Despite everyone's trepidation about the start of Week 7, and Bikram's promise that he would be present for *all* three remaining weeks of our training, we are somehow done for the evening at the mindblowingly reasonable time of 10pm. Can you believe it? We had a lecture tonight from a reproduction expert, Dr. Choudhury. Not quite sure how this relates to our training, but it was a nice change of pace from back-to-back posture clinics.
Speaking of which, I'm realizing that I've been delinquent in my blogging duties during Week 6. Not a single entry last week and this is due entirely to the fact that our posture clinics were severely ratcheted up in intensity and frequency all last week. Monday, Tuesday and Friday were double posture clinic days. In real time measure, this means 12:30pm-4pm and then again 9:00pm-11:30pm or later. My group clicked through from Cobra through to Half Tortoise (that's 6 postures!). It was exhausting and I have no idea how we learned all those postures so quickly. Wednesday and Thursday we had a brief respite from the frenetic pace when Dr. Jon Burras came to discuss fascia (the Rodney Dangerfield of the medical community - i.e. gets no respect) and the way that emotions and experiences remain within the body years after traumatic events.
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| Self portrait in the yoga room |
I am grieved to report that my back pain has not yet subsided. I've been plagued by this stupid pain, in some form or another, since around Week 2 and last week it reached a critical point. After morning class on Tuesday, out of sheer desperation, I called my trusty massage therapist and booked an appointment for that evening at 7:30, thinking for some reason that posture clinic would start a 9:30. I blame the incredible pain for my confusion because I don't think posture clinic has ever started any later than 9pm. So the whole day I was somewhat preoccupied thinking about the logistics surrounding getting myself from the end of evening class to the massage place and then back in time for the evening posture clinic without acquiring a make-up class for tardiness. Somehow I pulled it off and felt tremendously better. According to Brian Keith (shout out to my peeps) I did something unpleasant to my obliques on my right side and that is causing much of my pain. Also my piriformus is tight. My hamstrings aren't any great shakes either. And my knees - fuggetaboutit. Basically, Brian suggested that my body, at the moment, is a bit like a classic automobile: Requiring a lot of maintenance but well worth the effort. I bet he uses that line on all the cute, young yoginis.
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| Venice Beach Party!! |
Speaking of my knees, Friday of last week we had an interesting American Idol-style posture clinic where two groups combined in the main lecture hall and "competed", one person delivering right after the other. It was a great time, a huge laugh, and very informative. However, during the start of the evening, due to some logistical confusion, I ended up demonstrating Fixed Firm Pose six times in succession in a cold room. This is a lovely posture during class, very relaxing and a wonderful expansive stretch, but attempting it cold is a totally different story. For the uninitiated, this posture involves sitting down "Japanese style" on the floor and then opening the feet enough to sit between the heels. And then you come back and relax the upper body on the ground:
All I have to say about that is: DO NOT EVER DO THAT. EVER. My right knee is still at me, days later. After posture clinic was over I could barely walk. I've been slathering Tiger Balm all over myself since and I can't even get into this posture in class at the moment. Bad, bad, bad. That is what happens when the ego takes over. For some reason, I couldn't simply ask someone to demo for me. And I'm definitely paying the price for it now. Fixed firm cold is a horrible idea for me and I will never forget it after this experience, cute cartoon depictions notwithstanding.
Off to grab some sleep. Tomorrow I will present Rabbit and perhaps even the final stretching posture. Can't believe we are almost done presenting dialogue!
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