July 5, 2009

Here in San Francisco with Brennan.

We've just taken a 2 mile walk and she's about to get on the eliptical trainer!

Gawd.

But her left hop flexor and sciatic nerve have been bothering her, so we did a little hip opening asanas.

I basically took the 1/2 hour session right out of Essential Yoga by Olivia Miller, which is a new book to me that I found in CT.

Really nice book.

So we started with Pelvic Tilts, went into Alternating Knees to Chest, and on the left side, taking lots of time and being careful not to pull in too close to the chest.  Did Alternating Chin to Knee, then rocked a bit.

I urged her not to bouncing into asana, but to breath so that she could deepen the stretch with her exhalation.  I explained the general idea of Pranayama.

She seemed to really like this.

We tried the Supine Bound Angle, but again, her left side was really tender.

We did several Supine Spinal Twists, and took it really slowly.

Then did Legs To Ceiling and then down to Thread the Needle, then opened the hips more with moving the knee closer to the floor.  She said this felt really good on her hip flexors.

We came to sit and did Seated Angle and some Side Stretches, then Bound Angle, siting up really tall.  We tried a couple of Sitting Spinal Twists, but it bothered her hip flexor on the left side, so we stopped.

Finally, we did Legs-on-Chair pose.  I directed her through the 3 Part Yoga Breath and we lay for awhile in Savasana.

I think she really like the session, and she said several times in the next few days that it relieved a lot of pain.

So now she has the poses that she can use when she needs to!  I hope she does.