Author Archive
This thought started in class this morning. Picked up again after teaching my volunteer class. Culminated during a short second practice this evening.
Things in my life which have changed in the past few years:
my profession
my address
my mood
my marital status
my name
my employer
my favorite books
my favorite websites
my favorite music
my hair
my dress size
my voice
my brain chemistry
But I am still here.
Hmmmm. Those things must not be me, deep down. 
Got a little stuck in my head this morning, heading to class. Little up in my own grill, as it were. 
Kept seeing the worst of every situation, unnecessarily.
Created a change in energy, a little pattern break for a new perspective. Disembarked the T a stop early. Took a treat from Starbucks for a walk in Boston Common, along the edge of the swan pond. The pond is drained of water right now, but there are Canada geese roaming the crater & fat fuzzy squirrels squampering around. (That’s a contraction of squirrel & scamper.
It was enough. It shifted my state without doing violence to it or denying how I felt. Just a little nudge in a new direction, a beauty moment or two. The nice things that followed — teaching a good class (if I do say so myself , taking Vanessa’s fun fabulous Hip Hop yoga afterwards — I know I wouldn’t have appreciated as much otherwise.
I am working daily to acquiesce to the fact that the Universe runs the way IT pleases rather than in accordance with MY wishes.
Ohhhh, it was one of those mornings. It started at 0400 when I spilled my bedside water bottle all over the floor. And made a wreck in the kitchen working the morning libation. Then continued on with blowing the circuit breaker from various contraptions in the yoga room. Grumped over to the neighborhood Baptiste studio.
I have great affection for Baptiste — they have the HEAT & humidity thing just down, & a refreshingly no-yoga-snobbery attitude — but I’ve been loving my Forrest time because of the deep sophistication of the practice. But I just can’t get my room hot enough. The heat & humidity is doing wonders for my back. I love Back Bay because they have the bestest teachers in the whole world. But they can’t get their rooms hot enough either. My great wish during the workshop at New Haven & the recent teacher trainings have been to have Ana & a hot room for 2 hours every morning. Heaven.
Goldilocks can’t find the right porridge. Well, she knows what her favorite porridge is, but that’s just not available. And she keeps accicentally spilling all the porridge that is available.
It’s a pretty okay problem to have, I guess. Just means I really really have to acknowledge that whatever planning or controlling or scheduling I think I should do will always get soundly trounced & laughed at by the universe. Just need to take practice day by day, which is how it happens anyway, so really, why have I continually tried to fight it with imaginary practice plans & schedules & goals?
Point being, today I went & did my modified Forresty practice with the Baptiste-ites, & then came home & did the first 50 minutes of Day 3 of the Forrest 5 Day Intensive. Which worked rather nicely & therefore has me back fantasizing & scheduling & planning… OY!!
It’s a shockingly spring-like day in Cambridge. One of those days when I want to go out & roll around in the campus quad or something. Actually, that’s very easy in Cambridge — just a matter of picking your campus to loll around in!
Did 2 hrs of backbending to the Heal Your Back MP3. And an hour of goofing around with gentle stetching & the rolly ball. Play day otherwise. Heading back into the happy sunshine!!
Sheila Cat wanted a picture of herself posted again– “it’s been too long since my fluffy magnificence has graced the internet!” she squeaked… I don’t understand why the top is cut off. She has very nice, big fluffy grey ears in the original picture & real life!
I’ve been practicing at home for the past few days this week, mostly to prevent a tweak in a hamstring that is just signaling it wants to tweak. And of course I’m a big ole fan of heated yoga. I’ve had friends ask previously how I heat the room for yoga at home, especially friends whose best available practice room might be a drafty basement, & wanted to pass on the few tricks I use.
First off, I really can’t heat the whole house just to get my yoga space nice’n'toasty. Partly because we have old radiator heat here in Cambridge that takes FOREVER to bring the temperature up or down. And mostly because Beloved Husband barely tolerates keeping the house at 70 degrees & would prefer to live in a meat locker. So I only heat the room itself.
And the big key is, I heat specifically a mat sized area. Trying to heat the whole room (& it’s not a large room, small spare bedroom size) wasn’t working as well as I’d like, so I’ve targeted down very specifically. I have two space heaters aimed right at the side & front of my mat, about a foot or two away. Plus a humidifier. Let those puppies run for an hour or so while I work in the room or do so easy warm up stuff & it’s okay for yoga. Not as hot as I would like (it rarely is , but good nuf!
Practice today was a little warm up then Day 4 from the Forrest 5 Day. Tasty twisting.
Got some ideas to pass along for modifying for hamstring injuries. Especially upper attachment injuries, cuz I know those far too well. Had two beastly hammie injuries years ago that each took FOREVER to heal, hence why I stop immediately & treat any tweakiness in that area. So far it’s been quite successful! Did Day 3 of Forrest Intensive at home this morning & it was yummy.
Key thing: Do NOT be tempted to forward bend once you are warm & think it’ll be okay. Just AVOID forward bends until there is no evidence of tweak or any pain at all for several days, or even weeks if it was a serious injury. Try out these modifications to keep practicing & healing.
1) Standing forward bends: Do Chair pose instead. Hold it & skip the forward bends. You’ll get strong & get healing nutrients, blood & energy to the hamstring.
2) Seated forward bends: Bend the knee. And NOT just a little bit. Bend it entirely, fold the leg out of the way, substituting for example a cross-legged forward bend for Janu Sirsasana on the hurt side so you can stretch the back without any danger to the hamstring. OR for something like Paschimottanasana, substitute Bridge instead. Or Purvotanasana. Or Locust/Boat (boat for the Forresters). Like chair, those poses contract & heal the hamstring.
3) Splits: Avoid like the plague on that side. Do a pigeon instead. For standing splits or something like Utthita Hasta Padangustasana, do standing pigeon or get down on the mat & do a regular pigeon or Locust/Boat
4) Sun salutes/B Series: Skip the first part with the forward fold. I like to do my suns right now just from Down Dog stepping forward, & not even get near the front of the mat.
5) For Down Dog: Bend the knees, gently. A deep knee bend in Down Dog & agressive lift of the hips can actually put the upper hamstring attachment at risk. Soften here & stay aware.
Those are just some modifications. Things that are great for hammies include Horse pose, Standing poses with knee bent to a right angle, chair, boat/locust, bridge… and continually contracting at the sit bones to support that attachment.
Heidi Sormaz, my awesome mentor & the owner of Fresh Yoga in New Haven, told me at our first Mentorship program weekend that I use “ing” as a sneaky little repeat word. That is, each verb got “ing”-ed. It’s quite annoying to listen to, really.
Couldn’t figure out how that had happened, or where it came from, but worked to eliminate it & mostly have done pretty well.
Yesterday & today I’ve used the Forrest 5 Day set for very nice home practices. Even was a bit sore today! Gotta love long holds.
And the mystery has been solved.
Ana, bless her strong gorgeous self, uses “ing” on her verbs with great abandon on the 5 Day set!! These were recorded a number of years ago & she doesn’t have really any repeat words as such, or use “ing” unduly in any class of hers I’ve been in… but it does crack me up to have found the culprit, the root of how the egregious “ing” got into my teaching vocabulary!
A lesson to us all — you teach what you learn.
Practiced Forrest Intensive Day 1, 2 hr backbendy class at home today. Also went out & saw my volunteer peeps!
Had hoped to be out to take class, but was surprised yesterday by some emergent hamstring tweakiness at the upper attachment. Feels like a little strain/fraying almost right at the sitbones & is NOT a good thing. Had a strained upper attachment injury that lasted for, like, a year. Have been savoring the joy of healthy hamstrings & am completely unwilling to give that up. Hope is that if I take a day or two to heal — no forward bends! — it won’t turn from tweak to fullblown injury.
In Forrest, the basic rule for working with tweaky or injured hamstrings is 1) don’t stretch the affected hamstring AT ALL until painfree for a decent period of time 2) to help it heal, contract it. That means squeezing the area around the sitbones in my case, for example. Boats (also known as locust pose or salambhasana in other styles) are really good for hamstring injuries.
Okay, got the duct tape out for the computer one more time (figuratively speaking… or not… & have the chance to type up today’s sequence. I like poses that get people warmed up for Astavakrasana & also enjoyed mostly leaving out chatarangas. It was a small class with injuries that didn’t really go with traditional suns, so substituted going from plank to side plank to other side plank to down dog rather than a more standard half sun vinyasa between sides.
In other news, fell down the front steps bumpbumpbump like Pooh Bear yesterday morning on the way to class. Sneaky Cambridge ice at work again! Shook it off & kept heading to class, until I realized I had a long scrape on one arm. Going into a public place with an open wound is just bad form. Plus, sweat would really frickin’ hurt! So turned around for home & contented myself with a mellow home practice, rolling around on the Yamuna ball, & a nice back massage at an Aveda salon (coupon! score!) The poor masseuse had her work cut out for her — I had golf balls in my upper traps & sea urchins living under my shoulder blades.
Today I warmed up at the local studio for almost an hour, then taught, then did Vanessa’s fun Hip Hop class at Back Bay. Satisfying day!
Now, on to the sequence.
Theme: Come back to the breath relentlessly. Don’t be relentless in the pose but with the breath instead.
Props: Block, strap
Technique: Inner leg activation, arm balance, shoulder opening
Pranayama: Inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4
Supine figure 4 stretch
Twisted root abdominal, both stages
Bridge figure 4 (block)
Dolphin/Elbow plank/Side elbow plank/Other side/elbow plank center/dolphin
Child’s pose
Down dog/Plank/Side plank/other side/plank/down dog
Child’s pose
Rag doll
B series into:
- High lunge with chest opener & knee lowering up & down; twisting lunge
- WII; Triangle with half bind; Half Moon with half bind (block)
(always option to do side plank vinyasa covered at beginning of class instead of chat-style vinyasa)
Chair; twisting chair; step back into twisting lunge; Pyramid with back heel up; IT band Pyramid stretch
Crow pose
B series into:
- WII; Reverse; Extended warrior variation; option to full bind
Astavakrasana
Down dog into:
- Pigeon; Janu sirsasana; Shin-bound half lotus spinal twist; half lotus spinal twist (strap)
Savasana
Computer is no longer usable until those repairs I first bemoaned a week ago. Not able to type much until I get the computer back in shape to blog in a day or two. 