Although my knee injury, operation and recovery have been primary concerns for my yoga practice, a more modest injury has been holding back my practice for the past two weeks. I jammed my left toe on a one-legged jump-back (my torn meniscus, by the way, is on my right side). When it happened, I barely noticed it. It made a sound like cracking your knuckles. In the evening, it start to swell up. The next morning it was black, blue and purple, and throbbing like mad. I made it to work, but saw my doctor the next day to make sure that nothing serious had happened. He said that at most there was a hairline fracture and there was not much that could be done: I should take some ibuprofen and raise it off the ground when seated, whenever possible. By the end of the week, the bruising had gone away (so it was no longer a source of conversation at yoga class), but it will take weeks to get back to normal.
Even though the injury is getting better, it is a major speed bump for my practice (not necessarily a bad thing). I now refrain from doing jump-backs and jump-forwards in vinyasas. When the toe jam happened, I was really feeling a rush in my practice, which may have caused me to be over-aggressive. I had gone to class four days in a row, and was starting to feel some momentum. Where the toe injury really hits me is with balance: the big toe plays a big role in keep the foot (and the rest of the body) level. It's probably better to rely more on the sole of the foot (the old "four corners" mantra) as the touch points of balance, but a jammed toe affects the foot all the way back into the ball of the foot and then up the leg.I went to Thrive again this evening, after giving myself 48 hours to recover from my first yoga session in four months. Tonight's class was with Elizabeth Pope, a new teacher for me, who joined the studio after I hurt my knee. She's been exposed to a range of teachers, from Kasthaub Desikachar to Ana Forrest. It was a good solid class for all levels so I modified most of the poses to concentrate on my knees. Where I really felt it was in my shoulder and upper arms: all the chararungas in the vinyasas were punishing me for wimping out during my convalescence and not maintaining my core strength. Elizabeth confirmed this conclusion by making us do multiple sets of abdominal exercises that left me barely able to lift my head and neck off the ground. I sweated profusely and had to take child's pose on several occasions because my conditioning has lagged far more than it should have, especially in the last few weeks when I was struggling with resistance to going to the gym and the studio.
Labels: balance, class, conditioning, core, injury, teachers
This evening, I was suddenly inspired to stand in tree pose (Vrksasna) as a preparation for heading to bed, a different meditative pose than I usually take. I concentrated on how my feet were supporting me, serving as the foundation for my limbs and torso. It made me sense viscerally what "four corners of the foot" really means. I could feel all four points on the sole of my right feet and the tension of strength that held them together. As I moved into the pose on the left side, I became aware that I was really not standing on the ball of my foot; it was more accurately a midline of the foot, thus turning the base into a narrower and, therefore, more unstable platform. I pressed more firmly into the ball of my foot and immediately felt the shift towards a broader base. As I've been running regularly over the past month, I've become more conscious of my overpronation and literally walking and running on the outside edge of my feet. Now I walk around purposefully pressing in the balls of my feet. That refreshed awareness paid off tonight in understand a structural weakness in my tree pose.
I've begun to notice changes in my body during my yoga practice. For instance, last night when I was in Warrior II, I was able to move my shoulder blades closer together and further apart independent from my pose. My arms felt lighter and more free. A month ago, my shoulders and scapula seemed to be one solid block of bone and muscle -- roughly the equivalent of a clinched fist. I've commented here before, about getting really fatigued in Warrior II because I seemed to be fighting against myself as well as gravity.
There are other small changes that I've discovered. To prevent myself from trying too hard, I used props as supports (a block under my hand in Half Moon, for instance) so that I did not go too far. I've tried to remove those artificial benchmarks and explore where my body takes me know. I've been surprised. Last night, I skipped the block in Half Moon and accepted the balance with my hand to the floor.
I've been rewarded for working on my balancing poses in the evenings by getting into a pose that has eluded me from the beginning: Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (Extended Head-To-Big-Toe Pose). On Wednesday evening at Thrive Yoga, Lisa Johnson led the class into the pose and I set up without giving it a second thought and lifted my left leg into the simplest variation, with the leg extended straight out in front. I was able to repeat the pose standing on my left leg (my less secure side for balancing). Of course, when I started thinking about it too much, I began to wobble.
For the past month, I've incorporated at least three balancing poses into my evening routine, holding them for long 20 counts, with repeats if I can fit them in: Vrksasana (Tree Pose), Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (Extended Head-To-Big-Toe Pose) in its easiest form, no hold on the toe, and Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III Pose) but moving into the pose repeated so that my muscles get used to the movement in my hips.
Why did I start emphasizing balances? Because I knew it was a part of my practice that is lagging behind the rest and it's been that way from day one. I've also read that developing balance stimulates the cerebellum, a region in the brain that links to cognition, mood, physical sensitivities and coordination. Oh yeah, and balance is one of the faculties that deteriorates in old-age.
