I'm delighted that I can sit around on my commute and read, read, read. I can listen to music, or knit. Or daydream. (or try to ignore the crazy person moaning in the corner, but let's not go there...)

For now, I'm a happy transit rider.

Astanga

The sparkling weather continues, this time with big, fluffy white clouds moving across the sky.

I taught classes all morning and had an hour to kill between them, so I set up my mat in a courtyard park in the downtown core and did the Swenson short form. I did a full closing sequence, since I missed my chance to do Sirsasana yesterday. I had a good practice, self-led, which gave me the opportunity to hold poses a bit longer and linger in downward facing dog whenever I felt the urge.

The practice felt too short. I was on the mat for about 40 minutes. Lately, I've found myself enjoying a longer practice, but it's nice to know that I can squeeze in a well-rounded practice when I'm in a time crunch. I'll probably continue to do the short form on Saturdays, at least until the weather gets too cold for it.

For fun, a dog story:

I know my dog is smart, but sometimes she surprises me with her ability to navigate thorny problems. She absolutely loves Greenies. These edible dog bones that are supposed to be good for her teeth and breath (I'm as of yet unconvinced). They're not cheap, so I save them as 'special treats' and I had one celophane-wrapped hidden away in a baggy that was tucked into a cloth bag, sitting under the desk. Somehow, she managed to sniff out the Greenie, get it out of the cloth bag, open up the baggie and extract the Greenie from the celophane wrapping.

It was quite an operation! Here she is in the aftermath. Her expression says: “Greenie? What Greenie? I don't know ANYTHING about any Greenie. Nope. Not me.”

Yeah, riiiight!

Astanga

I was perusing Mark Darby's DVD this morning, trying to find that neat clip of Karandavasana (to show my students), and I noticed that the DVD has a 30 minute short-form on it. Today was the perfect day for a shorter practice and I'm always up for a good short form, so I gave it a try.

If you can get past Darby's sometimes bizarre mispronunciations of the Sanskrit names (this is a niggling little thing that keeps me from wholeheartedly recommending this DVD to my students), it's a good DVD. I like the beginner modifications that he includes, which are demo'ed by the Nicole Bordeleau. The cues are precise and timely. I enjoy the slow pace and the long holds.

The short form is 42 minutes including a long Savasana at the end. It opens with 3 Surya Namaskara A, 2 Surya Namaskara B then continues with many of the standing poses and a handful of the seated. Padmasana is the only pose included from the closing sequence, but this is fine by me. If I'm doing a short practice, I'm usually not keen to do a lot of closing. And I liked the emphasis on standing poses. I was able to work up a sweat, which isn't always the case when I'm practising Swenson's short form.

I'm literally on the cusp of my Lady's Holiday so it felt good to move into a less intense practice. I'll likely be doing restorative for the next couple of days.

Astanga

I was all about the good intentions today, but not about the execution. I had intended to get up early to practice a full Primary before riding to my morning class, but I slept in instead. I had intended to go to a city-wide open house that happens each year, but ended up lounging around the apartment instead.

I had a nice day, though. Sometimes, a lazy day is exactly the right thing.

And I did squeeze in the Swenson short form.

And administrative note:
I've been working on this website, making some changes to the format of the posts and adding tags.

For simplicity, I'm giving each post the name of the style of yoga I practised that day. This allows me to see, at a glance, what I've been doing each day. It also saves me from the mental gymnastics of coming up with post names, which was getting really old.

I like tags a lot, so I'm going to start using them. The tags offer further details, like full or half Primary, short form, backbends, ect. There are tags for some individual poses that I'm working consistently on. I'm also tagging posts that contain non-yoga content, like 'guitar'. There are over 400 posts, so the tags will be appearing gradually in the archives as I have a chance to add them.

Astanga

I realised this morning that it's been over a week since I did an Astanga practice. So that's what I did, using the little application I've been using on my iPod to time the poses.

Before I started, I edited 'Routine', modifying the sequence I input the other day and fine tuning it. I brought all the holds down to 30 seconds, added extra steps so that two sides of Utthita Trikonasana, etc. were timed separately. I tried it out and though it worked very well, I realised that I didn’t have sufficient transition time between poses, especially in the seated poses, since I was doing vinyasa. I turned on the 'pause between steps' setting, but this really broke my flow.

I need to either add transitions between poses, bump up the time on the poses to include transition/vinyasa or persuade the developer to add the option to pause after each step rather than all-or-none (I've emailed him - I'm sure I'm not the first person to request this feature). I will mull this and revisit.

My noon class was so much fun that I realised that I felt like doing yoga again in the afternoon. This almost never happens, but happily, I had a children's yoga class to teach in the afternoon. I took my high energy to class and we worked on Urdhva Dhanurasana, dropbacks, Ustrasana, handstands and Supta Kurmasana.

I haven't done Supta Kurmasana in months, but I bound on the first try...then couldn't bind on subsequent tries. Oh well...need to open those shoulders, and hips and back and...

It was great fun and I left energised and exhausted, simultaneously. So I went and bought a burrito and BB's. :-)

Astanga

My Geeky Adventures continued today with the Routine app on my iPod.

I sat down and enjoyed 20 geeky minutes of entering my modified Swenson Short Form, including my custom added poses (technology makes me so happy!). But I completely forgot to add different sides for poses like Utthita Trikonasana, so it didn't work very well in practice. I need to go back and edit the sequence and also take the holds down to 30 seconds for each pose.

But in theory, it's terrific!

I'm back to pondering the holds in my poses and thinking that for some of them, I may increase the hold to 1 minute. While waiting to chat with Natasha Rizopoulos at the Yoga Show, I overheard her say that she's moved toward longer holds (8-10 breaths) even in the context of an Astanga practice.

Because I'm on the mat daily, I've found the space to fine tune my practice in ways I wouldn't have imagined even last year. Experimenting helps to keep me engaged and it's fun!

Astanga

Day two of the holiday was partially a working day for me. I taught a class in the morning, then chatted with my accountant about my taxes.

Eeek! Taxes!

I hate even thinking about finances. The good news is, I'm getting a nice refund. :-) The bad news is that it's just enough to pay off my stupid credit card. :-(

I'm working on a contract over the next week which will bring in another cheque, just enough to pay off a loan from a friend. This is one of those years when everything feels like 'one step forward, two steps back.'

I escaped to the park with the dog for an hour, did modified primary afterward and laid around in Savasana for 15 minutes. When I felt sufficiently soft and gumby-like, I went out for a sushi lunch. Sushi may not solve all my problems but it can help me forget them. Besides, nothing is going to be open tomorrow, so I might as well live it up today.

Astanga

I didn't feel like thinking through a Hatha sequence today, so I did the 'Short Form + 3' today. I've been thinking of ways to make Savasana more comfortable and enjoyable. Doing a bit of restorative yoga to release my low back seems to work - or using a bolster (though I always seem to be too lazy to get up and find it). Maybe I could try doing some Pranayama at the end of the closing sequence to ease into a more restful mode. I don't seem to have as much trouble moving into Savasana after a Hatha practice.

I love all of this experimentation in my yoga practice, trying new things, pushing my edge in news ways, mixing things up. It makes me a better teacher and expands my scope as a practitioner.

I just completed Month 3 of my Yoga Streak. By now, daily practice is one of those goes-without-saying things. I just do it. It seems so easy to just do it. Looking back on my Yoga-less Streak last fall, I recall how easy it seemed to just NOT do it. The lesson? Routines are easy. Get into one and anything is possible. Anything can become automatic and expected.

A few interesting things have come to light in Month 3. I started exercising daily again, taking 45 minute brisk walks up to the Big Park with my dog. The path to the Big Park includes the Big Stairs, about six flights up a steep escarpment. Usually, these stairs are the bane of my springtime walks because I'm out of shape for them. This year? I'm hardly out of breath when I reach the top. Sometimes, lost in thought, I ascend the stairs so effortlessly that I reach the top before I realise that I'm through climbing them.

The only difference between this year and last is daily yoga. In fact, I thought I was in much better shape last year (having skated daily for months), but last year those stairs kicked my keister for the first month. I believe it's because I'm stronger; my body isn't working as hard. I experienced a similar level of fitness when I started riding my bike again. I feel stronger and I have more endurance.

Little things like this surprise me. Daily Yoga fringe benefits, I guess.

Tomorrow: I move into Month 4 of my Yoga Streak. WoYoPracYea! (World Yoga Practice Year), continued...

Astanga

I started working today almost as soon as I woke. After a few hours of productivity, I took the dog for a walk. When I got back, I started a bean soup on the stove and hopped on the mat. Soup practices are always great because the apartment gets warm and steamy.

I steamed and sweated my way through my short form Primary +3. Bhujapindasana is fast becoming one of my favourite poses again. I'm even entertaining the thought of adding a few more poses to my medley soon.

I've been living deep inside my head these last couple of days, sorting through different options and reviewing my finances. The bottom line is, April is going to be a spare month and I'm at peace with that. I had to make some tough choices, but the rent will be paid, I will have food to eat and money for transportation. And I'm doing everything I can to move forward.

In the midst of my practice, I was looking around my beautiful little apartment: at the books, my computer, my bike, my dog curled up sleeping on the futon. I was thinking about my family and my partner and my friends and students. And I was suddenly overwhelmed with a deep sense of gratitude for it all.

Nothing is easy but everything is okay.

Astanga

I squeezed in a quick practice in the afternoon before heading out for dinner and a movie. The weather has been touch and go lately, but today was spectacular.

Practice was short form of the primary with my added poses.

I was out on my bike in the afternoon, running some errands and it seemed like the whole world was out and about - entire neighbourhoods filled with happy, light-jacket-clad people, full patios and children on scooters and bikes. The joy that filled the air made for an almost 'festival' atmosphere.

Almost spring, almost!

Astanga

Adding three poses into my Short Form sequence has revitalised it more than I thought possible. To be honest, I wasn't even aware that I was bored with the short form, but I look forward to each of my +3 poses with eagerness. Bhujapindasana, in particular, I'm really enjoying.

This is a bit of an epiphany for me, in regards to the Mysore method. Although I'm certainly not following it, I can better understand it. It makes me wonder if I should continue to add in 'new' poses every couple of weeks until my Primary Series is 'full' again. It's certainly a fun way to build a practice.

And my practice today was fun. That seems to be the theme of the week. This is my last 'slow' week until June. My full schedule of classes kicks in next week (and thank God, I'm skimming the dregs of my chequeing account right now). I've been doing work around the apartment, catching up on finances, submitted my tax materials to the accountant and reading book after book.

I had my fourth guitar lesson on Monday. I don't feel like I'm making a lot of progress, but I'm sure I probably am. It's all incremental and I can't hear the changes because they happen so gradually.

Astanga

Guitar lesson #4 is this afternoon, so I spent the morning alternating between work and practice. I'm working on three songs right now and the first two are coming along really nicely, but the third involves a technique called 'finger picking' and it's not going so well. Need more practice. I think my right fingers need to do some vinyasa yoga to build strength and endurance!

Also, I've created a new Law of Kai. It's called the “Recession? What Recession?” law. I'm not talking about the stupid economy anymore. Specifically, I'm not using the economy as an excuse. For anything. There is no recession!

Today's practice was a new invention of mine I'm calling 'The Short Form +'. (I'm very inventive today, eh?). Today, it was the Short Form + Purvottanasana, Tiriangmukhaikapada Pachimottansana and Bhujapindasana. 45 minutes of bliss on my Manduka during which I thought of nothing else. Then it was back to work.

Astanga

We were awake by 5:30 this morning. It felt very odd to be up at that hour. Last year, I was a habitual early riser and I treasured my leisurely mornings. Over the winter, I got lazy. This spring, I would like to ease back into an early schedule. It makes everything so much easier because I feel like I have more of the day. Lately, I've been getting up around 7 a.m.

I went for a long walk in the park just after sunrise. During the winter months, I skate for exercise, but as soon as the snow clears I start my walks again. I have a favourite 45 minute route that traverses sidewalks, trails, city and forest, including a series of steep stairs up to the big park.

Usually, the stairs are difficult for me during these first walks of the spring, but not this year. I spring up the steps two at a time and I'm barely winded when I reach the top. I can only attribute this to my daily yoga practice, since I haven't really been skating consistently this winter and I do no other cardiovascular exercise.

When I got home, I did the short form. I was lazy, lazy, lazy and took a more hatha approach to the series with long holds and a leisurely pace. I teach a morning class and then I'm going to go to the farmer's market and run errands.

It's cold, but I plan to do this on my bicycle. I've been biking everywhere since the temperatures warmed to plus-zero. Like the walking, I'm finding biking to be an easy adjustment this year; I feel strong. I'm truly enjoying the outdoors and all this physical activity. Bring on spring!

Astanga

In January, I participated in World Yoga Practice Month to launch my Year of Doing Yoga Daily. As a daily participant of WoYoPracMo, I won a prize: A lovely OM candle donated by our very own YogaMum. The beautiful gift arrived in the mail this week and totally made my day.

Here it is, in a place of honour on my altar:


Today's practice was the short form. Yes, again. On the plus side, I seem to have settled into doing an Astanga practice every other day. It's working for me. Now, I just need to move it up to a full primary.

I'm feeling really tired today. I was up early and volunteering at the soup kitchen this morning. First time in a long time and it was great to see everyone again.

My low energy may also be due to the temperature, which has dipped back down into the single digits (and, Goddess-forbid, the minus digits). As I was biking to a class today, it actually started snowing. If garlic wards off vampires, what wards off snowflakes?

Whatever it is, I need some!

Astanga

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I celebrated by wearing a green necklace to the class. Practice was the short form and I played around with drop backs against the wall.

I taught one of my young students how to drop back today and it occurred to me how ironic it is that I can give all this great advice and guidance on how to drop back, but I still can't do it on my own. It's embarrassing. Part of it is due to an inflexible spine - I've never been bendy. Of course, there only one remedy to that: more back bends. But I hate them.

Really, really, hate.

It's so much easier to do the stuff I like - strength stuff like handstands and arm balances. Of course, I didn't previously enjoy hand stand either. It came with practice.

Harumpf!

Astanga

We're having a nice preview of spring! I took out my trusty little folding bike for the first time yesterday and again today. I headed downtown, riding across the university campus and through preparations for the St. Patrick's Day parade.

The range of participants was bizarre. There was a Chinese Dragon, the Falun Dafa (Falun Gong practitioners) marching band and Jamaican music on steel pans. Oh yes, and some Irish stuff too! Lots of green.

I continued down to the Sunday flea market and wandered around looking at stuff, then ate brunch at a funky little greasy spoon diner across the street.

After I rode home, I couldn't bear to be indoors, so I took the dog for a long walk, then grabbed my hoop and headed to the park.

The hoop is a new activity for me. I bought a folding hoop back in February and took one class (remember the bruises?), but I haven't done anything with it since. Today, it was warm enough to practice in the park without a jacket. My hoop was so pretty and sparkly in the sunlight!

I practised rotating the hoop both counter-clockwise (the direction most comfortable for me) and, less successfully, clockwise. Some people don't bother to learn both, but it makes sense to me to alternate between them. Interestingly, I found that it was easier to hoop in both directions when I focused on my breath - very similar to yoga. When I shifted my awareness to breath, my body seemed to know what to do.

I came home afterwards and did the short form of the Primary Series. I had a great practice! I felt so calm and connected to my breath. It was lovely.

Astanga

Okay, back in the saddle again. Between my Lady's, a rich brunch, a party with lots of cake, a dinner of sumptuous Thai food and a dinner party too decadent to describe, I'm feeling a tad pudgy again. And I won't mention the Mrs. Fields cookies...(oops).

I haven't been skating very much this month, even though the rink downtown is technically open for business. The ice hasn't been very good and I don't have a subway pass this month. I'm thinking that tomorrow might be a good day to re-launch my daily walks. Maybe the energy of my walking will hurry spring along because, really, it can't come soon enough!

Today, I resumed a more vigourous practice with the short form of the Primary Series. It's incredible how weak I can feel after just three days of restorative yoga. I could feel my energy levels climbing with each sun salutation.

Astanga

I did the Short Form, but it was really a perfunctory sort of thing because I'm teaching four classes today and still feeling tired from yesterday. Thursdays are generally a 'do what I can' day, and that's usually not much. I let myself off the hook for accomplishing anything important.

The highlight of my afternoon was laying on the futon reading a book and cuddling with the dog, then taking a nap. :-)