Bringing the modifications home

We arrived home Sunday night exhausted and rung out like an old schmata (Yiddish word for dish rag) after cleaning day.  I admit I was road wary, however very glad to be back in my world. I unhooked from parental control as my husband scooped in and took on the boys. They all missed each other and commenced male bonding rituals, like a good game of trap or attack Dad.

I walked around my garden marveling at how wonderfully everything was growing. Cucumbers dripping off the vines and lots of good growth proved that my husband had watered diligently in my absence.  It was great to see, as my garden is my other passion.  But that is a story for another blog.  

Last month at my Sumit they had an instructor training.  So I returned to lots of great new instructors that had struggled through a month of double work outs each day and lots of theory and training.  I am proud of them all as they worked really hard to get this done.   The thought of practicing twice a day makes me want to vomit to be honest.  

So I returned to my home practice and started to implement the adjustments I picked up on my Yoga Road Trip.  I have to say the work out kicked my butt anew.  It is hard to come back to hot yoga if you take time off from it.  Anyway, so here are some of the adjustments I have added in:

1) 1st forward fold adjustment: Instead of having feet together and grabbing heals, which I am no where near getting, I have feet apart and grab big toes.  It makes it similar to the second one but it works better as it gives me somewhere to put the parts of my body that will not get out of the way just yet.  

2) Prayer twist adjustment:  I have to adapt this as we do this in a lunge not a chair pose, so balance is key.  As you twist to the right you put your left fore arm across your left leg above the knee.  I grab on to my leg to help with the twist.  Then, as you twist you take the right arm and twist it around.  Take your hand, palm flat and put it flat on your back low by your waist with the fingers pointed down.  This allows the spine to twist without being restricted as you would be if your hands were in prayer.   Totally opens the back but takes some balance not to fall over the the side like an overloaded tomato cage. (Ohhh working in the gardening references. hehe)

3) Inner thigh lift and rotations.  So I learned two things about the inner thigh on this trip.  Now let me tell you that my inner thighs need some help, always have and always will.  So I am excited to see what this focus will do.  Anyway, so the idea is that in mountain and in leg lifts, as in flows, you have to engage the inner thighs.  At the Moksha yoga school they keep their heals a little apart in mountain.  This activates the inner thigh and makes it more noticable as you rotate the thighs in as you sweeze the butt.  Even without moving the heals apart you can engage this with meaningful concentration. 

In the flow poses, when you are in downward dog you lift your leg up behind you, straight up, parallel with ground squared down, or knee bent twisted back.  This seems to work best for the first two. When you are in your full extension of the pose, you rotate your inner thigh, on the leg in the air, in getting more reach, length and stretch.  It works a muscle area that is hard to reach, really engages the core as well. 

Sorry this took so long to post. Hope you fine these options interesting. Enjoy your flow.