David Roche, Day 2: Agitation, Smells, Psoas

Practiced with an agitated mind today, which made for an unusually wobbly standing sequence, especially in Parivritta Trikonasana, Parivritta Parshvakonasana and UHP. Seated was much better. I’m starting to be able to touch the chin to the knee in most of the seated postures, with the extended leg kept straight. Never thought this would happen.

Skipped the vinyasas between sides and did three assisted hangbacks with Ms A, but only after being prompted to do so. My back is still sore from yesterday’s experiment and with Led Primary tomorrow, I want to save some juice to last through that. Woke up with a cranky piriformis which I think is a result of all the driving I did yesterday, and in backbending, felt the same “wooden board” sensation that Pakistani Ashtangi describes in her latest post. When I spoke to Ms A about it she thinks it could be a result of the psoas tensing up, that I’m letting the pelvis tilt back too much when dropping back without keeping the abdomen engaged enough. She showed me an exercise to stretch the psoas out – sit on the edge of a solid table, lie back and bring one knee to the chest while keeping the other leg engaged and hold for a few breaths, then switch sides. Because I don’t have a solid wooden table to practice on (and my kitchen counter isn’t big enough) I’m going to try it on the bed and see how it works out. She also said that doing really deep lunges before practice would help stretch those muscles out, but will demonstrate them on Sunday.

No adjustments from David today, which is kind of a bummer and a relief too I guess. Got the usual adjustments in Prasarita C (head to the floor, yay) and Supta K from Ms A. I guess if I want to get more adjustments I’ll either have to arrive earlier or later, or get a spot right smack in the middle of the room, among everyone else. I’m not so hot about the latter. Practised there yesterday and the smells from hairy sweaty men and their Mysore rugs were so nauseating that I had to stop practicing a few times and bury my face into the facetowel that I had wisely perfumed with a few drops of lavender oil. Or risk running to the bathroom to retch. Yes, I am very sensitive to smells, and yes, it is that bad. Do people wash their Mysore rugs at all????

Led Primary tomorrow. I hope (a) the back eases up by then, (b) I get a spot on the edges of the room and (c) I survive it.

Psoa update: Just did a couple of stretches on the edge of the bed, and ohmygod, that right psoa sure needed to be stretched! I did about 4 stretches each side, holding them for 5 breaths each and really pressing the knee into the chest. The back feels a little better, not as sore to the touch. I then spent 15 minutes massaging the piriformis with the tennis ball. It was so painful I had to laugh, but at least it’s not as bad now. I think Ashtanga is turning me into a masochist of sorts….