cursingyogini's blog

me vs mat, the latest installment

One of my teachers had offered to let me use her (~8 old) manduka mat for a class, and so last week I finally took her up on it.  It was great - cushy, grippy, everything I wanted when I bought my d*** mat.

After that I actually gave up on the Manduka for a week and went back to my old Gaiam mat.  But this week, after a week of being nagged by students and teachers to just call Manduka already, I finally did.  They told me to do a sea salt scrub on it (and the woman on the phone said she had done her mat *three times*). 

Today I dutifully scrubbed it (with regular salt, which I recognize is a slightly finer-grained abrasive than sea salt, but I figured the grain size difference would be irrelevant.  (Also, I didn't have any sea salt on hand.)  It's drying after this third scrub (first: bar soap,  second: vinegar), and I guess I'll see if this was the trick that makes Evil Mat become a beloved friend.

addicted?

I was supposed to be out of town all day yesterday, and therefore missing yoga.  But my carpool driver announced she needed to be back early, so I got home and immediately figured out if I could hit yoga before the other thing I needed to do.  (Yes, with a teacher I've never taken a "regular" class from.  She teaches a restorative class I occasionally attend.)

I told a good friend of mine about this, and she texted back that I was a yoga addict.  I started to write back that I could quit any time, but...I don't think I can.  Am not sure what to think about that; I don't think of myself as the *type* to get addicted to things.  Hrmm.  I guess overall there are worse things to be addicted to?

New Discoveries

I am so, so lucky that my studio has an array of excellent teachers.  Working with one teacher has some advantages, but sometimes a different teacher will teach something a different way that works better.  Or know a trick to get you past a hump.

Ever since I discovered tripod headstand, I have wanted to work on it.  Thursday there were only three of us in class, so I made the request.  Teacher showed us a technique for going up straddle-legged that worked so well for me I got up on the first try.  (And was so surprised I promptly fell over, but, well.)  I can't *wait* to work on this pose now that I have a way to attack it! 

 

(And I learned that I *can* do my run before yoga, woo.)

yogi toes

Last week, after watching me once again slide all over the place on my Manduka mat, one of my yoga teachers gave me a yogi toes skidless mat towel. (In green, which is apparently "love and compassion".

I know I didn't want to use a towel, and I would still rather not, but, well, it was a gift, and so a week later I had that teacher again and thought I'd better break it out. That was today. It worked...fairly well? It wasn't 100% skidless, but overcome-ably so. And it was nice to be able to actually do a down dog instead of basically a forward bend. (Was getting good engagement from my lats (??) today, woo!)

I removed it and put it back on several times, depending on where the practice was going, which was more annoying than just having a sticky mat. Also, sometimes I was sliding at both the front and the back at once (some of the standing poses), and such a little towel can't overcome all of that.

As I was packing up after practice I saw that I was supposed to have washed it twice before use. Whoops. (And it's $1.25 to wash in my building, so...we'll see.)  It didn't bleed green on my hands or feet or anything.

how am I still sore?

I have been a regular yoga practioner for long enough you'd think that most of the time I wouldn't be sore afterwards.  And often I'm not, but often I am.  Seriously, triceps?  *Still*???  The sore obliques I think are due to a specifically challenging practice, which, you know, is cool.  But I keep thinking that *someday* my arms'll get stronger.....

 

Otherwise, slippery mat continues to be frustrating, although, man, it makes you very, very aware of all the forces you had to break out in statics problems.  (If I move my hands an inch out, whoops, there they slip!)

Manduka Mat Frustration

I've had the same mat since I started about 7 years ago - a cheapo Gaiam I got from Target.  I haven't had any major issues with it, but after years of regular practice, I've been thinking about getting a replacement.  After doing some online research and asking around, I decided I wanted the Manduka mat.  I got one for Winter Gift-Giving Holiday (thanks, Mom and Dad!)

It was ordered online and shipped to me.  I first unwrapped the packaging when I got back in January, and took it to class, where I was almost overwhelmed by the smell.  The mat is made of PVC and was outgassing like mad.  The mat was also *extremely* slippery.  I threw a studio mat on top for that class.  I looked online and saw that airing out "in the sunshine!" could help the smell washing with a gentle cleanser could help the slipperiness.  As it's winter in Seattle, and I have a tiny apartment, I ended up hanging the mat over the shower rod.  (Oh, how I miss the balcony from my last apartment!)   I spent two weeks moving the mat out of the bathroom when I showered, because the VOCs got *intense* in there.  Mmm, headache.

After a couple of weeks the smell had subsided enough that I thought I could use the mat.  But...holy *crap* is it slippery.  Not, as the <a href="http://www.manduka.com/us/faq/#how-do-i-keep-from-slipping-on-my-recently-purchased-black-mat-pro">Manduka FAQ</a> would have you believe a ' "little" bit ' slippery, this is "I may as well be on the hardwood floor, whoops, there go my feet again".  The teacher of the first class after the aired out mat also has a Manduka, and she opined there was something wrong with mine.  Am not sure whether she has just forgotten about the break in period or if I truly have an extra-slippy mat.  (Several people came over, felt my mat and solemnly intoned that it was, indeed, slippery.  *eyeroll*)

I am not sure what to do.  Putting a towel over the mat, as the internet seems to favor, seems to defeat the purpose of getting an allegedly sticky mat.   The FAQ says it should get better with three months of daily practice, which is a long time.  And I don't practice daily.  Even if I keep up my current 6x/week schedule, that's still almost 4 months of slip-sliding around.  (Am currently at 3 full practices on it.  That's a long way from 90 and I've noticed zero difference.)

yoga challenge 2011!

A good friend who lives in rural Iowa was doing a 30 day yoga challenge, where she was going to practice every day.  She mostly does a home-practice, and I decided to join her, in solidarity, except because it was so simple (and I'm terrible at a home practice; it *should* be on my resolution list, but I'm not ready to actually commit to it) I would go to classes.

After about 3 days I decided six days per week would be enough solidarity.  So far, so good, although I think I've never done so much Parighasana.  Oy.

2011

I was thinking about what I wanted to improve upon this year.  I usually don't do resolutions, as Jan 1 seems like an arbitrary time to start them.  So I start whenever I'm motivated and try to either do easy, incremental steps ("eat two fresh fruits per day"  was a thing I added last year) or finite.  ("Cook 25 new-to-me recipes.)    While at my first class of the year, I thought about what I could do.

Except then I thought of all the things I already try to work on (and I haven't incorporated into more-or-less automatic).  Off the top of my head, these include:
aligning joints
"gecko hands"
ribs in
head back
don't sink into the joints
avoid hyperextending
symmetry
precision
chest opening

Plus the poses I've already got on my goal list:
bakasana
chataranga
"headstand 2" (This is something a teacher in a drop-in class called a pose.  I can't find anywhere else that calls it that; I guess "tripod headstand" seems to be a fair description, shown about 2/3 of the way down <a href="http://www.yogadestin.com/YogaPoseArmBlance.htm">this page</a>, called "Salamba-Shirshasana Supported Head Stand Pose", along with a lot of amazing poses.  On a *beach*.  Suddenly my practice seems a lot less awesome.


After composing this list, I decided I'd be better served by just working on these things instead of adding to it.  Hopefully I'll make some progress??

 

 

(Written Jan 7, but apparently I didn't manage to publish it until now.  Whoops.)

Decisions, decisions

Whoa, you can do titles? I clearly haven't quite gotten the hang of typepad. (I only use 3 other blogging platforms, how'm I supposed to figure out how this works??)

Anyway. I have been going along with my four-times-a-week-at-the-same-time schedule for quite a while now, vaguely unhappy with this state of affairs. I have been wanting a More Intense class, but wasn't sure what I wanted existed at Very Convenient Studio. And I'm still not sure I've found it, but maybe. My pass expires in a week, so this is weighing on my mind. I ran into a friend-from-class that I hadn't seen in a while at a grocery store, and she told me she had started going to another studio out of the same frustration I've been having.

I actually knew that there was one teacher that taught a pretty intense class (so intense that after the first time I went I didn't go back, in fact.) But yesterday, after a week away from yoga, I went to someone else's class, thinking I'd get a gentle reintroduction, but she was subbing. And today is the one more-or-less convenient class she teaches (I'm not going to a 6 AM class for *anyone*), so, what the hey, I went.

It will definitely be good for my arm strength, which after 6 or 7 years of regular practice I still struggle with. Am not sure one class is enough to keep me from checking out other studios, though. On the other hand, I would miss the little old ladies from my regular classes...

Argh. I have about a week to think it over, anyway...

Yoga disguises!

I have worn my hair long approximately since my mother stopped controlling my hair length. As such, it gets in the way a lot, so over the year I've determined how to deal with my hair for various activities. For running, a high ponytail works best; for yoga, it's a low braid.

The other day I was in class, in the yoga zone, not really thinking about much but the poses. (Hey, sometimes it happens.) It got to the part towards the end of class where we transitioned to the floor, and I couldn't lay down flat. Apparently I had unthinkingly put a ponytail in instead of a braid. Whoops!

After class I was chatting a bit and the teacher came up to me and said she had noticed I looked really different that day and eventually figured out it was because my hair wasn't in a braid. At which point another classmate chimed in that she had thought the same thing.

OK, I was entertained.

And then today we did a new-to-me pose: Bhujapidasana. It was better than most arm-balancing poses, which is to say I sort of got up before falling on my butt. (Normally I just fall over without even approaching the pose.) Whee!