Getting back to your yoga routine

It was Jan 28th when this horrendous glute pain hit me and took me completely out of my 3-4 day a week yoga routine. And have I ever let go of my ego and kept patience to get beyond it. This Friday it was back to Nuvana for a restart of the routine. We started with a badakonasana, a good height with cotton blankets from India and the kids all jumping around me. Having these 4 munchins (2 of mine and 2 of Nuvana) running around while I practice and learn certainly may sound very distracting, but its a great test of patience and concentration for me. I can focus and concentrate on the pose with kicks, nudges and taps, not knowing sometime if they come from the kids or the yoga guru.

I persevere to a supported upavishtakonasana, with a blanket and block under each inner thigh and then to a rajkapotasana. Rajkapotasana (Pigeon pose) and it felt so good. It felt really good. Then I tried a supported adhomukhasvanasan (Downward Dog) in a support form with a rope around my lower waist and keeping myself high trying to stretch my hands and arms to a chair vs the floor. Painful on my left inner thigh, oh that dreaded shooting pain came back. Instant reaction to back away from this. So I tried adho-mukha virasana with my arms pushing the wall. Felt good, but getting into a downward dog from this didn't. The left leg is still tight from the injury.

We had an intellectual discussion about my left and right leg. Since I lean on my left leg so much, my right leg is much more flexible and left leg more tight. For that reason in pigeon pose I felt the pose easier to do when my right leg was stretched out and left leg folded in. Makes sense? If not post a comment and I will have the expert explain more. Ended with a viparita-karani, with kids wanting to sit on my uplifted feet. My left leg couldn't handle it. Nuvana had planned to give me a back traction, but the kids were cranky and hungry, so ended the session. All in all, it was nice entry back to into my routine. I will have to restart with level 1 and have to modify some poses like downward dog.

So a small step to start back into a routine. It will not be as intense for sometime - maybe not till I hit Pune and then I hope to be back in the same class I was in July. I can't wait to be yanked and yelled into place. Oh what a feeling!

Namaste

Yogi