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.