ollieyoga

Street Yoga

2006-12-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

Ravi posted a link to a youtube video on street yoga on the yoga.com message boards:

It is pretty impressive and moving!

The video is about 5 minutes long and shows the concrete benefits of yoga for poor and homeless kids. Note that these kids are doing backbends, handbalances and are sitting in the lotus position (which I can't do).

The program is called Street Yoga.

Folks, this is as authentic as it gets!

Yoga and Lap Dancing????

2006-11-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

I often visit the yoga.com message boards. I was a bit surprised to find the following thread there:

http://www.yoga.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=22961&posts=20

Good Lord- what do you all think of this -

I found another yoga center in the town next to me, went to check it out, they have the usual yoga, pilates blah blah - but they also have a "learn how to be a stripper/lap dance" class - not just a one time "seminar", but a weekly thing.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am NOT a prude, I was a stripper myself for 13 years...but lap dancing being taught at a yoga center?? Is it just me or is that kind of against the whole...the whole...I don't know, the whole scheme of things. It just turned me off.

There were the usual "oh, I want to see that!" type of posts (I made one) and some "that isn't compatible with the spiritual aspects of yoga" posts as well.

The original poster made an interesting comment:

Ok, as a former stripper, let me say that strippers as a whole are lost souls - yes, there are always those that are "paying their way thru college" or saving up to "start their own business" but let me tell you from experience, those types are few and far between. The lifestyle is rampant with drugs, alcohol, and low self esteem. As far as it being an ego boost to have all those men lusting at you, I wish every stripper had ears good enough to hear from the stage what these men are actually saying about them. - it is neither flattering or positive in any way. It is degrading. I found this out when I stopped dancing and just started bartending in gogo bars, and could overhear most of the conversation amoung the customers.

In order to do that kind of work and do it well and survive emotionally at the same time, you MUST be able to turn yourself off and become a sort of robot. This is not a healthy way to be. Maybe some of you will argue that alot of jobs or situations in life could be that way, but when you are selling sex or even just your sexuality, it is different. I met a few women in the business who had no problem at all with the work, who didn't need to seperate themselves from it, who didn't need 3 shots of Cuervo and a few beers to look like they were actually enjoying themselves, and let me tell you - those women were scary!!

I think that it is my feelings about the ugliness I saw and experienced in that business that made me have such a strong reaction to seeing this class offered at this particular studio. I also understand it is my choice not to go there. The classes being offered are not for strippers but for housewives or women who otherwise want to be more entertaining in the bedroom. And I have no problem with that - you have to keep sex interesting, and men are visual creatures - plus, the stripping etc can be fun for the female too, so I say go for it....but NOT in a yoga center. Not sure who mentioned in an earlier post about purity, but that word hits it right on the head with me. I want to go to my yoga classes, walk in the door and take a deep breath of all that yoga is to me now, and immerse myself in it. I feel anything outside of that would be a distraction to me in such a place.

Well said. I admit that when I visited the red light district of Amsterdam (a quick walk through), I felt no joy. Instead I felt pain for the ladies.

I admit that I have a somewhat negative reaction. N

Of course, I like seeing physically fit women doing stretches. But this type of stuff strikes me as a "hey, look at how enlightened I am; I can take an erotic dancing class".

There is nothing wrong with that, but it isn't the kind of place where I would go to learn yoga. I would rather any sexual thoughts that pop into my head be a very small, subtle part of the experience rather than the focus of it.

But, a quick google search produced many such places:

http://www.coursejunction.com/course_detail.cfm/id/12618

ourse Cost:	$89.00
Course Name:	Stripping Workouts/Striptease Lessons & Lap Dancing Classes Exotic dancing is much more than dancing sexy. Come gain the confidence to express your authentic self. This class is about you finding you. It’s learning how to reach deep within yourself to find your inner beauty and grace and combine these into sensual movements that only you can express. The non-intimidating style of the class helps you to overcome inhibitions and fosters your confidence and self-expression. All of our instructors are trained to create an environment that is supportive, not competitive. This class will empower you to: -Experience the benefits of a confident walk -Create an immediate impression as you enter a room -Project your intentions through body language. -Send and receive nonverbal messages through eye contact -Explore your self expression and be more spontaneous -Attract others to you -Overcome inhibitions and feel beautiful -Feel powerful and free Dress comfortably in workout gear as your basic outfit and bring an oversized button down shirt and a pair of heels. There is no nudity in any of our classes. The Art of Exotic Dancing Workout is Four 1 hour classes. $80 The Core Workshop I is three hours in length. $89.00 The Core Workshop II is 2 hours in length. $89 Chair Moves is 2 hours in length. $89 Due to the sellout nature of our classes, pre-registration is required. Change and cancellation fees may apply. “By taking the class, I realized what I had was exceptional. I learned whatever I am or have isn’t right or wrong…it’s mine and is to be celebrated and cherished. No matter what we look like, what we do or how long we’ve been on this Earth, we are extraordinary women with great things to offer the world. We learned to hold our heads high, walk with confidence and with that people would watch us in a new way. Seduction, through dance, was amazingly fun, but we learned the power of our confidence was far more seductive.” - Molly, Age 41 Mother of 4, Wife
Instructor(s):	Karen Cooper, Laura Klekar, Clarissa Pierro, Rachel Sand AOED Instructors are Everyday Women Rachel Sand, Dallas hails from Philadelphia. She was the star instructor in the Northeast and brings her enthusiam to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Rachel is in the corporate sector working in downtown Dallas. She previously was a recruiter for a catholic college in Philadelphia. Laura Klekar, Ft. Worth-Laura is a scientist who has made a huge impact in the Ft. Worth area. She has been an inpiration to many of her friends and now the dance community. Karen Cooper, Irving/Southlake – AOED Instructor, 20+ yrs ballet experience, Leader in the Dallas dance community, Entrepreneur Clarissa Pierro, Dallas/Rockwall – AOED Master Instructor, Art of Exotic Dancing Licensee, Motivational Speaker, Entrepreneur
Course Provider:	The Art of Exotic Dancing for Everyday Women In 1998, two dozen women took the first AOED class and a phenomenon was launched. In just a few short years, tens of thousands of women have taken the course, purchased the video and read the book. Our class attracts women of all ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities – the commonality is that each is seeking to unlock a realm inside. We are always happy to share our story and introduce you to the women who have taken the class. The instructors and students, diverse in ethnicity, age, size, shape, and local, are part of the vibrant community of women that are attending transformative workshops, Bachelorette parties, private retreats, private lessons, and other special events. The classes and workshops happen every month in each city, since 1998 and continue to explode throughout the U.S. and U.K. Run by Everyday Women for Everyday Women.

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Yoga: November 11, 2006

2006-11-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

Personal Athletics

Not much to report; this week saw me getting three short weight sessions, 4 yoga sessions, three 1-mile swims, 4 two mile runs on the treadmill, 1 three miler on the treadmill, and 4 bicycle rides (21, 12, 12, 33 miles). Two of my workouts were "bricks" (bike then run). My injury continues to heal at a very slow pace.

Yoga

Yesterday, my teacher and I had our partner yoga workshop (30 minute session). It went reasonably well, though we did only a few of the things that we had practiced.

I've detailed some of our progress in these entries:
http://ollieyoga.blogspot.com/2006/07/partner-yoga-harder-than-it-looks.html

http://ollieyoga.blogspot.com/2006/06/partner-yoga-in-works.html

http://ollieyoga.blogspot.com/2006/07/partner-yoga-day-two.html

http://ollieyoga.blogspot.com/2006/07/yoga-class-i-prefer-to-be-touched-and.html

The partner yoga session followed two other thirty minute sessions, which were "gentle yoga" and "yoga for runners".

The highlight for me though was the night before where Vickie and I had a run-through at her house. I won't get into details (and no, there are no "steamy" details as I am married) but it was different to see her with her "hair down" so to speak.

Having fun with other yogis is all part of it, as far as I am concerned!

In my own individual practice, I had one mini-break-through: I was able to get one leg "up" (vertical) while in backbend.

No, I didn't look that good. And speaking of looking good: the woman in these photos is a BABE! She is pretty strong and flexible as well.

No, I won't tell you everything that I am thinking about here...or here...

I still haven't done a handstand of any sort as yet, though I can hold peacock feather for longer.

Ok, so you think you are good at yoga?

Check out the photos here:
http://www.limbermen.com/YogaChamps/index_menu.html

(this is the yoga asana championship gallery at http://www.limbermen.com, which is a site devoted to showing that men can be limber.)

Now for some comic relief. The following You-tube shows a yogi taking on some kung-fu types. The video is 9 and a half minutes long and is in French. But it is really funny and shows some outstanding yoga moves.

Toughest Sports?

Ok, so what is the toughest sport to play? When this question was asked on the Illinois Valley Strider Forum, (and we were limited to individual sports), I responed "boxing", as boxing requires: power, toughness, quickness, endurance, ability to endure pain and strategy. Evidently, some experts agreed with me.

See the following article from ESPN:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills.

Warrior III again

2006-10-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Personal: Athletics

I've reintroduced running into my program; over the past three days I've run one mile on the treadmill each day. Today, that one mile run followed a 40-41 mile bike ride that took me through parts of Pottstown, Edwards, Kramm and Hanna City.

I have new bicycle shoes and had to adjust my toe cages to accept these.

One thing: my mile runs have been 10 minutes, 9:30 and now 9:11, and they have gotten easier each time. But I note that doing 100% walking training gave me better preperation to run than cycling did.

Conclusion: if you can't run but want to keep your running fitness up, walking fast (if you can do that) works better than using the bicycle.

Of course, it might be a differnt story if one is running and wants to add another activity; I am talking about cross training for running when one cannot run at all.

I've also made some progress in my quest to get more comfortable in the Warrior III pose in yoga; a friend watched me try it and noticed that my hips were not parallel to the ground; I was attempting a "long" version.

He suggested that I switch to a more compact, "hips aligned with the ground" version, like this:

I seem steadier that way.

On another yoga note, I note with eager anticipation that the cartoon strip Get Fuzzy is about to do a rerun on an episode where Satchel takes yoga (click to see a larger version):

yoga butt

2006-10-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yoga Butt

Some photos:

This one is awesome; you know someone's straddle forward bend is really good when you can see most of their butt (and this case, a very cute butt) from the front!
Here is what I want my dancer pose to look like. Again you can see her cute buns from the front. No, I am not even close to this yet, and probably never will be. But this shows that I can always improve.
Here these yogis are in up dog (cobra would have their pelvis' on the mat)

Last night, my yoga teacher hosted an outdoor party near a pond in a wooded area. It was a good time, and I got to know some of my fellow yoga students a bit better.

Yoga and my people skills....

2006-10-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yoga and People Skills

I got in a bit of a fight with my yoga teacher over politics; basically she hates Governor Blagojevich and, well, I merely dislike him. In other words, she is mad that I have decided that most of the "corruption" charges against him is the result of Republican hype and I'll vote for him.

So this morning, I get up and see this thread on the yoga.com message board: one of the yogis found out that one of his fellow teachers has made the Playboy "sexy girl next door" list!

I am thinking of e-mailing her this photo and saying this is what a real yoga teacher looks like! I suppose that would help matters, would it?

But, let's just say that this teacher wouldn't have any problem holding the attention of her class. Now whether or not the class would focus on the yoga or on her....

But in my case, given that most of the rest of class is sort of like me (middle aged to old, mostly out of shape, untoned and flabby), focusing on the yoga hasn't been a problem for me!

Interesting article on Bicycling and Yoga

2006-10-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

Yoga and bicycling can be complementary.

I know of at least one "yoga bicycle trip":

http://www.duvine.com/yoga.html

I just hope that these folks don't try headstands on their bikes! As far as how yoga can help a bicyclist, here in an old article (1999)

Article on Yoga and Bicycling

A yoga program can build a cyclist's strength and endurance and introduce flexibility to chronically tight muscles.

By Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola

Rudi Altig was a man before his time. In the 1960s, the German Tour de France bike racer known as the "yellow dwarf" was a yoga enthusiast. Before and after his arduous races he used yoga to relax his muscular body. Maybe he instinctively knew that yoga—with its ability to usher athletes though other dimensions and angles—is the perfect foil for bicycling, a one-dimensional sport.

As a bicyclist travels through one plane, he or she repeatedly overtaxes some muscles and underutilizes others. Watch a cyclist coming toward you, and you can read the imbalances. Rocking side to side signals that one hip is compensating for the other's weakness or inflexibility. Hips are the core of movement for the cyclist. If the core is weak, then the upper body has to work harder, and this can lead to back strain.

Likewise, if a thigh or knee flares out from the bicycle seat due to weakness or chronic tightness, that side of the body is doing less work. The hips, thighs, knees, and ankles should all be on one track—pointing straight ahead. If these body parts are off track, cyclists run the risk of wearing down ligaments and tendons, and developing imbalanced muscle groups. And in cyclists, the quadriceps are often overdeveloped. To compensate for this, the hamstrings shorten, tighten, and thus weaken.

The posture a cyclist conforms to astride a bike also contributes to muscle tension and imbalance: A bicyclist's spine is in a constant state of flexion, hunched over the handlebars. In order to achieve overall flexibility and balanced muscle groups, a biker needs to incorporate balancing, counteracting movements—for example, backbends, which stretch and elongate oft-used hip flexors and quadriceps. A yoga practice can help restore balance, first by taking the alignment principles of yoga and transferring them to how you sit on your bike.

Does Your Bike Fit?
Jon Bridenbaugh, a Portland, Oregon-based bike racer, took up yoga as part of his training as a bicyclist fitter. He attributes an improved sense of balance and endurance, and a subtle awareness of his center, to his weekly yoga classes.

Not only has Bridenbaugh seen improvement in his riding, he has also noticed a clear link between the tenets of yoga and bicycle positioning. A bicyclist's success and comfort level depend on how well he or she is fitted to his or her bicycle. Fitting specialists such as Bridenbaugh take the alignment principles of yoga and apply them to how a bicyclist relates to his bicycle.

After positioning a bicyclist on a stationary cycle, fitters take riders through a body alignment checklist:

Arms & Wrists. Your arms should be placed at right angles to your torso, in line with your shoulders. Your wrists should be in line with the shoulders or just slightly wider than them in order to distribute upper body weight evenly. If your arms are spread too wide, you can strain your shoulders. Too narrow a hold can collapse the chest, though for racers, a narrow stance improves handling when going downhill. To strive for this alignment, practice a modified Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana) with the arms bent, or a modified Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), with the forearms flat on the floor, approximating the angle of your arms on your bike.

Torso. Your spine should be in a neutral position and your chest should be open so you can lean forward without strain. A strong, neutral spine allows the chest to open, which in turn facilitates oxygen intake. Tight hamstrings will limit how far the back will bend before forcing the chest to close. Try the standing forward bend Padahastasana or the seated forward bend Janu Sirsasana to achieve this neutral feeling in the spine.

Hips & Pelvis. The angle between the torso and the hips should not be hard or sharp—there should be adequate space for the hips to move freely. Warrior Pose (Virabhadrasana I, II, & III) can give you a sense of this open connection between the torso and the hips. Your saddle should be essentially flat-tilted slightly, to a maximum of three to five degrees. Just as the proper angle of your pelvis in Downward-Facing Dog allows you to distribute your weight evenly through your hands, arms, legs, and feet, a seat tilted too far forward tips the pelvis and adds undue pressure to the hands and wrists.

Finally, the entire body should be relaxed. A tension-free upper body is vital to a cyclist's comfort and endurance. Tension sucks up the power you can put into pedaling. French bike racer Bernard Hinault puts it this way, "You should feel like you can play piano while riding your bike." In other words, no death grips on the handlebars. Just let your arms hang loosely from the shoulders. For full body relaxation, think of how your body lets go of effort in Savasana (Corpse Pose) before getting aboard your bike.

Get into the Flow
Alignment will help you economize energy, allowing you to ride longer, more comfortably, but there are other yoga principles and practices that will also serve you well on a ride:

Flow. At the bottom of your pedal stroke, your knee should be straight and your foot parallel to the ground. Strive for the smooth strokes of professional cyclists, who are able to apply power throughout 360 degrees of the rotation instead of pedaling in squares, abruptly thrusting pedals up and down. Before your daily ride, try warming up with Sun Salutations to introduce the smoothness you're trying to achieve in your pedal stroke. This flowing series allows you to work out kinks in your movements, which over time translate to fluid transitions from one pose to another, the kind of continuous, flowing action you want in your pedal stroke.

Extension. Get as much extension as possible from your bike seat. A fitter will raise your seat until you have to rock side to side to reach pedals, then lower it until you don't have to rock anymore. You can practice the extension principle in any number of yoga poses. In particular, Padahastasana and Uttanasana, both forward bends, best approximate the feeling of extension you are striving for as you stretch from your pelvis.

Breath. Don't leave your breathwork at home when you ride. Even in intense effort, you want to connect the rhythm of your breath with your pedal strokes. As in yoga poses, breath is vital to reaching those tight, restricted muscles that are in need of oxygen. So transfer your pranayama practice and your awareness of the breath in postures to your biking, where muscles undergoing physical exertion are especially in need of oxygen.

Bicycling, like other linear sports such as running, hiking, and swimming, calls out for the counterbalancing benefits of yoga. Not only do poses aid in elongating and strengthening overtaxed muscles, but applying the finer nuances of yoga alignment will help you establish a new relationship with your bike, one of comfort and ease.

Baron Baptiste is a yoga teacher and athletic trainer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for his work with the Philadelphia Eagles and as the host of ESPN's "Cyberfit." Kathleen Finn Mendola is a health and wellness writer based in Portland, Oregon.

Yoga at halftime

2006-09-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

I've had some fun posting on the yoga.com message boards and I've gotten some help with my Warrior III pose:

I want to look like this:

But instead look a bit more like this (lady in the white top or guy in the baggy khaki shorts; the lady in the purple jog-bra and black spandex looks pretty good)

So Nick helps me out:

Hi Ollie,
Just to add where I think people often go wrong in warrior 3-the pose is often done 'after' virabhadrasana 1. I say 'after,' because the mistakes made in warrior 1 are often relected in warrior 3, or the mistakes are garnered on the movement from the first warrior to the third warrior.

For instance, in first warrior, the pelvis should attempt to reach neutral, but is often tilted forwards and with one hip further back, creating lumbar lordosis, especially on the side of the back leg. This means that the back muscles are already tight, especially on the side of the raised leg as you go into third warrior, and that the gluteal muscles are stretched, when they should be short, so that you can lift the leg without 'hiking' the hip.

But let's assume you have a good command of warrior 1. On the movement into third warrior pose, try to move as though you were playng tug of war with a yoda-like yoga instructor who could pull on the rope even when your arms are lifted above your head. This means that in first warrior, you are pulling your body towards your hands, so the the lower trapezius (and others)have an easy job of pulling your shoulder blades down your rib cage. As you start to move into third warrior pose, old Yoda starts to move with you, so that your body gets pulled into alignment by effectively tensioning itself, helping to ensure that the practice of this pose brings better alignment, not worse posture, which it sounds like your third warrior might be creating.

Now, when your arms are horizontal to the floor, you are ready to lift the back foot and progress towards the balance. This is the point at which Yoda often decides to go for a coffee break, so you have to make sure he stays put, and continues pulling on the rope so that basically your back foot is peeled away from the floor by the pull on the body. If you do this properly, it causes the ball of the foot to revolve around, so that the front of the leg faces forwards-no internal or external rotation. From there, the big toe is peeled away from the floor.

I went into some detail, because you often see students trying to get to third warrior pose with the foot still turned out, or the leg externally rotated (it should be trying to internally rotate). This makes it much harder to achieve third warrior pose. It puts down a second obstacle, in that because you are not peeling your foot away from the floor, you are much more likely to launch yourself into third warrior pose, so that just at the moment that you need perfect concentration and body alignment, you throw yourself across the movement.

But by learning to pull into the posture, you will also learn to activate the core muscles-they activate in order to complete the linkage that is set in effect by Yoda-you either love him or hate him With all the relevant core muscles appropiately activated, your movement and subsequent posture will be dramatically effected-your command of the activity should be dramatically improved. Hope so anyway

As an afterthought, I would guess that a bunch of pressure sensors under the sole of your standing foot would show a very different picture to the pressures that would be shown by you having perfect body alignment. Be prepared to adapt the foot to the new challenge-the effects are astronomical, as you sense better through the soles of the feet-they become a mirror by which you view your whole body alignment. If you like, I'll go through the ways of gaining good foot awareness, but I've done it here before, and I'm not sure if I want to clutter up this thread any more-it's an interesting topic, congratulations
Nick
-----
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)

I love his signature line too!

And to end with a couple of Dilbert cartoons:

Stretchy women. Like this one (Yoga Chickie)

Or Katsan.

Yoga; where to go from here?

2006-09-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

Note: don't read what I have to say in this section if you are easily offended. I give some rather blunt personal opinions at the end.

A couple of notes: lately I've been trying to do the yoga backbend from a standing position and using a wall for assistance. It really feels good to do it this way; I look forward to when I no longer need the wall. Right now, I have to push up from the ground to get into backbend.

A diversion about bicycling

My road bike was at the Bellevue Bicycle Shop to get a new wheel; I was frequently breaking spokes. So I did my usual 16 mile hill workout on Thursday on my hybrid and then I went for 50 miles on the Rock Island trail this morning, again on my hybrid.

I started at "mile 0" and went to the end of the trail at mile "24.7", and then putzed around for 3 minutes or so to get an even 25 out and back. The story today: the trail was damp going out and it took me 1:30 to do the first 20 miles (to Wyoming). Then the wind kicked up and was at my back for the next 5 miles (nice). It was against me going back (not so nice). In fact, it took me 1:50 to do the last 20 miles! I just plain got discouraged; it took me 4:12 to finish, though I was at 1:58 half way.

The good news is that I did buy some cheap aerobars off of e-bay and hopefully it will help with the wind. Because, when I am on the hybrid, I feel like a windsail when I am bucking a wind.

Confession: there was a time when I thought that I was better than the cylists; I felt that their sport was an easy one, mainly for "soft" people. After all, I had finished three 100 mile races and even walked one in less than 24 hours. Now I know better! Believe me, I'll never disrespect bicycle riders again! The challenges are different, but I have found out that they are there.

Back to Yoga and ideas

One final bit of philosophy: a while ago, I was having a discussion with my wife. I am finding that I really don't feel all that comfortable at our park district yoga classes. Why?

Well, at least at the classes I attend, most of the students really don't take it that seriously. Many habitually show up late and really don't put themselves out there to do the poses to the best of their ability. Such at atmosphere depresses me.

Our teacher? Well, she has done right by me, but she seems to focus on making the typical not-so-good student feel good about themselves rather than helping people reach to the ends of their potential.

So, my dilema: where do I go from here? We have two local studios, and none of them have an intermediate level class that I can make.

I don't want to change for the sake of changing; I only want to make a change for the better. So what to do?

Now back to the philosophy:

I remembered this quote from Lou Holtz's book The Fighting Spirit (about Notre Dame's 1988 National Championship football season), pages 232-233 of the hardback edition: this is something that he had on his office wall

Are You Average?

"Average" is what the failures claim to be when their family and friends ask them why they are not successful.

[...]
"Average means being run-of-the-mill, mediocre, insignificant, an also-ran, a nonentity.

Being "average" is the lazy person's cop-out; it's lacking the guts to stand in life; it's living by default.

Being "average" is to take up space for no purpose; to take the trip through life, but to never pay the fare; to return no interest for God's investment in you.

Being "average is to pass one's life away with time, rather than to pass one's time away with life. It's to kill time, rather than to work it to death.

To be "average" is to be forgotten once you pass from this life. The successful are remembered for their contributions, the failures are remembered because they tried, but the "average", the silent majority, are just forgotten. [...]

You know, this is what really drives me. I am well aware that I haven't really been successful at anything by any reasonable measure. But it still gives me a charge to accomplish what most cannot (or will not), whether that is finishing a 100 miler (on foot), doing a tough yoga pose, getting a Ph. D. in mathematics and publishing research, or whatever.

And it gives me a charge to attempt things that are not guarenteed to be "successes"; I see this "the miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courge to start" stuff as complete nonsense.

Yoga Humor: from Get Fuzzy

2006-09-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Of course, click to see a larger version:

My own practice: my hand balances (bhujapidasana, kakasana, bakasana) appear to be improving and I am gaining flexibility. Chair (utkatasana) is better as well.

http://yoga.about.com/od/yogaphotogalleries/ig/Standing-Poses-Photo-Gallery/Awkward-Chair-Pose.htm

Bike Issues, recent practice

2006-08-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

Milage wise, I have done a couple of non-descript day rides over my extended lunch hour.

On Tuesday, I used my hybrid for a ride and included 8 laps in lower Bradley Park. Those loops took me 43:20 to do (1.2 miles to 2000 meters per loop; a few pot holes, sharp turns, speed bumps, minor traffic and the like). Today, I used my road bike to do 10 loops and the first 8 loops took me 36:17; this is with the same effort (or less).

Moral: the bike makes a huge difference, even for slower riders.

One observation: the riding is actually better when it is cloudy and/or overcast, as the yuckky weather means fewer people in the park, fewer cars, fewer dogs, etc.

Another note is that yoga has gotten better over the past week; my guess is that my tight piriformis had been holding me back, especially on one legged balances on the left side (e. g., Warrior III, Half-Moon), and I am getting more comfortable with the hand balances.

Piriformis injury recovery

2006-08-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

Athletically: I saw the doctor two days ago and the physical therapist yesterday. The conclusion: no hip injury, and it is probably not my back. Rather it appears that I have a piriformis strain along with weak/tight gluteus medius muscles.

I've talked about these things in my previous posts: pain in the butt, june injury report, tight butt, late May, yoga's role in injury recovery.

I've been given a physical therapy routine to follow twice a day, and each routine takes about 20 minutes. Some are basic stretches, some are hip hikes, and some are basic exercise moves.

(these photos show the hip hike move)

The odd thing is that these exercises look very easy, but are hard for me at this time! I've also recieved some yoga pose suggestions.

Symptoms: pain in the hip/butt area, especially when standing too long in one place. Short (3-5 mile) walks on flat ground at a gentle but non-strolling pace (13-14 minutes per mile) were usually painless. Slower walking, uphill walking both hurt, and too much faster walking eventually hurt.

Besides the exercises, I was told to stay on anti-inflamatories for several weeks, even if I started to feel good.

I got some good advice from other yogis.
From Yoga Journal: (part of an article by Julie Gudmestad)

Finding Stability

While the piriformis and the other deep hip rotators are best known for the problems they create when they're tight, they do need to be strong to perform important functions in yoga poses. They help to stabilize the pelvis and knees when you bear weight on the legs, especially in standing poses. To experience this, stand with your legs wide, preparing for Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose II). Turn your right foot out 90 degrees and your left foot slightly in. Notice that even though the right foot is turned out, there is a tendency for the knee to turn in.

This internal rotation of the femur is due to the pull of the internal rotators of the hip, including the adductors (a large muscle group of the inner thigh) and the medial hamstrings on the back of the inner thigh. If the foot and shin rotate out while the femur rotates relatively in, the knee twists, putting a potentially damaging strain on its ligaments. A contraction of the external rotators is needed to bring the knee into alignment with the foot to protect the integrity of the knee joint.

To refine and strengthen this action, try practicing Warrior II with your back to a wall. Stand close enough so your right buttock touches the wall but your feet do not. Turn your right foot out so the foot is parallel to the wall, and turn your left foot in slightly more than perpendicular to the wall. Now come down into the pose, bending your right knee and keeping your left leg straight and strong. Place a yoga block or firmly rolled towel between your right knee and the wall, and press your right knee into this prop. It is the deep hip rotators that are putting pressure on the block—and at the same time aligning your knee perfectly with your foot.

As you press the right knee toward the wall, make sure that you don't let the left thigh buckle away from it. In fact, if you'd like to increase the challenge, place a second block or rolled sticky mat between the wall and the center of your left femur; hold it in place by firmly pressing your left leg back while continuing to press the right knee into its prop. You will feel a strong action in the back of both hips as the piriformis and its friends externally rotate both legs. A similar action should occur in Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose) to the right: Keep the right knee pressing into the right arm while maintaining a straight line through the left leg.

The knee is also at risk of being twisted in some straight-leg standing poses, and a strong contraction of the deep hip rotators is required to align the femur, knee, and foot. While in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) to the right, turn your head and look at your right knee. Chances are, it's slightly internally rotated.

Now feel the firmness in your right buttock as you externally rotate the thigh to align the knee with the foot. (Notice that this action also creates a beautiful arch in your foot.) Even more challenging, maintain this alignment as you bend your knee and prepare to transition to Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose). In this transition, the rotators must act strongly to prevent the knee from angling in toward the big toe, and they must continue to contract as the knee straightens fully in the pose.

Building Strength
Let's look at one more straight-leg standing pose, Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Many people tend to stand with their feet pointing out slightly. Sometimes this may be caused by short and tight rotators that externally rotate the whole leg. If that is the case, the knees will also be pointing out, and you need to spend more time stretching the backs of your hips.

However, it's also fairly common for the feet to point out while the knees point in, an alignment that can contribute to pronation of the feet (collapsed arches), knee problems, and low back pain. Weak rotators can be the culprit behind this pathological alignment. If the external rotators aren't strong enough, the internal rotators (which include the gluteus medius and tensor fascia lata on the outer hip as well as the adductors) will pull the femur into internal rotation. In an attempt to align the femur, the outer hamstring, which is also an external rotator, takes over for the deep hip rotators. Unfortunately, the outer hamstring inserts into the lower leg, and so, instead of aligning the shin and thigh, it turns the lower leg out even more deeply, exacerbating the misalignment. [...]

And a yogi on the yoga.com (Purnayoga) message boards helped also; he recommended "half moon" done as above (with a block and against a wall) as well as to do Supta Padangusthasana like this:

"The toes of the down leg point toward the ceiling and the toes (and kneecap) of the lifted leg point to the back wall of the studio (approximately). The alignment of the up leg should always have the toes and kneecap pointing to the back wall (unless you are very very supple and then they point to the floor just above the ear)."

Photo from:

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/483_1.cfm

The therapeutic for Piriformis strains as you mention is typically (based on my school of training) Ardha Chandrasana at the wall, with a block and the standing leg over-rotated externally.

Are you familiar with the basic pose in the middle of the room?
That would be a good baseline for us to work from. Assuming you are...

The difference in the therapeutic is the wall for support, the block for stability and the external rotation of the standing leg. Achieve the later by pivoting on the heal of the standing leg and bringing the toes closer to the baseboard (wall used for support). Both sides are executed in the same way for balancing the body. I'd do them twice a day - morning and night.

You can also try Parsva Supta Padangusthasana with a belt but the toes on the extended leg should be closer to the floor then the heel, unlike the true pose where the outer edge of that foot is parallel to the floor.

Though here's the thing, the glute medius handles hip abduction so while you are releasing the piriformis you may be putting load on the Glute in question. This is why hoola hoop movement might be tough on you. So it's a bit problematic to give one thing that might "do it" for you.

PS: my yoga teacher continues to cost me money. I went and bought some bike shorts (ok, 1 bike short liner and one pair of the baggy style). Now, I went and got a second bike (one suitable for commuting and soft-bike-path riding). Sheesh.

My Yoga Teacher is Corrupting Me!

2006-08-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, today's workout started late because my pool opened late. Still, by 6:20 I was swimming and I got in 2650 yards. The swim wasn't that good; my 100's were so slow until I did some "get the lead out" sprints on a long rest interval.

Then I did a pleasant 4 mile walk on a hilly course; ok so far.

Then I returned a call from my yoga teacher (Vickie), stated to eat breakfast when she called me back.

She wanted to know if I was up to a ride. I had some administrative tasks (no against a time limit as yet) but the day was beautiful.

Office, doing admin stuff, or out on the beautiful trail with a fit woman in bike shorts? That was a no-brainer!

So, we headed to the Rock Island Trail to get in some miles; much to the surprise of both of us, we got in 30 miles. So you might say I did a 1.5 mile swim, 4 mile "run", (ok, walk), and a 30 mile ride "triathlon"; don't even ask me how bad my time was!

Vickie is also a farmer; she was interested in the crops that his farm was producing. So we stopped.

Oh no, you are taking my photo! My red truck is in the background.

Dang it, will you put that stupid camera away?

Later that day, we did some parter yoga practice just prior to our regular class. I thought that she would go easy: WRONG. We ended up doing 12 yoga leg-lifts instead of our usual 8, and did many of the down-dog, up-dog, chattarunga sequences. Even my shoulders got tired during this.

Yoga: humor

2006-08-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

Last night, my regular yoga teacher, Vickie returned to class. I got to tease her a bit as I told her that one teacher in a class I went to (downtown yoga center) told me that my "poses were beautiful". The look on Vickie's face was priceless; it was a mixture of amusement, disgust, contempt, nausea and disbelief. She then said "well, it is the instruction that you are getting; I don't let you get away with s...stuff" (she realized that Olivia was close by).

Sunday 6 August...

2006-08-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

Workout wise, I got in 4000 yards in the pool, broken down as follows;

1000 yards warm up consisting of
10 x (25 kick on the front, no board, 25 free)
10 x (25 drill, 25 free with fins) fins are zoomers (short blade)

500 fast warm up consisting of
5 x (50 fist on 1, 50 free on 1) Fist: 51-53, free: 48, though last was 51?

100 easy (back)

1000 fast consisting of
10 x 100 on the 2 (1:37-1:38; second 5 were faster than the first)

200 easy (100 back, 100 side)

500 fast consisting of
10 x 50 on the 1 (47-48 each)

100 easy (back)

10 x 25 fly on the :40
5 x 50 back on the 1:10 (fins)
4 x 25 breast on the :40

4000 yards total.

Ok, nothing stellar, but that is my typical "long" swim workout.

After doing yard work, I then did some yoga. My typical workout (when I am doing it alone) goes something like this:

for the first part, I set my watch to beep at 1 minute and then at 15 seconds; I try to hold the first set of poses for 1 minute each:

mountain
tree (one minute on each side for these)
warrior II
warrior I
triangle
revolved triangle
pyramid (intense stretch)
------------------------
forward bend
camel (one minute for each of these)
plow/shoulder stand
bridge/backbend (backbend is on the hands and feet)
-----------------------------
Now I hold for a certain number of breaths
headstand (about 2 minutes)
low crow (kakasana (15-20 seconds)
bhujapidasana (arm pressure pose) (30 seconds)
---------------------
peacock feather (three attempts against a wall)
attempt one: miss
attempt two: didn't use the wall, held for 2-3 seconds
attempt three: hit the wall on the way up, held for 15 seconds

-----------------------
seated spread leg forward bend (maybe 45 degree angle? for about 1 minute)

Typically, I often add other poses such as down dog, bow, boat, wide leg forward bend, and side plank (stack the ankles, then left the top leg).

Yoga Studio

2006-08-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

I decided to skip racing this morning to take a class at the Downtown Yoga Center. Prior to the class, I ran on my own and managed to have time for a quick shower.

The class was different than what I was used to. The pace was slow, slow, slow. We took a good long while to get warmed up and we didn't do that many poses. But we stayed for a good long time in the balance poses (tree); in fact my hips and calves started to quiver. We also did crow (kakasna) and the instructor (Tammy) had us squat, go up on the toes, and then go into crow.

It made a difference, and I held it much longer than I ever have before.

As far at the instructor: she was your classical beautiful yoga diva; slender but strong, long pony tail, radiant smile, soft but firm voice, compelte with the bare middrift and low hip hugging, baggy pants. Since there were few of us, she had time to make adjustments for all of us.

Also, she made a subtle adjustment to my hips in "revolved wide leg forward bend" (Parivrrta Prasarita Padottanasana): the idea is that I have to keep my hips "level" rather than letting one hip go up and the other down.

One other note: I have to admit that I thought to myself: "ok, I am going to a real yoga studio now; this is going to be a very different experience." It was, to some degree. The breathing was more emphasised and we did some "oohms" at the end.

But, well, I've yet to find a yoga teacher any better than my regular one. No wonder her evening classes are usually full!

It is kind of interesting that I merely stumbled into a class with an excellent teacher on my first day; I couldn't have done any better had I done hours and hours of research beforehand.

Yes, my teacher for today's class is very good, but so is my regular teacher.

Yoga-pilates?

2006-08-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

We finally had some rain in Central Illinois; lots of it.

Injury wise, I had two massages over the past couple of days; the last one was given by a guy who has the strongest hands I've ever felt. He said that my IT band was very tight and that my muscles would sometimes spasm and entrap my sciatic nerve. Also, I have minor swelling on my left knee.

This morning, I managed 3 miles after a so-called yoga class.

The class *did* benefit me physically; we used an exercise ball throughout. In fact, I am convinced enough to buy one for myself and to use one for an office chair. (that is what I like about academia).

But we really didn't do any yoga asanas; then again this teacher is really a "yoga-laties/pilates/exercise class" teacher and she taught what she knows.

Nevertheless, I am grateful that she took time out of her busy schedule to substitute teach; "no teacher" means "no class". We are short of teachers and she is one of those who steped up to teach, even at this low level. And frankly, I lack the patience to teach the types of people that show up for park district classes.

I think that there is a big philosophical difference between me and the average park district yoga student, and here it is: at last night's class (which amounted to "101 uses for a yoga block"), she read a list of all of the stuff that yoga is supposed to do for you. And she exclaimed "that is why you are here."

Wrong, at least for me at this time in my life. Ok, she was right on for most of the rest of the class, and would have been right for me at another time in my life, but not for me at this moment. I don't do yoga for the health benefits; well not mostly. Today, I do it for its own sake; it is just another way for me to challenge my body. I stay healthy so I can swim, run, racewalk, ultrawalk, do yoga and not the other way around. Weight training and cycling are stuff I do strictly for the training/health/cross training benefits.

I can't do that!

2006-08-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'll see something like this and start to whine: "I could NEVER do that!"

Well, that may well be true, just as I feel safe in saying that I'll never run a 2:30 marathon nor walk a 4:15 50K nor a 17:00 100 miler.

Now check this pose out. Pretty good, huh? (no, that isn't me)

Now: this yogi is paralyzed from the waist down!

To see what is possible, given a great deal of focused time and effort:
http://commongroundmag.com/2006/08/whereyogabegins0608.html

Where Yoga Begins

A Paraplegic Yoga Teacher Tests the Frontiers of Mind-Body Integration

By Andi McDaniel
Most people would consider Matthew Sanford a living miracle.

Nearly 30 years since the car accident that killed his father and sister — and left him paralyzed from the chest down — the youthful 40-year old is a yoga teacher, sought-after speaker, and newly anointed author of Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence (Rodale, June 2006). He’s also a dedicated husband and father.

As we share a table at a sunny, neighborhood café — he in his wheelchair, I in one that’s stationary — he wears a big, easy grin, like someone with a wonderful secret he’s dying to share. As it turns out, Matthew’s secret will change the way I think about yoga, disability and, for that matter, life in general. And it just might do the same for you.

Yoga for Any Body

[...] the most convincing examples of yoga’s power don’t necessarily fit this mold. As Sanford phrases it, “Yoga moves through any body.” And if anybody should know, it’s Matthew.

After 12 years of simply tolerating his disability — essentially dragging around everything below his shoulder blades “like a head on a stick” — Matthew decided there had to be a better, fuller way of understanding his body. At the time, his only strategy for coping with his disability was the western medical model, which typically encourages people with spinal cord injuries to overcome — or compensate for — their paralysis.

[...] Matthew met his lifelong teacher. Jo Zukovich, an Iyengar yoga practitioner, had no experience working with students with spinal cord injuries — and in fact, neither did any other yoga instructor he could find at the time. What Matthew and she were about to explore was uncharted territory. Luckily, Jo had what Matthew calls “an uncanny ability to empathize into another’s body.” To teach Matthew, Jo would have to connect intuitively with his experience of paralysis.

But first, the pair faced some basic obstacles — like figuring out how Matthew would get from wheelchair to yoga mat and back again, on a daily basis. Also, from years of physically compensating for his injuries, Matthew’s body was totally out of alignment. With his upper body hunched to the left, and his weight resting on his right hip, Matthew would sit on his mat so crookedly that one leg was three inches ahead of the other. Much of Matthew and Jo’s early work focused on simply tracking his body into a straight line.

Luckily, as early as their first meeting, Matthew began to feel tremendous benefit from the simplest of yoga poses. Upon “taking his legs wide” for the first time, Matthew experienced a rush of energy he hadn’t thought possible. Then, prayer pose facilitated a sense of upward energetic release. Gradually, he began to feel what he calls “an energetic awareness — a tingling, a feeling of movement, not outward but inward, a sense of hum” throughout his paralyzed body. He explains it this way: “The mind is not strictly confined to a neurophysiological connection with the body. If I listen inwardly to my whole experience (both my mind’s and my body’s), my mind can feel into my legs.”

Of course, Matthew will never regain muscle control in the lower two-thirds of his body, but what he does experience suggests that a meaningful — and tangible — connection exists beyond the scope of the spinal cord. “I do not have the luxury of confirming my presence through flexing muscles,” Matthew says. “And yet, I still experience a level of integration.”

Today, when Matthew sits on a yoga mat, legs crossed in lotus pose, he is a vision of grace and balance. Jo is consistently amazed. “The things he can do now — and make look so easy — were so difficult back then,” she recalls. In fact, despite Matthew’s lack of feeling throughout his abdomen, his practice has enabled him to develop some abdominal control that gives him increased mobility. And while he still wouldn’t giggle it if you tickled his feet, Matthew’s lower body glows with presence and life.

An Out of Body Society

[...]
But what Matthew’s experience demonstrates about mind-body integration is not limited to incidents of trauma. “What’s the difference,” he asks plainly, “between someone in a wheelchair and someone who sits at a desk, for eight hours every day?” His point, of course, is that many of us detach from our bodies on a regular basis; such is the nature of the modern world. As we grow ever more familiar with the virtual reality of our computers and cell phones, inevitably we become more detached from our physical realities. As Matthew explains it, “We can no longer rely on the natural course of our lives to manage the mind-body relationship, to maintain a sense of inward presence.”

How then, are we supposed stay in touch with our bodies? Through programs called “Bringing Your Body to Work” and “Yoga at the Desk,” Matthew teaches corporate employees about the value of maintaining presence in the body. “Your body is your most underutilized asset,” Matthew tells them. “It’s the best home your mind will ever have.”

From Here, Yoga Begins

In addition to the outreach programs and able-bodied yoga classes he teaches through Mind-Body Solutions, the nonprofit he founded, Matthew also teaches an Adaptive Yoga class at the Courage Center, a well-known rehabilitation organization in Minnesota. The class, which is based on the Iyengar principles of alignment and precision, is one of few in the country open to a variety of disabilities. [See sidebar for existing resources on adaptive yoga].

Rather than comparing his students to their “normal,” able-bodied counterparts, Matthew teaches to the mind-body relationship that students actually have. “I just look at what they’ve got,” he says. The simple acknowledgement of what is, Matthew explains, “constitutes a level of nourishment that they don’t usually get.”

Teaching yoga to students with disabilities — ranging from cerebral palsy to multiple sclerosis — has deepened Matthew’s respect for the transformative power of yoga. With the range of challenges presented by each student (including students with brain injuries, some of whom have difficulty remembering poses week to week), Matthew’s class isn’t the portrait of serenity (“more like organized chaos,” he jokes). Yet it is perhaps the ultimate illustration of what yoga is all about. After all, a physical disability is essentially “mind having a hard time moving through body,” he says. “Which is just an extreme version of what we all experience.”

Throughout the adaptive yoga class, Matthew reminds his students to approach their practice from a place of acceptance. “From here, yoga begins,” he says. For students with severe physical disabilities, yoga begins in a difficult place. But yoga moves nonetheless, through any body that takes the time to open the door.

Hat tip to Tourist at the forums at Yoga.com for starting the thread that alerted us to this story.

Lack of Serenity

2006-07-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

I have to admit: we had a substitute teacher today who has given ok classes in the past. Today, we did poses using a stretch band.

I hated it; I left feeling less serene than when I walked in.

So, this will be my last class until the regular teacher gets back; actually, until I get back from a math conference in two weeks. Still, I'll put in 40-60 minutes daily on my own.

What does this photo have to do with anything? Nothing much really; I wanted to have something positive to say. Today was one of those days were nothing major went wrong, but I kept getting "sand in my shoes and shorts", so to speak. Everything grated on me.

Update: I went to class the next day. I really enjoyed it; we did lots of stuff that was difficult for me, including akward pose and back bends using the balance bar.

This is from http://www.bikramyoga.com. What I have to remember about this teacher is that she is very creative, and no one likes all of anyone's creations. And my wife liked last evening's workout, as did other students.

I guess that yoga sessions are a bit like flavors; not everyone likes every flavor.

Update II: someone at yoga.com pointed out that I can always honestly say "thank you for your time" to a substitute, no matter how bad the class was, as they are freely giving up something to have the class to begin with. I just hate it when someone points out that I was being a horse's ass.

2006-07-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

From "Asanas, 608 Yoga Poses" by Dharma Mittra.

Page 14:

Still, even with books like this, students should have a teacher available. The guru has gone the route. He or she knows the journey and is able to guide others. He or she knows which poses are good for you and which to avoid. As students grow spiritually and improve their mental patters they'll attract better teachers. Unfortunately there are many certified yoga instructors today who don't know anything about yoga. But student's needn't worry, everything has a devine purpose. Instructors who don't know anything attract students who don't deserve the truth yet. There is a natural order in the world.

Very wise indeed: this applies to many aspects of life and not just yoga.

As we see here, he practices what he preaches.
http://web.venturacountystar.com/special/photos04/carlo/index.cfm?PhotoCount=1

Yoga Haiku and Yoga For....

2006-07-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

I have really enjoyed the forums on yoga.com. The conversation is fun and I have learned from it.

There was some "snarkiness" over some of the replies getting too long winded and dense. A user asked us to be briefer:
"Haiku if you have to."

So I responded:

You asked for it...

I love my teacher
Of Yoga, she is very
Pretty and limber

Ok.

Next, someone said: ok, how about a limerick?

So here it went:
I once took a yoga class
Lead by a teacher who took no sass
She put us in a chair
Made out of only air
Until I had a great pain in my ......

Someone else posted about "breakthroughs". I am still trying to learn "peacock feather" and trying to improve on my bhujapidasana (arm pressure pose). I think that I am not putting my arms back far enough; hence I have to "fight" to keep from falling backwards onto my butt.

Next, I was going to make a post about "yoga for swimming" but, you know what? I don't do yoga for swimming, running, walking, mathematics or anything else. I started doing it to help my hamstrings and I want to improve my posture. But basically, I like doing yoga.

More progress

2006-07-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

My hip continues to improve all so slowly; I jogged two miles yesterday after swimming, and walked another two at about 13 minutes per mile this morning after yoga.

We had another parter yoga session yesterday and we are improving. As far as my solo practice, I have gotten a bit better at peacock feather,(Pincha Mayurasana I) though I still bang the wall a bit on the way up. And I get the impression that I am "throwing" my legs upward rather than going up with control.

Also, while looking around, I came across the site from which I got this photo: http://www.yogafamily.com/
I really like it. They have an excellent photo section and they give step by step instructions on how to do the poses.

I also came across this site: http://www.kyerphotography.com/; in particular
http://www.kyerphotography.com/whatsnewthumbnails/bm_2004/yoga/yoga_index.htm

which has solo and partner yoga photos like these:

Click to see larger images. Anyway, if you like sensual photos (subjects with and without clothes), the whole site is good. If you don't, then stay away. What I can say is that I don't do the back bend nearly well enough to support the weight of anyone else; not even a small person.

Yoga class: I prefer to be touched and adjusted

2006-07-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have some time as I am on summer vacation and am stuck on a mathematics problem. So, I am gathering my thoughts on various issues.

As I've said in several places in this blog, I am undertaking a project called "parter yoga" with my teacher, Vickie. We've practiced a few times, and it has gotten me to thinking about the role of touching and being touched in yoga.

Personally, I prefer that instructors take a "hands on approach" with me. There are several reasons for this:

I don't have great body awareness and having my limb moved to where it is supposed to be helps.
Remembering where I was touched gives me a mental and an emtional reminder of what the pose is supposed to feel like. For example, when I get into wide legged forward bend (Prasarita Padottanasana), remembering Vickie's light touch on the butt helps me raise my seatbones up to where they belong.
The "student/mentor" relationship works for me. Having the strong arms/knees/whatever of an instructor adjusting me makes me feel safe, cared about, and encourages me to take risks (e. g., go a bit deeper).

(photo from: http://www.astangayoga-sandiego.com/tour2000.htm and no, I can't do this pose. Yet.

Of course, I am a moderately large male (6 feet, 195 pounds, modest weight training, football and wrestling background) and I had a good childhood, so perhaps I don't have the issues that others have as far as being touched. And, of course, one can't wrestle or play football if one has an adversion to touching.

And I should point out there are issues concerned with adjustments.

Witness this one article from Yoga Journal:

http://www.yogajournal.com/views/899.cfm

Basically, this article makes some points:

The touch should do no harm; that is, students shouldn't be pushed past the point that they are ready for.
The touch should be done in a non-abrasive way.
The touch should be non-sexual, either in intent or in how it is precieved
The touch/adjustment shouldn't deny the student an opprotunity to attain the pose "on their own", so to speak.

One side note: this is Malasana pose (Garland Pose) that the article talked about; in this case a woman instructor helped another woman get into the pose by lifting her butt with her hands, and the instructor acted as if the woman's butt was difficult to lift.

So, there is an art to adjustments, and there is a book on the matter:
http://www.yogapostureadjustments.com/
The website has an "adjustment of the month"; this is one of them.

So, what does this have to do with Partner Yoga? Well, some of the Partner Yoga poses involve one partner adjusting the other, such as here:
The difference in the way we do this is that the top partner puts their feet on the floor and only lightly touches the bottom partner's legs; then the top partner raises the bottom partner's shoulders off of the floor.

This photo came from here: http://www.familyyoga.org/FamilyYogaDougWorkshopPics.html
this looked as if it were a fun workshop.

Progress: two running days

2006-07-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

So far so good; the past two days I have swam 4.25 miles and have run 4 miles (total). The running has been slow but pain-free. I just need to remember patience.

So, I've been thinking about yoga some (and doing some as well).

Partner Yoga

Here are some sites I've run across:

http://www.partneryoga.ca/intro.htm

Some of these poses are not for the faint of heart.

http://www.couplescompany.com/Advice/Jason/yoga/yogapartner.htm
These are realistic for the average park-district type of yoga person.

The Pleasures and Principles of Partner Yoga (Elysabeth Williamson, Rex Seader)
A popular book.

Partner Yoga (Cain Carroll, Lori Kimata)
Another book; the FAQ section on the website is good.

Partner Yoga (Fiona Mays and Kate Morsley; a dvd)

The Joy of Partner Yoga (Mishabae Edmond)
What we are using. The artistic photographs are enough to warrant getting the book.

Acro Yoga This looks downright intimidating in spots.

The Yoga Center of Minneapolis. Click on the photo gallery of the partner yoga workshop. You'll see some impressive partner poses done by non-intimidating looking people.
This is the pose I am attempting to master; right now I kick the wall a bit when I go up. Maybe within 1-2 weeks I won't need the wall as a mental crutch any longer.

Yoga Teacher-Student Issues

A 6 page article that talks about student-teacher issues that sometimes come up during classes:
http://www.yogajournal.com/views/1641_1.cfm

About student crushes on a yoga teacher.
http://www.focalpointyoga.com/crushes.htm

Improvement

2006-07-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today, I got in a nice 40 minute yoga session at noon; later I went for a 4 mile walk with my daughter.

My hip hurt after two miles so long as I went slow; when I sped up using a racewalk technique my hip didn't hurt at all.

The yoga session was unusual as I started sweating heavily right at the start. I was able to get into the peacock feather pose for a very brief time without the wall, and was able to hold it for 10-15 seconds when I got into it by banging my feet on the wall. I started into it via a modified "down dog".
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kristi19.htm

No, my feet aren't that far in front of my body.
This site discusses it: http://www.nshouseofyoga.com/Pose-%20Pincha%20Mayurasana.htm

That was exciting for me; however I've got a great deal of work to do before I will try it in public.

Also, I wored more on my "revolved triangle" as it is one of my worst poses.

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/692.cfm

Also of interest, I found the site http://www.yoga.com/ and registered for its forum
which has already proved valuable.

Rainy Friday

2006-07-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

Today, I wasn't as intellectually active as I'd like; ok, I didn't get squat done on my new math paper.

Physically, I got in 4000 yards of swimming, which included a 1500 yard free set in 26:39 with 500 yard splits of 8:46, 8:51, 8:50, followed by 10 x 100 IM (first 5 were with fins on the 2, doing the fly for the breast, next 5 were on the 2:30 with naked feet). Don't laugh about how slow my swim times are; I am painfully aware how bad they are.

Then I got 10 miles of cycling with my daughter on the East Peoria Rivertrail. The only downer is that I hit a pothole on the way back and messed up my rear wheel; a couple of the spokes are lose and the tire is now out of balance (it wobbles as it rotates).

Over lunch, I worked out with Vickie on partner yoga; this time in a studio with mirrors. We are getting better together though I am still holding her back somewhat. She is much better than I am, but then again, since she is the instructor, it should be that way.

One of our joint poses is triangle; here we see the "reverse triangle" being done with partners (Vickie and I keep our backs together):
This photo comes from http://farnooshyoga.blogspot.com/
which is a good but not very updated personal blog. But her associated photo set is outstanding:

It contains photos (mostly color) like these. This is "reverse bound warrior" or "revolved lateral angle" (PARIVRTTA PARSVAKONASANA); I think that this is outstanding.
This is the regular bound warrior:

Taken from: http://www.freespirityoga.com/poses.html . The whole photo spread here is worth a look.

Yoga teacher: dinner company

2006-07-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

This is the gang for dinner last night; Barbara (my wife) is on the left, Olivia (my daughter) is in the middle and Vickie (my yoga teacher) is on the right. Above them and to the left is the large window where you can see our front porch.

Vickie was there for dinner and to review a parter yoga video tape.

I am doing ok, though my left hip is a bit sore (away from my gluteal; this is more to the side); my guess is that I might have overdone weights yesterday.

Here they are, crossing legs.

Partner Yoga: day two

2006-07-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

I've more or less taken the weekend off from running and walking; I did jog a super slow 2 miles yesterday while Barbara and Olivia worked out in the water.
We looked at cars; probably the Toyota Prius or the Corolla.

Yesterday I swam 2650 yards, which included 10 x 100 IM (first 5 I did on the 2 with fins, using the fly for the breast) and the second was done regular. I finished with 10 x 50 free on the 1 followed by a 500 "relaxation" set. Today I did 4000; this included 20 x 50 free on the 1 (alternating 50's of first or free; 51-52 for the fist, 48-50 for the free) then 1000 in 17:40. Don't laugh; I've never pretended to be a good swimmer.

Now about our progress in partner yoga:

We had our second practice session yesterday. I learned a bit more about what Vickie calls "straddle forward fold" (Prasarita Padottanasana).

http://ashtangayoga.info/asana-vinyasa/fundamental-asanas/5a-Prasarita-Padottanasana-A.html

Here is another view:
Notice how her seat bones are almost pointing toward the ceiling? That is the proper way to do this pose. My mistake (which I can't find a photo of) is that my butt is behind my ankles; that makes it hard to do as a partner pose. In this class photo, we see some people making the mistake that I make. Note how far apart the partners are; we are much closer than that. In the second photo, we see the narrower leg forward bend and the male seems to be making the same mistake (in principle) that I make.

We are kind of like this, though with wider legs:

Though we can't wrap around like this; we can clasp forearms and our butts are touching. That is the sign of a true friend, willing to touch butts and look up each other's nostrils!
Seriously, this is helping me because when I do the pose improperly and I have a partner, I tip forward and lose my balance.

This next photo shows a student being adjusted to correct the kind of mistake that I made; Ms. Vickie does this for me from time to time. I keep feeling as if I will tip forward.

http://ashtangayoga.info/adjustment/fundamental-asana/23-Prasarita-Padottanasana-A.html

On a humorous note, this page shows much of what we will NOT be doing:
http://www.acroyoga.org/gallery.html

And of course,
Backbend and Down Dog. Note that the feet are a bit too far apart in down dog. As far as the back bend goes, I am working on that; I can't do the version where one lifts one leg into the air.

http://www.maui-yoga.com/mauiyoga_postures.htm

Actually, note that she has gone down to her forearms; I am not there either.

Partner Yoga: harder than it looks

2006-07-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

After swimming this morning (4000 yards) I went to Vickie's house (she is my yoga teacher) to practice some partner yoga. I was in for a surprise.

For starters, some poses which looked as if they were going to be easy weren't. And some which looked to be impossibly hard weren't that difficult.

But what I found is that doing poses with a pratner helps one's individual practice.

I'll share a bit of what I learned.

First, when I go into forward fold, I am pushing my butt a bit back instead of keeping it over my feet.

http://www.couplescompany.com/Advice/Jason/yoga/yogapartner.htm
See how far apart their feet are? In the book "The Joy Of Partner Yoga", the feet of the respective partners are much closer together (that is the heels of prater A almost touch the heels of partner B). It is hard to do!

http://student.vwc.edu/~chronicle/4_11_03/features89.htm
Here, notice how straight the legs are and how the partners are clasping hands. Vickie and I couldn't do this. Why? Look at the torsos of the partners. The torsos are almost perpendicular to the ground. To get my legs that high up, I have to lean backwards thereby making it difficult for me to reach forward far enough. In this case, I am limiting my partner.

Here is double triangle. We do a version where the lower arm is actually grasping the partners leg and then released to get into this version to finish in half-moon.

Also we have a double down dog version; one prater in down dog and the other is also in down dog, but facing the other direction with their feet on the other partner's shoulder blades.

Anyway, this will be a lot of work, but the work will be fun and well worth it.

Even more yoga fun...

2006-07-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a 9 mile bike ride with my daughter. Normally, she lives in Texas with her mother, but I get her for a month during the summer.

Since I teach college, I make sure that I have time to spend with her during July, though I usually try to get some mathematics done during the month she is with me. Currently, I am studying wild knots that result from the infinite intersection of nested (but non-concentric) solid tori.

For those who know about knot theory: think of these as knots which have an infinite number of p. l. companions (hence, by Shubert's bridge number theorem, these are wild).

Anyway, what does this have to do with yoga? Nothing, but I have been doing some google searches for yoga sites. I've come across a couple of interesting ones:

http://www.magicmoonyoga.com/

What is this? It is some sort of "goddess thingie"; retreats and yoga classes (and the like) for women.

I can say that she does her poses rather well.

I also came across this:
http://www.goddessrise.com/

Ariel-Dakini: "Sensual Healing Artist". She is a yoga and massage practioner. She calls herself "Goddess Prema" and writes:

ABOUT GODDESS PREMA...

Goddess Prema is my chosen Dakini name meaning "Love". I feel it really represents me, as my astrological sign is Leo, and I am truly a lover at heart. My path to serving humanity through being a Dakini has been incredible, mind blowing, and everything in between. My introduction to Tantra began many years ago, shortly after graduating from college when a friend of mind who was working with a chi qong master introduced me to the art of eye gazing and breathing conciously with a partner. Shortly thereafter, I found myself in Santa Cruz,CA where I met a man who totally transformed my life. When I first met him, I had a deep recollection of his energy, and when he held me, he was so conciouss and full. I began to have very penetrating dreams of him - we would make love, and sit in an ancient karma sutra postion called yabyum. All chakras aligned, and merging with the creator through this deep, tantric love. I also had a very deep experience of looking into his eyes, and feeling myself melt, as well as being 3500 miles away from him, and waking up drenched in the sweat of lovemaking, and feeling his essence, energy, and presence.

Around this same time, I found myself having dreams of being a Priestees in a Temple in a past life, healing this very same man who I found myself connecting with again in this life. I began to do some conciouss research about tantra, and sensual healers. I found that there is an entire arena of women as well as men working in these ancient art forms.

About two years later, after several hundred yoga classes, various tantra and massage trainings, as well as educating myself through the many excellent books on the subjects of Tantra, Kundalini energy, and Yoga, I found myself working in Marin County in a professional enviornment under the guidance and mentorship of a very special teacher.

6 months later, I beagn my own practice, and that brings me to now.

My formal credentials and trainings include a BA in Psychology, certified Reki 2 practioner (an ancinet form of hands on healing energy work), training through HAI, the Human Awareness Institute, as well as various massage instruction including traditional swedish massage, and formal erotic massage training through a facilitator of the Body Electric School in Oakland, CA. Tantra training includes varoius teachers in the San Francsisco Bay area.

Her main page has a slide show. Here are a couple of the, uh, tamer(?) photos from that show:

Sigh. I don't know what to think. I suppose that one could make some sort of "if you were spiritually fit enough you'd think and feel X, Y, and Z" type of argument. But it appears to me (and I could be wrong) that is a "erotica for the enlightened" type of thing.

I don't know what it is supposed to heal you from, but I know that I am feeling pretty good already.

Reclining Hero Pose?

2006-07-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I did the reclining hero pose for the first time. I was proud of myself, until I read in Light on Yoga (B. K. S. Iyengar's classic book) that "it is ok for beginners to keep their knees apart. Also, I noticed that I now have a "surface tingle" on the outside of my right knee (that has scars from previous operations); I am wondering if I broke up some old superficial scar tissue.

I am continuing to rest my left gluetal soft-tissue injury, but managed 3100 yards in the pool. The swim (10 x 100 on 2; 1:36-1:38 each) was better than before. I am still weighing 195-195.5 but my upper body is looking better.

Some fun with yoga

2006-07-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

I have some down time due to my daughter sleeping in late and my not training for ultramarathons.

So here is a collection of off-beat yoga related stuff:

Yoga for Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis

Basically, this is a series of poses: triangle, up dog, down dog, bridge/wheel/backbend, lord of the fishes, corpse.

Nude Yoga

No, a San Francisco community center is offering naked yoga, where bare essentials means just that: Men and women are completely nude during the 90- minute class.
This is not the invention of "naked yoga guy" George Monty Davis, who made headlines last year for (legally) striking naked yoga poses at Fisherman's Wharf, nor a "hot nude yoga" class for gay men, popular in Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles, or in any way connected to Internet-sold videos of voluptuous women doing naked yoga on wave-washed beaches with horses galloping by.
No, the new naked yoga class on Sunday mornings at the One Taste Urban Retreat Center on Folsom Street is meant to be transforming, not titillating. That's a concept that American culture, with its taboos on nudity, might find difficult to grasp. The center, which opened 10 months ago, was founded by Nicole Daedone, also a co-founder of 111 Minna Gallery. It offers dance classes and massage, has a small cafe and an art gallery, and hosts various events.
The class is about the challenge of yoga, and about the challenge of accepting -- and even revering -- one's own body.
"It's not a sexual experience,'' said Rob Kandell, the center's business manager. "It's a heart-opening experience."
On a recent Sunday morning, yoga instructor Meredith Medland, 33, gave students a sort of pep talk before entering the classroom, emphasizing the idea of the body as a vessel and getting them to calm their thoughts.
Five women and four men entered fully clothed, carrying their mats. Many were in their 20s and 30s, but some were decades older.
The classroom, on the second floor of the old building, is enclosed on three sides by velvety moss green floor-to-ceiling curtains and a white wall on the other. Caramel-colored wooden floors and exposed wooden ceiling trusses create a natural feel, rather than a clinical or sporty atmosphere.
"As we begin to disrobe, start to notice how you clothe this temple, this body, this thing you own, your home,'' Medland said. "As you take off your clothes, there's a level of precision, of consciousness, in the way you fold your clothes. We're honoring the preciousness, the sacredness, the delicateness of the body.''

Funny thing is, I can see that. I am not sure that I at a high enough spiritual plane for this though.

Water Yoga

On one hand, I can see why this might be of some benefit to those who have medical problems or those who are recovering from an injury. But, on the other hand, one does lose some of the weight bearing benefits, no?

Hot Yoga.

Bikram is probably the best noted yogi (in America anyway) in this area. But there are other types of hot yoga. The idea is that you can push yourself just a bit further when you are warm. The closest I've come to this is when I took an Ashtanga Yoga class at Yoga-Yoga in Austin.

The room was kept very warm (over 100 F) and basically what we did was this: we would do a pose and then a sun salutation. Then another pose then another sun salutation, and so on. I was sweating heavily within 15 minutes and finished being very lose. I liked it, though I noticed that, at 46 years old, I appeared to be the oldest one in that class.

Bikram's yoga is different: he has a set sequence of poses that one does (in the same order, each and every time). What I like about his method is that he doesn't even pretend that yoga is supposed to be easy; in fact he calls the studio a "torture chamber".

http://www.bikramyoga.com/CBS60Minutes.htm

Correspondent Mika Brzezinski reports Choudhury's turning up the heat with his "torture chamber" yoga method. Dressed in nothing but a Rolex and a Speedo, the 59-year-old yoga guru pushes his students to contort 'til it hurts in a room heated to well over 100 degrees.

"I don't sell cheesecake, you know that?" asks Choudhury. "So you come there to suffer. If you don't suffer, you don't get anything. Nothing easy in life."

But isn't yoga supposed to be relaxing and meditative – not torture? Choudhury says no: "That's the biggest problem in America. That's the way yoga [was] introduced to America. Yoga [in America] means sit and close your eyes and you will look at the lamp and look at the crystal and meditate."

In Bikram yoga, meditation starts on the outside, in pushing the body to its extreme.

Choudhury explains, "You use the body as a medium to bring the mind back to the brain. Perfect married between body and mind. Then, you can knock the door to the spirit."

His approach works, he says, because of the 105-degree heat, which loosens the body and allows the muscles and tendons to go farther and stretch even more.

The heat may make the body more limber, but it does nothing to stop a first-time Bikram student's potential pain. In fact, one doctor who spoke to 60 Minutes Wednesday said that people taking Bikram yoga classes should be warned, given instructions on hydration and on modifying poses to avoid pushing the body too hard.

Choudhury mocks the suggestion. "Tell the doctor [that] I say to start chicken farm." He adds, "What do you think I'm doing all this life? All these years?"

I have to agree. For example, in our park district yoga classes, you see people taking in water bottles and sipping from them. This is in a ONE HOUR class in an AIR CONDITIONED room. My goodness.

Power Yoga

From their site:

For centuries, the term ashtanga yoga has been used to refer to the eight-fold system of practice prescribed by the sage Patanjali. K. Pattabhi Jois’ version of ashtanga yoga emphasizes a vigorous approach to the asana (posture) and pranayama (breath control) components of classical ashtanga. To avoid the confusion with traditional ashtanga yoga, some people refer Jois’s system as Ashtanga vinyasa yoga or as power yoga.

Heart of Ashtanga Yoga:

The core Ashtanga practice consists of six progressively difficult series of linked postures, each requiring between 90 minutes to three hours to complete

The structure of Ashtanga makes you repeatedly go through an entire spectrum of postures, some of which are displeasing or difficult. The series work like a combination lock. If you do the right poses in the right order, the mind and the body automatically open up.

Each series unlocks a particular aspect of the body and mind. The primary series called yoga chikitsa (yoga therapy) realign and detoxify the physical body, particularly the spine. It also builds a foundation of considerable physical strength, especially important to balance out the overly flexible students who are often drawn to hatha yoga practice. The intermediate series, nadi shodana (cleansing of the nadis or river or channels), purifies and strengthens the nervous system and the subtle energy channels that link the seven chakras.

The four advanced series (originally taught as two series, but subdivided to make them more accessible) are collectively known as sthira bhaga (divine stability). These sequences take to new heights the strength, flexibility, concentration, and energy flow cultivated in the first two series.

A typical astayoga class will begin with a Sanskrit prayer. When the chanting dies away, your teacher will remind you to deploy the three central techniques in the Ashtanga arsenal: ujjayi breathing, mula bandha, and a variation of uddiyana bandha.

Yoga with Weights

Rick Polito
Marin Independent Journal
Article Dated: 03/13/2006 YOGA CAN take it.
A practice blending mind and body, yoga draws an aura of spirituality into the gym with a pure form of movement and awareness. So when Sherri Baptiste Freeman drops weights into yoga and calls it a “workout,“ it sounds almost sacrilegious. But yoga can take it, says Baptiste Freeman, whose Yoga with Weights for Dummies" is new in print ($21.95 from Wiley Press nationwide). “It's all yoga,“ she says. And she should know. The inspirational Kentfield mother of four has a virtual yoga pedigree. Her father helped bring yoga to the West Coast. Her brother took yoga into the Philadelphia Eagles training program. Baptiste Freeman has made two videos and a dvd . She grew up with yoga, health, dance, and fitness. “It's totally part of my DNA,“ she says. But she also grew up with weights. Her father didn't just pioneer yoga in America, opening San Francisco's first yoga studio in the ‘50s, he was also a Mr. America. “You'd walk into one of his studios and you'd have a full gym with all the equipment.“ Students learned to intergrate a balance of yoga, along with weight training into their week. It's not surprising that Baptiste Freeman would be bringing the two together. But yoga and weights are not always seen in the same room, or even the same building. In most yoga classes, the only equipment is the mat. And maybe a towel to wipe off the sweat. Though it has moved into gyms, yoga retains an almost anti-athletic ethic. It's not a jock thing. Baptiste Freeman knows that there are people in the yoga world who will look at her book and her weights with suspicion, perhaps even disdain. Talking about faster results“ might bring an even stronger reaction. She's not worried, and encourages them to look deeper. “I think they're going to come around once they read the book,“ Baptiste Freeman says. “Yoga's yoga.“

Yoga Butt

No, I am not talking about what some folks want to get out of yoga.

(yeah, this guy is a professional dancer, who was said to be making an "ass out of himself".)

Best Yoga Instructor With a Great Butt
Todd Rhoades
Todd Rhoades literally made an ass of himself in Ballet Austin's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. But, my, what an ass! And we mean that in the best way. Rhoades, a supremely gifted dancer, took up yoga some years back to help recover from ballet-related injuries. Talk about silver linings. He fell in love with the ancient yet trendy series of stretching so much so that he became a teacher. He's graceful, funny, smart, full of sunshine, and man, what a nice yoga butt. These days he's teaching at the new Castle Hill Specialized Fitness on Lamar.

Dang, I wouldn't mind having a butt and legs like that.

And no, I am not talking about these pants either:

What I am talking about is that yoga system http://www.yogafit.com/news/yoga-butt.html

At YogaFit, we have committed ourselves to creating classes that offer students the things they can't find from traditional yoga. Our fitness-based yoga programs have opened up yoga to the everyday gym member. They have also allowed people of all body types, ages, and fitness levels benefit from yoga in a way that simply isn't possible with traditional classes.
YogaButt serves as one of the most unique and most popular programs we have developed at YogaFit. The class focuses on the core stabilizing muscles such as the abs, hamstrings, abductors, quads, lower back groups, and more. YogaButt allows students to build strength ad endurance throughout their body, and it allows them to tone and alter their overall physique. It incorporates fitness activities such as squats, push-ups, and lunges into the progressions, so participants experience a higher level of fitness throughout the class period.
What truly separates YogaButt from our other fitness-based yoga programs is the use of the YogaButt ball. When you use the ball, you can experience standard poses in an entirely new way. It allows you to isolate certain muscles and to build strength and flexibility in a way that is not possible with a number of traditional yoga forms.

And last, but not least, the Karma Sutra
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/karma-sutra.htm

You can research this one on your own...though I have to admit that regular old yoga does have an unintended erotic aspect to it, at least to those of us who aren't spiritually mature as yet.

The Discipline of Practice

2006-06-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've participated in many different physical activities. The ones that I have committed time and effort to include:

Early Life: Team Sports

Football. My lifelong dream was to play in the NFL. As a teenager, I spent more time on this than I did any other activity. I lifted weights year 'round and every summer I did agility drills, wind sprints, hill runs and other drills to get ready. Unfortunately by my senior year in high school, I found that good college players tended to be strong, fast, quick and agile. I was none of those things.
Basketball. I played in junior high, and spent hours trying to work on moves. I was too clumsy, and you could barely slide a dime under my feet when I jumped.
Baseball. I played up through junior high. My dad used to pitch to me; I went to the batting cage and spent hours throwing a ball though various targets. But, well, getting hit by that little round ball really hurt, and well, I wasn't good at it anyway.
Wrestling. First two years of high school; mostly I just went to practice. My reality check came when I went to Annapolis and faced those who were recruited for the wrestling team. I ended up learning about mat burns and what the rafters of the wrestling loft looked like.
Judo. I liked the oriental wrestling and worked hard at this club sport. When faced with brown belts that were my own size, I struggled. When faced with black belts, I learned how to bounce off of the mats.
Track and field. Since I was 200+ pounds in high school, I tried the shot put. I lifted, practiced my throws over and over. End result: I could never throw into the 40's (feet); my problem was that I had no speed across the ring (these were the pre-spin days). And, no, you don't want to see what I looked like when I tried to spin.

Later in Life: individual sports

No, I won't count the triathlon, because I only entered one as a solo contestant. That was on a whim; my sole bike training was doing a 10 mile ride the day before to see if the bike worked.

Weightlifting/Powerlifting. I never entered meets (save an intramural meet or two). My squat was embarrassing and I managed to get 415 in the deadlift (in the gym). Best benchpress was 310. In the Olympic lifts, I managed 190 for the clean and jerk and 125 for the snatch. In college, and in subsequent years, this was my main athletic hobby and I used to spend hours lifting. Still, I never got very strong.
Running. I did this for much of my post-adolescent life (junior year in high school until 3 years after college graduation) prior to my knees giving me trouble at sea (in the Navy) and subsequently getting morbidly obese. I tried to return to it in graduate school but it didn't take; finally in 1994 I started to jog again (2 miles in 26 minutes or so) and in 1996 I started to enter local road races. I didn't have much success here either; my lifetime bests are: 5:30 (mile), 18:57 (5 km), 39:50 (10 km), 1:28:54 (20 km), 1:34:13 (half marathon), 3:33 (marathon). My master's bests are 5:54, 20:37, 42:25, 1:34:13 (half), 3:38.

These activities had the following in common: though technique was part of it, most of it was talent and effort; in other words, "just doing it." What these two things didn't do was provide my body with discipline. What they did do was to give me a valuable lesson in life: hard work will help you improve, but it alone won't make you good at something. There is that ugly word T-A-L-E-N-T.

But back to my body discipline: that is what my current three main activities help me with:

Walking/racewalking. I've always walked from "here to there", and when I was morbidly obese, I walked for exercise and enjoyment. At my top weight, it took me 36 minutes to walk 2 miles. I didn't start speedwalking until I injured my achilles tendon while running. I was already signed up for a 5K running race and decided to see how fast I could walk it. It took me about 30:42. I wondered how good that was and so I looked up racewalking on a website and found that, performance wise, that graded out about the same as my running. Then I saw why: my first "speed walk" was very bent-kneed; I was "creeping". So I wondered how fast I could walk correctly and have never been the same since. I've talked about my struggles here; but the rewards are that I learned more about my body in the process and that I've had brief glimpses of what it means to be "light on one's feet". Best results: 8:31 (1500 meter judged), 18:03 (judged 3 km), 30:42 (judged 5K), 2:27 (judged 20 K), 5:12 (unjudged marathon), 6:20 (unjudged 50K), 23:40 (unjudged 100 mile), 88.2 miles (centurion judged 24 hour). I've had results of 26 minutes for a 5K, 57 for a 10K and 4:44 for a marathon, but my technique was so bad during these events that I can't call these "walking" and keep a straight face.
Swimming. At first, this was cross training for running. How naturally does this come to me? Well, at Annapolis, the swim instructors immediately observed my form and immediately put me on the remedial swim instruction program. I worked at it until I became good enough to earn an "A" in physical education swimming. Oh, are there tons of things to remember about swimming. Get one thing "sort of right" and something else falls apart. Still, this teaches body discipline. Best results: on my own, 15:37 for 1000 yds (best meet was 15:59), 1:43 for 5K in the open water (Big Shoulders, Chicago 2001).
Yoga. At first, I did this to stretch my hamstrings; I had gotten a couple of injuries. Eventually, I grew to like it. Still, my first "standing forward fold" had my hands reaching the middle of my shins. Again, body discipline is very important here.

Posture: what to do about it

2006-06-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

This morning, I had a nice workout; 3600 yards of swimming followed by 5 miles of racewalking. Yes, I've done far more than this at times, but this was still a nice way to kill 3 hours (counting changing gear, stretching, etc.)

During the swim, I got to swim a few laps next to Steve Foster (the fellow currently pictured on the front of the Peoria Triathlon page).

Later a curvy woman in a purple tankini (a type of workout bikini) swam next to me. She was a pretty good swimmer too; her backstroke was roughly as fast as her front crawl.

I included 1000 yards of sets involving at least 50% non crawl stroke, as well as 5 by 100 IM on the 2:30. In all, it was a fun but demanding swim.

The walking afterward: I focused on posture, save the few moments I was in danger of being dive bombed by red wing blackbirds.

Evidently, I am not alone:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/chi-0606210348jun22,0,1024452.column

The beautiful red-winged blackbirds, too, have their less-sweet side.

They "can be kind of territorial," Sturdevant said. "They dive-bomb people sometimes."
So for now, the dam is off limits.

I also saw a fiesty flock of geese (with fledglings) and a river otter. The geese hissed at me; the otter ran (waddled?) away.

So, what to do about my posture?

I need to strengthen my abs and strech my psoas.

http://www.drbackman.com/psoas-muscle-stretch.htm

1. Place One Knee On a Chair (one without wheels).
2. Slowly Move your Pelvis Forward. Be Careful Not to Rotate Your Hips. As you Start to Stretch the Hip Flexors.
In This Case the Right Psoas Muscle, the Tendency is to have the Left Hip More Anterior (forward).
3. A Slight Lean Back Position of your Upper Torso will Accentuate the Muscle Stretch.
Most of Your Weight Will Be on the Leg You Are Standing on.

http://stlukes.org/body.cfm?id=169

3. Gravity Drop With Scapular Retraction:
Wear rubber soled shoes for traction, stand on a step or stairway as though you were climbing upward. Your feet are parallel and shoulder width apart. With one hand, hold on to the railing or another object for support, and edge backward until your heels are off the step and hanging in midair. Let the weight of your body press down into your heels to engage the muscles on the back of the leg, gently pull your shoulder blades back towards your spine and lift your head up tall as if standing in military attention (chin tuck). Do 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions with a 3 to 5 second hold 1x/day. This exercise will reestablish the linkage between the ankles, knees, hips and shoulders. Just standing up tall with your heels handing off the edge of the step for 3 minutes will also help to restore postural balance.

http://www.yogachicago.com/sep99/lizkoch.shtml

To tone the psoas, begin on all fours (cat pose) and explore the ability to shift weight from four points to three points. The position demands accurate placement of each bone in its socket perpendicular to the floor. Begin by releasing the psoas in the front of the right hip socket. Without shifting the pelvis, begin extending the right leg behind you, only releasing the leg to extend out. The movement begins at the hip socket-in the front of the socket-not in the dropping of the spine or the tipping of the pelvis. You can only extend the leg as far back as you can maintain a stable pelvis.

This is very exacting work. You cannot tone unless you can voluntarily release the psoas. Toning is the act of engaging the psoas properly. It is an eccentric muscle which means it never shortens. Engaging or toning the psoas means it never contracts, but falls back along the spine, always lengthening both the front and the back of the body.

For lengthening the psoas, the modified or full pigeon, when properly performed, is a psoas and iliacus stretch. Once again, positioning is crucial. Most people twist the pelvis in this pose. Rather, keep the pelvis balanced and stable, and release and stretch out from the core. Keeping the pelvis forward and stable may change the range of movement, but the stretch is deeper and you can isolate the stretch the psoas and iliacus muscle rather than pull on the pelvis. Lunges are psoas stretches.

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/863_1.cfm

Partner Yoga? In the works

2006-06-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

My Yoga teacher wants to do a 3o minute Partner Yoga workshop for our club's "customer appreciation" day; by "our club" I mean our Park District's Public Health Club at the Riverplex.

The one thing that we have to work through is this: she is good at Yoga and I am not. Nevertheless, it should be fun.

After class today, we went out for our usual run/walk (she runs and walk while I racewalk). A huge thunderstorm came rolling in, so we hoofed it back rather quickly (for us); she did her best running of the year!

Afterward, she hung out at our house as it was still stroming quite heavily and we went through some stuff. She recommended that I focus on the "spinal balance" pose to assist me in my racewalking; one of the faults of my walking is that I lean forward from the waist in an effort to extend my leg behind my body (in the way that a good walker does)

She teaches it slightly differently; she has us with the outstretched palm facing downward.
What I was doing was being lazy with the back leg and not keeping the knee straight.

Back to the partner yoga: the book we are using is the Joy of Partner Yoga by Mishabe.
The are tons of excellent photos; some are intimidating to me, and some are, uh, kind of sensual. But most of the poses are ones that I think I can do, even if I won't look nearly as good as the people illustating them. But yoga isn't about looking good; for me it is about surrendering to the pose. For example, when I do "dancer" on my own, I don't look like this:

But I am a bit more balanced each time I try it. Right now, I have to focus on keeping my foot straight; that is, allowing my toes to point toward my head and not toward a 45 degree angle to the long axis of my body.

So, here is some of what is in store for us: (ok, maybe we won't be able to do all of these!)

http://www.burrenyoga.com/sh518x4519.html

http://www.yogaoasis.org/doubleyoga.html

http://www.birdrockyoga.com/

http://www.mobiusproductsandservices.com/schedule.html

http://www.surya.ch/yoga-neu.html

Injury recovery: yoga has a role to play

2006-06-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

I've decided to "log" this injury (butt? piriformis?) to track its cause, how long it has affected me, and what works as far as recovery.

I do not pretend that this will be of interest only to me; these are intended to be "self notes".

What it is: I've had some pain deep in my left gluteal cheek. It started off as a somewhat dull ache that I mostly ignored. This was about in the first week of May, 2006 and coincided with my trying to add some speedwork.

I felt it a bit during the Ice Age 50K on the 13'th of May. It got noticably worse during a 10 mile training walk a week later. I layed off 6 days in a row; during that time I had mild, restless pain when I stood in one place for any lenght of time.

On June 3-4, I managed 83 miles at a 24 hour race. It hurt early on, but stretching and naproxyn allowed me to finish the race.

The next week it was ok but things came to a head on 13 June when I attempted to walk 3 miles to a meeting and back (normal walk). The pain became almost unbearable.

The next day, swimming was painless; walking 3 miles with my Building Steam group was painless, so long as I used a racewalking style and took short, quick steps. It hurt a bit when I used a longer stride hiking style.

That evening, my wife put her elbow in my butt and found a huge knot; it lessened.
The next day, I was able to walk 11 minute miles (3 miles, one at a time) without pain. Later that evening, standing in one place was uncomfortable, but no where near as painful as a week earlier.

What I've been doing: yoga, especially the frog and pigeon poses.

Frog pose

Pigeon Pose (I try to get my front leg perpendicular to the long axis of my body)

Related to frog: the woman on the left is in the "entrance to the arm pressure pose"

Your basic squat; this one helps too.

I've also cut back my walking and really focused on keeping a short stride in front of my body.

What brought it on? My guess it is a combination of too many long races with bad technique. My miles on the trails has made my technique very "hikish"; long stride in the front for stability. Still I was ok, until I tried to put in some faster road/track walking. My hiking style was not suited for going fast. The reason I say this is because walking with a short stride is painless.

What is wrong? The knot that my wife worked out seems to suggest that I had a mild gluteal strain. See:
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_gluteal_sma.htm

or

http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetContent.aspx?token=c969dc7d-0aa7-43de-ba12-bfeedab0944f&chunkiid=11829

Or it could be a piriformis issue (this issue affects many walkers)
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_piriform_sma.htm
or

http://sportspti.com/e_topics13.htm

As far as what I wrote in the past:

http://blueollie.blogspot.com/2006/06/pain-in-butt.html

http://blueollie.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-three-cold-water-and-tight-butt.html

As an aside, some yoga poses I do for my walking come from here:

http://www.ywbf.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=17589&start=31&posts=56

Getting it right

2006-06-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

I attended a racewalk clinic this weekend and learned that I need to work on my posture. I need stronger abs and I need to stretch my psoas muscle.

I spend years as a morbidly obese person and therefore have a downward tilted pelvis.

Yesterday at yoga, I tried to correct my feet when I was in half-moon (I usually do this pose without a block). Here is what I mean. See the photo above? (source) Notice how his supporting foot (the one on the ground) is in line with his body; his toes point toward his head. Also notice how his leg, torso, head and arms all lie "in a plane" that is perpendicular to the ground.

What I was doing was pointing my toes at a 45 degree angle toward my chest. Now look at he photo below. Look at the support foot and the positon of the torso. That looks more or less the way that I looked when my teacher (Vickie) got onto me.

By the way, on an unrelated note, our class uses the term "dead bug" to denote he "happy baby" pose.

Partner Yoga?

2006-06-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

Some exciting news for my yoga practice: Vickie, my beloved teacher, has asked me if I want to work with her to prepare a "yoga for partners" workshop (30 minutes), which would be held during our local park district's club "customer appreciation day".

The only downside is that this workshop would be on a Saturday during September which might be on the Big Shoulders Swim day.

If so, I'll do a 12 hour walk the weekend before (Flatlander in St. Louis) instead.

I wish the Park District would come up with a firm date.

One yoga related thought: I am one of those who likes it when the instructor gives me correction; I especially like it when they come over and adjust me.

Part of the reason I like it is that I get a better feel for what I should be doing in a pose. But part of it is that I really like the "mentor" model, and when the instructor adjusts me, I feel like someone cares about me.

Yoga; recent ultra

2006-06-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I competed in the FANS 24 hour walk. I placed 34'th out of 86 runners and 2'nd out of 6 walkers with 83 miles; though I don't like getting beat, I got bested by a good walker who was in good shape.

And his being a nice guy made it even easier to take.

Going into the race I had worries about my left piriformis muscle. But doing the pigeon pose between laps really helped.

Today, I made the 8 hour drive back to Peoria from Minneapolis.

When I got back I made my 6:30 pm yoga class. This class, while it has a few long time members who are interested in improving at yoga, mostly appeals to those who want a healthy activity to make them feel better. Yes, there is nothing wrong with that!

But, there is a difference between doing something because "it is good for you" or "it makes you feel good" and doing something because you want to be better at it.

For example, when it comes to swimming, walking and yoga, I constantly want to improve. The same was true for me for running and powerlifting in days past.

On the other hand, the few times that I ride my bike, it is almost always "for fun", to cross train, or something like that. I don't have a desire to improve.

So, it means that the poses are mostly the "easy" ones; of course I always have room to improve.

Anyway, this easy class was just what I needed today; though balancing was a chore as my calves were trashed. We did a "standing big toe pose" ( where one grasps ones toe while the leg is in the air and balances on the other foot) to tree to eagle transition, and my calves screamed at me.

However, my least favorite pose that we routinely do is reverse warrior. I am stiff as a board in this position and I never do this pose when I do yoga on my own.

Pigeon Pose

Big Toe Pose

Tree Pose

Eagle Pose

Reverse Warrior Pose

Late May

2006-05-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

First things first: yoga went well this morning and I was able to hold bujapidasana for several seconds (though my exit was far from graceful).

And no, I don't look nearly as good as the person demonstating the pose here.

But I did get my butt off of the ground!

Later, I put in 22oo yds in the pool, including a challenging (for me) set of 10 x (25 fly, 75 free) on the 2:00. I was 1:40, 1:39, then 1:41-1:43 for the next 7 and 1:44 for the last one. I know; a complete joke by swimmer standards but not that bad for me.

I have a slightly sore piriformis muscle. I scanned the internet for ways to strenthen this muscle and found the following:

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/636_1.cfm

The article, says (in part): (click the link to read the whole article)

Finding Stability

While the piriformis and the other deep hip rotators are best known for the problems they create when they're tight, they do need to be strong to perform important functions in yoga poses. They help to stabilize the pelvis and knees when you bear weight on the legs, especially in standing poses. To experience this, stand with your legs wide, preparing for Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose II). Turn your right foot out 90 degrees and your left foot slightly in. Notice that even though the right foot is turned out, there is a tendency for the knee to turn in.

This internal rotation of the femur is due to the pull of the internal rotators of the hip, including the adductors (a large muscle group of the inner thigh) and the medial hamstrings on the back of the inner thigh. If the foot and shin rotate out while the femur rotates relatively in, the knee twists, putting a potentially damaging strain on its ligaments. A contraction of the external rotators is needed to bring the knee into alignment with the foot to protect the integrity of the knee joint.

To refine and strengthen this action, try practicing Warrior II with your back to a wall. Stand close enough so your right buttock touches the wall but your feet do not. Turn your right foot out so the foot is parallel to the wall, and turn your left foot in slightly more than perpendicular to the wall. Now come down into the pose, bending your right knee and keeping your left leg straight and strong. Place a yoga block or firmly rolled towel between your right knee and the wall, and press your right knee into this prop. It is the deep hip rotators that are putting pressure on the block—and at the same time aligning your knee perfectly with your foot.

As you press the right knee toward the wall, make sure that you don't let the left thigh buckle away from it. In fact, if you'd like to increase the challenge, place a second block or rolled sticky mat between the wall and the center of your left femur; hold it in place by firmly pressing your left leg back while continuing to press the right knee into its prop. You will feel a strong action in the back of both hips as the piriformis and its friends externally rotate both legs. A similar action should occur in Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose) to the right: Keep the right knee pressing into the right arm while maintaining a straight line through the left leg.

The knee is also at risk of being twisted in some straight-leg standing poses, and a strong contraction of the deep hip rotators is required to align the femur, knee, and foot. While in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) to the right, turn your head and look at your right knee. Chances are, it's slightly internally rotated.

Now feel the firmness in your right buttock as you externally rotate the thigh to align the knee with the foot. (Notice that this action also creates a beautiful arch in your foot.) Even more challenging, maintain this alignment as you bend your knee and prepare to transition to Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose). In this transition, the rotators must act strongly to prevent the knee from angling in toward the big toe, and they must continue to contract as the knee straightens fully in the pose.

Building Strength

Let's look at one more straight-leg standing pose, Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Many people tend to stand with their feet pointing out slightly. Sometimes this may be caused by short and tight rotators that externally rotate the whole leg. If that is the case, the knees will also be pointing out, and you need to spend more time stretching the backs of your hips.

However, it's also fairly common for the feet to point out while the knees point in, an alignment that can contribute to pronation of the feet (collapsed arches), knee problems, and low back pain. Weak rotators can be the culprit behind this pathological alignment. If the external rotators aren't strong enough, the internal rotators (which include the gluteus medius and tensor fascia lata on the outer hip as well as the adductors) will pull the femur into internal rotation. In an attempt to align the femur, the outer hamstring, which is also an external rotator, takes over for the deep hip rotators. Unfortunately, the outer hamstring inserts into the lower leg, and so, instead of aligning the shin and thigh, it turns the lower leg out even more deeply, exacerbating the misalignment.

If you are dealing with pronated feet, knee problems, or lower back pain, be sure to take a few moments to stand in front of a mirror and look at your leg alignment. If your kneecap points over or even inside your big toe, weakness in your external rotators may be contributing to your problems. While work with your foot muscles and the use of orthotics may help support your leg from below, you may also need to increase support from above, at the hip, by making your buttocks firm and rotating the thigh outward so the knee is centered over the foot. Don't overdo the action by gripping the buttocks onto the tailbone, pushing the pelvis forward, or rolling onto the outer edges of your feet. Use a moderate action, just enough to achieve knee alignment while staying balanced on your feet.

Don't be surprised if you feel soreness in your buttock muscles within a day or two after working carefully on your standing pose alignment. Just be sure to take time to stretch the muscles after you've worked them. Remember, a sore muscle is a worked muscle, and a worked muscle is getting stronger, adding to the stability of your feet, knees, and hips.

Julie Gudmestad is a licensed physical therapist and certified Iyengar Yoga teacher. She runs a private physical therapy practice and yoga studio in Portland, Oregon, where she combines her Western medical knowledge with yoga.

Yoga and Body Art

2006-05-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

While looking for yoga photos to demonstrate poses, I came across the following website:
http://www.sandysite.photosite.com/

It is well worth a look. A couple of the yoga photos are these:

The top pose is dancer (yes, I do this one, but not nearly as well as the lady in the photo) and the bottom one is Lotus (I can't do this one; I can't quite get the second ankle to go over the leg as yet).

I admit that I was always skeptical about the so-called "artistic beauty" of nudes. I am skeptical no longer; these photos ARE beautiful.

I never in a million years look this good while doing yoga poses (or anything else for that matter); my body is naturally stiff and graceless.

But not all of us were meant to be artists.

Yeah, that is a good name for this stuff: "body art".

Tight Butt!

2006-05-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Athletics: still protecting a sore back/butt (mild piriformis syndrome?) so no running/walking today. I am not worried as I have many days until my next event and my pain is mild at best. But it makes no sense whatsoever to get in walking miles at this point.

However I did get in a nice 1.5 mile swim at Barton Springs; 36:40 for the first 4 laps (I am a slow swimmer), 46:20 for 5, then one lap of mixing various strokes (breast, free, fly, side).

There were a fair number of swimmers there; triathletes (in wetsuits), serious swimmers, "just do whatever" and fitness types (myself). And yep, some fit ladies (in all of the catagories).

It is a bit humbling to have a serious swimmer blow past you, but I really admire their technique. They just look so long and graceful in the water.

As far as the piriformis syndrome: there are some recommended exercises that we were taught in yoga class (including pigeon).

Piegon (no, I don't do it that well)

Spine stretch.

Anyway, It feels good to do these two poses.

What I'd like yoga to help me with....

2006-04-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yoga has been going ok, though in class I've found my mind wandering; and at times it appears that I am merely going through the motions.

What do I want out of yoga? Well, I'd like to be able to walk with better posture; I've been told that I stoop forward and that my pelvis is tilted forward. That might be a result of my former morbid obesity.

A bit of background: I walk long distances. Back in May 2004, I walked 101 miles in 24 hours on a track and then got 88 miles in a similar race one month later. In 2005 I finished two trail 100 milers by walking the whole way; 34:16 at McNaughton in April and 29:34 at Leanhorse in August. But 2006 has not been a successful year as far as ultrawalking. In February, I only got 76 miles in a 24 hour race in Houston,
and last weekend, I failed to finish a 100 mile race at McNaughton.

Here I am about 32 miles into the race; it is easy to see why I didn't finish. (photo by Rich Breaux).

First of all, my upper body is "soft" (fat and untoned); I really need to get back to swimming. My posture is bad (leaning forward) and my arms are all over the place; my discipline is all gone.

Now here I am in 2004 at the Ultracentric (about 10 miles into the race;); I am still leaning forward but in general I am much more disciplined. That is why I hit 100K in 14:25 there instead of taking 15:17 just to get to 50 as I did last weekend. I know that the courses were not comprable.

This is what a good ultrawalker looks like (Ivo Majetec; his PR for the 100 mile walk is 17:00). Notice how upright his posture is; shoulders over the arms, chest up and notice how he uses all of hist foot. Also, notice his hip swing; from behind it looks as if he turns his hips so much that his butt looks as if it rotates to 45 degrees off of the axis of travel (an exaggeration, I am sure).

Here is another good ultrawalker: Augie Hirt. He won the US Centurion Race (100 mile) in 1976 with a 19:55 on a muddy track; he also has won the US championship in the 50 mile walk with 7:30 (9 minutes per mile) and has made the US Olympic trials at the 20K.

He gave me my first walking lessons.

Here I am at the Chicagowalker's 5K in 2003 where I walked a 30:43. (I was to get DQ'ed the following year; in 2003 I got zero red cards and zero cautions). Note that my hips are behind my shoulders and that I am flat-footed and overreaching with my forward foot. The back leg is not bent at all, as it should be. At the time this photo was taken I was going about 9:40 minutes per mile (roughly 6 minutes per kilometer).

Next we'll look at the contrast between a walker of my ability and a good walker:

This shows a faster walker (outside) lapping a slower walker (inside). Guess which walker I most resemble? Look at the shoulder placement, the "lean" and the back foot of the respective walkers. In the background you see another walker and a racewalk judge (in the blue top).

So, the challenge to me is: how do I straighten up?
Hopefully, yoga and technique drills will help me.

I am hoping that the following poses will help me with my pelvis and core strength:
(and no, I don't do these poses as well as those who are demonstrating them, and I get nowhere near as high up as the guy doing the wheel).

http://www.alaskaartguild.com/Yoga/CamelPose.html

Camel Pose

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/472_1.cfm#

Bridge Pose

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/489_1.cfm#

Boat Pose

Wheel Pose

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/473_1.cfm#

Yoga Information for Peoria

2006-03-01T18:51:00.000-08:00

I was made aware of a yoga website in Peoria:

http://www.yoganetwork.org/Downtownyoga/

This is the website for Downtown Yoga, which meets near the Riverfront. I've never taken one of their classes as yet, but will probably try one soon.

I was made aware of this because I signed up for Yoga Network, which is a service which works to get students together with teachers.

The Downtown schedule is below:

Namaste. Welcome to Downtown Yoga!

Monday

All levels with Trish 10 - 11:15 AM

All levels with Sheila 5:30 – 6:45 PM

Beginning yoga with Kandace 7 –8:15 PM

Tuesday

All levels with Jen 5:30 – 6:45 PM

Foundations of Yoga with Brandi 7- 8:15 PM

Wednesday

Level I with Trish 8:30 – 9:45 AM

Thursday

Power yoga with Jen 5:30 - 6:45PM

Foundations of Yoga with Brandi 7 – 8:15 pm

Friday

All levels with Heather 8:30 = 9:45 AM

Saturday

All Levels with Trish, Jen & Heather (rotating) 8:30 – 9:45 Sunday

Foundations of Yoga with Brandi 11:15 – 12:30

Water & Liberty
Peoria, IL, United States, 61606

Phone: 309-645-7762

jeaneperino@insightbb.com

2005: Not the progress I had hoped for...

2005-12-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

But one gets what one puts into something. In 2005, it seemed that I was always preparing for or recovering from a long ultra (24 hour or 100 mile) and I never really focused on my yoga practice. Hence, I got the results that one gets from making something a secondary focus.

Yet I had fun and obtained a slightly more flexible body in the process.

This photo is of my teacher, Ms. Vickie, and me. I am the one on the left as you look at it. (Click for a larger photo).

Vickie tried to kill me!

2005-12-15T03:19:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to the "core strength class" prior to the yoga class. In part due to slushy conditions, I was the only one who showed up at the core strength class; Vickie was filling in for the usual core strength instructor.
So we did 45 minutes of abdominal work; in included about 15 minutes of crunches, a nasty set of yoga leg lifts, stuff with an oversized ball, as well as those scissors exercises that I talked about in my "is this really yoga" post.

Is it really yoga?

2005-12-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

I admit that I really enjoy my Peoria Park District Yoga class and have a deep respect for my yoga instructor, Vickie.

Recently, I attempted a 24 hour race; the race was a colossal flop (70 miles walking; 101 is my personal best) but I've taken some down time afterwards and have had some time to think.

As far as my personal practice: it has been mostly classes; 4 times a week. That isn't enough to get good at yoga; I understand that. But it has been enough to keep me limber.

But I've had time to think (not necessarily a good thing?) and I've come to ask the question: just what is yoga anyway?

My instructor was trained by "Yoga Fit" and teaches what, in my opinion, is a rather fitness-class oriented style. She tells us to focus on our breath, but we really don't do much else with it. We also do some moves which really reminds me of fitness class moves. But then we do the classic poses as well, and sometimes hold them. Typically, I like to hold my poses just a bit longer than most as it takes me some time to get a "feel" for them.

But, on physical grounds alone (and I know that classical yoga involves a spiritual aspect as well), where is the line between exercise class type stuff, yoga and contortionism?

Some examples: when I see these photos, I say "That's yoga!" They are of the boat, down dog, crow and cobra. The "boat" and the "down dog" photo come from the Yoga Journal.

The boat pose
The down dog pose
Crow (or crane?)

And now Cobra. A good (but small) amature album of various poses can be found here:

http://www.katstan.net/photos/thumbnails.php?album=1

But what about these poses?

These are clearly contorsionism. They certainly involve strength, balance and flexibility, but these, in my opinion, are outside of the realm of yoga, though perhaps not by much?

This is a yoga pose is called "scorpion".

Then, what about these poses?

Is this contorsionism or is it yoga? The lady in these photos runs something called the Pretzel School of Yoga in San Francisco. More photos of this type can be found here.

There is also a line between yoga and fitness classes.

These last four photos (the first one is from Shape Magazine) are from fitness classes, but Vickie has had us doing all of these at some time during our yoga classes. I should point out that she was a fitness instructor prior to becoming a yoga instructor. But, we also do the classic yoga leg lifts too.

These are the classic yoga leg lifts which are called URDHVA PRASARITA PADASANA in the Sanskrit.

Letting the results go

2005-11-21T04:10:00.000-08:00

It has been some time since I've posted.

My yoga practice has been 3-4 classes a week with no "self-practice"; hence I've stagnated somewhat. That is ok however as I've focused mostly on swimming and preparing for my upcoming 24 hour walk (this next weekend).

My goal is to become a Centurion which means to walk for 100 miles in under 24 hours at a race that has walking judges. I've made this distance before (Cornbelt 24; got 101 walking miles there in 2004) but there were no walking judges there; hence I only got "credit" for doing it as a runner. My other attempts (with judges) ended up at 88 miles and 81 miles. I've also hit 85 miles at the 24 hour mark of a 100 mile trail race in August.

What does this have to do with yoga? Well, I was most successful at my first 24 hour race. Why? Part of it was the fact that I had a near perfect day and that I was completely healthy and rested going in. Part of it was that I was well trained. But a big part of it was that I went in with no expectations whatsoever; I really didn't know what I could do so I just realxed and "let go" and let it come to me.

So, my main athletic focus this coming week will be to let go of things and to just let it come to me. Take it one lap at a time; just let it go and focus on being in the moment. That's the yoga way.

A Crush on the Yoga Teacher

2005-10-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit it: I have a crush on my yoga teacher. For the sake of this post, I'll call her "Vickie". Yes, she is an attractive single female and I am a married male, and no, I am not talking about marital infidelity.

So what am I talking about? Well, I can say that I really look forward to her classes. I can say that I love traveling out of town to attend a class with her. I love it when we talk about different aspects of yoga; I love it when she challenges us and makes corrections. I love the way she puts her heart and soul into teaching us.

Now, of course, this wasn't always the case. I started yoga back in the fall of 2003, mainly to help with my racewalking. I was having trouble with my hamstrings and having trouble achieving the "straight knee" that is necessary to walk legally.

So, I decided to stop in on our local yoga class (in a facility about 1 mile away from where I live). At first, during "forward fold", I could barely get my hands to mid-shin.

At the time, I have to admit that when I first met Vickie, I kind of thought that she was a bit of a bubbly air-head. During class she would talk constantly "lengthening and stretching....Lengthening and stretching, focusing on that breath..." and I'd kind of roll my eyes. Then, we the class was all doing, say, "Warrior II" she'd say: "ooooh, you all look sooooooo gooood! Proud Warriors!" I'd glance and see a bunch of old fogies whose poses were, well, let's put it this way, if she had not have mentioned the pose, it would have been tough to infer what pose we were supposed to be in from looking at us!"

But, over time, I began to understand more and more. I found myself staying after class to ask questions and she'd talk to me. Gradually, I started adding her 6 am Tuesday classes, then the Thursday one too. Then, she invited me to ride with her to an out-of-town class.

So, obviously, I have gotten hooked on yoga. But when did I get hooked on her? I'd say it was back in February, 2004.

During a class one evening, I could tell she was a bit annoyed with me. Then after the class she came up to me. Giving me a stern look, she said "Ollie, tonight, your triangle looked TERRIBLE! What is going on with you? Where were you?"

Well, there was something wrong; I had skipped a week of class to go back to Texas to attend to my dad's death. So, yes, my head wasn't there; I was very unbalanced. I told her about that and we talked.

But it was then that I fell in love with her, so to speak.

Yoga and ultradistance

2005-10-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

I am still doing yoga 4 times a week, but I am not doing that much outside of classes. The reason: I am training for yet another 24 hour walk.

One thing that I've found: the ultramarathon training affects my one legged balance poses such as half-moon, eagle and tree. When I am walking heavy workouts, my calves become easily fatigued. By the way, here is a sample of what I mean by heavy: Tuesday 13 miles, including 3 x 5K at marathon race pace, Thurday 6 miles including 3 x 1 mile at 10K race pace, Saturday 28 miles, Sunday 20 miles. I know that elite athletes do much more than that, but I am far from elite.

Another factor: when I am swimming 3 times a week, I really feel it in the shoulders when I do the "down dog".

It has been a good long while

2005-10-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

Since I've posted here.

I've been continuing my yoga practice, but only 4 times a week. So far, my body has healed up from my last 100 mile race, and now I am preparing for a 24 hour over Thanksgiving weekend.

Body issues: it appears that my pelvis is tilted forward about 25 degrees (0-5 is normal for a male); therefore I tend to stoop forward (with my butt pushed back) when I walk. I need to work on this.

Lately I've changed my practice somewhat. In the past, I went to a level I park district class on Monday and Wednesday nights and a slightly more advanced class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The past couple of weeks I have skipped the level I classes and that seems as if that is the right thing for me.

I love the instructor (I have the same one for all 4 classes) but the Monday/Wednesday classes have gotten very crowded. And frankly, they've attracted mostly out of shape people; therefore the instructor has had to water the class down somewhat. So, I've done those times "on my own" and I think that I can see a difference; when I am on my own I can hold the poses as long as I want to, and I am one of those who likes to hold poses for a long time.

And, as Yee says, we can become "course bound" in our practice.

Yoga teaching...

2005-08-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

First a note on my progress: I am still doing yoga 4-5 times a week and am now able to get deeper into bhujapidasana (arm pressure pose). I am currently working on doing a forearm stand and cannot get into it directly as yet.

These things take time.

I bought a few yoga books and will review these at a later date. I can say that I am really enjoying Bikrahm's beginner book. I know that he is controversial, but I love his "there is no easy way to get good at this" approach.

Now some comments about yoga teaching. After class, I overheard a student telling my instructor that she wants to teach yoga. Well, this person admitted that she was practicing all of ONE time a week!

I have to admit that this floored me; I would think that a basic prerequisite to being a yoga teacher is to have a long established personal practice.

But that isn't the case; I've seen some instructors who don't even know the basic poses. Sigh...

Of course, there are others who are quite good.

But I suppose there is another side to this. We need more instructors who are willing to teach level I, and teaching level I isn't a popular thing to do.

Yoga in the News

2005-07-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

First of all; practice is going on ok. I have managed to hold 2-legged down-dog a bit longer.

Next, note that yoga has made the news, albeit not in the way that I had hoped. The good news is that there is some funding from congress to study the health benifits of yoga in a scientific way! The bad news is that not eveyone is happy about this; see my blueollie blog entry.

Finally gettting it?

2005-07-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

My recent progress has been steady but unremarkable. I've gotten better at bhujapidasana and my other poses, but still struggle with doing "boat" properly.

Also, I've been able to take my 10 year old daughter to my last couple of classes; that is a real treat!

Yesterday, we did an interesting sequence (warrior I, warrior II, extended side angle, prymaid, then this sequence on the other side) and as I surrendered to the poses, I had a very brief period of a complete release of tension. I almost started to cry; this was completely unexpected.

The difference was that I tried to remember to breathe in the way that Brian (an outstanding local instructor) told me to; this was the 3-level breathing.

I think I am getting my first glimpses of what yoga is about.

Progress: two legged down dog

2005-07-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I had 2 hours worth of yoga at the Riverplex open house: level II and yoga for golf with Ms. Vickie, then Power Yoga and yoga-butt with Ms. Susannah.

All four thirty minute segments were fun.

Then I had a class from Brian this Wednesday; he really got us into the proper breathing practice. He also drove home that the poses are really supposed to be "loosely held".

Also, I bought Yee's 8 week yoga plan book and hope to work on some of the forearm balance poses.

Today I held bhujapidasana for 20 seconds and got my upper leg up for a few breaths on side-plank. My one arm, one leg down dog is getting better but still needs tons of work.

Also, I am finally beginning to understand the triangle pose.

One other note is that my left hamstring/hip area remains stiffer than the other side.

Yoga feast

2005-07-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday, I took in four 30 minute yoga classes: yoga level 2 and yoga for golfers (Vickie) then power yoga and "yoga-butt" with Susannah.

I did this after an easy 10 mile run (95 minutes).

Overall it went ok; my newest challenges are to get my upper leg up in "side plank" and to be able to do the "single leg, single arm" down-dog.

Progressing

2005-06-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

I've had a good week of yoga classes this week; 3 with Vickie and 1 with Susannah.

The latter class was a level 2 class. I didn't care for the "one pose per breath" sequence where we did "down dog, up dog, warrior I, warrior II, extended angle, triangle" 6-8 times in rapid succession. I felt sloppy in each pose.

But I loved everything else we did, including when she had us try "half-moon" without our blocks. She said something to the effect that we shouldn't rely on our crutches forever. One never improves if one doesn't take risks and if one never leaves their current comfort level, at least for brief periods of time.

Speaking of comfort level, Vickie cooked our abs again; those leg lifts will be the end of me yet. Yet she makes it look so easy.

Bhujapidasana continues to improve; I held it for 15 breaths without difficulty. Also, in side plank, I got my upper leg in the air for a few breaths prior to losing my balance.

Humility

2005-06-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

It has been a while; but I did yoga classes last Thursday, this Monday and today (Tuesday) as well as a solo session last Friday. I continued to improve my bhujapidasana.

My yoga instructor, Vickie, has a way of finding my mistakes and making corrections. I don't mind, but I find myself getting a bit embarrassed when she hands me a block. I want so much to be able to do the poses without props! But that is where humility comes in.

Also, I got humbled early in our ab routine today. Vickie had us hold our legs in the air for about a minute (seemed like more) and then do 8 leg lifts. I did my best and kept my legs straight and pushed out with my heels. Still, my abs were screaming at me on the last repetition.

As for Vickie, she was talking to us the entire time!!!! These weren't a problem for her.

Level II class

2005-06-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

Good practice today with Theresa. I was fired up as this class had students who practiced poses prior to the class; one even did a handstand with a minor assist.

I can hold bhujapidasana for a longer time now; now I have to work on getting higher up.

finally

2005-06-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

I felt tired today, but still managed to hold bhujapidasana for a length of time! It wasn't pretty, but I got off of the ground and stayed there for a while.

Ms. Vickie took it easy on us this morning, but we did finish up being nice and loose.

The back continues to improve.

back is healing

2005-06-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

After swimming (17:23 1000).

I did a brief workout consisting of down dog, foward fold, pyrmaid (sp), headstand, plow, then bhujapidasana (4-5 seconds) on tired arms then "wheel" (sort of; I can't come close to touching my hands to my heels).

Later tonight, it is class with Ms. Lillie.

prepost race

2005-06-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today I did a 5K "running" race in the morning (23:24; 7:19, 7:26, 7:52, 0:45) and did a yoga routine a couple of hours later. I have a 14Km (8.7 mile) trail race later this evening.

I held bhujapidasana for 5-6 seconds after doing the following (hold for 1 minute)

My post run routine (keeps me from stiffining up)
1) mountain
2) tree (both sides)
3) down dog
4) forward fold
5) warrior II
6) extended angle
7) warrior I
8) prymaid
9) triangle
10) reverse triangle
11) straddle forward fold
12) down dog
13) single leg forward fold (30 seconds each side)
14) seated straddle forward fold
15) shoulder stand/plow (10 breaths)
16) head stand (25 breaths)
17) arm pressure pose

back pain was very, very mild; it is almost healed.

June 16

2005-06-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

1 hour with Ms. Vickie; lots of "lunge". I managed bhujapidasana after class and to cross my legs in different directions. Back was unnoticable except for boat; I could not do boat today.

Level II class

2005-06-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

I had my first level 2 class; I was signing up for Brian and instead got the "new teacher" Theresa.

She was nice. We didn't do any advanced poses, but we did a killer down-dog routine. My shoulders were screaming! Part of the reason was that I did 1.5 miles of open water swimming this morning.

She also showed us how to deepen the stretch in triangle by removing the support from the lower arm.

Back was ok; not 100% but all of the poses were ok; even headstand.

Tuesday 14 June

2005-06-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

Back hurts when I " arch" it (e. g., wheel, cobra) as is ok when I bend forward. Some ache upon faster racewalking.

1 hour of class this morning; headstand (with split legs) was ok; got slightly up in bhujapidasana. 30 minutes of walking with Vickie afterwards.

backache II

2005-06-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

After 13 and 21 miles over the weekend and 2000 yards in the pool, yoga with Ms. Lillie.

Did ok until half-moon on my "strong side" and the back-ache came back.

Bhujapidasana and headstand were ok; split my legs in headstand. Wheel was tough; could barely get on my hands.

progress

2005-06-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

Minor backache on Sunday upon waking up. Still did 21 walking miles; no nsaids. Afterwards, 15-20 minutes of yoga:

Tree, down-dog, warrior II, extended angle, warrior I, prymaid, forward fold, down-dog, one legged forward fold, seated straddle forward fold, single leg stretch, shoulder stand, plough, headstand.

back ache...

2005-06-11T04:21:00.000-07:00

Minor backache; left side, high on the lower back. It is probably a mild strain as I've been able to find a trigger point my self-massage.

I probably got this from sleeping on my belly again!

bruises under the legs

2005-06-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

I did 45 minutes of yoga prior to meeting Vickie for a few laps (9) around the West Peoria track. I have bruises under my legs from practicing bhujapidasana.

Progress: Last evening I got to my elbows during the seated straddle forward fold.

progress report

2005-06-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

This morning, 20 minutes of warm up including side plank, bhujapidasana (held for 4 counts), seated straddle forward fold (to the elbows), supported headstand, one legged standing forward fold.

Then Vickie's class (1 hour); "boat" was difficult.

Last night, I saw the 60 minutes special which included a "Bikram Yoga" segment. Much to my surprise, I found myself liking the guy. I suppose I like it when someone admits that yoga should be difficult.

yoga for "real people"

2005-06-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

While searching yoga websites, I came across a caption of a photo which included the line "yoga for real people."

So, what does that mean? Does it mean that serious practioners are somehow not "real people"?

Yes, not everyone has the same, basic natural ability. And yes, it is ok to have activities that one does on a casual basis.

A more honest statement would be "yoga for novices".

I just don't understand this attitude that is, well, anti-excellence?

cool down routine

2005-06-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today: tough 10 mile racewalking workout. After getting Barbara her breakfast (she is recovering from knee surgery) I cooled down via:

forward fold/down dog (two reps)
warrior II on each side (twice)
warrior I on each side (twice)
pyramid on each side
bridge/wheel/bridge
shoulder stand
plough
(don't know the name, but one lies on one's back, keeps one leg straight and bends the other leg in a lotus like postion with the foot across the thigh of the extended leg and then pull back on the calf of the extended leg)
head stand

start of my yoga journey

2005-06-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

I took my first yoga class on Monday, August 18, 2003 at the Peoria Park District's Franciscan Center. My teacher that day was Vickie Culbertson.

What got me to yoga: indirectly, I got to yoga from running. Back in 2002, I suffered yet another minor achilles injury and had to lay off. Since I was signed up for a local 5K , I attempted to walk it as fast as I could. My time was 30:42; I wondered if that was a legitimate walking time and so I looked up racewalking on the internet.

(What does this have to do with yoga? Read on.) Anyway, I found out I was "creeping"; that is, walking with a bent kneed stride and using my quads for propulsion. So, I wanted to see how fast I could walk so I took up racewalking.

In my new sport, I was plagued by technique errors, bad posture, and a strained hamstring. I was told that yoga or pilates would help. So in 2003, I took out my Peoria Park District brochure and noticed that the 6:30 pm M, W yoga classes fit my schedule. So I went.

On day one, I could barely get to my mid-shins during "forward fold". That is where I started.

Over time I developed a crush on my yoga teacher (a mostly platonic one) and grew to love what yoga did for me. Then I grew to love the process of learning the asanas (poses).

This year (2005) I endevored to learn the yoga headstand and to get vertical. I did a few "fall forwards" but seem to have got it. I also tried to learn side plank (still can't raise my upper leg) and right now I am interested in learning bhujapidasana (arm pressure pose).

I've held it for 10-15 seconds, but have a sore butt from falling backwards so often!

Short term goals: deepen my seated spread legged forward fold,
get better at all of my poses including bhujapidasana, half-moon, side plank, down dog, triangle and boat.

Learn the sandskrit names!

Long term goals: scorpion and hand stand.

I am planning to use this journal to get a written record of my journey; I do the same with my walking/running/swimming.