About kurmasana and other random rants about my practice..

This post is mostly gonna be about Kurmasana. Past 2 weeks has mostly been about this pose for me..

I told B about my kurmasana pain in the back in class and asked him not to adjust me. His response was that I wasn't doing this enough and therefore did not feel comfortable in it. I didn't tell him that his adjustment was one of the things that gave me my grief in the first place...

Anyway just some background info.. My kurmasana is not too bad actually, my chin, chest and shoulders are on the floor, legs on back of the shoulders, and I can lift the heels and the pelvis off the mat if I make an effort to do it. I usually get into it by jumping my feet around the hands, standing into a titibhasana kinda of pose and sitting down with the legs behing my shoulders. The thing is, I look pretty comfotable in that pose most of the time and my teachers often try to get my stomach on the floor as well. BAD NEWS. Everytime I get squashed into a pancake, with my stomach pretty much close to the floor, I'd have this horrible lower back ache once I get out of it. (in addition to being tied up into supta kurmasana before I get out of the pose). It got so bad about 2 weeks back that I felt my leg go numb for a few days after a mysore class. I kinda think I might have a pinched nerve. The numbness is gone now and I am super careful about not getting the same problem again.

So..after one of the classes I asked B what to do about it and he asked me to practice more often. Its not that I don't practice, but I just don't make much attempt at the "turtles" when I practice at home. I usually just get into a loose kurmasana for 5 breaths and continue on to other stuff. He also asked me to try yoga nidrasana.

Anyway B must have discussed this with another teacher because guess what? In one of the hatha classes, S made us do it and went on about how this pose keeps us young when practiced frequently and that patience is required to get the pose. Also she mentioned that its probably the pelvis that needs to open up in order to get into it properly. I had discussed more or less the same stuff with B, so I gather I've become a case study of sorts.

So anyhow, yesterday's mysore class, B didn't adjust me much. The time he tried to flatten me again, I made it pretty clear that he SHOULDN'T push my lower back. Sigh..sometimes teachers can get over zealous with adjustments....He also got me to walk my feet together after I binded my hands to try to cross the feet. Shucks..I almost did it in S's class, but couldn't cross it yesterday...progress is definitely non-linear in this pose..God knows why some days are hard and some days are alright.

After the "event", B sat down with me to try and talk me through the whole thing and again and I think try to get me to practice it myself more often. Good news is that without any major adjusts, my back is feeling much better now and no numbness in the right quadricep either. YAY. However the bad news is that without major adjusts..my progress will have to be totally my own effort...

So I did a hip only sesssion just now to try and get the leg behind my head on my back..totally failed. I thinks it a combo of not being warm enough and tight butt symdrome. But what it did inform me about myself is that if I don't open up those glutes..my back is gonna continue aching for a long while.

I figure there are 2 main things in kurmasana that I need to achieve. Long hamstrings..which I do have, but perhaps need even more length. and external rotation of my legs, which is rather poor for me. The only thing I figure will help is lots of sleeping pigeon in all sorts of position for the legs and baddha konasana. Perhaps throw in some firelog, dead bug, leg behind head..and I may have a chance of being comfortable here..

How long its gonna take? No idea..

To be honest I am feeling just a little bit disillusioned about Ashtanga at the moment. All those injuries - knee pains, ankle pains, back pains, elbow pains. Is it all worth it? Its not like I get a prize for doing the asanas.. my prize at the moment has been injury after injury. Am I being overzealous myself and causing all this to happen? I don't know..if I ask myself now..I'd say no..I'd been careful enough. My teacher being too eager to get me into the pose? I don't know..I'd say he does get a little carried away sometimes, but I wouldn't say its his fault that I am having this slight crisis in my belief in the practice.

I don't think this will be the end of me and my practice..but I'd say recently have been a bit of a low point. I think I should get over it soon enough. After all, I can't really imagine another style I'd do if not Ashtanga vinyasa. What else is there? Iyengar, sivananda, anusara? not really my cup of tea. Give up yoga? NEVER. So I can rant today..and tomorrow will be another day that I continue practicing I guess.

To end on a high note to self...I finally got my arms thru for garba and rolled..although I got stuck and had to helped up by my teacher..;P