Trolling YouTube for some good passive stretches for the psoas, and I came across this vid that:
1) Actually simulates a stretch the chiro did with me.
2) Includes the quote: “I’m only gonna show you on one side, because you’re not idiots.”
3) Offers some hilarious advice on where to get relationship advice.
A lovely Christmas with the family. My Dad had the pleasure of sharing bourbon with not only his daughter, but also his granddaughter. It’s kind of sweet. My Dad enjoys having a drink every day, and he particularly likes that I drink bourbon with him when I visit. And last night, My Gift joined us for the first time.
Bonding over booze. Nothing like a family holiday.
Seriously, though, it was all very nice — the humans ate, laughed and exchanged gifts, and the dogs got along well.
***
I went to a new chiropractor this week. I wanted some help sorting out what I figured was a sore QL. It only bothers me in kapotasana, urdhva dhanurasana and dropbacks, but those are the postures I am most interested in these days, so I wanted to see if there was any need for an adjustment. I can feel that the pain is related to some kind of subtle twist in my hips (and, by default, spine), and I don’t want to let it go unaddressed, since twisting torque is not the body’s friend.
My initial consultation was pretty funny. I had to fill out a sheet that asked how bad my pain was on a scale of 1 to 10 (I said 2). I had to indicate if the pain affected any of a long list of activities (answered no to all of them, since “affects asana practice” wasn’t an option). And I had to indicate whether the pain was constant or intermittent, and qualify the character of the pain (“searing,” “stabbing,” etc. — there was no option for “makes me want to skip to closing poses”).
So then the chiro did some kinesthetic tests.
“Touch your toes,” he said.
I put my hands on the floor.
“Any pain?” he asked.
“No.”
“Bend as far back as you can,” he said.
I did a hangback.
“Does that hurt?” he asked.
“No.”
I lay on the table and he pushed my leg toward my face. Started laughing as it just kept going.
“Most of my patients would be screaming before I got their legs perpendicular to the table. Does this hurt at all?”
“No.”
He tried external hip rotations (a half lotus and then pushing down on my knee).
“Anything?”
“No.”
He did an assisted backbend stretch that was similar to dhanurasana.
“No pain,” I said.
He looked at the info I’d given him and said, “I’m having a hard time understanding what we need to do here.”
I explained that if I am on my knees and then back bend and try to grab my feet, THAT’S when I feel the pain. He laughed again.
Anyhow, the upshot of all of this is that he thinks it’s not my QL, but my left hip flexor. Okay, I’m willing to work with that hypothesis. I like that he is trying to solve for this despite the fact that it falls outside of his diagnostic tests. He talked about kidneys and meridians and tailbones — I kind of glazed over a bit because I’m not up on the meridian stuff (I’m doing some reading now to try to catch up), and then there was an adjustment and some ultrasound. Nice.
The next day, I felt pretty stiff and sore. Today, though, I woke up with intense sensation in my psoas muscles (both sides). Not simple pain, though it was a little painful, but more the kind of sensation where you are super-attuned to the muscle. Like it’s slightly chilled taffy with tons of nerve endings. Did primary this morning, paying lots of attention to the easy-to-access sensation of the psoas. I hope this sensitivity stays for a little while — I know I have work to do here.
Anyhow, another session on Monday. We’ll see how it goes.
***
Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope you get everything you wish for in 2010.
Great day so far — got up late (7:15!), had coffee, practiced. Went for a walk in the desert with The Cop and Waylon. Came home, had lunch, read (a great book that I read years ago & am thoroughly enjoying re-reading). Made pasta for dinner tonight. (Last night I made a chocolate bundt cake with cream cheese glaze that we’ll bring along, as well.) Just now I’m having a cup of chai and one of these. Damn, they’re good! They actually came in a basket The Cop’s parents sent. I set them aside, not too terribly interested in trying them. Finally got around to having one last night. OMG. Unbelievable.
We’ll be at my Mom and Dad’s house this evening — The Cop, My Gift, Waylon and me. My sister, her girlfriend and their dog, Wiley, are in from San Diego. Ought to be fun.
Some pics from this morning. The Cop and Way:
Lots of cholla cactus around the trail. Waylon managed to get a bit in his front left paw. The Cop got most of it out on the trail, and I just pulled the last bit out a minute ago when I saw him fussing with his paw again.
And here’s Way with an early Christmas present. Hope everyone gets everything they want in 2010!
Maxine left us the other day. We brought her to the vet, because she indicated to The Cop that she was done with her life. It was so hard to let her go, but certainly time. She was 14 — and her breed generally lives about 10 years. So a very, very old lady.
I thought about how she was so gracious when I entered her & The Cop’s life. I remember the first time I met her. She sat on the couch next to me and I wondered if she was waiting for The Cop to leave the room so she could kill the interloper.
But that wasn’t her style. Nope. She played along, she helped raise Tyler and Waylon, and she never complained. Sure, she couldn’t *say* anything, but dogs let you know when they’re disgruntled. Maxine was pretty zen through whatever we threw at her. As long as she could lie out in the grass on a sunny day, she was pretty happy.
Today I went to a workshop The Poetess put on. Lots of psoas stretching and back opening. I always get a little nervous about doing new sequences — my brain starts screaming “this isn’t the right order!” which is kind of funny.
Still, it was nice to spend time with The Poetess. Anyhow, at the end of the practice, we did kapotasana. Whoa! Superstition alert! Kapotasana? Without salabhasana followed by bhekasana followed by dhanurasana followed by parsva dhanurasana followed by ustrasana followed by laghu vajrasana? Huh??! I immediately lowered my expectations and figured I wouldn’t be able to get to my toes, under these circumstances.
I went back, walked my hands in, stretched up, walked my hands in some more, thought about how it was okay not to get my toes under these unusual circumstances, and… then I got my toes.
Of course I wondered if yesterday was a fluke! That’s how my mind works. I spent a little time reading about the sixth patriarch and smoothing out the vrttis that were queuing up to freak out if I couldn’t do the same thing today that I did yesterday. Silly mind! Afraid of frustration.
Calm. Calm. Breathe. Breathe. Just practice, breath by breath.
And it wasn’t a fluke. I had to do three tries, but there they were — my toes. They feel so little, upside down and backwards!
I was hoping to get my toes in kapo by myself before my birthday (52) in early November. But it wasn’t to be.
It wanted to wait ’til this morning.
Long time coming, but worth the wait.
Wayne Krassner. Love it, love it, love it. The music, his practice partners, the worker in the background. Peace out y’all. 
And the book is here!
Just started flipping through last night and am thrilled. Contract internal and external obliques in pasasana. Utilize intra-abdominal pressure in LBH poses.
Yup, this is language an ex-gym rat can really use!
Experimented with a hot bath before practice, followed by a few minutes on the rack.
Miscalculated slightly, and ended up in a SCALDING bath. I’m a fan of much-too-hot water, but this was even hotter than that. Pain receptors are less sensitive in the morning, perhaps? It wasn’t until I was lying in the water that I realized I was burning. “Oh well, I’m already in,” I thought.
Read for 15 minutes about research done on yogis in the (um, I think) 50s, re: how they could control their sympathetic nervous systems. Hearts running at super low speeds, imperceptible pulses. The conclusion was that they were using the valsalva maneuver to slow things down, and muscular contractions to possibly move their hearts outside of the range of the EKG probes.
Yeah, whatever, you crazy rational scientists. It’s savasana! And it’s MAGIC.
Alrighty, so 15 minutes in the HOT bath. Perfect, right? Uh, well… if feeling super faint upon exiting the bath is perfect. Then a few minutes on the rack and out the door.
Practice was bendy, which was the purpose of all of this, but there was a bit of a catch. I had a REALLY hard time regulating my breath. I did intermediate instead of primary today, and my breath wanted to default to shallow — which isn’t really anything new, but it was less fixable than usual. I attribute that to the stimulation of the overly hot water.
I managed pretty well to make the in- and exhales even, until kapotasana. Everything went to hell there, because MM is having me do long holds of kapo B over and over before we do kapo A. Then another B at the end.
I don’t think it’s my imagination here: MM is happier when I do second than when I do primary. I have no idea why this is.