Cyberry

Dear Gabrielle,

Just checking in: I have returned from my holidays, a week of which was spent at a BY retreat in the Italian countryside. Interestingly, I had little to no problem with dizziness or shortness of breath and it was wonderful to be able to do the yoga every day (even did two classes on two of those days!).

As there was no hot room, we practiced in the open air which, together with a correction of my breathing in Pranayama, is what I suspect made all the difference. I was also given a remedy called Ruta for my hamstring injury (still lingering) which I discovered upon my return also treats shortness of breath.

I have been to yoga once since I’ve been back and although I had moments where I had to sit down, it was not nearly as bad as previously. So who knows, with autumn setting in and humidity levels dropping and taking a few remedies, I might be back on track in no time.

Does it make sense to you at all?

C

Dear Springtime

I just wrote you quite a detailed response but lost it!!

In any event, thank you for your thoughts and kind wishes, much appreciated.

C

ahhhhh, I never reported back (although it was on my mind) and here I am still feel guilty about it 🙂
The stiffness: (wow, how I wish this was my only problem right now!!) It went away over time, partly because I started being more aware of my posture whilst sitting at my desk/s and partly because I abandoned the quest for greater flexibility and ’embraced’ what appeared to be my ‘limits’. 🙂
Whilst it made me more relaxed, I can’t say that it’s benefitted me in any other way, though. For a while this felt okay-ish but then suddenly my pratice took a whole different turn. To be continued in another post.

Hi Gabrielle,

Your thoughts, as usual, are spot on.

I sit behind a computer most of the day but the ergonomic set-up is pretty good. Since I last hurt my back I have also been paying more attention to my posture – especially to uncross my legs (I’m inclinded to sit eagle style with my legs – have been since I was little). Coincidentally this afternoon after I read your post I noticed that I had to correct myself quite a few times… So thanks for the reminder!

As for my level of flexibility, wow, that’s surprisingly difficult question to answer! I certainly work hard at improving it but I sometimes think/feel I’m not significantly more flexible than I was when I started. This is largely because I need to build it up over the course of a few days. Then I’m pretty flexible. But not more so than when I was still at school and dancing (which is ages ago but the memory is inscribed in the body, I think).

If I were to describe my practice I’d say I am able to go deeper into some postures than before, but I attribute this largely to improvement in technique, not flexibility. I think I might be providing more information than you asked for…:-) The only area in which flexibility has improved significantly in the last 2 yrs is my back.

The hamstring problem I had is definitely not completely healed – my hips are also slightly skew which does not help and can be quite discouraging.

Dunno whether this helps?

Look forward to hearing from you!

C.

Cyberry

Hi Gabrielle

Thought I’d give you some feedback even though there’s not much to report, I’m afraid!

The past few weeks of practice have generally been somewhat uneven.

The few times I managed a good standing bow – proper alignment and holding it – was not accompanied by the ‘bow and arrow’ feeling – except once I think when I also had a good backbend.

Suppose you could call it work in progress. 🙂

Good morning Gabrielle – early here. In answer to your question, yes I only get the bow and arrow effect when my leg is up high and I stretch my arm way forward. I think the reason I imploded was because I made a concerted effort to lit my chin to be parallel to the floor, and actually strained my neck to do so which affected my balance.

RE my previous post, I thought that focusing more attention to my backbend would shift and concentrate energy there, freeing my leg lift and stretch forward. Don’t know if this makes sense, it’s a bit hard to explain. It’s been going well lately with dropping the hip and lifting the leg but at a given point, when I drop my torso properly, I lose the chin shoulder alignment.

Regards,
C

Hello Gabrielle,

Thank you so much for your reply and yes! – it makes perfect sense! I have found that when I stretch/reach the arm forward the shoulder drops by itself, but so does my chin – not drastically but it does so almost ‘naturally’ – which is why I went along with it. I have not been to class much this week (flu) but once when I tried lifting my chin the whole posture ‘imploded’. mmm… As for dropping the hip – I certainly understand and agree that it’s very rewarding when you get this right. However it is also rather nice to lift the leg up high – and it helps me to stretch forward more (that bow and arrow feeling).

But I realise that even if a posture is set up well and feels rather good it does not necessarily follow that it’s also CORRECT! So, all things considered, I am inclined to conclude that the area I need to work on in order to ‘balance out’ this posture is: The Backbend!! I suspect that deepening the bend (with dropped hip) will allow me to keep that leg up whilst giving me the stability to reach arm forward, drop shoulder with chin placed correctly. Quite a challenge!

Forgive me for this monologue, but I just want to check – am I on the right track thinking the above? And if so, are there exercises to make a stiff(ish) back more supple?

OK, have a great weekend!

Regards,
C

Hey Amy,

In case you’ve been wondering why G. has been quiet on this – check under Poses – Savasana and post titled Final Savansana…

mmm seems like there’s a challenge lying ahead for me…:-)

Hi Gabrielle,

Thanks for this: I tried both kicking and hanging more this weekend and it worked wonders. It still felt a little sore though. At one point I felt I could actually kick more but had to hold back because I could feel the pain starting in my shoulders and down my one arm (inside).

I’m still experimenting and trying to adjust some more (I tend to lift my chest right from the start as well – instead of letting it be drawn up gradually), but I would not be surprised if this is a combination of tightness of the shoulders and using too much arm strength.

So, perhaps some exercises to open the shoulders up might also be beneficial. If you are willing to share some tips that would be great!

Many thanks as always,
C