Friday, October 19, 2012

So I am driving home today. Turning to our small street, I am passing by a pleasant little house with a cozy front yard. In the front yard I can see a little white-haired old woman. Moving with a lot of grace, she is practicing with a sword - a real, big sword. Huh?

Monday, October 15, 2012

It was a long time since I was here. The current state of affairs is not very cheerful - I slightly broke my back in August 2011 (a hairline fracture of a sacral vertebrae). It took forever to heal, and I am not sure it has healed completely yet. Once in a while my back muscles kind of seize up, knotting into tight knots. These knots are painful first, but then they just stay, not really relaxing for a long time. Strong massage inflames them and they become painful again, so it seems not to be a good solution. Acupuncture did not help either. Anyway, this kind of sucks, because I could not really do yoga or much of any other activity for a long time. Result - 25 gained pounds and loss of much of the acquired strength and flexibility. I did do some of the yoga poses, but not much and not regularly. So today I finally did a full primary again. Feel great, but also very sad. My practice took a giant step back, to the level of a beginner. Lost most of my binds, especially in Marichiasana D and supta kurmasana. Twists did not feel good, so I tried not to push too hard. Urdhva Dhanurasana was pitiful, but I did not expect much. Was actually happy I could lift at all. Whew. But forward bends were intact, like nothing happened at all and there was no a year-long hiatus. I think I would have just stopped Ashtanga practice forever, thinking that I would re-start one day and never actually doing it. But what motivates me now is that I signed up for a teacher training and a Mysore week with David Keil in January. Now I need to bring myself into a semblance of a yoga practitioner. I just need to remind myself not to do anything stupid and not to re-injure anything. My doctor suggested also to add some weight training to increase structural stability of my spinal column and to balance the flexibility of the hips. Gold's gym, here I come! :)

 

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