I am back on my yoga mat. Not that I’ve been gone. I’ve been doing yoga at least every other day, but I haven’t done Vinyasa flow for months. My right shoulder didn’t let me. Now the pain is almost gone, I’m on my yoga mat again.
Vinyasa flow is my type of yoga. It’s dynamic, hard, fun, creative, all the things I love. However, a good warm-up is essential to practice safely. In yoga a warm-up means doing Sun Salutations and variations on Sun Salutations. I couldn’t do those because of my frozen shoulder. I tried to warm-up on the cross-trainer, but that isn’t the same.
A holy practice
Yoga – for me – is somehow a holy practice. Something that makes me turn inside, but that only works if I have an uninterrupted practice. Not a bit of yoga, a bit of cross-trainer and some more yoga.
The biggest reminder of this morning’s practice is how important consistency is. I’ve practiced Yin yoga in the last couple of months. The focus in Yin yoga is on the connective tissue; ligaments, tendons and so on. Your muscles stretch in the process, but only little. Now doing Vinyasa flow again, I feel very inflexible.
I am weak
Not only inflexible, but also weak. Plank, Chaturanga (low plank) are part of the Sun Salutations and also play a role in flowing from one yoga pose into the other. I haven’t done them in seven months. My shoulder didn’t let me. So I kind of feel like a beginner again.
The good thing is; I am back on my yoga mat again. My right shoulder is still very stiff, so I have to take it easy, but I’m practicing. Long, long time ago I started doing yoga, because I couldn’t run anymore. In the last couple of months, I could run, but couldn’t do Vinyasa flow. Now I can do both. How beautiful is that?
