Leg and Neck Stretch

I woke up not in the best feeling today. Scheduled in a run but body (or mind) wasnt feeling up to it. So I started with Dice's surprisingly very gentle leg flow, aimed to stretch the hips area to release stress. I didn't really feel any difference (my work problems are still there) but I do feel better, just knowing that I've done something to release the psoas and hip flexors. It was a lot of lunges, variation of lizard pose stretching to the side, virabhadrasana 2 with reverse virabhadrasana that burns the legs. Some utkatasana variation, and happy baby pose. It climaxes at the pigeon pose. Which was done a bit differently.

Then I continued with Tiffany's shoulder and neck stretch, which was INTENSE. I do not know what is it with her classes - they make me fidgety and uneasy. I guess because both classes I did with her was on the shoulders and neck, and obviously those are the body parts of mine that have the most issues (disc herniation   at C5 and C6) and carry the most stress. The side neck stretch, particularly on the right side was torturous. I surrended earlier in the poses than I would have, it was that uneasy. It wasn't painful or excruciating, I just feel uneasy. I kept imagining someone slicing through the exposed, stretched part of my neck. How's that for creeping myself out of the pose. She mentioned something really nice along the class, trying to keep our attention from the effort. She said something about having the option to take the neck out from our attention, and focus on other body parts instead. And when you let go of the tension, choose not to acknowledge it, it disappears. How right... but somehow this time my inner discomfort won.

 I've also decided that I'm going to pare down my Ashtanga for the next one week. I'm going to do a simpler version of no chaturanggas and skipping the bhujapidasana if I felt like it. My left infrasupinatus and teres minor still are achey. Really sore. Sometimes they burn. and tingle.

 Anyway, good classes today. Those two are my two favorite teachers now.

Crazy weekend classes

It's been one crazy weekend of yoga. I thank my internet connection and the access to many awesome yoga videos.

 Saturday morning I did a crazy standing flow class with KB. It was supposed to warm me up, and it did, but it was mild. Lots of warrior one and two, half moon, lunges. I continued with a one hour session with Jo T, who uses the word rhomboid as a key in her class, so I was expecting lots of upper body workout. But it was mostly just forward bend, janu sirsasana, some lunges and sun salutations. It's different, but what I loved the most was the slow gradual buildup to stronger poses. I felt tired, without really sweating much.

 Then I decided to go for a yoga class. I expected thst it would be a vinyasa class today but she changes her schedule every first saturday of the month. So it was actually a full primary series led. I was on my period! Did not see this coming. But I ended up doing the whole practice except for the finishing sequence. It was actually awesome, and I was veryyyyyyy tired. I think I might have compromised my chaturranga due to the tiredness and I could feel the front of my shoulders a little bit sore. But what I hate the most about going to a class is how easy my ego gets in the way, especially when I am the  most 'advanced' student/ I hate it when that happens. Because it is very hard to keep my mind focused on NOT feeling the ego. This is hard because I came from a background of sports where you should feel your pride and that churns you on. Also I noticed how short I've been holding the poses for. We did the class with david robson's gentle drumbeat and his counting is superlong!! But it works. I feel like I've been cheating on myself a little bit with the short 5 breaths. Need to breathe longer.

 Today I woke up to a crazy 30 flow with KB. It has a loooot of lunges, with one leg downward dog and pike (she has us kissing our knees hehe) and crescent pose. The crescent pose was crazy aweosme... and tough. Lifting my whole body up, lifting my chest up, it was all I could do not to explode from the sheer effort of it. Oh I always have a hard time with my upper backbend. It was a very challenging class! It ends with eka pada raja kapotasana, but by that time my psoas were screaming. I did not even remember how my upper body felt like because my hips were on fire.

 I finished with a nice 45 minutes of shoulder opening poses with Tiff C, who looks a whole lot like Natalie Portman. She's just too pretty. With her earrings and all. Her shoulder openers were intense, and I couldn't really settle, found myself squirming left and right just to ease of the mild intense sensation on my supraspinatus and infraspinatus, especially when I arranged them in sort of a cacus arm and played with the angle.

 Anyway, I'm kinda hooked with how good yoga makes me feel. I'm so glad I got crazy over this.