In the past two weeks I have practiced in the heat twice. They were my least satisfying practices since I returned from training. Following the sequencing and cueing of a teacher instead of my own body is growing more and more difficult. And the heat makes my body feel loose in a bad way. Flexible without the requisite strength for stability.
I have been surprised at how open my body can be even without the extreme heat. It takes a little longer to warm up, maybe an hour or 90 minutes instead of 20-30 minutes in a hot room. But after a longer warm up my muscles are supple without being loose. I can stretch them but they still feel strong. Also there is so much strength, balance and awareness that builds through the warm up postures. This is where I get to know my body, my mood of the day, my response to adversity. Today I practiced the half moon series a lot. I did three sets of lateral half moon against a wall to assure good alignment. Then I did two sets each of the backbend and forward bend. I can't figure out why Hands To Feet Pose is a spinal extension and not a rounding of the spine. After bending the spine to the right, left and back, wouldn't we want to bend it forward? But Hands To Feet straightens the spine. Today I experimented with a different Hands To Feet pose, one where I tuck my chin and put my forehead on my knees to round my spine. It felt more ease-ful and complimentary to the other bends. Also I did three sets of Tree pose before doing Toe Stand and Short Man. I have been babying my left knee because of soreness. It is feeling better, so today I added Short Man to see how things went. It was too stressful on my knee, which is sore again now. I don't think I have any ligament damage because there isn't instability in the knee. My best guess is that it is IT Band Tendonitis, a problem commonly associated with weak hips which I think I have. I need to try to heal the tendonitis while maintaining my flexibility and strengthening my hips.
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A new study suggests that thousands of people with a torn meniscus may be undergoing unnecessary arthroscopic surgery and that for many, options like physical therapy may be as good.
Read the whole article here. Excerpt from When Flexibility Becomes a Liability by Michaelle Edwards
Last year, approximately 400,000 people had their hips replaced in the United States—and most of them were women. Why do women’s hips wear out more than men? Excessive flexibility and weak stabilizing muscles are often the key factors leading to hip joint deterioration. Women have looser ligaments to allow the pelvis to open for the act of childbirth. Beyond birthing, flexibility can be a liability because the lumbar and hip joints must have strong and tight ligaments to keep the parts stable for proper joint function, and shock absorption during movement. All women should consider practicing strengthening exercises to stabilize the hip, and be cautious when doing hip ‘opener’ poses practiced in yoga and stretching classes that may be giving you more flexibility than you need, compromising the longevity of your joints. Longer is not better for your ligaments. Read the whole article here. |
This journal honors my ongoing experience with the practice, study and teaching of yoga.
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