Blog on the Lillypad
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
 | Yoga! Yoga! Yoga!
Big progress on the Yoga front. The teacher suggested I try two nights a week instead of one. Adding a second class really interferes with the rest of my life, which was moving at a pretty brisk pace already. And yet after putting in an additional class, I am making better progress. Last night I started to get into the downward facing posture in a more efficient way. Instead of simply perching in the posture and trying to stay in the position, I realized that I have to force the weight to the backs of my legs to get the hamstrings and tendons to stretch the whole time I am in the posture. |
This increases the stretching quite a bit. It also makes the posture easier to hold. In each lesson, the teacher will tap along my crooked back as I hold some of the spine lengthening postures. She taps the same points each time, measuring the degree of deformity in the ribs of my right side. They stand up quite a bit from the spine. Last night she told me that the height disparity is decreasing as I maintain the postures now. At first, she could actually see the unevenness of my spine, but now the muscles are unbunching around the deformed ribs (which will never be made straight) and elongating.
This is actually a small start. I have months of training ahead to even be able to hope for a significant limit to back trouble. But even now I can shave my legs again in the shower, paint my toe nails, and wear flat sandals, none of which I could do a month ago. My bad back prevented all of those minor things. Bending or stooping it to the floor was incredibly risky, and my back required a lot of support in my shoes.
Yoga two nights a week has necessitated that I cut back the gym work from four mornings a week to three. It's still safe and wise to do the core body exercises at the gym and use the stability balls for stretching my back. But all this running around to do physical exercise is taking a huge bite out of my time. It seems that I am always either working out, washing/drying clothes, or packing up my gym bag for the next session. I live in Raleigh, work in Chapel Hill, and the gym is in Durham (next to Chapel Hill) and the Yoga classes meet Thursdays in Durham, and Mondays in Raleigh.
| Yet it's all progress. To be able to sit and write, or sit and read a good book is a wonderful treat. I am coming along in one of the other postures, again helped by my legs: the bow pose. You lie face down and raise up by arching your back, then grab your ankles and rest on your naval and hip bones (if you can). We do this one more than halfway through the class. I can hold both ankles and lift to an extent, though not yet to the ideal degree. Yet even done imperfectly, the posture seems to revitalize me (perhaps because it seems to open up the lungs), even though the back lifting exercises before it are exhausting. |  |
 | We had three men in the class last night, and they are all pretty butch guys. They made the most noise and one of them even whined a few times as he tried to hold a difficult posture, but their gusto in attempting the postures was admirable. My math teacher friend was there. She did the crow position just right and held it for nearly two minutes. I was very impressed. I am still in the newbie version of the crow, just resting my weight against the backs of my forearms and keeping my feet on the ground. |
