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| for Sissy A full moon in Greece. (Photo: Associated Press) |
Feeling a lot better this morning, still a twinge there, enough for me to tell Boodiba in a comment early this morning that I'd probably practice the same modified 2nd series from yesterday rather than Friday Primary.
Strangely it felt worse after rolling around on the tennis ball, as if the ball had woken up the painful area.
Five minute Vinyasa Krama subroutine then on into the Sury's. if you saw my modified version from yesterday you'll see it took me five breaths to get the beginning of a forward bend. This morning I was pretty much straight down. Still backed off a little for the first few but all fine by the fifth such that I made a video at an attempt at a floaty one. Not quite there but coming back and didn't want to mess around taking another video to try and get it budokan.
Sound from the camera is a bit Pauline Oliveros Rachel, no?
http://youtu.be/DMCTxkFwLHw
Perhaps not
Standing was fine, proper twists in the triangle pose.
Standing went so well that I thought I might as well explore primary rather than the modified 2nd, hey it's Friday.
And it was fine, felt a little painful as soon as I sat in dandasana, there's kind of a compressed sensation, I'm going to throw illiac crest out there mainly because I like saying illiac crest
illiac crest illiac crest illiac crest illiac crest illiac crest illiac crest
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Was still unsure about deep forward bends but did all four of the paschimottanasana variations, OK as long as I stretched right out of my pelvis nicely, going to say it again, ILLIAC CREST? Is it pressing against something when I'm sitting, digging into the QL (quadratus lumborum) perhaps.
And so it went on, nicely through the Janu's, was worried about the marichi's as I suspected the problem might have started with the deep mari D on Monday, backed off, just a finger tip bind and it was fine.
Kind of hoped I might feel something in navasana which could give me the excuse never to do another navasana again but no, fine.
Decided to call it quits there and move on to finishing which was by the book, no problems, nice backbends but decided against dropping back and coming up, no need to be silly.
And at last after a week of pranayama on a bolster a decent seated pranayama and meditation practice.
So all's well, thank you for the concern and get better soon's
Always tended to practice on Saturdays and Moon days but going to take the advice of a friend and take Saturday off, walk in the park or go out for coffee, and Sunday is Supermoon, so why not take that off too like the good Ashtangi I'm becoming and rest up for a couple of days.
See I do listen.....sometimes.
UPDATE
This is very interesting, still don''t really understand trigger points ( although I was taught about it somewhat by the guy taking the Anatomy course on Ramaswami's TT ) but the identification of the area of pain is spot on in this article.
http://www.triggerpointtherapist.com/blog/quadratus-lumborum-trigger-points/ql-trigger-points-masters-low-back-pain/
UPDATE
Lower back pain came back, same pain, same place (the blue area in the picture above). Took Saturday off practice, sunday was a light Vinyasa Krama Inversion (headstand) practice, Monday was a standard primary but backing off on the deep forward bends a little as well as the twists. felt OK afterwards, perhaps a hint of where I'd felt the pain before but comfortable enough. The pain came back lunchtime after walking through town, uncomfortable all day but really painful after cycling home, rough night (Sigh). Did I say closure, spoke too soon.
16 comments:
Hurrah, glad to hear its feeling better
Hello,
I know it is not an immediate solution to your pain, but incorporating some of BKS Iyengar's method into your practice can have amazing benefits. I used to practice a form of Vinyasa yoga for several years, and while it did help me to build strength, become lighter and more flexible, I also sustained some recurring injuries that were the result of very subtle misalignments. My injuries were not so much the result of poor teaching, but rather the wrong type of movement for me at the time. Years of poor posture and misuse of my structure settled in and I had to spend a lot of time undoing some of those frozen habits. After 3 years of Iyengar practice, I'm starting to slowly move back into Vinyasa yoga with much more awareness and integrity than I had before. On another note, thank you so much for this and your other blog on VK. Your research and dedication to the material is such a blessing for us all. I hope that your practice helps you become aware of the root of your pain soon.
Peace, David
With Peace, David
Strangely enough I was having lower back pain also that was muscular not skeletal. I too had to lay on a tennis ball on my lower back and buttocks and work the muscles until a friend of mine showed me a different trick. The technique she showed me was laying over two soft yoga blocks. One supports the head and one creates the lower back bend. For some reason my asana practice was tightening my lower back making it spasm but now I do this exercise sometimes several times a day and it just opens everything up. For me it was more effective than using a tennis ball for deep tissue massage. Sometimes I have to do this before the finishing series of postures in primary. I seem to go through a loosing up and then tightening up of my back during practice i've never had back issues before doing asana practice but I guess its the awakening of muscles i've never used and them fighting back.
Thank you David. I was exploring some Iyengar a little while back an occasional John Schumacher audio class. i was enjoying them, can't remember why I stopped now, will start up again. I really should visit the UK Iyengar institute too, something else I've been meaning to do, to supplement my regular practice. Thanks again and for your kind words.
Thanks Brad, will try that block thing, sounds interesting
Not related to this post, but came across this article and thought you might be interested in it if you haven't already read it:
http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/466
Tempted to buy Sjoman's book now.
--Nick
If I recall you mentioned at one time that you have osteoarthritis of the spine. Try researching the terms "osteoarthritis," "tonic muscle," and "spine" in Google. I have a hunch it's all tied together and it is (one or more of) your vertebrae that is really at the root of your pain. Careful.
The sound's definitely a little...something! Nice video :-) Rachel
Thanks for the article link nick, haven't seen it before will give it a proper read this evening. I have Sjoman's book, put it on your Christmas list or Birthday present to yourself, nice to have and an interesting read.
Will have a better google later, just skimmed through a couple of articles earlier. I'm wondering if it was a result of the last months messed up practice. Was ill with the throat thing and then the rash so was doing lighter practice for much of the month then went back to deeper mari D or the dwi pada entry to Supta K a little too soon perhaps. The spine thing i usually feel the other side, but may well be all connected, compensating for the right side by doing more work on the left.
Anyway feeling a lot better, full Primary this morning, backed off just a little on the twists and forward bends, see how it goes.
Ruddy annoying is what it is Rachel, trying to make my ujjayi a little louder to get the rhythm of the breath picked up by the camera across the room and there's all this whirring and screeching covering it up.
Getting interested in Pauline Oliveros, thanks for the heads up there. Couple of videos of her playing accordion that I really like but can't seem to find an album of her playing it.
Thought maybe it was your ujjayi ;-) Hmmm...I've been meaning to check her out properly. I use her book "Deep Listening, A composers Sound Practice," occasionally in the odd improv workshop I run. It's usually the hippy dippy element of the workshop, but it's nice to find a meditative approach (so important for improv (for me at least)) that's actually put forward by a musician so as not to scare anyone off! Sorry to hear about your back worsening again. Hope you get it sorted. If you lived a bit closer I'd tell you about how I need bodies to practise on for my sports massage course!
There's a nice article about PO here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2012/may/07/guide-contemporary-music-pauline-oliveros
Lower back pain came back, same pain, same place. Took Saturday off practice, sunday was a light Vinyasa Krama Inversion (headstand) practice, Monday was a standard primary but backing off on the deep forward bends a little as well as the twists. felt OK afterwards, perhaps a hint of where I'd felt the pain before but comfortable enough. The pain came back lunchtime after walking through town, uncomfortable all day but really painful after cycling home, rough night (Sig. Did I say closure, spoke too soon.
Thanks for the nice article Rachel, like the sound of your hippy dippy workshops. Have PO"s book on my wish list on Amazon. Back pain has come back if it sticks around, if it continues I may well offer my body to sports science next time I come up to London.
I agree with you Grimmley and also think that the lower back pain keeps coming back after a short while until you cure it properly with the help of physical therapy or chiropractic care.
Update on this post, back pain turned out to be Kidney Stones, should have guessed, see this post http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-way-back-six-weeks-off-regular.html
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