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More folks finding my blog via Dansko-related searches. Today, “ugly square shoes.” Knock it off, you guys! Danskos are beautifully shaped and not square at all.

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Practice again with The Cop. He is on vacation this week, and I took today off. Couldn’t get the whole week, since it’s performance evaluation time and everything is crazy.

Last night, The Cop mentioned that he’s been having back pain. He was reluctant to say, because we recently bought a new bed. One that I picked. A hard bed. Anyhow, apparently he’s been having mid-back pain for the past month or so. Very pronounced first thing in the morning, though it tapers off quickly once he’s up and about.

I did some research and didn’t come up with much in the way of evidence that a hard bed causes thoracic back pain. Mostly I’m finding info related to lower back pain and soft beds. I did come across a site that talks about healthy sleeping positions, though, and it did note that when one sleeps on one’s side, the spine is supposed to be supported in a nice straight line. I don’t think The Cop is really cut out for side sleeping. He is very tall and slim, but he has disproportionately wide shoulders (which I quite like, BTW). There’s pretty much no way he would be able to lie on his side and maintain a straight spine. So back-sleeping it is. He is less amused by this experiment than I am. But it did bring his pain down from a 10 (on a scale of 10) to a 5 in one night.

When we got to navasana this morning, I pointed out — again — that we were half way through the series.

“Do you know why I’m mentioning that?” I asked.
“So I have an out?” he replied.

No, not that at all. It’s just that if he keeps doing occasional full primaries, it will always be a difficult project. On the other hand, if he does somewhat more frequent half-primary practices, he will be able to grow into — and learn — the series. I guess I am a traditional teacher.

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Are they called “Iyengis”? Is that the name for folks who practice with Iyengar and use lots of props? I have a prop problem. The Cop made note of how crowded the yoga room is getting. I have this, and this, and a crash pad for chakrasana. Plus straps and blocks and sandbags. And Swiss balls. And now this new favorite toy:

So beautiful! I was looking for a backless folding chair and could only find ones in the UK. I asked The Cop if he could just remove the back from a regular chair, and he did. I tried it, pronounced it delightful, and then said I might one day ask that he remove the rung between the back legs.

“The support?” he asked. “Uh, I guess I can do that.”
“You seem hesitant,” I said. “Do you think the chair’ll collapse one day with me on it?”
“Probably,” he said.
“Well then, why aren’t you trying to save me from myself?!” I asked.
His answer was simple: “I can’t.”

He knows me so well.

Anyhow, here’s one of my favorite chair games. It opens my shoulders and kills my triceps.

And here is another fun thing. First off, me lying over the chair in a comfy manner:

And here is me trying to figure out how to get my hands on the legs of the chair. Oh brother, that is SO not happening. More work to be done…

And last, but not least, I spent some time playing with the wall ropes.

[video 5841 w=400]

Fun. And my back is slooowly starting to respond. But geez, what about that part where I try to stretch my arms back and the internal monolog switches to, “Hey! My arms don’t go over my head!”

Oh well. It’s much more fun than being at work.