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.