4/4/2017 Practice Journal

Ashtanga Mysore Practice

Unlike most Ashtangis who practice everyday except for Saturday and the moon day, I only practice 3-4 days a week and it felt so good to practice on two consecutive days. 

I had struggled with pain on my left SI joint area for a while. I saw a Chinese Doctor in Taiwan last Nov/Dec, which helped tremendously. Recently, I start feeling the pain again and it normally happens after the Kurmasana. For that reason, I decided to explore the left HIP MOBILITY today. The way I worked on the hip mobility was to either stabilize the femur bone or pelvis while mobilizing the other. For example, I stabilized my pelvis while seated, then I moved the thigh bone around to find mobility initiating from the hip socket. As shown in Step (1) in the picture below, I use my arms to cradle my left leg and to move it from side to side while keeping the pelvis stabilized. Back to Kurmasana, different to the example above, I stabilized my thigh bones while moving the pelvis to forward fold into the pose. When I did this work, I felt relief from my lower back. 

Marichyasana D Step by Step Breakdown
This is the follow up of my 3/28 Practice Journal regarding the hip and ankle I worked on to move into Marichyasana D.
1) Hip Opening - create space in the left hip socket. 
2) Increase flexibility and mobility of the left ankle.
3) Move into half Lotus while pulling back the right leg and bending that knee.
4) Lengthen the left side body. 
5) Round the lower back and suck the belly in while reaching left arm forward outside of the right thigh.
6) Internal rotate the left arm and bind.

I am still exploring and experimenting Kurmasana  as well as Supta Kurmasana. I won't give up until I find know what causes my left lower back pain.

On a separate note, I was able to do the drop back without using the block today. Two weeks ago, I just started working on the drop back with one block (graduated from two blocks). And, I was able to do it without any prop. How excited was that!!!