Possibly the longest time I’ve abstained from yoga: 2 week and 3 days.

I had a short practice yesterday, all of standing (minus parivritta parshvakonasana coz the left hip still doesn’t want to fully flex-adduct), Primary just up to and including janu C, backbends and full closing. It was very good, the back wasn’t really complaining much and I felt strong but started to lose strength and stamina by the time janu C came along.

Janu C was unexpectedly good both in the approximation of the pose and how I felt in the pose. I’ve been wary of it since I had a boo-boo in the left knee while coming out of janu C early this year. I’m still wary of the pose so progress has been slow. Yesterday was the first time I’ve felt quite comfortable in janu C AND could square my hips and bring the bent knee to 45 degrees AND do a full forward bend. It was kinda like the full expression of the pose, which I thought would take me longer to achieve.

Other than that practice was pretty uneventful.

Went to get a remedial massage yesterday and it was fantastic. Can’t praise it enough! I’m not completely back to normal but at least 80% better than before.

I got a lot of trigger point therapy, where they find knots in your muscles then press it really hard for about 30 seconds to promote blood flow into the muscle and loosen up the knots. I have a pretty high pain threshold for these sorts of things so the poor girl had the press really hard and hold the pressure for quite some time before the pain starts to subside.

I’ve still got heaps of knotted muscles, but there’s only so much the body can take before it needs a rest. My next appointment is right before Christmas, I’m already looking forward to it.

I put the massage ball I bought earlier this year to good use last night. Together with some painkillers I managed to get some sleep and the back is feeling better today.

I booked in for an hour long remedial massage tomorrow morning. That should get all the kinks and knots out of the muscles.

Still no practice, but I’m stretching daily. It doesn’t really make up for the lack of practice, but it does seem to delay the loss of flexibility. It’s mostly the hamstrings that I’m concerned with. I’m not even going to think about the loss of stamina and strength. I’ll just have to remember to ease my way back to my usual practice routine.

I don’t know what’s different, but that constant, mild muscle tightness along the right side of my spine suddenly jumped to quite a bothersome muscle tightness and progressed all the way up to the base of my neck. It’s driving me INSANE!

I tried to call for a massage at the closest sports massage center but they’re all booked out. I’m so very annoyed with that and now I’m at a loss at what to do. I’m in such agony. I’m not in pain but I feel so asymmetric it’s irritating.

I can’t even say it was something I did in practice because it’s been more than a week since my last practice, how lazy am I.

In other news, the concert I went to last Thursday was awesome. I lost my voice and got a good workout dancing, or should I say bopping, along to Kylie’s greatest hits. It was a blast.

I’m so bugger-tired today. Went to Kylie Minogue’s Showgirl Homecoming concert last night and had a blast. Woot at the top of my lungs until I had none left, sang along to virtually every song and danced like a monkey for a few hours.

The show was great, so glittery and sparkly and full of Kylie’s great songs, old and new. I think there was something ridiculous like 8-10 costume changes during the concert.

It’s not that I came home late or anything, but spending so much energy singing, dancing and yelling really takes it out of me. I’m not use to going to concerts, this was my first in about 10 years.

I’m hoping the body and mind wakes up by this evening so I can have a practice, I think it’s been a week since my last practice.

Man, that just felt like confession, not that I’m religious, or ever actually been to confession before, but if I had, I think it would’ve felt like that.

Ok… rambling a little too much today.

I haven’t felt like doing any Ashtanga. This always happens when I’m unwell and when I start thinking about Ashtanga again, then I know I’m well enough to practice.

My next practice will probably be Friday evening. Morning practice is still no where to be found for me, but I know when I’m ready I’ll make the jump again. I did like morning practices, no matter how much I whinged about it, there’s something about practicing with morning sun light that’s just refreshing and light. Not to mention that I was always less sore the day after with morning practices compared with evening practices. It’s the waking up part that gets me at the moment.

No practice tonight, not feeling well enough. No practice Thursday night, got a Kylie Minogue concert to go to, so Friday it is.

Standing only today. It was quick but it was good. Pulling myself out of shavasana has been difficult lately. Monkey mind has been jumping around too, but thankfully some focus on the breath and bandhas has been able to calm it down a little during practice.

The best thing about practicing at home is that I get to practice in underwear when I feel like it. Nothing like doing asana in a pair of boy shorts and a sports crop. Man I’m even too lazy to put on yoga clothes these days! Mind you, it’s summer and the room I practice yoga in gets really hot… not warm… hot.

I feel as though I’m lacking ambition in my practice. I’m happy just cruising through Primary series minus the 4 poses I haven’t been officially “given”. I might start adding them in when I have the time in practice, except setu bandhasana, I should wait for proper instructions for that one as I hear it’s pretty hard on the neck.

I’m wiped, it’s 1:30 am. I don’t know what possesses me to stay up this late at night.