Oh, woe is me.  It’s been over a month that I’ve been working with this shoulder injury.  It’s been annoying…but I’m working with it.  For a while, I was continuing to do my regular practice (minus the jump-throughs) while also going light on upper-body exercises.  I realized that my shoulder was getting better…but not very quickly.  Plus, I was running the risk of re-injuring the shoulder or creating secondary injuries….both of which I actually ended up doing.  Ugh.  So, I’ve since given up vinyasa entirely.  No lift ups.  No jump backs.  No lowering down from plank.  None of that.  Oh, and no push-ups or pull-ups.    I’ve also had to cut out any leg-behind-the-head postures and anything that rotates my shoulder forward.

    The pain is barely noticable now…but I’m continuing to hold off on anything that might prevent the shoulder from healing.  Since I can’t do my regular workouts, I’ve started running at the park.  Luckily, it takes me two minutes to walk to the park from my house.  I’ve been running almost every night for the past two weeks.  This Monday I started running in the morning (due to the evening heat).  I don’t keep track of the distance.  I do my pathetic run/walk around the park for about 30-45 minutes.  This morning I got passed by a group of old geezers that are obviously more proficient at running than I am.  Oh well.  The impact of running feels nice on my shoulder….so I keep doing it.  Can’t say that I enjoy it though.

   One thing I’m thankful for during this injury is the fact that there’s only one ashtanga class a week.  If there was a daily class, I think it would be much more difficult for me to back off from the vinyasas and some of the postures.  But since most of my practice is home-based, I feel more comfortable modifying the practice to suit my particular needs.  I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll be at class tonight.

    Ooh, I’m starting to feel old.  I turned 30 this year and one of my biggest concerns was how my practice will change with age.  Only time will tell I suppose.  I’ve seen lots of people decades older than me doing things that I could only dream about doing.  Hopefully I’ve got lots more years left of ashtanga poses before my body falls apart. 

    Practice has been difficult lately.  I tweaked my left shoulder last week (most likely the supraspinatus muscle), so there have been no jumpbacks/jump throughs.  And leg-behind-the-head postures are challenging.  I had a similar injury during my first year of practice.  At the time, I remember being really frustrated that I couldn’t work on my vinyasas.  But last night during practice, I was actually quite relieved to not have to jump-through or jump-back.  A couple of times, I even did the plank –> chaturanga transition by lowering the knees down first.  It was nice….like a vacation from all the hard work.

   There will probably be no vinyasa for the next few days.  I might switch up my practice to do some slow yin-style stretches for the shoulder.  We’ll see.  I usually recover fairly quickly if I don’t overexert myself.  The older I get, the easier it is to know when to back off in yoga practice or during workouts.