Yoga makes me feel like death

Yesterday I yoga'd for an hour and a half, went to work, then went to kung fu where i taught grueling basics for about an hour and 45 minutes. I woke up yesterday at 5:15am and didn't get home until almost 9. I collapsed in front of a pizza with The Fiancée and cat and was asleep by 10:30. I had never done both yoga and kung fu on the same day until yesterday, but since I missed yoga on monday I figured I better get my ass to the yoga school.
This morning I woke up again at 5:15, feeling like I needed about 3 more hours of sleep. Nevertheless, I forced myself to get to the shala on time and practiced for an hour and a half.

I worked through the Sun Salutations slowly but carefully, doing jumpbacks and jumpthroughs on the last three repetitions of each set of A and B. I usually just step back on the first sun salutation and then jump on the rest of them, but today I didn't really have the energy for all that nonsense. Standing postures went pretty well considering how tired I was.

It was during Sarvangasana that I started to feel my life seep from my lungs. It wasn't the normal headsplitting intensity that I am pretty accustomed to now - instead I felt like I was being deflated and slowly choked out. When I was in the variations of shoulderstand (Halasana, Karna Pidasana, Urdhva Padmasana, Pindasana) the sensation only got worse. It felt the way I imagine death feels - air and life just slowly exiting the body. At one point I think I even made a death rattle.

This will sound like an old tired phrase to experienced yogis, but yoga really does confront you with yourself in unique ways. Never before have I felt like death was so close. I've been almost choked out in brazilian jiu jitsu, taken some pretty bad hits in kung fu, and had some close calls while rock climbing, but this was something different entirely. Thanks for the lesson, yoga.

But it wasn't all death and dying! I received my next posture! Marichyasana B!

Yoga makes my shoulders feel great

For a few years now I have had some chronic pain in my shoulders. It would flare up about once a week or so, and it would affect one or both shoulders pretty severely. I don't know how it started, and I haven't really been able to pin down a specific cause for the flareups. I have tried a lot of stuff over the years - sleeping with my arms down, sleeping on my back, changing the height of my desk chair, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, chi gong, tai chi, physical therapy... the list goes on. I haven't really seen much improvement in my shoulders until recently.

When I started yoga, I noticed immediately that my shoulders hurt quite a bit in Adho Mukha Svanasana. At the time I thought that yoga might not be a good fit for me, but at the urging of my fiancée and yoga friend, I continued to trust the practice. The pain continued for about a month or so, until a yoga teacher was able to really pinpoint the flaws in my downdog and showed me how to use my back for stability instead of my arms. Since then, my shoulder pain has dropped dramatically. I feel like studying yoga has somehow rewired the tendons and muscles in my shoulder - almost like they have been reset to factory defaults after years of corrupt preference files...

Despite the terribly nerdy simile, the benefits to my shoulders have been profound and persistent.

I have started to notice some other rewiring as well. The beginning of the primary series really seems to work on opening up my knees, which after a few weeks of nonstop popping, really feel like they have been reset and tightened. My back seems to be undergoing a similar transformation at this time.


PS. I touched both palms to the floor in uttanasana over the weekend! First time in life! hi5!

Pavarotti Triceratopsana

Yoga makes me feel fat

Yoga is a wonderfully introspective practice. My fiancée told me once years ago that the difference between kung fu and yoga was that while the focus of practice in kung fu is extrinsic, yoga is entirely internal. I didn't really know what to say at the time, but now that I have been practicing yoga for a little bit, I realize she was completely right. Practicing yoga has made me start to perceive some of my physical nuances and also has made me slightly aware of the geography in my own body.

What it has made me MORE aware of, however, is that I'm fat. Really really fat. Any time I try to bend or twist anything, there is my fat, all up in my face and causing me all kinds of problems.

dammit.

Yoga makes me feel pain

Before I started yoga in earnest, I had heard that yoga is a peaceful, calming practice that soothes your soul and warms your heart and makes butterflies pop out your ass and glitter shoot out your nose peace love unity yoga.

This is far from the truth. I find that some poses (actually, most poses, but especially Parivrtta Trikonasana) make my head feel like its about to catch on fire, and my limbs usually feel like they might just tear off. I am well accustomed to "good pain" and "bad pain", but this new yoga pain is something else entirely. Instead of feeling my limbs hurt or my muscles get tired, I feel like I might just explode.

See below:

I suck at yoga

I started Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga about 3 months ago.

I really enjoy it, but I suck at it.