What is the root cause?

Every yogi will tell you that they have a certain pose/type of pose they love to hate.  Mine are backbends…upward facing bow (urdhva danurasana*), bow pose (danurasana*) and cobra (bhujangasana*) to be exact.  When I first started practicing backbends (and struggled), I thought - wow my back isn't flexible at all!!!  So I kept doing the poses over and over again to gain more flexibility in my back.  It wasn't until later that I realized that the reason I found them so unbelievably tough was because I have tight quads and very, very tight shoulder/chest muscles.  (Read:  Sits at a computer all day, every day.)

So now that I have figured out the root cause (well causes - plural - in this case), I am able to work at improving flexibility in those areas in hopes that the amount of dread reduces when a teacher takes us into a backbend.  Oh yeah, this in theory should result in less injuries…minor detail ;)

Just sayin'.

Happy weekend!

*I love the sanskrit names for the yoga postures…that's why I include them.  This is my attempt to educate new/aspiring yogis…take it or leave it! :)

 

No rest for the wicked…but there should be!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I can't sit still.  You'll be lucky if you catch me relaxing on the couch for more than 5 minutes.  This is reflected in the style of yoga I practice.  A 7-day a week vinyasa practice I could not do without.  But…….then I hurt my back.  And it wasn't one of those "I did a yoga pose and then there was a searing pain in my back"…the pain slowly made it's way from my neck all the way to my low back (the quadratus lomborum for the anatomy nerds out there).   

Umm, ya, it sucked.  

I could barely get out of bed.  I wasn't sleeping through the night because every time I turned, I woke up because the pain was just too much.  So needless to say, it made things not fun.

What did I learn from all this?  Give your body a break once in a while…otherwise, it will get really mad and force you to take a really long break.  (Just to put this in perspective - I hurt my back on Tuesday…it's now Saturday and although the back is better, it's still not fully healed.)

So incorporate some restorative yoga or meditation or both!  Your body will thank you :)  Check www.yogaglo.com for some great classes!

Take what you need…and leave the rest.

When I first started yoga some 10+ years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!), it was all about getting the pose "perfect",which in hindsight, is probably the reason why yoga was an on/off thing for me up until about 5 years ago.  I would get frustrated with myself and give up.

Fast forward to today, having completed the 200hr Yoga Teacher Training program at Kula Oakville and attended several workshops led by Tiffany Cruikshank, Jason Crandell and Kathryn Budig I am caring less and less about how the pose "looks".  I have a regular 6 day/week yoga practice so in theory my poses should get better and better each day.  What I have come to realize though, is that every day your body is different.  Some days, I'll be able to hold Urdhva Danurasana (upward facing bow pose) for a good 5 breaths and other days I can barely touch my toes.

So what am I really getting at?  Your body may feel amazing one day and crappy the next.  Get therapy (physical or emotional) from the pose rather than worrying about what the pose looks like.  As I have heard Tiffany Cruikshank say many times, take what you need from your yoga practice…whoever is guiding you through it…and leave the rest.

Happy Sunday everyone!

m

Finally...

Well, after months of procrastination, I am finally getting around to blogging…shouts out to the My Daily Randomness blog and kathysmithyoga.com for giving me a small push (even though they don't know it) to get this going.

What's this blog about?  Well, mainly yoga…but I'm sure some non-yoga but related (and maybe even unrelated) posts will come up from time to time.

There are still some refinements to come but like they say, there's no time like the present!

In the meantime, enjoy!  (And remember to be nice!)

m