I haven’t done much yoga for the last two months. How did I get MORE flexible!?!

Sunday night. Lying on my side on the floor in the lounge room with my foot lifted above my ear. I looked over at Tim and saw him raise his eyebrows. I raised mine back. Wow. After two months of constant pain, how on earth did I get myself into this position?

In the last eight weeks, the only yoga asanas I’ve done were in the two classes a week that I teach. I’ve had large cysts on both my ovaries that have caused me considerable pain and discomfort. I’ve been lethargic and nauseous, fearful of what it means for my reproductive health and have needed a lot of emotional and physical support from those nearest and dearest to me. I’m on the mend, finally, and looking forward to becoming more active. So there I was, lying on the lounge room floor, gently nudging at the edges of my flexibility and raising my eyebrows at what I found.

From November last year until the onset of my ovary issues, I’d been practicing yoga asanas for a few hours every day. With intensity. I’ve pushed my body pretty hard and woken up most mornings with aches from the previous day’s practice. No pain no gain, right? Well my foot’s heavenly position tells me otherwise. I think there’s something in there about the stretch reflex and having had some time for my body to relax a bit.

The stretch reflex is something that all of us who practice yoga should think about and be aware of. It’s designed to be a protective response. Whenever a muscle is being overstretched, our brain interprets that in the same way that it would interpret it being overstretched in a situation like falling down or having an arm wrenched backwards. The natural response by our body in that situation is to shorten the muscles to protect the joint. So the stretch reflex marks a line, (it’s moveable, but it is a line) and if that line is crossed the muscles will naturally become more tense and shorten in order to protect the joint they articulate. The consequences for yoga practitioners are pretty obvious. Be gentle with yourself. Move the line gently rather than going too hard, forcing it, and having it snap back at you. Stretching should not be painful.

The other possibility...

The other possibility could be the hip opening sequence I wrote for last Sunday morning’s class. I’ve felt my hips and pelvis close up over the last eight weeks as I bent over my aching ovaries. I thought a series of hip openers would be a great way to start reversing the protective self-cuddle I’ve been in.

Tadpole

Starting with Tadpole and ending with Frog does sound a bit gimmicky, but it turned out to give the class a framework which I hoped would help students understand what we were trying to achieve and give them a way to measure their progress.

Sunday’s class was one of my favorites. Seven students, including two yoga teachers and a chap recovering from a bad bout of gastro. I had an apology from another yoga teacher who couldn’t make it because she had too much going on. Even yoga teachers aren’t immune to skipping sessions when life gets in the way! She said she had been looking forward to my class as I’d have a lot to teach her. She’s been teaching for 16 years, me: two months! A lovely humility. Anyway, the session was great. The hip openers were well received, smiles all round, the man with gastro controlled his urge to purge and said he’d loved the class. And I felt more relaxed and open in my hips than I have in a long time.

The Poses

Frog

Starting in Child’s pose, move into Tadpole by spreading your knees and relaxing into a gentle hip opening and inner thigh stretch. Frog simply involves taking your feet out to the same width as your knees. Your hips may raise a little higher, but it is a deeper stretch. Rather than push into these poses, relax into them and allow time to do the work, rather than making any effort. Both poses can be held for a considerable length of time. We spent 3 minutes in Tadpole, and ended with 5 minutes in Frog.

In between Tadpole (no Sanskrit name that I can find...wide-legged Balasana?) and Frog (Mandukasana), we did:

·       Wind release (Pavanamuktasana) (holding for 1 minute each side)

·       Happy Baby (Ananda Balasana) (2 mins)

·       Reclining bent knee twist (1 min each side)

·       Hero pose (Virasana) with stomach grind (1 min with breath)

·       Gate (Parihgasana) (1 min each side)

·       Cat/Cow (Bidalasana/Bitilasana) (1 min with breath)

·       Table with a twist (1 min each side)

·       Downward facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) (1 min)

·       Standing forward bend (Uttanasana) (1 min)

·       One round of Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar) including dog leg (30 secs each) and pigeon (2 mins each side)

·       Extended Triangle (Utthita Trikonasana) (1 min each side)

·       Revolved triangle (Parivrtta Trikonasana) (30 secs each side)

·       Goddess squat (Utkata konasana) (1 min)

·       Eagle (Garudasana) (30 secs each side)

·       Mountain (Tadasana) (1 min)

·       Revolved Head to Knee Pose (Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana) (1 min each)

·       Wide angle seated forward bend (Upavistha Konasana) (2 mins)

·       Crocodile (Makarasana) (1 min)

·       Half locust (Salabhasana) (3 times each side)

·       One Legged King Pigeon (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana) (30 secs each side)

·       Child (Balasana) (30 secs)

·       Camel (Ustrasana) (1 min)

·       Child (Balasana) (1 min)

·       Half spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana) (1 min each side)

My Sunday night ended in Anantasana, the Posture of Ananta, with my foot closer to my ear than ever before!