It looks like the trip to the physiotherapist was well worthwhile. The physio seems to have the answer to all my aches and pains, gotta love him for that. After my detailed explanation of what hurts and how, he does a few movement tests with me and then says confidently, “This is the problem”. I like that, it instills confidence in me. Not that I didn’t trust him, he did fix my knee and lower back last time.

This time around the root of my hip and right, lower back problems seems to be tight gluteus muscle on the right side. The physio didn’t say which gluteus muscle it was, but judging by where it hurt when he pushed onto it, it was gluteus medius muscle.

It was knotted up like crazy and that tightness has caused a rotation of my pelvis, which is kinking my right, lower back and pinching my left hip. It all seems to be connected.

The left hip pain from drawing the left leg up and towards the medial line of the body, as in marichyasana C and possibly D, is caused the femoral head of the femur pinching the cartilage of the anterior hip socket. The pinching is causing inflammation and thickening of the cartilage, so if left unattended, it could be a serious problem. Fortunately, it’s been picked up early. Unfortunately, the only treatment for this is to stop the asanas that involve complete flexion and internal rotation of the hip. This means, no more marichyasana C and D for at least a week. Externally rotating the hip may speed up recovery, so I’m sitting crossed leg in my chair as I type.

Diagnosing the cause of the right, lower back pain was a little harder, but it does seem to be related to the right gluteus medius tightening.

I was given the choice between deep tissue massage of the right gluteus medius or acupuncture. After experiencing the rather uncomfortable pain while the physio was pressing on the muscle, I thought I’d go for the acupuncture. It was my first acupuncture treatment and it was interesting and amazing. Interesting because when the first needle went in, my “butt jumped” as the physio put it, without my conscious effort. I could feel warmth radiating down my right leg while the needles were left in for a few minutes. It was amazing because immediately after the treatment, which only took all of three to five minutes, the gluteus muscle was completely relaxed and my back felt instantly better. I was glad I went with the acupuncture.

Practicing with these two crutches wasn’t so much different. I talked to C about it as well and she said to back off marichyasana C and D instead of stopping them completely. I was consciously relaxing my butt in urdhva mukha svanasana, taking an extra breath when needed to re-train my urdhva mukha svanasanas. Got down on my forehead and up again in bhujapidasana without falling over but with a lot of wobbling. Shirshasana balance was good, held it for 20 breaths and could have probably held it longer. I felt like I had super-bandhas today, jump-throughs and jump-backs were quite controlled.

In general, practice felt slow and controlled even though I got through in one hour fifteen minutes.

I wanted to start a five to six days per week practice this week. I had been good and practiced on Sunday, but then Monday came along and there simply wasn’t any time to practice. I couldn’t get up early enough to do a morning practice and I didn’t get home until about 8:00 pm and I was too tired at that time to do anything. Even the thought of a super-short practice was too much.

I did go up into a half-headstand just to play around. It felt pretty solid that time around but I think I was forgetting to breath because M said I was going red in the face.

Oh well, today is another day and a four to five days per week practice is still good. Tuesday means shala practice day and I always look forward to practicing at the shala. I enjoy the energy of the place, especially when it’s really busy. Which seems to be quite often recently, must be the winter weather and everyone wants to “exercise” indoors.
I have an appointment with the physiotherapist in a few hours time. Going to have my hip and lower back looked at. I’m trying to “nip it in the bud” before the achiness/almost-pain results in a more serious injury, like last time.

Ashtangi.net is still down. Hope J can get it up and running again soon, I think I’m going through withdrawals and I can only remember so many blog addresses! No pressure of course (in case J read this). I know you do this as a free service for all of us and I appreciate it immensely!

I was almost going to skip today’s practice and indulge in some sloth and gluttony, and while I did indulge in gluttony (the sticky date pudding type of gluttony), I couldn’t bring myself to indulge in sloth and so I practiced.

Practice was average in most parts and good in others. I felt super-stiff and I think I’m starting to have aches in places that shouldn’t be aching (more on that later).

Bhujapidasana was one of the great parts of today’s practice. I got down on my head with little problems, and thanks to those great tips from Tiff and Yogamum, I got up without falling on my butt! It was far from a controlled movement, I was wobbly like jelly, but I held it together and got the head up and legs through the arms. That was the highlight of practice.

Shirshasana was good, bad and fun. It was fun to go up-side-down, and it was bad when I rolled over and squished my hands because that hurt. Despite the minor injury, I think it was good to take that fall because I overcame my fear of falling over in shirshasana. In fact, when I went up the second time around, I seemed to have better balance, it was as if a weight was lifted when the fear was gone.

The super-stiffness took extra surya namaskaras to ease off and even then I wasn’t as flexible as usual, but that doesn’t bother me so much anymore. The lack of strength is now the thorn in my side, I’m losing my floaty vinyasas, my feet seem to drag on the ground a lot more than usual. I’ll have to keep a mental note to engage the bandhas more. I’m also starting to hit the foot against the arm or hand again because the bruising on the left foot is back, another reason to remember bandhas.

I’ve also started to notice some achiness that don’t seem to be “normal” achiness. I actually started noticing a week ago, but I thought it could be “opening” achiness and that it’ll pass in a few days. The fact that it hasn’t gone away suggests this could potentially be a serious problem.

There are two areas of achiness. The first is the left hip. It’s uncomfortable when I do marichyasana C on the left side (when the left leg is bent up). It only gets uncomfortable when the hip is in that position; fully flexed and the knee tilted to the medial line of the body. I have no idea what is causing this and I don’t know how to correct it either.

The second area of discomfort is the lower back on the right side. I only feel a twang of almost-pain when I do urdhva mukha svanasana. I think I may be over-engaging the gluteus muscles because when I concentrate and relax the butt, the almost-pain turns to a dull-ache. I’ve been concentrating on relaxing the butt in urdhva mukha svanasana and it seems to work while I’m in practice, but the almost-pain is still there after practice, but only when I’m arching my back.

I’ll try to make an appointment with my physiotherapist this coming week. I feel these aches need some professional attention.

I had a short home practice today. Three surya namaskara A’s, three surya namaskara B’s, baddha padmasana, padmasana, uth pluthi and shavasana. I got that list from Ashtanga Oz’s David William’s Workshop post. Even though it was a super short practice, it still felt good. Shavasana was heavenly.

Moon day tomorrow, meaning no practice. I’m trying not to feel bummed because I wouldn’t mind a practice so I can try out those tips for bhujapidasana and shirshasana, but I’ll respect tradition and have a holiday. It’ll just have to wait until Sunday.

On a technical note, I managed to fix the CSS of Ashtanga Diary so it displays properly across all browsers.

I’ve been doing a strengthening exercise for my shoulders in preparation for shirshasana. I’ve always been weak in the upper body region so going straight into a full headstand wouldn’t have been a wise decision.

The strengthening exercise involved locking the fingers together, forming a triangle with your forearms so the elbows are under the shoulders (just like one would do for a normal headstand), placing the head in the hands and then straightening the legs, the butt up in the air and then lifting the head off the mat. It’s kinda like a adho mukha svanasana on the forearms. The above picture is the closest I could find to the prep pose I was doing.

I remember when I first started this strengthening exercise, I could only hold it for ten breaths and I was struggling, my shoulders would burn after those ten breaths. Jump to five months later and I can hold it for 25 breaths easily and no more shoulder burn either. So, it was time to transition to the next preparatory pose, getting the feet off the ground and finding the balance.

I had previously gone up into headstand at home while mucking around so I kinda knew what it would feel like, but I’ve always had a wall for support and I always used that support. I didn’t know how I’d manage in class without a wall (C doesn’t encourage us to use walls for balance) but it turned out okay in the end. The balance without a wall was tricky as expected, but with a few finger nudges from C, I managed to stay up with the feet off the ground for ten or so breaths. What I noticed was that I didn’t feel anything in the shoulders, but the muscles I felt working were the core muscles; the abdominals, oblique abdominals and even the back muscles. I felt really wobbly for most of my time up-side-down, but for a couple of breaths I could’ve sworn I felt that “sweet” spot I’ve heard about from others.

Like with anything new, I can’t wait to try it again.

The second head-to-ground bhujapidasana was better than my first attempt. I managed to get down relatively easy and even had the legs off the ground too! C came around to give me tips on how to get up and I started laughing again. It’s not so easy to engage the abdominal muscles to come up when you’re laughing, but I did manage to get my head off the ground and the legs through the arms but then I went *splat* on my butt. I got up, but I had zero control! Tiff and Yogamum have given me some good tips for getting up, so as usual, I can’t wait to try it again.

Baddha konasana was extra rewarding after that bhujapidasana effort!

Practice was super fast again, got through my Primary series sequence in one hour and fifteen minutes including an extra long shavasana. I think I like fast practices, they feel more dynamic than the slow ones. I also tend to take many more extra breaths when I’m having a slow practice, I often come through from a vinyasa and sit there wondering “what next?”. Having said that, I do enjoy a slow practice on occassions.

I’m really feeling the soreness today. Almost exclusively in my lats, I think I can attribute this to bhujapidasana. I’ve been doing the first preparatory pose for bhujapidasana; legs around arms, lock the ankles together, squeeze arms with legs, lift the butt up high. C got me to start getting my head to the ground (second preparatory pose - see the photo on the right). I managed to get my head to the ground, but then I couldn’t get up! I had to cry for help… or more like try to ask for help through my fits of laughter. I must’ve looked funny because the whole class seemed to stop what they were doing and look over at the giggling-bundle-of-knotted-up-in-bhuj chick asking for help to get up.

We have a split class on Wednesdays. C was teaching a beginner’s class while helping the Mysore practitioners. She was talking them through a full urdhva dhanurasana and most of the students couldn’t get it. Before moving on, she said something to the students that I hope they remember forever. C said not to be discouraged by not getting a pose the first time around. She had said the students who will get the greatest benefits out of yoga are the ones who are not be able to do asanas so easily. From the inability to “get” into an asana comes greater humility, one can work losing the ego more than the students who can do everything seemingly with ease. She said she’s become a better teacher by not being able to do everything because it forces you to learn more about the pose and therefore can pass on these tips to your students. It was so wonderful to hear that.

I was looking for more yoga clothing online and realised that when I shop for yoga clothing for myself, I’m a cheapskate. But when I see men’s yoga clothing, I see nothing wrong with forking out $60 for a pair of shorts or $45 for a top (Australian dollars, that is).

I only looked at men’s yoga clothing because M is starting yoga in a couple of weeks and he was concerned about what to wear. I tried to comfort him by saying, “Honey, no one cares about what you look like in class, don’t worry, just wear something non-restrictive and comfortable”, but I know he’s not 100% convinced. I’m thinking of spending a few bucks on buying him some nice, trendy, cool looking yoga gear, but then I thought I’d better wait until he actually starts classes. After all, he may hate it, I can’t imagine that, but you never know.

It was so full in class today. It’s been getting busier and busier recently. Tuesday’s class is a split class, half lead and half Mysore self practice. There seems to be more regular Mysore practitioners all of a sudden. The lead class is also getting quite busy. It’s not a bad thing, just something to get use to. I don’t mind being close to other students in class, but I can tell some are not as comfortable with it. I don’t care about mat invasions, but I take care not to do it to others in case they take offense.

I had a short conversation with another student just before class started. I’m such a dope I forgot her name! She said she was glad to be next to me because I do a lot more vinyasas than her. I’m not sure what that meant, but I took it as a compliment. We ended up being in sync for the surya namaskaras, not on purpose, at least not on my part. We must’ve looked like we were doing an aerobics class.

I think I missed a surya namaskara B, I might have done two instead of my usual three, but I’m not going to fret and feel guilty about it. I was nicely warmed up so missing one B isn’t such a big deal.

Practice was very good otherwise, it was very fast and had good flow. I finished my Primary series sequence in one hour and fifteen minutes, including shavasana. That’s the fastest I’ve ever done it! I’m not doing full primary, I’m missing a few poses here and there, but I’m doing most of it and I did every vinyasa this time around.

Oh, I just remembered that I fell down in ardha baddha padmottanasana again. This makes it about 4 practices in a row that I fell down in the same pose.

I wouldn’t mind getting a new pose soon. I’m too shy and scared to ask C for one though, I don’t want to offend her. I’d love to try supta kurmasana, even though I think I’m no where close to being prepared for it. Otherwise, garbha pindasana looks like fun, or should I say funny.

Oh well, I have a life time ahead of me so I shouldn’t be in a rush for new poses.

I think I’m going crazy. I’ve just finished a batch of laundry, consisting of mostly my yoga clothes, and in my insanity I’ve planned out my yoga “outfits” for the entire week. We’re talking top to toe outfits, from the undergarments I’ll be wearing to coordinating tops and pants. I even made sure the undergaments matched! I must be going insane, this is not normal for me.

I wonder what possessed me. I’m not known to be this organised in the clothing department. I might be anal about orgainising, filing and categorising, but that’s usually limited to work related stuff, holidays and bills.

Oh well, no use fretting about my little idiosyncrasies, at least I don’t have to worry what to wear for yoga this week.

It’s official, I’m diagnosing myself as being a yogaholic. I wasn’t feeling well and then I decided to practice and now I feel like myself again. Just like someone who’s addicted to, let’s say, coffee, once I got my “hit” I was feeling back to normal again. There goes the non-attachment to practice.

I still think I’m coming down with a cold, had a sore throat, slightly stuffy sinuses and was feeling “off” all day. I thought the “off” feeling may be because I was stuck indoors all day and was craving some sunlight, but then I realised it was because I missed moving my body.

It was a nice home practice. Physically, I wasn’t particularly strong or flexible, but the flow of the practice was really good. I even did the opening invocation out a loud. I usually do a silent invocation because I’m too shy to listen to the sound of my own voice! Crazy, I know, but doing the opening invocation out loud, by myself, for the first time, made me realise that I didn’t sound all that bad. It’s quite liberating.

Shavasana was excellent, it has been for the past couple of weeks. I may be falling asleep during shavasana, I just hope I don’t snore in class! There’s a guy in class who snores on occasions, but it’s rather cute when someone else does it.

Well, time to start dinner.

Woke up this morning with a sore throat and I can feel the sinuses building up. Feels like I’m coming down with a cold, but my appetite’s normal. I usually lose my appetite when I’ve got a cold. The only difference in appetite I feel is that I have sugar cravings, really big sugar cravings!

I reckon if I had practiced yesterday then I may be feeling better instead of worse. The heat generated during practice might have “burnt” off the nasty bugs. I’ve felt that before, when I thought I may be coming down with a cold and I go practice, not only did I feel better after practice, but the cold never developed further.

I’m mustering up the energy to go practice now.