Cedar Falls girls 51, Dubuque Senior 32

The Cedar Falls girls' basketball team improved to 5-2 on the season after defeating Dubuque Senior on Dec. 9, 51-32. Kaz Brown scored 16 points to lead the Tigers, while Imonee Qualls added 15. Katie Sommer led the Rams with 8.

Recent activity/Growing a Lotus

It's been a while since I sat down and actually blogged about things personally, so here it goes:

During the week of Thanksgiving, I had a session with Mary, the owner of Field of Yoga, and I wanted to do that session around John Friend's Growing a Lotus course. She came up with a syllabus that combined his course with the teachings of Lilias Folan. From Folan's workings, Mary decided to add some elements that would help with my hip opening beyond what Friend teaches. She used a couple of terms that I forgot, but basically it allows the hip joints to heat up first, then be opened.

As a quick summary, this sequence involves a move called chakravakasana, which is moving from cat/cow pose (all fours with a back arch) into child's pose, or balasana. Many yoga classes has this move as a warm-up, only with this sequence, my knees are displaced, one is about a couple inches behind the other, and the movement is in an arc on the side of the knee that is in back. After about six reps, I hold about halfway back for six breaths and repeat on the other side.

After that, I do a bowing low lunge, with uttanasana (standing forward bend) after each side's set. Then I do a sequence where I start in prayer chair pose, revolved chair, revolved side angle in prayer position and revolved triangle on each side. Next I do a sequence of three-legged down dog (tri pada adho mukha svanasana) with a straight leg, then bending the leg, arching my back over the base leg, then Vasisthasana (side plank) with the top foot on the base leg like in tree pose (Vrksasana). Mary wants me to try to incorporate a "cradle-baby" variation, where I take the top foot and cradle it in front of me to open the hip more, however after three breaths in the tree variation, my bottom arm starts to shake. I guess I need to build up strength in my arms. That's the main reason I cannot do a handstand (Adho Muhka Vrksasana).

After that sequence, I do a headstand (Sirshasana) and shoulder stand (Salamba Sarvangasana), followed by a backbend, either cobra (bhujangasana), bow (dhanurasana) or locust (salabhasana), and then go to seated hip openers. Mary didn't include that in my sequence, but I feel I need Sirshasana and Salamba Sarvangasana to complete my practice, and between Vasi (as Mary likes to call it) and the seated postures was the best spot I can think of putting it. Before I do those sequences, I go into an easy cross-legged position and do some isometric exercise, where I press down on the knees with my hands as the knees press up. I do that a total of four times, twice with the left shin in front, twice with the right.

I have two seated sequences. First includes variations of pigeon (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana). First, I stretch forward with the front leg at a wide angle and foot flexed, and then I twist my upper body toward the bent knee, and I try to grasp by back foot with the opposite hand. Once in a while, I feel a cramp in the hamstrings when I bend up that back leg. After that, I swing the back leg around to the front and do what Mary calls a "bird wing" stretch, where I put the bent leg's ankle atop my straight thigh above the knee, keeping the foot flexed and knee pointing outward. I then bend over and grasp the extended foot and bend as forward as I can. The focus is to help the bent knee move out and down to open the hip. I can get that knee just below the top of the straight leg on each side. I repeat this sequence on the other side, and then I do what is called "double pigeon" or "fire log" (Angistambhasana), where the shins are parallel to each other where the feet are as close to the knees as possible, one atop the other. Then it's a forward bend. I try to do that twice with each leg atop the other, so a total of four times.

After that sequence, I do a sequence that includes "cradle baby" and "through the needle" stretches. I start by bending one knee vertically and the other across the thigh in a pigeon-like formation and leaning on my hands behind me. After six breaths, I grasp my foot with the opposite arm, in the crook of the elbow, straighten the other leg, and hug the leg into my chest, as if I'm holding a baby. Then I lean back as far as I can, working my back to the floor and my bent leg toward the chest as much as I can, keeping the other leg straight. I can almost get straight with my right leg held, but I'm a bit less with my left. Next, I move the held foot to its opposite hip joint for a lying tree pose in half-lotus, trying to work my knee as far to the floor as possible without hurting it. The bottom of each leg can just about break the plane of the top of the opposite one. After that, I do the "through the needle" stretch, where I put the bent leg back atop the opposite thigh and then grab the back of that thigh through the bent leg and pull toward my chest as much as possible. With my legs in the same position, I do a twisting variation, where I swing my legs so the foot of the bent leg is resting on the floor on its opposite side. After that, it's what is called Brigid's Cross, where I extend the leg that was bent over the opposite thigh and then twist so that leg is underneath me and I lie on my front with arms outstretched. After a few breaths, I get up, straddle my legs and bend forward between them. Then it's corpse (Savasana) and a short meditation.

I think I'm making some progress, as I mentioned in a few places. One thing where I see progress is in Angistambhasana. When I started the sequence with Mary, I could only comfortably put my feet to mid-shin. The last two days, I can now get them to my knees. I also feel that in pigeon, my groin is getting really close to the floor, maybe about an inch or less. My left knee, which I injured in May 2010 when I tried to force a lotus, isn't hurting as much when I do any bent-to-the-side poses. However, I feel I'm still a ways away from getting into full Padmasana.

Then Mary asked me why I feel so strongly about being able to do Padmasana. I had to think for a second. First, I told her about how I read that Padmasana was found by ancient yogis to be the best cross-legged seat for meditation. As the feet are atop the thighs, the legs are locked in position, which helps calm the mind and body for meditation. Also, I said it would allow me to be able to do some more advanced variations of some asanas. Not just headstand in lotus or shoulder stand in lotus, but also other asanas that need open hips, like full twist pose (Purna Matsyendrasana).

Mary told me I should really think about this, and even journal my feelings. The more I do this, the more I feel I should be able to do it. Other than openness of my hips, I do think another obstacle to doing Padmasana is the thickness of my thighs. It's not that they're muscular, because there is a bit of muscle there, but there's quite a bit of subcutaneous fat in there. If I can just reduce the size of my thighs, Padmasana might not be too far behind.

Today, I met with my psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Conditt, and the journaling came up. I was trying to figure out whether to do it here or have a notebook. I mentioned Jill's blog, so I figured since I can post on here and maybe some people who know about this thing might give me some relevant feedback. Dr. Conditt said I might also get some bozos who also give me crap. I figured I could delete the bad comments.

Anyway, Mary is going to start some new classes after the first of the year, including one called "Bootless Camp." My year away from regular classes is about to end, so I'll have to talk with her about this. Maybe during my next private session we'll discuss this, or we can meet sometime outside of the studio. I feel I know what I need to do, plus I did well when her teacher, Karina Ayn Mirsky, was in town last month, so I think I can get back into regular classes.

Well, as always, I'll keep plugging.