Tag teamed by Atsuro and Tim in baddha konasana. Half the room erupts in laughter; me included.
Focus in the work gym surrounded by stationary bicycles, boxjumpers, and various people stretching.
Green juice, fruit, espresso, and Ibuprofen for post-practice breakfast.
Zyflamend for lunch.
"It showed me that discipline [is] a muscle and a skill that could improve with practice."
-Jason Stein
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Some History
All the legions of practitioners who claim some variation on yoga being 'thousands of years old'.
No.
The asanas as we know them are about 100 years old (read Krishnamacharya's book). Ashtanga has been fluid over the last 40.
Question dogma. Exercise that fatty tissue between your temples. Knowledge and meaning come from within.
No.
The asanas as we know them are about 100 years old (read Krishnamacharya's book). Ashtanga has been fluid over the last 40.
Question dogma. Exercise that fatty tissue between your temples. Knowledge and meaning come from within.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Snippets
- one of the regulars carrying two mats up to the shala. His wife is running late. He unrolls her mat in the normal place.
- the lights click off halfway through the standing sequence. The glowing neon exit sign provides the only ambient light on a dark, rainy morning.
- the little girl patiently watches a movie on her mom's iPad at the foot of mom's mat, as she has done so many times before in her short life.
- neighbors pop out of their focus to assist in supta vajrasana; post-backbend relief lights up the assistee's face.
The mornings are beautiful.
- the lights click off halfway through the standing sequence. The glowing neon exit sign provides the only ambient light on a dark, rainy morning.
- the little girl patiently watches a movie on her mom's iPad at the foot of mom's mat, as she has done so many times before in her short life.
- neighbors pop out of their focus to assist in supta vajrasana; post-backbend relief lights up the assistee's face.
The mornings are beautiful.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Cause the Kool Kids Are Doing It
Everybody's got their undies in a bunch over a certain gloom-and-doom NYT yoga article. I found it yawn-inducing, but a lot of pretty reasonable folks find it disturbing. I originally left this content as a comment, but will crosspost it here.
I just can’t take the article seriously – I giggle a little every time that I read about someone getting bent out of shape over it. It’s sensationalist dreck, which the Times likes to publish frequently to entertain their readers and drum up advertising revenue.
They profiled one or two guys who ended up with serious complications, and I’d bet money that they misquoted him or took segments out of context. That’s nothing, compared to the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people who have practiced for years and years and have reaped the quality of life benefits of the practice.
Of my skier friends, about a third have undergone knee surgery for blown ACLs and the like. One broke a leg in a fall and got choppered off a serious mountain. Another survived an unplanned night out due to the pure luck of a finding a fumarole-melted ice cave.
Of my climbing friends, about 80% of all who take it seriously have been taken out for months from tendon/ligament issues at one point or another. Personally I’ve strained ligaments, sprained ankles in nasty falls, pulled countless muscles.
Of my surfing friends, I know people who have blown ACLs, gotten speared by fins, and destroyed their rotator cuffs. I bashed my forehead open on a rail, have sprained wrists and ankles, been sliced open by fins, and pulled a muscle near my kidney that bothered me exiting trikonasana for about four months.
Swimmer friends suffer rotator cuffs injuries, torn labrums, and the like.
Cyclist friends get knee injuries; runners get shin splints, knee problems, achilles tendonitis.
There’s a trend here – you push hard in any deeply physical activity and you get hurt if you’re not intelligent and careful. I just took a week off from practice because my shoulder was getting overused between ashtanga and climbing. It’s the nature of life. Thinking you can avoid any and all injuries is like thinking that you can get through life without experiencing grief.
When I sit on the couch and don’t do anything I’m safe from injury. Too bad my mind and body suffer in other ways.
The Times article is crap. If you go through their archives you can find articles denouncing running, swimming, now yoga, as well as countless articles discussing how a negative lifestyle will kill you. Not to mention the millions of fad diet articles they’ve published over the years. They make money getting people to read their articles, and historically nothing draws a crowd like prophesies of doom.
Believing what supposed experts claim gets you nowhere. Historical knowledge combined with a keen experimental attitude tempered by caution and personal experience is the only way to progress.
Listen to your experience and the people you trust, not some self-proclaimed expert whose authority is based on having written a book. That holds for all subjects.
To quote The Matrix, they are, after all, “Only human.”
I just can’t take the article seriously – I giggle a little every time that I read about someone getting bent out of shape over it. It’s sensationalist dreck, which the Times likes to publish frequently to entertain their readers and drum up advertising revenue.
They profiled one or two guys who ended up with serious complications, and I’d bet money that they misquoted him or took segments out of context. That’s nothing, compared to the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people who have practiced for years and years and have reaped the quality of life benefits of the practice.
Of my skier friends, about a third have undergone knee surgery for blown ACLs and the like. One broke a leg in a fall and got choppered off a serious mountain. Another survived an unplanned night out due to the pure luck of a finding a fumarole-melted ice cave.
Of my climbing friends, about 80% of all who take it seriously have been taken out for months from tendon/ligament issues at one point or another. Personally I’ve strained ligaments, sprained ankles in nasty falls, pulled countless muscles.
Of my surfing friends, I know people who have blown ACLs, gotten speared by fins, and destroyed their rotator cuffs. I bashed my forehead open on a rail, have sprained wrists and ankles, been sliced open by fins, and pulled a muscle near my kidney that bothered me exiting trikonasana for about four months.
Swimmer friends suffer rotator cuffs injuries, torn labrums, and the like.
Cyclist friends get knee injuries; runners get shin splints, knee problems, achilles tendonitis.
There’s a trend here – you push hard in any deeply physical activity and you get hurt if you’re not intelligent and careful. I just took a week off from practice because my shoulder was getting overused between ashtanga and climbing. It’s the nature of life. Thinking you can avoid any and all injuries is like thinking that you can get through life without experiencing grief.
When I sit on the couch and don’t do anything I’m safe from injury. Too bad my mind and body suffer in other ways.
The Times article is crap. If you go through their archives you can find articles denouncing running, swimming, now yoga, as well as countless articles discussing how a negative lifestyle will kill you. Not to mention the millions of fad diet articles they’ve published over the years. They make money getting people to read their articles, and historically nothing draws a crowd like prophesies of doom.
Believing what supposed experts claim gets you nowhere. Historical knowledge combined with a keen experimental attitude tempered by caution and personal experience is the only way to progress.
Listen to your experience and the people you trust, not some self-proclaimed expert whose authority is based on having written a book. That holds for all subjects.
To quote The Matrix, they are, after all, “Only human.”
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Back
A full week off, a special weekend, and a still-tender-but-kicking shoulder led to my first morning at Tim's in ten days.
What's the Mark Jenkins quote on injury? "They say the healing is caused by circulating blood, but I think it's the circulating love."
No jumping through and no kurmasana or bhujipindasana. I feel whole again.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Rest Is Not The Enemy
Way to ring in the new year - I'm on the reserved list for a few days while I let my shoulder de-inflame.
Waking up at 6:30am is nice.
Going to bed at 9:30 is nice.
Not practicing is really hard.
Strategy: get other things accomplished (things that I've put off for months) so I'm at least productive. The practice will be there in a few days.
Waking up at 6:30am is nice.
Going to bed at 9:30 is nice.
Not practicing is really hard.
Strategy: get other things accomplished (things that I've put off for months) so I'm at least productive. The practice will be there in a few days.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Vacation
PDX was great - Saturday and Christmas off to spend with family, practice Monday, climb Tuesday (so lucky with the weather, we climbed all day despite threatening clouds), practice Wednesday, fly back home on Thursday.
I'm nursing an overworked shoulder. Too deep in Supta Kurmasana, and indelicate jump-throughs have put me on the sidelines for a few days. Surfing aggravated the entire shebang, so I've taken a few days off from the practice. This allows me to 1.) heal, and 2.) take care of mundane life-related things. (Furniture! (soon I will be the proud owner of a real bed) Car maintenance! The deep satisfaction of knowing my car will (might) stop in the rain now! Amazing.)
2012 will be a spectacular year, I know it. Last year's New Year's resolution was to practice at Tim's. That worked out well. This year's resolution is identical - maintain daily practice. Don't get hurt. Right on track for continued awesomeness.
In other news, dogmatic and overtly negative yoga blogs are played out. Standing on your head won't make you enlightened. Reading compilations of philosophy won't necessarily make you a better person. Accumulation is worthless without action. Talk less, do more.
I'm nursing an overworked shoulder. Too deep in Supta Kurmasana, and indelicate jump-throughs have put me on the sidelines for a few days. Surfing aggravated the entire shebang, so I've taken a few days off from the practice. This allows me to 1.) heal, and 2.) take care of mundane life-related things. (Furniture! (soon I will be the proud owner of a real bed) Car maintenance! The deep satisfaction of knowing my car will (might) stop in the rain now! Amazing.)
2012 will be a spectacular year, I know it. Last year's New Year's resolution was to practice at Tim's. That worked out well. This year's resolution is identical - maintain daily practice. Don't get hurt. Right on track for continued awesomeness.
In other news, dogmatic and overtly negative yoga blogs are played out. Standing on your head won't make you enlightened. Reading compilations of philosophy won't necessarily make you a better person. Accumulation is worthless without action. Talk less, do more.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)