Is This What Nerve Cleansing Feels Like?

Today's practice was interesting to say the least. I was excited to get on my mat this morning to give my shortened practice a try but it didn't seem that much shorter. Well that's sort of a lie. It did feel a little bit shorter and less physically taxing but I managed to somehow let my practice take up the whole two hours that I allotted myself. Something else for me to work on I suppose.

What I'm finding is that the back bends of second series aren't so physically taxing per se but after kapo and supta vajrasana I feel completely wrung out and I curled up into a ball on the front of my mat feeling nauseated after each pose. Supta vajrasana was especially fun today because I was on the verge of tears after I came out of that one. Oh and it took about 12 minutes for me to regain any feeling and sensation in my hands. I also felt like a complete failure doing that pose because I was unable to hold on to my feet at all during that pose. It seems like every muscle in my back is getting worked these days and it's reminiscent of how my hamstrings would feel when I was learning primary. Each day would be successively worse in terms of soreness in my hamstrings and my ability to fully execute most of the forward bends. I guess my back is the new hamstrings. The saddest thing about this whole situation is that my hamstrings still get pretty sore after each practice so it's not like the back soreness has replaced the hamstring soreness. I'm just sore all over these days.

One positive development today was that I only did laghu vajrasana once today. I got my head pretty close to the floor (it may have even touched at one point) and I hoisted myself back up fairly gracefully. I didn't give it another go in an effort to conserve some energy.

During assisted drop backs with JB today "we" walked my hands pretty close to my feet. I touched my hands down on the forth exhale and he had me stay there for a few breathes while he straightened out my feet. He then instructed me to walk my hands in some more and THEN he started to count from one. I used to enjoy assisted back bending with JB because it would give me a great buzz that lasted throughout the day however, today I just wanted to puke after all was said and done.

If there's one thing that this practice has taught me is that I know that in a few weeks time my body will adjust to these new asanas and things won't be so terribly bad but from where I stand now I'm in a dark dark place and I don't see the light yet. 

Ashtanga + Paris = Heaven

Friday will be my last day at work and I have about a week off before I start my new job. Instead on laying low during that week I impulsively bought a ticket to Paris. I used to live there almost two years back and still have many friends there and if I were still allowed to work there I'd be living there now. Needless to say I'm really looking forward to my trip. I leave straight after work on Friday. In addition to reconnecting with my friends I'm also looking forward to practicing at a different shala with different teachers. Of course there's the risk that I won't like the duo that I plan to practice with and that can put a damper on the whole experience. But then again the photos of the shala look amazing and sunlight with a tranquil zen garden. Today's practice was ho hum as I fought off nausea the whole time. It was my fault really as I probably should have stopped last night after my first cocktail instead of having three. There was no hand bind in supta kurmasana but my breathing was much improved and focused. I also think that my hamstrings are finally on board with this whole daily practice thing as I'm noticing them getting longer and longer by the day. I'm talking millimeters here but it's still progress so I'll take it. My old friend krounchasana seems like it may actually be doable one day. Pretty? Well let's not get carried away I'm aiming for passable at this point.

Humble Pie

It's been over a week since I've managed to practice any yoga. Tuesday's gimptastic practice up to janusirsasana doesn't count at all because I don't even think I managed to break a sweat. At the rate I'm going it's going to be one heck of a struggle to get back to where I was in my practice.

You see thanks to Irene I went out and bought all of these provisions in case of a real disaster however my provisions included things like ice cream sandwiches, chips, candy, cookies and wine. Even before the storm hit I was already snacking on the provisions and that snacking hasn't stopped since. Since I had already decided that I wasn't going to practice for the rest of the week I invited friends over to enjoy some wine on my rooftop deck several days running. So you see there's no way I'm ever going to be able to bind any pose in the primary or intermediate series when I am feeling well enough to practice. I'm also dreading how tortuous my return will be to my poor hamstrings especially since we've always had a pretty rocky relationship. From where I stand now it seems like it might be best if I give up on the whole ashtanga thing now because I know what will be in store for me when I return. Humble pie anyone? Why yes, I'd love another slice.


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Vinyasa-less Practice = Increased Flexibility?

I didn't sleep well last night so when the alarm went off this morning I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through practice. In an effort to help things along I purchased an espresso at my local Starbucks before heading to the shala. The caffeine hadn't kicked in by the time I got to my mat causing me to almost forget to chant the invocation. As my left hand/wrist has been tweaked most of the week I’ve cut out a bunch of the vinyasas  since Monday on the recommendation of JB.

Part way through seated I got this sensation as though I wasn't practicing in my normal body. I’m not sure if there is any correlation between my cutting back on vinyasas and my extra flexibility but I felt like elastic girl today. Forward bends were deep and effortless even from the first surya namaskars. I was touching my torso to my highs which doesn’t usually happen until after ardha baddha padmottanasana and it kept rolling from there. Wrist grab in paschimottanasana c, knee to floor in both ardha baddha paschimottanasana and janushirasana c. And the piece de resistance was an actual head touch on both sides of krounchasana with nary a hint of nausea to be found. I’ve seen minimal progress in that pose since I started practicing it and all of a sudden everything seems possible. Oh and there were several titibasana attempts at coming out of supta kurmasana.  On the first attempt I insisted to E one of the assistants that I just couldn’t do it. She told me that I had the strength and flexibility to pull it off and she asked if it hurt in my hamstrings. When I thought about it I realized that there was no physical pain or discomfort stopping me from doing the pose at all so I attempted unsuccessfully a second time.  For good measure I gave it a go one last time and I came much closer than ever to fully extending my legs over my shoulders. Once I was done I tried to simultaneously bring both feet back to bakasana position and I almost face planted but it was fun.

After all that fun I was curious to see what was in store in terms of back bending. After some press ups from the floor and a few attempts using the wall I got out my pile of four blankets. To my surprise I dropped back and came back up three times. I figured what heck and removed one of the blankets and once again I was able to drop back and come up again. Then I did it again and dropped back to two blankets and was able to stand back up. Being one to push my luck I removed the 2^nd blanket and attempted to drop back to just one and I didn’t get very far but I was ok with that because I’ve accelerated my 4 week plan by two weeks. And can I just say that standing up from back bends feels like magic? Oh and I don’t think JB witnessed any of it. Or maybe he witnessed all of it but didn’t want to say anything for fear of messing up my rhythm.

Practice can’t continue to be this good and I fully expect to get hit by the ashtanga truck any day now.

Friday Led with Full Vinyasa

Today was led class at the shala. For the record, I don't like doing a led class every Friday. We used to have led classed every other week but that changed a few months ago. I decided to take it easy today during class and to only vinyasa between poses and not between sides. I didn't want to irritate the already tweaky rib cage. This was all fine and good until JB announced that he wanted to do a little experiment. He wanted us to practice full vinyasa between a few poses. So basically my plan to conserve energy and to not over exert myself was completely tossed out the window. One of the things that I'm trying to work on in my practice is floating back. And while I'm still pretty far off I have made some serious progress in terms of leaning forward into my arms and bearing some weight there instead of just kicking back with brute force. Due to this new area of focus in my vinyasa I can't pass up and opportunity to practice my new technique.

To make up for all the energy I didn't conserve during my practice today and due to some unpleasant things that went down at work I decided to treat myself to a massage this afternoon. The massage felt great but I'm really concerned by the amount of knots in my back. As she massaged away I felt knot after knot after knot in my upper back and shoulders and I'm not sure if this is normal or just par for the course. Things do feel a little looser now but it's definitely not a cure all. I will most likely do a castor oil bath tomorrow to loosen things up for Sunday's practice. I'm pretty sure that any agreement that I had with my hamstrings has been nullified now that I've started practicing krounchasana. 

An Open Letter to My Hamstrings

Dear Hamstrings,

We've come a long way. Gone are the days of waking up and the act of just getting out of bed seemed liked the biggest chore. Gone are the days when it felt like bricks of lead were permanently attached to my thighs. I'm impressed, the progress is measurable. Hello straight legged paschimotadasana.

But as far as we've come (we've come a long way baby) and as appreciative as I am, I sill want more out of you. I yearn achieve the full expression of poses such as kurmasana, and padangushthasana. Instead of the embarrassingly pathetic excuse for those poses that I've been doing. I turn green with envy each time I see one of my shalamates easily glide into those poses with their cooperative hamstrings.

I've been putting in the work and I'd appreciate it if you would be willing to meet me half way. I've been working my quads really hard in back bending to give you a bit of a break and to balance things out. I go in the steam room after practice when I have time and I even splurge on massages when time and money allow. I'm not sure what else I can do but I am open to suggestions.

Yours truly,

UA