Sunday, November 29, 2009

Thumbs of Justice – Half Intermediate – Shoulder is GOOD!

In joyous holiday news, based on today’s practice, my shoulder is now FINE :-).

Saturday was a rest day. I got a massage from a dude who nearly made me scream/faint with his brutal thumbs. Sounds unpleasant but it was exactly what I needed. For the first time in maybe my entire life my traps are relaxed. Like completely relaxed. And boy did I earn it.

At the end we did the Flying Elbow Drop.

I lie on my side, bring the top knee to hip level and he takes the pointiness of his elbow and applies firm direct pressure into my glute/hip muscles. You know when you feel the muscles slide over themselves? Globie called this the “gloop-gloop” the other day, which is totally correct! After the initial near-fainting discomfort, I felt such a deep release it was like my leg actually detached from my hip. When I walked home my hips were all loosey-goosey and it felt amazing. Then today I had the snuggest/foldedest ardha baddha padmottanasana ever.

The shoulder pain has brought another level of awareness into my twists, and I think the new focus has actually improved them…oddly enough? I tell my brain to start the twist at the pubic bone (Bandha! Sthira!). This twist-from-the-pubic-bone thing came out of Darby’s workshop - forgot to mention it in my coverage. Now, twisting from the pubic bone may not actually be possible (I have no idea) but for me, at least bringing more of the twist LOWER takes a lot of pressure off of my shoulder socket and forces me not to overuse shoulder mobility in my binds. Of course, that’s what we’re supposed to do…but bad habits form. And this is one I am getting the hell out of. Even if it slows me down, I’m twisting properly, from now on.

I also get a zingy nerve pain in the right side of my back when I fold, been happening forever; I sometimes forget it’s weird. I am now determined to fill my entire chest with breath, expanding every goddamn rib and every vertebra, relieving whatever compression it is that is zinging through my little spine. Hard to tell if it is actually working yet but at least it's making me feel in control…in the past, I would feel the zing and back off, but I’m starting to realize that the zing has been happening for 5 years and kinda needs to be addressed. It is something that my practice should be helping – yoga chikitsa.

Shock of the day; I did my regular Kapo, that’s how good my shoulder was. I thought I would be weeks away from that. Did it up, was great!

I didn’t expect to talk so much about injuries and pain today, sorry y'all…I’m actually SOOOOO happy and relieved about my shoulder that I got excited to use my practice to address my ongoing back zinginess. I feel really positive about it....:)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great news, glad it's better.

KMB said...

Thanks Helen! I'm really relieved to be back on track...I'm counting it down to Goa in January, I will need to have some stamina for that.

Anonymous said...

Cool take your time, I'm sure you know that but sometimes we ashtangis can be a BIT keen? When are you off to goa?

KMB said...

Jan 15, lots of time! I will control the keenness though :-)

V said...

My back has kind of broken down - it looks like I might be good for Goa, but if not, it will still be wonderful: easy practice and a day by the pool, what's not to love?

KMB said...

Hi V - oh no, that sounds painful, how did you hurt it?

When I first read it through quickly I thought you said your back was broken, I was alarmed!! I hope that's not the case??

The excitement of this big faraway trip gets me a bit silly with anticipation...I need to relax. You have the right attitude. :-)

Sun, pool, beach and food...ahhhhhhh

V said...

Oh, I was just being overdramatic :-) I've been having some back pain for a few months now and a couple of weeks ago it got really bad, but the osteopath is working on it now. Should have seen him earlier instead of ignoring it and hoping it would go away!

I can't wait for the workshop either. I booked it so long in advance that I'm driving myself silly with anticipation.

KMB said...

It's good that you're taking care of it! It is nice to have a trip to look forward to...only 7 more weeks...