Day 35: Combatting the Car

After spending several hours in the car today followed by several more hunched over my desk, I was pretty locked up. My back, shoulders (Edelman side especially), and hips were not happy and I decided to do a quick search for some yoga poses to do after a car trip. I found a couple sites with suggestions (you can check them out here and here). Luckily for me, my favorite hip punisher was featured so I could loosen up my body AND keep pushing myself in pigeon pose.

Screw you, hips!

I'm noticing improvements in my transition to king pigeon. My back leg is up without a problem now and today, I really tried to extend my upper body. I figure I need to stretch it out before I start to curve it backwards. Turns out, elongating my upper body is really painful when you have chronic back problems.

"Am I doing king pigeon yet?"

I also noticed some improvements in my downward facing dog. It's getting much easier to flatten out my upper back and get my shoulders out of my ears. Apparently, I need gravity to help extend my back.

Phoebe gets it.

I did several other stretches (puppy pose and child's pose are my very best friends) but one of the best ones was eagle arms while I was in hero's pose. For the first time in a very long while, my feet started to cramp up in hero's pose but I'm probably dehydrated. But that's not why the pose worked out so well for me. That'd be weird if it was.

Anyway.

The eagles arms felt great on my shoulder. I actually found it a little more painful to stretch out my non-Edelman shoulder which was surprising. I'm still holding out hope that my shoulder will magically heal and be able to throw a 51 yard pass.

Witchcraft!

Overall, I feel pretty good despite spending all day in the car. My back is looser, my shoulder isn't as painful, and my hips aren't as tight. Thanks, yoga!