donutszenmom.com

When I started practicing yoga, I was rock climbing 4 days a week and going to the gym a lot. When I ditched everything else for yoga, one of the things I was willing to give up was nice abs. Well, not exactly willing, but I figured it was just part of the deal. If you don’t do leg lifts or crunches every day, or routinely hang on to handholds in order to haul your legs up a rock face, well, sculpted abs are a thing of the past.

I was past that, though, once the Ashtanga bug really took hold. The physical concerns were taking a back seat (where they probably always should have been, but oh well…) Anyhow, the past couple of years of practice have not taxed my abs. My hips have been realigned, my shoulders are still in process, my head is God only knows where (and no idea where it’s due to come out) but my abs, well, they’ve been left alone. Yes, there’s navasana, but that was never an issue.

So why are my abs killing me this week? I’m guessing it’s from deeper backbending, and from coming up from dropbacks. My upper abs, in particular, are really quite tender. From stretching? I guess that must be it. Now that I think of it, dropbacks involve a contracting of the lower abs, while the upper ones stretch like crazy. That’s kind of a new combo. Maybe that’s what’s doing it.

Or maybe some bandhas are being installed. That would be a nice surprise.