I thought I figured things out. Famous last words. My left hip is rocking out, loose and great. Right hip, not so much. Its unusually bound and weird and uncomfortable. Hell, I took half the day off yesterday based on this unusual weirdness.
Is it possible that I've learned out to stretch my left hip, and the weirdness on the right side was always there? Perhaps I'm just now noticing? Also, its possible that my horrendous "computer slouch-asana" doesn't help. I can feel weird nerve sensations across my back when trying to move if my shoulders are dropped. If I inflate my back and shoulders, the weirdness is gone. Getting old is lovely, ain't it?
Friday, June 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
5 weeks
It has been five weeks since I've been able to stretch my left hip. A travesty through and through. Children are starving in Africa, people without homes in China, and I am hyper-concerned about the mobility of a hip. A prime example of America's mercurial woes, but I digress.
Prior to working in New Haven, Ct in May 2008, I had the ability to move and stretch my left hip. I blame the entire municipality of New Haven, but thats a story for another day. The reality is I had to adjust to a new environment and was unable to maintain my daily yoga regimen.
At first glance, this situation reminded me of a recurring nightmare where I am unable to practice yoga for a long time and permanently injure my back as a result. However, this time away provided perspective into many my aspects of my life. The importance of maintaining a home practice resonated quite often, as well as my own need to be active.
Nonetheless, I'm now back in Jersey with 3 free hotel rooms at the Hyatt to show for it. With desire and dedication at all time high levels, I was able to move and stretch my left hip for the first time since May last night at yoga. Unfortunately, I was unable to assist another yogi at the end of class, which always makes me feel bad, because everyone should feel the love. C'est la vie.
More later on the hip movement discoveries...
Prior to working in New Haven, Ct in May 2008, I had the ability to move and stretch my left hip. I blame the entire municipality of New Haven, but thats a story for another day. The reality is I had to adjust to a new environment and was unable to maintain my daily yoga regimen.
At first glance, this situation reminded me of a recurring nightmare where I am unable to practice yoga for a long time and permanently injure my back as a result. However, this time away provided perspective into many my aspects of my life. The importance of maintaining a home practice resonated quite often, as well as my own need to be active.
Nonetheless, I'm now back in Jersey with 3 free hotel rooms at the Hyatt to show for it. With desire and dedication at all time high levels, I was able to move and stretch my left hip for the first time since May last night at yoga. Unfortunately, I was unable to assist another yogi at the end of class, which always makes me feel bad, because everyone should feel the love. C'est la vie.
More later on the hip movement discoveries...
Friday, May 30, 2008
I'm Back.
I'm back with perhaps much less eloquent posts. Not that anyone actually reads this besides myself. I digress.
The new focus of this blog is going to be the yogic healing of my f'ed up hip, shoulder and back. I need a record of my progress. I practice Anusara yoga, and will be using Anusara terms fairly often....like inner spiral, outer spiral, etc.
So where am I at? Well, I've figured out how to engage my left groin and left outer hip. In the Anusara world, we call this inner and outer spiral, respectively. Of course, there are MORE muscles that play into inner and outer spiral than these two, but these are certainly the major players. Of course the hamstrings and quads fit in inner/outer spiral too, but I don't have any issues engaging those guys on either side.
Also, I've figured out that I need to pull my left shoulder on the back, but pull my right shoulder slightly (and I mean slightly) forward, and then wrap around/back. Engaging my left rhomboid muscle properly is a gigantic mystery to me. So is the whole idea of kidney loop, but that's a matza ball for another day. For some reason, I like to over-engage my right rhomboid/trap, even if I'm only working on the left side. When this happens while doing Vathi on the leftside, I can't help but crack up. It's fun to fool myself.
So, the major kicker to at least getting my pelvis stabilized is to first get inner spiral on left -> outer spiral on left. At this point, I can now move both sides of my pelvis autonomously. This goes for relatively simple poses with feet facing in the same direction (i.e. NOT Warrior 2).
The new focus of this blog is going to be the yogic healing of my f'ed up hip, shoulder and back. I need a record of my progress. I practice Anusara yoga, and will be using Anusara terms fairly often....like inner spiral, outer spiral, etc.
So where am I at? Well, I've figured out how to engage my left groin and left outer hip. In the Anusara world, we call this inner and outer spiral, respectively. Of course, there are MORE muscles that play into inner and outer spiral than these two, but these are certainly the major players. Of course the hamstrings and quads fit in inner/outer spiral too, but I don't have any issues engaging those guys on either side.
Also, I've figured out that I need to pull my left shoulder on the back, but pull my right shoulder slightly (and I mean slightly) forward, and then wrap around/back. Engaging my left rhomboid muscle properly is a gigantic mystery to me. So is the whole idea of kidney loop, but that's a matza ball for another day. For some reason, I like to over-engage my right rhomboid/trap, even if I'm only working on the left side. When this happens while doing Vathi on the leftside, I can't help but crack up. It's fun to fool myself.
So, the major kicker to at least getting my pelvis stabilized is to first get inner spiral on left -> outer spiral on left. At this point, I can now move both sides of my pelvis autonomously. This goes for relatively simple poses with feet facing in the same direction (i.e. NOT Warrior 2).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)