Day 4: Gluteus Maximus Pain . . . imus

Today when I woke up I was pleasantly surprised--my shoulders didn't hurt! I was completely blown away as I was expecting once again to have at least some discomfort but they felt great. During my practice I was able to lower myself from plank pose without crushing my nose into my mat and overall I was very excited.

I don't get out much.

For my practice today, I did a few cycles of the Ashtanga A series as a warm up (are you sensing a pattern yet?) but during my third one, I decided to deviate. After downward dog, I decided to try three-legged downward facing dog. Here's a great sample picture from peacefuldumpling.com:

She's probably not crying from a butt cramp.

For a moment after I raised my leg, I felt awesome. Then my glute started to cramp. I slowly lowered my leg and hung out in downward dog for a minute. It started to fade so I raised my other leg. This time, both sides cramped up pretty painfully and lowering my leg didn't fix the problem. I tried child's pose and ended up rolling around on my back in the fetal position.

"I love yoga, I love yoga, I love yoga . . ."

Eventually the cramp stopped and I resumed my practice. I spent some time in warrior 1, 2, and 3 as well as triangle pose. I didn't experience anymore pain but I felt the workout burn in my thighs but it felt good, like I'm making progress. I might not feel that way tomorrow when I can't stand but in the meantime, I'm pretty pleased with myself.

My hips are still fairly loose today and cobbler's pose again had my knees down on the ground. I then tried some reclining cobbler's pose and noticed my left hip felt like it needed to pop. I tried to bounce my knee a little but it didn't want to give so I didn't push it.

Also during today's practice I did some half pigeon pose. I used to love this one as a hip opener and it felt pretty good to do it today. I had enough thigh strength to actually hold myself up but those muscles were far too tight for me to bring that back leg up so I let myself be where I am in my practice.

This . . .

. . . not yet this.

I used to rock climb until I took a big fall that gouged out a significant rope burn on my leg. I took a break for a few months and when I went back, I found myself very frustrated. I remembered all the moves to get up a rock wall but my muscles had weakened without the nearly daily climbing and they gave out on me constantly. I didn't let myself be where I was at and instead wanted to pick up exactly where I left off despite my break and as a result, I stopped climbing.

I don't want to do this with yoga. I need to let myself be a beginner. I'm inspired by photos of advanced practitioners and the poses they're able to achieve but I'm trying to let them be just that: inspiration. I'm embracing where I am in my yoga journey and rushing it will only cause me to (further) injure myself. Plus I'm only on day four of my year-long journey. Who knows where I'll be in six months?

HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?!?!