If you stabbed your own hand with your toe nail while jumping through in a vinyasa, then yeah, I guess it could be. Yeah, I’m clutsy like that. There’s no broken skin like last time… yes… this is not the first time I’ve been *special*, but the bruise is already starting to show.

So I made it to my mat again after a missed practice yesterday. As usual these days, nothing that special to report. I got my sloppy touchless vinyasa once again, just the one. Tried a few times to reproduce it and failed, just like the last practice.

Got my toes to cross in supta k… does that count? I’m guessing not. Got a wrist bind though, which slowly slipped away during the five breaths. Damned moisturiser!

I’m done for the day. I just want to kick back and fall into a coma. I almost didn’t want to come out of shavasana, but I was sweaty and wanted a shower, if not for that, I would have slept in the exercise room tonight.

I finally got a practice in, and not a moment too late. I was tired, grumpy and irritable all day, mostly likely from the long hours of work and lack of practice. I was almost not going to practice, but I couldn’t let myself have 7 days off, 6 days without practice was bad enough!

I was so glad I made my way to the mat. It was an awesome practice. Even had a mini-breakthrough! More on that later…

I knew from the long break between practices that I have to warm up very well and not go too hard or too far. I took it nice and slow with sun salutations and standing postures. I was more flexible than I thought I would be with so many days off. The hip was not bothering me at all today, except for marichyasana C, flexion-adduction still isn’t back to normal, but at least it’s feeling better. Lotus and half lotus seem to be fully back. The back is still a little tweaky, but no major ouchies during up-dog-down-dog transitions. I only had a little baby tweak during backbends, but I still managed my usual three.

Shavasana was very long and relaxed, no claustrophobia at all. Right now I’m feeling so relaxed, calm and centered, very aum.

Oh the breakthrough! I had my first, and so far only, touchless vinyasa! Talk about WOOHOO! The only problem was that it was very very very very very very very sloopy, but the feet didn’t touch the ground. I only managed one touchless jump back out of the dozens of vinyasas I did. I had to bend my arms on the up-swing on the way back and BREATHE for it to happen, oh and bandhas help too! I tend to then hold my breath while jumping back and I read on someone’s blog that their teacher told them to breath (I’d go find the blog again, but I’m too tired right now), so I’m working on breaking that bad habit of mine. Anyway, I have to be a careful with the bending arms during the second half of seated poses when my arms get tired, I forsee a face plant in the future!

Oh yeah, supta k… still not quite happening. I almost got a wrist bind, but I still can get my feet to cross.

It’s been ages since my last asana practice. It’s been busy, busy, busy with work. The 12+ hours a day is taking its toll on my body and mind.

I feel a little insanity creeping up, and if it wasn’t for the soothing tones of Pachelbel’s Canon in D major and it’s variations on the piano, I’m sure I’ll be a little closer to that line between sanity and insanity. I need to find more variations soon, 21.9 minutes just isn’t long enough for my growing insatiable appetite for Pachelbel’s Canon!

If I can get a good 2 hours worth of variations on the piano, I could theoretically practice with music! I usually like to practice in silence, listening to my own breath and with the minimal amount of talking. I find I’m more concentrated that way, and with more concentration, comes a better flow to the practice. I may make an exception with this tune.

If the lack of asana practice is teaching me anything, it’s the non-attachment thing. Or maybe I’m so fried I haven’t been able to “miss” practice… but now talking, or more accurately, writing about it makes me miss it.

I ended up observing moon day and no practice on Saturday.

On one hand I feel good that I observed the prescribed days off instead of letting myself indulge in asana practice, on the other hand, I would’ve liked to move the muscles, or more accurately, I would’ve liked to try supta kurmasana yet again.

Moon cake festival is coming up, also known as Mid-Autumn festival. This year it’s held on October 6th, 15 days after the 8th lunar month. It’s an Chinese festival, nothing to do with yoga, except for the calorie laden, yet delicious moon cakes. Mmmm… tasty, but probably not so healthy… not sure what it’s going to do to my practice! Actually, I’ve never really thought of how food affects my practice… Oh well, I’m going to continue to indulge in moon cake while it’s available (it’s only availabe around Moon cake festival).

And yet another indulgence, a new art-piece from TheBroth. I wasn’t going to include it as it wasn’t really “Yoga Art” but then I thought, hey, it’s a self portrait of sorts (Talk about not letting go of the ego… very un-yogic but hey.) and I do yoga… good enough!

There’s not meant to be asana practice today according to the Ashtanga tradition, it’s moon day after all, but I do feel like practicing some sort of yogasana today.

Mostly, I want to play around with supta kurmasana now that I’ve been informed to get the arms in position first before crossing the feet. I just have to figure out how to cross the feet without the use of hands or the aid of a teacher.

This makes me want to take classes again. I’d love to get some adjustments for supta k… not that I’ve officially been “given” the pose by a teacher, but then again, it’s my practice and I believe I’m ready for it. I’ve got solid wrist binds in marichy A and B, my hamstrings feel sufficiently stretchy enough for it and my hips open enough. After all, I’ve done it in two practices now and haven’t hurt myself in the process. In fact, my back always feels better after supta k.

That’s so weird of me… justifying my own actions about giving myself supta k when there’s no one to justify it to! But I do feel a little naughty for doing it, maybe that’s where I feel the need to justify my actions.

Oh who cares!

So anyway, I might be naughty and do some play yoga tonight.

I had a most excellent practice today. The flow was there mostly, except for the immense amount of wriggling in the self-given kurmasana and supta kurmasana.

I got my feet crossed (note: not ankles), but then couldn’t get my arms back behind me to bind. I also took a look at the numerous books I have, it looks like it’s actually possible grab the wrist. I’m not near the wrist, but I have a solid finger grasp.

So now I have to figure out how to cross the feet then work my hands behind me. I’m not going for leg behind head without a teacher present though.

The back is still going nuts at me in the up-dog to down-dog transitions, but it seems to settle down a lot after kurmasana and supta kurmasana. I can feel the erector spinae muscles along the right side of my spine all tensed up. Some muscles in the right butt cheek are also kinda tense. I’m sure they’re either causing, or a result, of the lower back pain/pinching I get in that transition.

I’m considering either see the physio again, or going for a remedial massage.

Not only did I miss practice yesterday, I “gave” myself a new pose today… ooooo… ah ma… how naughty!

I thought I’d give kurmasana and supta kurmasana a try, for “fun” and because there’s no teachers around to slap me on the wrist. I seriously wasn’t expecting anything resembling either poses, but I suprised myself. I got my feet off the ground in kurmasana, then, after lots of wriggling, I got myself into almost a kurmasana. Legs were firmly behind the shoulders, my fingers were making contact (!!! - is that considered being bound? Maybe it’s a finger bind?) but the feet were not bound. I couldn’t figure out how to cross the right ankle over the left. My heels were pretty much at the top of my head on the ground and the soles of my feet were touching.

My back was really acting up today with the up-dog to down-dog transition, but after kurmasana and supta kurmasana, they felt a whole heap better. I only managed to get through practice by lifting the butt up high before pushing back to down-dog.

Other parts of practice were not so notable, or if they were, I certainly don’t remember them right now. I’m still stoked about the kurmasana, supta kurmasana thing.

Oh yeah, I didn’t practice last night because of the finishing touches of a promotional video for that site I rave on about (TheBroth.com). I have to admit, I’m associated with the crew who built this great site… I donated my voice for the video!

YouTube chose a weird frame as the starting image… in case you’re wondering, that’s me in the starting frame too.

I shouldn’t have all those days off last week. I’m sore as hell again today, you name it, it’s sore! The biggest culprit today is the hamstrings.

Had a dentist appointment this morning and I’m not allowed to eat or drink for another 20 minutes… I’m hoping blogging will kill the time quicker because I need my coffee and some breakfast! I bought something sweet from the bakery and I hate not being able to wolf it down.

I’ve had two practices in a row now. Both have been in the evenings, not the morning practices I was after, but I’m sure they’ll come eventually! I couldn’t move again this morning, so I didn’t practice. I did some long stretches to wake up the body instead. I’ll get on the mat again this evening. I think I need to build up the stamina again before I switch to morning practices. For me, it’s better to practice in the evenings than not at all.

It’s funny how sore I am throughout the day, but once I jump on the mat, I’m fine… well, sort of. Yesterday’s practice was preceeded with about 15 minutes of stretching to loosen up the muscles, otherwise there was no way I would be able to do even the first sun salutation.

The practice itself is steady. I’m slowly working on all the poses I’ve missed, like marichy B. I’ve lost a bit of the progress I had with those poses so it’ll be nice when I can soften into them instead of fighting to be IN them. Ardha baddha padmottanasana feels stronger than pre-injury, but not as deep.

I got burnt ever so slightly in the solarium yesterday. I only felt it in shavasana, I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t practice and take shavasana.

5 more minutes until I can have coffee…

I’m so sore you wouldn’t believe. My EVERYTHING hurts, mostly my butt…

I couldn’t even reach my toes in uttanasana, I didn’t think I should practice when my body is screaming at me, “Are you [insert expletive] kidding me?”… and so I skipped this morning practice even though I was conscious at 7 am in the morning.

I’ll practice this evening instead. I think it’s that long break I had from practice last week, it’s reset my body’s coping mechanism back down to zero. I have to build up my practice again. Ouch!

I’m looking to go to a chiropracter. Maybe they can do something for my lower back since they’re “spine” specialists. It would be interesting to get a second opinion anyway.

Summer is coming up, although today you wouldn’t think so. It’s overcast, a little windy and rainy. Not my favourite type of weather. But summer IS coming up soon and I’d like to have a tan this year so I’ll be visiting the solarium to build up some colour. If I had more time, I’d go to the beach and bake. I look better with some colour, less like a nerd stuck indoors 24-7 either staring at a computer screen or yoga-ing… not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my last post that I did bhujapidasana twice. First I got chin down to the ground, but couldn’t hold it longer than 2 breaths and sort of “fell” out of it and squashed my nose somehow in the process. The second time was forehead to ground, 5 breaths. I also managed to kind of whip the legs around back to chaturanga dandasana without the feet touching the ground in between. Woohoo! It looked sloppy I’m sure, but we have to start somewhere.

I slept at 3 am last night, so a morning practice was a little too much to ask. I practiced in the evening instead, my full practice, and it was so good. My body is definitely more flexible in the evenings compared to the mornings.

I got to put my hand down on the ground in ardha baddha padmottanasana. First time in probably 2-3 months? I noticed I had to keep some muscles around the front of the hip of the lotus leg engaged or I’d get some discomfort. The same had to be done in ardha baddha padma paschimottanasana where I also I did the forward bend, otherwise the forward bends, standing and sitting, were very comfortable.

The lower back isn’t such a great story. Transition from up-dog to down-dog was causing some pinching again. I could only manage two backbends instead of my usual three. The lower back was just too uncomfortable and verging on painful, so I didn’t think I should push it too hard.

I tried marichy D. This was a little strange. I actually didn’t feel any pinching in the left hip that I expected I would have. Maybe it was because my right foot was in the left hip and I just can’t distinguish the pinching feeling from the pressure from the foot. Or maybe the flexion-adduction just isn’t as deep? I have no idea, all I know is that I could still wrist bind both sides and it felt familiar.

Headstand was a joke, I wobbled like jelly and I was sure I was leaning like the Tower of Pisa.

Oh and chakrasanas were really good, I can spring my feet far back enough to chakrasana straight into chaturanga dandasana, instead of needing to walk the hands forward.

And now I’m ready for an early night so I can practice tomorrow MORNING.