Sunday, September 6, 2009

Day 13: Heavy

Everything is more challenging without core strength. I feel like everything between my bra band and my pubic bone is jelly. No. What's heavier than jelly? Wet sand. My core is made of wet sand. In any case, all that dead weight is making previously straightforward postures like purvattanasana a struggle.

Tom was tending to the kids so I didn't get help with Mari C and D today, but I was still able to grab my wrist. I guess I just needed to be reminded on how to do it. I slammed my forehead into the floor in bhuja pindasana. Ouch. I got my legs behind my head for supta kurmasana, but once I was down, I had to plant my palms on the floor and use my elbows to keep them from sliding off so there was no binding. I considered my little arm shelf cheat to be a fail so I stopped at that posture.

I'm not in a hurry to add more postures. Those asanas aren't going anywhere. I'll get to them when I get to them. I don't intend to even think about second for a long, long time. So, the way I see it, I have plenty of time to make friends with primary again.

Tom helped me again with drop backs. He's a full foot taller and about 100 pounds heavier than I am so helping me is no big deal for him. The first time he tried to help me he accidentally lifted me off the floor. It's nice knowing that no matter how much help I need, he's not going to drop me. I'm a long way from doing them on my own.

4 comments:

  1. I have to comment on every single entry- to drive you on in your blog writing (selfish reasons, of course)!

    I find that Sunday practices are often the hardest of the week. Makes me irritated, but I do it in fear of what will happen on Monday if I don't practice on Sunday!

    Hey, slamming your head down in bhuja pindasana only means you were actually trying to do it and not wussing out. That scores major points in my book!

    I'm with Mia- good job!

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  2. I thought I'd share some wisdom I gained from a back strengthening course taught by my midwife. I started the class after the first 40 days post partum - that time actually has a special name in Germany translated as 'week bed'. I went in figuring that I wouldn't learn too much new about the body because of my many years working with Yoga. I was wrong.

    One of the midwives is also a Yoga teacher, and she did a fabulous job at describing the three muscles that make up the pelvic floor. She also showed us how to engage each group seperately (it is a bit different than Udianabandha).

    One thing I was really surprised to learn was the caution they gave us about doing strong abdominal work in the first year (yes YEAR!). They actually recommended against crunches until about 8 months or so because the conective tissue between the rectus abdominus is weakened (or sometimes detached). One midwife had us lie on our backs and just lift the head. Putting our figers between the abs, it was clear that there is a deep indentation that wasn there pre-baby. Twisting crunches were safer to do because they didn't put the stress on the RE as much, but generally I became a lot more careful with my abdominal work after that. I am only now starting to get back into it. I mostly used the deep exhale to work my abs until recently.

    Just thought I'd share what I learned with another strong Yogini

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  3. Thanks, Liz! Your comments do keep me writing. Seriously. They help a lot! Thanks for the motivation. I slammed my head hard today, too, but busted out laughing this time.

    Hi, Tammy. I'm not surprised at all to hear that your teachers cautioned against doing strong abdominal work for the first year. I was just starting to get sensation back in my abdominal area a year after Mia was born. Then literally weeks later I found out that I was pregnant again. I never got to start working on strength. My postnatal yoga teacher said that it should take 2 years to get your strength back. So, I should just now be recovered from my first baby! LOL

    I was diagnosed with Abdominal Separation/Diastasis Recti when I was pregnant with Eevory so I know my recovery is going to be slow. (i.e. my connective tissue is already detached) I've heard/read that it takes even longer to recover from subsequent babies. I did seven months of postnatal yoga before I started my Ashtanga practice. I think it helped a lot to start my practice in that environment.

    I'm not doing any crunches. I am doing Navasana, but I don't push it. I try not to push too hard in anything and just tell myself that there is no hurry. If it takes five years, it takes five years. Slow and steady is what I'm looking for.

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  4. You need a bhuja pindasana crash pad!

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