Three Good Practice Days.

Now, my right glutes and psoas haven't stopped being achy at all but nonetheless practice has been good (if uneven) for the last three days.

Saturday I went to Carol's ashtanga class, where I have been Mysoring a full Primary for months, and there were about fourteen (!!!) people in there, which is crazytalk. The week before, when I subbed it, there were six.

Anyway, it was great. Yeah, still tight in forward folds and twists, but I was able to bind both Mari C's, one Mari D, I was able to do Navasana with straight legs, I did face-to-floor Bhujapidasana and simply touched feet in Supta Kurmasana, but really, everything was great. Three big pressup backbends and three dropbacks with standup-to-knees. I completely did not expect such a practice, but like I said last post, that's what happens sometimes when you never know what to expect.

Sunday, I usually don't get to practice, because there's family stuff all day and my class happens during child nap, so there's no free time, and that's fine, but I leap at a chance to practice if one shows up. J took C out all morning (I think because I had him all day Friday, which rocked; we went to the children's museum and the zoo, with a nap and lunch in between) and so I practiced standing, but then decided, no wait, Intermediate today. Just to try it out. I had to modify a lot (hi Pasasana, hi Kapo) and quit after a hard-to-breathe Kapo hang, but the backbends were still good. I got one standup out of three dropbacks and was pretty psyched. There was good humidity in the house and plenty of sweat; reminiscent of the days when I could get high practice days in the summer.

Today I began teaching classes at the art school again, but I teach at noon or later on MWF so there's room for morning practice (knock on wood that I don't have to do meetings and such at that time, right?). I drove C to the childcare center right next to school (1/4 mile away) and then parked, got in, set up, checked some day readiness email, and then went out to the neighboring park and practiced. Hip was tighter, for longer; standing twists hard, Prasaritas a big stretch for the hip, half-lotuses ok but difficult for the left leg (odd repercussion of the right tightness).

So I wasn't in love with Primary, but at Mari A began doing five-breath updogs, which really helped get into the psoas before the glute tightness snugs it up with tension and then I can't vinyasa or do Bhuja or any of that. Janu A B and C were great release, and I did up to Mari D which also was great release, as if the sitting down into it eased the tension. I wen to Pasasana at that point, because Navasana just irritates my psoas when it's worked up to begin with.

And Pasasana was wonderful. I sat down into it and the glutes practically said "ahhhhh"; it wasn't COMFORTABLE really, but it was great feeling tension ooze out of the musculature. Backbends, from Shalabhasana all the way to dropbacks, were fantastic; just what the asana doctor ordered.

I went up through Ardha Matsyendrasana and was able not only to bind it (which often runs away when my glutes go crazy) but to get that same tension release in it. I LOVE Intermediates like that; sure, the poses are hard, but even KAPO releases tension from my psoas and glutes and I come out of the series feeling like a million bucks. I went through phases in 2010, practicing at the northside YMCA; I'd do Intermediate and the outer hips would snug up from all the backbending, then I'd try Primary-and-some-Intermediate, but that made the psoas all antsy, and then I'd go back to Intermediate and it'd be marvelous again.

Perhaps that's the seesaw, but I know better than to prescribe that. This practice seesaws wildly, along with seventh series, and seventh series is not as easy as "do this sequence, then that one, then the first again." It's not nearly that binary, and really, neither is life.

So I'll feel out each practice and do whatever it is that I think the bodymind would find most beneficial (that sounds like vinyasa rhetoric, but I mean ashtanga sequences only: maybe I do Primary up to whatever point, and then some Intermediate, and so on). The key to doing regular practice with this right hip is to respect whatever shape it's in: some days more backbends, some days less practice, some days slower or faster, et cetera.