Well, nothing much has changed. Except for a few things.
1. I'm Injured.
Yes, yoga-related injury.
Note to yogis out there -- when doing the standing bow, DO NOT drop your body fast. You will pull your hamstring out to oblivion.
And that, my friends, was exactly what happened to me. It's the 3rd month now, and I'm still incapable of doing an effin' split after months of finally regaining my super "splits" power. Jesus.
It's rather frustrating really. It's frustrating because YOU KNOW you can do the poses and stretch like an effin rubber band, but you can't because it hurts. And you know you're not supposed to. Heck even my instructors will tell me in class not to push it too much because they know I'm injured.
What's even more frustrating is that I cannot fully stretch my right leg all the time either. Because of the injured area (let's not go into detail on that) , stretching the opposite leg pulls the injured leg as well. Nor can I balance well on my left leg. So you can imagine, I can't do the standing head-to-knee on both legs, and I can't do the standing bow properly with my right leg up. Bummer.
Well a few tips I got from my yoga instructors and co-yoginis:
a. Don't push it -- when practicing, just stretch as far as you feel the discomfort already. Don't go beyond that. You'll end up injuring yourself more.
b. Fresh OJ - Helps the healing process
c. Keep practicing - just because you're injured doesn't mean you should stop practicing. You shouldn't actually. Just keep in mind that you're injured and you're not supposed to overdo things. :)
d. Eat right and rest well - there's not much you can do to cure a pulled hamstring. But whatever technique you can think of, just bear in mind that staying healthy and taking care of your body is still the key to healing any injury. Help the healing process of your body by keeping yourself healthy. =)
2. I'm competing.
Ah yes, I may be injured but I've recently started training to compete in November.
And yes, darlings, there are yoga competitions in this country, and in the world for that matter. And our studio (our branch more specifically) has always garnered the most number of medals for the past 3 years.
SO how exactly does this work?
You basically need to perform 5 beginners' poses and 3 advanced ones. The best ones win. =)
Offhand, if I were to choose what to perform (assuming I'm still injured by then)
Beginners poses:
Rabbit
*but imagine your butt up 90 degrees straight*
Full Locust
Fixed-firm pose
Camel
Bow pose
Advanced poses:
Wheel
Headstand
Whatever the hell they call this particular pose
(but again, imagine the body being 90 degrees straight up, the head firmly rested on the backs of the feet and the elbows close together)
Huh. I find it's harder for me to think of beginners' poses that I'm confident to perform rather than advanced poses. Well it's still the coach's call in the end. I trust their judgment. I still pray, and I hope you can pray for me as well, that I'll be fully healed by September.
3. Running + Yoga
I've started running again. I don't know exactly if that will adversely affect my yoga practice but I heard it shouldn't.
Yoga has definitely helped my running in terms of breathing. And mind you, I smoke. But the first time I ran I was able to run 5k in 30 minutes. Not so bad considering I haven't ran since 2006. I just kept on running. I'd slow down once in awhile, I'd brisk walk (which is faster than the jog of other people admittedly), but as of record that's really not so bad.
And dig this: One Sunday morning I ran that 5k, afterwhich I did advanced yoga class. AWESOME! Oh don't look at me like I'm crazy. It only sounds crazy, but it's not. It's very much do-able. I found that running helped my body prepare for advanced yoga class, considering I was injured. And believe me, that was a looot easier than doing back to back beginners and advanced classes. Seriously.
Next time I'll try running after yoga class. I'll let you know how that one goes! I can imagine it shouldn't be a problem. If anything it might actually solve my sleeping problem. I admittedly find it hard to sleep at night after yoga class- endorphine high and all. But running makes me tired and I think doing that after yoga class would prove to be more beneficial for me. Let's see. =)
4. My new dream pose: Scorpion
Yeah I think I'm pretty far from that but hell, that's one thing to look forward to. I can't do that even with assistance yet.. but boy I sure will be able to do that sooner or later. It's so funky! And since I got the full locust pose nailed, I don't think it will take forever for me to be able to do this one. I'm targeting to be able to do this in next year's competition. Wish me luck! =D
Well so far that's what's going on in with my yoga practice. I haven't been going as regularly as I want to because of work and travel. But when I do get the chance, I do get the most out of it.
Anyway, going back to work. I hope it doesn't take months for me to post a new entry here! =D
Namaste.
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