Will I ever be able to do Side Crow?

In life,  we all have our nemesis..    The black spy had the white spy.     Sherlock Holmes had Professor Moriarty.      I have Side Crow.

Side Crow requires you to balance your body lengthwise across  your bent arms.  It requires arm strength,  balance and a good degree of flexibility in both your shoulders and hips.    I had never been able to do it and thus avoided it in my regular practice and never gave it much of a chance.  

After a discussion with my Yogi friend Larry about my struggles with this pose,  I decided to spend concerted time working on it to see if I could really do it.    After watching a few videos and taking a few head plants  (you can't catch the gnarly air without taking a few face plants dude) and spending a few weeks working on the pose ,  I was able to finally succeed in holding for a few seconds and now can hold for 5 to 10 breaths (with some difficulty).  It is not easy. 

What is important about this success to me, is that fact that I have again gone back to focusing on working on challenge poses.    For a long time, my home practice has consisted of following pretty much the same two or three sequences and was as much of a workout as a yoga practice.   I now take one practice day a week,  shorten the flow part and then work on something that I struggle with.    In this way I am improving my general crow pose,  working on firefly  (now that would be a miracle) and finally got to do a successful  (though with much room for improvement) side crow.  

Little gains happen every day in a Yoga practice and sometimes big ones happen with some perseverance and a lot of effort.

Namaste.

Post 100. A vegetarian lost in the land of Waffle House and Cracker Barrel

Post 100.  It sure is hard to write these. 

So..  Here I am in a hotel in SE Tennessee..   Across the street is a Cracker Barrel and a Waffle House and neither excites me with their culinary offerings (in fact I have never stepped any of their ubiquitous locations) as a perusal of both of their menus shows a cross section of the unhealthy food choices that many chain restaurants offer Americans.  Their menus feature the factory produced meat focused diet that our nation is famous for.   Even some of the  vegetables at Cracker Barrel have "meat flavoring" on them that one has to be careful to avoid  (but since I have never eaten there,  I have had no need to avoid them) 

So, how is a vegetarian to survive in the midst of all of this dead animal product offering?   This is always the challenge when I travel for work.   Unless I am in a place where their are enough vegetarians to warrant either dedicated vegetarian restaurants (like New Jersey and surprisingly Kansas City) or restaurants which feature a dedicated vegan/vegetarian menu in addition to their meat oriented one,  then eating becomes a game of picking and choosing what to eat.     The biggest challenge is to find a good source of protein without having to resort to too much cheese (or no cheese at all).    

On my current trip,  I have been here for  four weeks so I have to been both creative or restricted.  Every morning at breakfast,  I am pretty much forced eat the same exact thing  (the hotel offers breakfast).   Black coffee, whole wheat toast,  my own peanut butter (the Smuckers offered has unneeded sugar) a banana and a pile of grapefruit and pineapples that the nice lady who takes care of us every morning makes.    There is some cereal and instant oatmeal but neither excites me.     There is also the magic waffle maker, but who knows what is in that batter.  My guess is the souls of dead puppies. 

The factory that I have been working at has been  actually a good source of vegetables  (though usually overcooked) and they have a decent salad bar with beans and such and, to my surprise,  they mark some items as vegan and the cook tells me what is in everything so my big fear of having nothing to eat at lunch  (factories are not known for their culinary variety) was allayed. 

Dinner is pretty limited.  Many restaurants have nothing but salad and fries and my best real options are an Indian restaurant 25 miles away and one local Asian restaurant with a small vegetarian menu.  The Indian place is really excellent  but going there is a bit of a hike.   Most nights I give up and just get the best frozen option at Publix  (watch out for the salt on these) and make a big salad.   I really do not mind that because I can then work my meals around my Yoga schedule.  Thank Shiva my room has a fridge and a microwave.     I tried Olive Garden (desperate times mean desperate measures) and boy did that suck.   I mean really really bad.   Pizza places are  pretty ubiquitous (and the one I tried was very good)  but I only want that much cheese on a rare occasion.   

I am more than looking forward to returning to being able to cook my own food and controlling my intake but I am surviving.   I just wish I could get a good plate of pasta and fresh lightly cooked veggies with beans and garlic for dinner tonight.    Oh well. 

Namaste.

There is always something to learn in your Yoga Practice..

I took a Yin class a few days ago in my home away from home studio in Cleveland, Tennessee.   The class was small and very intimate. The best thing was that  the teacher had the right demeanor for a Yin class and was very knowledgeable.   The fact that she was passionate about Yin was a big plus.

Yin is designed for long holds of poses (3 to 5 minutes is the norm).    The  poses apply moderate stress to the connective tissues ( tendons, fascia, and ligaments) in order to increase flexibility.    The practice is very slow and deliberate and generally is only done with seated and lying down poses. It is a great counterpoint to a rigorous practice.

In addition to introducing a pose that I was not familiar with, the instructor stressed  that we should go into our poses until we meet initial resistance.   After that, we stop and breath ,  and then slowly fold into the pose until we reach a level of discomfort  that we can withstand for the balance of the hold time.   I really had not thought  about how to best get into a pose (except that one should not force yourself down)  and this way really hit home with me.   It is something that I have added to my Yoga toolbox.

Every time I practice,  I learn something new.   A new pose,  something new about a pose that I have done a thousand times,  something new about myself.  Even standing in something as familiar as Warrior 2,  I still learn something   How to better hold my arms, keep my shoulders relaxed,  remembering to go deeper,   understanding my limits.     

This constant learning is why I love going to foundation classes.    Many teachers break down poses to their component parts,  and thus I understand how I can better do that pose.    A few weeks ago,  the instructor focused on the being cognizant of where your hands and feet were and making sure that they were actively engaged in the pose.    Because of this ,  I concentrate about making sure that my hands remain open and my feet are where they should be.    Additionally,  I also constantly do an up and down scan of my body making sure that everything is where I think it should be.     That little tip really has allowed me to increase my focus while in a pose.  

Namaste..

Second Anniversary Post - Drishti.

Two years and nearly 100 posts later.   The muse is still with me though thinking about what to write is the hardest part of keeping this blog.


In yoga, Drishti is a point of focus where the gaze rests during a posture and meditation practice--gazing outward while bringing awareness inward.  Drishti is especially useful in leg and arm balances but is important in all asanas.  For balances, focusing  your gaze on a spot on the floor or wall or ceiling helps  you keep your balance as you are not looking at your feet  or other Yogis and you are not distracted by outside influences. Additionally,  the gaze aligns your head to the best position it needs to be for the balance.  For example,  in Warrior 3  (a one legged balance pose) ,  I used to look at my feet and would struggle to keep my balance.   When  I moved my gaze out to the floor about 3 / 4  feet in front of my feet,  my balance improved greatly.   

Drishti also has the added benefit of helping focus during all the asanas your practice.  In Ashtanga Yoga,  each asana has a prescribed Drishti.     This allows the mind to focus not on the surroundings but on the pose and on what is going on with your body during that pose  (are my legs correct,  are my shoulders straight,  is my back too bent etc.) .  When your mind and body are working together,  your practice is so much stronger. 

Constant application of drishti develops single-pointed focus not just on the mat. When you restrict your visual focus to one point, your attention isn’t dragged from object to object. Without these distractions, it’s much easier to notice the internal wanderings of your attention and maintain balance in mind as well as body.    This can be important both in life as well as Yoga.   And that is what our practice is really all about.



“You are not able to behold me with your own eyes; I give thee the divine eye, behold my Lordly yoga”: Bhagavad Gita

Namaste

Joining an "On the Road" Studio

Over the next four or five months,  I will be spending a good amount time in Tennessee so I checked out the local   (and there is only one in town) Yoga studio because weeks of practicing in my hotel room did not excite me too much..     They offered a $5 "Night Owl" class that lasted almost 2 hours  (what a bargain) that really taxed me physically and Yogally.    The class itself was very physical and the instructor had us do some poses that I had never done before.    Seeing that I was trapped in town and seeing that it was the only Yoga studio in town and seeing that it fit my needs,  I bought a 10 pack pass (which gave me 11 classes) for $100.    

So here I am,  a wayward Yogi in a new land.  When you go to a different studio,  you immediately notice differences from where you practice normally.   Some are small and some can be big. Do they provide towels?  (no),  is there chanting?  (thank God no),  are there blocks?  (yes but I bring my own).     One thing that was very different is that Shavasana  (final relaxation),  lasted at least 10 minutes.   In the first class I took,  the instructor went from person to person rubbing our forehead with scented oil and then placing what I thought was an ice cube but later discovered to be a very cold stone in the middle of my forehead.   It did a good job of making sure I did not drift off to sleep.   In the second class,  he had us lay on your stomach and he then placed a cool sand bag along our lower back.   This actually felt real good  but it was unexpected as we just finished a really hard balancing sequence.

Classes seem to be well timed  (and are longer than my studio's) so I can make 2 or 3 a week if I want to and if I can drag myself out of work..    





So a second Yoga home:  5ive Points Yoga in Cleveland Tennessee..

Namaste..

Back Pain / Injury

A few weeks ago,  I came down with a cold that knocked me out for a week. I had no energy to practice so I took the week off.  After I recovered,  I went to a foundation class at my studio and felt really good.   The evening of the class, however,   I started having  pain in my lower left back.  I am not sure if it was the class or just something that I did at home,  but for 4  or 5 days,  I had to watch what I did and in the morning for two of them,  it took me a while to straighten out and to be able to stand up. 

It appears that I slightly injured my left Quadratus Lumborum (QL).  The QL  a pair of small muscles at the base of your spine.  These muscles attach the  the lower spine, ribcage and pelvis. The QL are involved in lateral spine flexion -- when you bend at your waist to either the left or right side -- and in waist rotation, when you're twisting your waist from side to side. They also stabilize your pelvis and lumbar spine.  In reading about them (there are two) , I discovered that this muscle is one of the major sources of back pain.   For myself,  it was making it very hard to bend backwards when I woke up and it always felt good to do a reverse back bend once I warmed up.   I also made sure that I was sitting where I was not leaning over as this exacerbated whatever I did to myself. 

QL in Red

What was very interesting with this back pain episode versus prior to practicing Yoga was the fact that while I had discomfort much of the time and some stiffness in the morning,  I generally was not debilitated.  I was able to walk pretty well and even stretch and twist.   Some movements were painful but the fact that I have general body flexibility allowed me to compensate for the pain and stiffness.   It could have been much worse as I remember having back spasms and back pain on a regular basis.    This was the first time in 3.5 years of practice where I had more than muscle soreness in my back.

Because I practice yoga and this injury could have impacted my practice,   I decided to figure out what my problem was and how to correct it in the future.    Based upon what I have read,  it seems that I need to work on strengthening my QL.  I do a few exercises prior to my normal practice where I do stretch these muscles so my focus has to be on working on  QL strength.     This is something that I will have to incorporate in my general core practice. 

What I also think about is the fact that I am not immune to injury.   I am getting older and I need to worry about overdoing things.   I still do not know what caused this problem,  and it may have just been sitting at the computer too long.   

Namaste. 


 

Poses in our least favorite category...

At a Sunday morning class a few weeks ago,   we had to do a series of three Locust poses.   Locust requires you to lie on your stomach and to lift your legs and chest off of the ground.     It can be intense to hold because it really stresses your lower back muscles.

Locust

Our instructor had us hold the pose for 5 longish breaths each time.   For each pose,  she had us change our arm positions.      When we were done,  my neighbor said to me "I hate this pose".   My feelings are a bit less hateful,  but I cannot say that it is a pleasant pose to hold. 

This got me to thinking about poses that we like more than others and those that we do not like as much as others.     Locust is never a pleasant pose because, for most of us,  we have weak lower backs and the pose focuses on those muscles along with other core muscles.   What I believe , however,  is that many of our "least favorite" poses are the ones that we do not do as well as others and many of our "favorite poses" are the ones that we do well. 

My thougths on this subject is that if you struggle with a pose,  then that pose needs more focus.   The reason we struggle with poses are mostly lack of strength,  lack of flexibility,  or lack of balance.  By working on those poses where we have issues,  we work on those weaknesses that are the basic cause of the dislike.

For myself,  I really had issues with Seated Wide Legged Forward Fold during the early part of my practice.    This pose requires you to sit with your legs wide and fold forward. 

Seated Wide Angle Forward Fold

It was very frustrating to find myself barely being able to fold at all.    I dreaded when an instructor had us do this pose because I felt  I was getting nothing out of it.    It took a ton of effort  (doing a wide fold with my legs on the wall for example) to be able to start being able fold forward.    Now I am able to move forward enough to put my elbows on the ground with a goal of eventually having my whole upper body on the floor  (with about 1% change of success for that) .   It will never be in the favorite pose category,  but at least it is out of the least favorite pose category.

Lately , one of my instructors has had us do a core exercise where we lie on our backs with our legs pointing up and then having us drop one leg down about 30 degrees toward the ground (with the other leg pointing up to the ceiling).  It is most challenging and I just do not like doing it as the pose really stresses my lower back muscles.    Instead of just dreading the pose, however,   I have incorporated it into my general core routine.   It may never move out of the least favorite pose category,  but at least I am trying..

Namaste..