So all has been a bit quiet on the mandukya yoga front for the last few weeks. That's cos I went to Croatia with my BEAUTIFUL fiancée and became her husband. Since then we have been doing the whole thing again in the UK one week later and then running away to northern France (where I currently write this from) for our honeymoon
Obviously when in France eat cheese and drink wine.
So having been away for the last 3 weeks I have to admit that my yoga practice has also gone! I have taken time away from work, from teaching and yes as bad and unbelievable as it sounds I've done no yoga for two weeks (since the morning of my wedding in the beautiful sunny sky's of Croatia)
Wedding morning headstands are normal right?
Now while I have to say that the not getting myself up at 5am has been marvellous and I have truly felt as if I needed the break from physical activity I can now say that I am also starting to miss it and those tight spots I had been working on are starting to come back (see I'm now coming to the title of the blog)
So tight spots...."muscle knots".....trigger points, what ever you wish to call them, are something that at some point we all deal with. Now I've rearly, if ever, found that a sports massage does more than limber me up and make me feel a bit looser for more than half and hour. That is until I recently discovered a guy in ipswich called John Reynolds. He is a sorts and remedial massage guy. All the runners in ipswich go to see him to help sort out their knee problems and so I thought, maybe he can help me out with mine. Well my massage couldn't have been more different to what I am used to, no excessive use of oils, hardly any rubbing me down, just assessment of my posture and gait and then long held pressure into trigger points to release the bundling of myofascia that were building up in my glute min/med along with a muscle very close to my arse that I can't remember the name of.
Now this isn't going to be a lesson on what fascia is or how it works etc (il maybe try and do one of those in the next couple of week) but this stuff is the missing link from all of your anatomy text books. This stuff is like a net that binds every cell in your body together and so when you feel pain somewhere in the left knee it could well be tightness in the right side of the body causing compression issues twisting your posture out of alignment. There are obviously many many causes and issues that don't necessarily get covered by this but more and more, causes of pain can be looked at being treated through release of these deep connective tissues and then using functional movements and strengthening patterns to help keep the body in the improved/corrected posture.
For me on my honeymoon, this involves starting with my feet to keep me occupied while my wife watches the classic "in her shoes". The small ball in the first picture rolls around my sole to help break up the bundles of forming tightness around the muscle fibres. The large tennis ball helps to target those trigger points in my hamstrings as it's big enough to hit all 3. That leaves the hockey ball, this can be pretty brutal to begin with but after a bit of practice is like heaven in the outside of hip/bum and deep in the actually bum cheek (glutes and deeper).
so by this time Cameron Diaz has moved out of her sisters after sleeping with her man and stealing a dog from somewhere...Toni collet is obviously upset so leaves the law firm to go and walk dogs for a living....as you obviously would (good rocky type moment up some monument steps though with 4 dogs)
That funny shaped green thing is called a Thera Caine. This is where myofascial release is at...foam rollers have always seemed a weird invention that I can never seem to access the right spot with as they are just the wrong shape. This little beauty can be bought for £25 online and just hits the spot. My whole back and under scapula, into my QL, my glutes and calfs all targeted with it, and if you look online at function patterns (check out their Instagram) you can get your abs and chest wall too.. Now from my yoga point of view, I honestly think anything is yoga if done with attention/intention and with the breath and that's how I try to approach this sort of work. The breath especially the exhale isnused to relax and let go of the tension that is being held in those deep tight tissues. Yoga doesn't have to be a headstand/handstand/warrior or lotus. It can be taking 5 minutes to sit on a hockey ball and breathing until you feel that release that we look for in our body's when we hold long yin poses.
Anyway, that's enough of a ramble for tonight, it turns out Cameron Diaz wasn't such a prick and that Toni Collette got the nice guy and everyone lived happily ever after....THANK GOD!!!!!!!!
(P.s. I know this isn't referenced and I make statements/claims etc but il put together a blog that goes into further details very soon. You can always message me for further details/reading or people you can contact.)