Torqued

I thought I’d drop in and update this.

I completed 480 classes in 480 days. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to do yoga for several months now. I developed a stress fracture in my left foot – most likely from pushing myself too hard in the 2nd part of awkward pose. 🙁 About the time it healed up and I was just starting back with the yoga, I re-injured it while doing some yard work. I’m hoping to get back to the yoga sometime in July.

Even though I haven’t been to yoga in several months, my psoriasis has been fairly stable and my psoriatic arthritis only occasionally causes enough pain/stiffness to be bothersome.

I did it!

April 30th was my 367th class in 365 days! I only missed 2 days in a row 4 times the whole year. I had occasional single days missed, but made all of them up with doubles.

Still making incremental progress in my poses, but the most recent significant progress has been me more consistently (~75% of the time) being able to get into, hold, and get out of the 2nd part of awkward pose – only took me a year to do that! For me, that position is more a problem of balance instead of strength. I have recently been able to get back on my elbows in fixed firm about 20% of the time. I know that this won’t mean much to people reading this, but when I’m on the 2nd row, I can finally get my fingers/eyes beyond the row of lights at the back of the room in the back bend in half moon.

With the arthritis that I’ve had for 27 years, the improvement in my joints and flexibility has been amazing! I still have a *long* way to go to get to the full expression in most of the poses, but the changes the yoga has had on my body and my body’s problems has been incredible. I still have not had to take any of my prescription medication for my arthritis/psoriasis since October.

My “yoga year” has been the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve learned a LOT!

Finished up 240 classes in 240 days last week. Started on my 5th consecutive 60-day challenge. Christmas Eve and Christmas day was the first time since mid-May that I’ve missed 2 days in a row. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again if I can help it! Because of my arthritis issues, my body really needs the yoga and the heat every day. I have not had to take any of my prescription medications for psoriasis and arthritis in over 3 months and my skin has not worsened any in that time. Have made some really good progress in standing bow, half tortoise, and have seen a significant increase in ankle/achilles tendon flexibility. I’m now usually the last person down on the 3rd part of awkward pose and have added enough muscle to my legs that it’s now making it difficult to keep my toes and heels together in the standing poses!

If I can keep from getting sick, I think I’m going to try for 365 in 365.

Another quick update:

Finished up 180 classes in 180 days about a week and a half ago…

People tell me that it looks like I’ve lost 10+ pounds, but my weight is actually UP a few pounds… I can tell that I’ve added muscle to my shoulders, back, and legs… and I have continued losing inches…

Recent improvements:

– Able to fully interlace fingers in Eagle Pose
– Half-Moon looks pretty good – can get my hip beyond my ankle
– Able to touch knees together at the beginning of Standing Bow
– Butt much closer to the ground in Fixed Firm
– Elbows much higher off the chest in Pranayama Breathing
– Finally able to get elbow “in front” of knee on Half Spine Twist instead of “on top” of knee
– Finally able to get my foot to touch the floor (but it’s not flat yet) with both hips on the floor in Half Spine Twist
– Getting close to being able to attempt to interlock fingers on Standing Head to Knee
– Can now grab both feet in Floor Bow fairly easily. (I could barely grab 1 foot at a time when I started)
– Significantly increased torso stability in Blowing in Firm Pose
– Significantly increased grip strength

I’ll still keep going every day as it seems to be working for me.

I finished up 120 classes in 120 days last night.

My psoriatic arthritis is similar to rheumatoid arthritis… and it has been working on my joints for years (and not in a good way!) Over these past five months that I’ve been doing yoga, my arthritis has randomly decided to attack my ankles, knees, hips, spine, ribs, shoulders, and elbows at various times.

I’m pretty amazed at how much PAIN FREE range of motion I’ve been able to reclaim in my joints. Millimeter by millimeter, I’m continuing to make progress in the poses.

I finished up 90 classes in 90 days on Wednesday. Going to try for 120 in 120.

It seems I’ve become somewhat of a minor celebrity at the studio – especially since I only started my yoga practice a little over 4 months ago. They’re pointing me out to brand new students and they usually look like this :bug: when they hear how many days I have done. Even some of the instructors are surprised/impressed that I keep showing up every day. I’m fortunate that I live just a few miles from the studio.

I’m still seeing continuous improvement, but some poses still aren’t pretty! :red: Although, I did surprise myself the other day because my Half-Moon and Triangle looked pretty nice!

To get in a “day of rest”, I “double back” on the weekends… I usually take the 8:15pm class Monday thru Thursday, the 6:15pm class on Friday, and then the 8:00am or 10:00am class on Saturday and Sunday. That seems to be working pretty well. I had to get in a few doubles due to missing some days.

I’ve been challenged this past month with an ingrown toenail, though. My doctor didn’t want to cut it out and we treated it with steroids and antibiotics. I’m finally getting back to where I can attempt parts 2 and 3 of Awkward Pose.

I’m also still having a little trouble with my sore ribs, but I’m back on my medication that should start calming that down soon.

I had another round of bloodwork drawn last week for my doctor – will be interesting to see what it shows. My last bloodwork prior was at the very beginning of my Bikram practice.

The 1st 30 days was spent working through a lot of the mental challenges of going every day.

The 2nd 30 days was more focused on some of the physical challenges – like trying not to sit out too many poses and working more on getting the form right.

The 3rd 30 days, I’ve been looking more closely at my practice for things like:
-how does what and when I eat affect my yoga practice
-how does my body respond to different levels of heat and humidity in the room
-experimenting more with fluid balance, nutrients, and electrolyte supplementation for better stamina/performance in class
-paying much more attention to form and individual parts of the poses and trying to work deeper into them

Still haven’t lost much weight – only a few lbs, but I have lost inches.

I didn’t put it in the first post, but part of the reason for me starting Bikram Yoga was because my doctor yelled at me. My weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. were going the “wrong way” and he said I could either do something about it or take a handful of wonderful pills for the rest of my life. %-P I actually got started on a low dose of blood pressure medicine – I would love to be off of it by the end of the year. That, and my 3.5 year old daughter are my main motivation. I’m doing it for myself, but the real drive is that I want to be healthy so I can be around for my daughter as long as possible.

I also have the chronic health problems of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and the yoga has done of very good job of helping to moderate my symptoms.

Pastry store? That’s just wrong! :bug: