Psoai = burning soreness or ache. That is my definition today. Is it really possible that they’ve always been this tight and I just didn’t notice how much they ache until I paid attention to them? That’s freaky.
Nevertheless.
Where I usually pay attention to the shoulders/thoracic in up dogs, today I paid attention to the psoai. They were feeling both released and damn sore by the time I wrapped up practice.
Video Sunday Special
A little ustrasana video:
Current state of the urdhva dhanurasana (seriously, some psoas opening is definitely in order):
***
Usually I sit crosslegged on my chair at work (between that and the lift The Cop put on my Wrangler, there’s no sense buying skirts for work any more). If I’m not mistaken, though, sitting in a crosslegged position might actually be encouraging my psoai to shorten. Hmmmm.
In my Psoas Book, which is HORRIBLY edited (Lax, you’d be appalled at the typographical and grammatical errors), it is suggested that it’s best to keep hips higher than knees when sitting in chairs. This contradicts the usual office ergonomic convention that knees and hips should be at the same level. Nevertheless, I will set my chair with my knees lower than my hips tomorrow and see what that does. The facilities manager, who is already crazed by the fact that I use a “visitor chair” (i.e., a flat seated, flat backed, almost-devoid-of-padding chair that is meant for use by someone who comes and sits in your office for a few minutes), is sure to be horrified. I’ll have to track down a real office chair and turn in the “visitor chair” I’ve been using. This will pique his curiosity and ensure his discovery of my alternate ergonomic experimentation. Poor facilities manager. He’s already been scared by my propensity to stand on the conference room tables to turn on the overhead projectors (the remotes don’t always work). And when we did some testing for new office chairs, I was put on the tester team (due, of course, to my weird sitting habits). I turned down one chair with a mesh bottom because, as I wrote on my evaluation form: “the seat of the chair scratches the sides of my feet.” Is is any wonder he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore?
So anyhow, I have to try sitting in a chair with my hips higher than my knees to see if it releases my psoai a bit.
***
For now, though, I have to go roll out some puff pastry dough I made. The Cop is sleeping until noonish, having worked last night. I want to have a new attempt at turnovers ready when he wakes. If you’ll recall, last week’s efforts yielded sketchy results. The turnover was too “crusty,” rather than “doughy.” At least that’s how he explained it. So we’ll see if this new recipe works. If it does, I’ll post it, because it is beyond easy.
Other things from today: reading an article on Lucien Freud (speaking of “doughy”). I love Lucien Freud because I have never been able to figure out if I love or hate his work. Then there is his “anxiety of influence” in relation to Francis Bacon, whose work I have always known I adored. Overwrought Englishman affected by the dramatic flair of a badly-behaved Irishman. Subtract out all the psychological “I want to be the bigger genius” drama, and you get David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin. I love ’em both — Hockney as someone I had to discover I loved (perhaps like Freud), and Hodgkin as someone I always adored (a la Bacon). Delightfully, neither of them seem overly concerned with their own genius.
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