I got in two classes at Thrive Yoga this week: a vinyasa flow with Lisa Johnson and a hatha class with Marylou McNamara. Neither made me work up much of a sweat, but that was not why I was taking them. I was seeking to get back in the groove with my yoga practice after a two-week gap in classes: I did not want to overreach and aggravate one of my injuries or get a new one.
I have a heel spur that flares up when I am savasana. I think that some fatty tissue has moved out of the way in my heel or just worn down with age, and a little bony protrusion sticks out. When I let my legs relax, I put pressure on the bone spur. It does not make for a very restful restoration phase in my practice. It was really bad last week because I wore running shoes on the flight to Miami and it really irritated the heel. It took me two days of soaking it in ice, massaging and stretching it to walk without a limp. I can also feel how the heel injury affects the rest of my body and my way of walking.
I've also had some issues with my core, especially between my rib cage and hips. At my last class before my trip, I had something like back spasms, and afterwards a sore back. I don't know if this is due to not being able to activate the correct muscles or some other issue. It has not been an issue for the past week or so, but I am anxious about it resurfacing.
On a more positive note, I realize that restarting practice after a short layoff is a good time to work on form and alignment because my muscle are looser and willing to take new directions and angles.
In any case, both classes went well. I enjoyed just being in the now of the poses and flows. I trust both instructors and feel challenged by their lead.
Last night, the stars were aligned and I made it out of work before 6:00 pm, the Metro did not stall halfway home, and my wife picked me up on time. So I went to Thrive Yoga for a class of Hatha yoga -- you know, my remedial class. Well, towards the end of the class, I was seat on the floor with my legs spread wide and I noticed a strange feeling in my back, deep within the muscle tissue on my left side. I noticed that I did not have my usual reach. Then, the pain became more focused, and I realized that I was having spasms, seemingly at the height of my kidneys. I waited for it the pass, and then went through the rest of the final sequences ending in savasana. No problem, except for a little discomfort in my back.
This morning, the problem was more pronounced. If I carry my shoulder bag on the right shoulder, it hurts my back; I can sling it across my chest without any pain. If I bend over, however, the pain is most noticeable.
For the life of me, I can think of any pose or movement last night that set off alarms. Marylou, the instructor, takes a lot of care to work through a progression of postures to warm us up gradually. She has her own aches and pains, and wants us to avoid them if at all possible. The one thing is that we were working to loosen up the thoracic spin and rib cage, which I know is pretty tight in my case.
Add to all that a bruised left heel, stiff thigh muscles and soar sit bones, and I am feeling my age.
This weekend, I got in my two sessions of yoga at Thrive Yoga, with Dana Cohen, who has been subbing a lot recently. I also took a class from her last Thursday so I've been getting a steady diet of her brand of intense, burning vinyasa. Actually, my class today was hatha yoga and there was not a sequence of asanas in sight. Instead, we held poses for what seemed like an eternity and then came back to revisit the poses or variations repeatedly during the session.
I am trying to follow through on my intention of "not working too hard at my yoga." I am consciously pulling back from poses that test my limits, taking a modification. Even still, today, I was in Intense Side Stretch Pose (Parsvottanasana) and found myself tensing up my shoulders, unnecessarily. I know that I instinctively tighten my shoulders in many situations, from typing at the computer to driving, to pranayama. For the time being, I am taking my shoulders out of the shape in some poses, like Extended Triangle (Utthita Trikonasana) whenever I feel them tightening up.
Where I am concentrating my efforts are in my hips, especially my psoas. I am not really engaging them in many poses, and compensate by overusing other muscle groups. For now, I try to make sure that I am pulling my pubic bone up towards my stomach, the oft-repeated pelvic tilt formula that requires you to "pull down on your tailbone and up on your pubic bone." Because I could never seem to access the specific muscles to accomplish this rotation, it was all very abstract. Now, in practically every pose, I try to identify the expression of the pose and establish it in the hips first. What has really surprised me is that correcting my hip tilt also eventually results in a correction of my shoulders and thoracic spine.
I took my first Forrest Yoga class at Thrive Yoga with Christine Peterson this morning. I could tell that the routine has different priorities than your run-of-the-mill vinyasa class. We started out with core work, then moved on to inversions with emphasis on shoulders -- the rest of the class was gravy. Since this was the first Forrest Yoga class for most people, Christine had to do a lot of explaining and demoing so that we were all on the same page. Christine used a term that I had never heard before: "gravity surfing." This refers to transitions from one pose to another, say, Downward Facing Dog pose to Crow pose. It requires muscle strength, but you're using gravity to pull you into a pose. I don't believe that I did any surfing this morning.
This was the only class offered at Thrive on July 4 so it drew all the people who could not miss yoga, even on a holiday. We opened up both classrooms (sliding doors) to make room for everyone. A few new faces were there, as well.
While I've sensed that my hips have loosened up, I now realize that this more relaxed hold may apply more broadly because I could feel that my shoulders were opening up -- and also feeling more fatigued from the exertion. Christine had us soften our necks in a lot of poses, for instance, Triangle pose. Instead of looking up towards the raised arm, you allow your neck to relax and hang. As an over-striver, I instinctively lead with my head in a lot of poses. This Forrest Yoga technique will help me break that habit.
I am back from our Spanish vacation, even though American Airlines did everything possible to keep me in Madrid, including unilaterally suspending our return flight reservations without notifying us. I did not get many chances to practice yoga, though I did fit in mini-sessions of mindfulness. I did learn a lot about my body from the harried pace of trans-Atlantic flights, long drives and sight seeing. After spending four hours walking through the corridors of El Prado Museum taking in the masters of Velasquez, El Greco and Goya, I could really feel the fatigue in the small of my back and my lower abdomen. But I discovered that by leveling my hips I could feel immediate relief. I focused on keeping my spine balanced on top of my hips. Another confirmation that I have hyperlordosis from years slumped over a keyboard.
I have had to swear off the wheel or upward bow (Urdvha Dhanurasana) pose after 5:00 pm. Whenever I've done it at an evening class, I have been unable to get to sleep that night. It became to be one of my favorite poses because I've been able to get into the pose only the past year and every time I do it, I can go a little deeper. But it's just too intense for late in the day. It's as if I drank a couple of double expresos before bedtime, a jolt of energy. I substitute Bridge (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) pose, instead.
I have been paying closer attention to my breathing during my yoga sessions and meditation since I've regained some space in my nasal passages. It's almost as if I were breathing for the first time. I've noticed that what might appear a slight adjustment in my spine can result in a dramatic difference in the quality and depth of my breathing. As a person who works constantly stooped before a keyboard and monitor, I have a strong tendency to round my spine forward. That's the direction that my body is being pushed By keeping a small curvature to my lower back and a slight tilt forward of by pelvis, I seem to find the optimal position for getting maximum movement from my diaphragm, my rib cage opens up and my shoulder blades draw together. If I ever so slightly move towards a straight back (no natural curvature in my lower back), my breathing seems to start shutting off. It's almost as if my diaphragm got turned off.
Why is this important for me? Because I've noticed times in my practice when my breathing seems to shut down. I could never understand why. Now I think that in certain movements or positions, I lose form in my lower back and that triggers what seems like a diaphragm freeze.
I first felt the difference when I was seated in meditation. I usually sit on a block because I want to keep my knees below my hips. In that position, it's very easy to slip out of the correct posture because the back gets tired of holding the position and I start gradually slipping into rounding my back forward. I then sensed the quality of my breath as I tilted my hips forward (putting in curvature) and then released my hips to a lazier position. This has almost before a focus of meditation as I savor the quality of my breath depending on the slant of my back.
Labels: breathing, meditation, practice, spine
