In today’s practice I have discovered what two pregnancies have done to me. Well, at least I think that is what is to blame. Apparently, I no longer have any inner leg strength. If you’ve never practiced tree pose, then you don’t know what I’m talking about. But, if you’ve ever put the sole of your foot onto the inner thigh, you will recall (unless the last time you did tree pose was a LONG, LONG, long time ago…..) that you not only press with your foot into your thigh, but the inner thigh presses back into your foot. This not only helps with balance, but it helps to maintain the strength and integrity of the standing leg. Well, aparently, I no longer have any inner thigh strength at all.
In other words, my gracilis is nillis and my sartorius is nowhere to be found—burried under some, uhmm, “fatty deposits”………..
Makes me kind of wish that Rodney Yee were here to help me figure out how to find my inner thigh again. OK, let’s be honest, I don’t kind of wish that Rodney Yee was here, I definitely wish that he was here. But, in his absence, I hear the voices of my own wonderful teachers in my head and I am:
1) activating “root lock” aka. secret chakra action center or mula bandha
2) pressing my big toe into the earth
3) dropping my sitting bones and lifting my thigh bone to engage the thigh into the pelvis
and, of course…….
4) hanging on for dear life (I have this wonderful dresser at a perfect height in my living room.)
I just found this Real Simple article outlining some “easy” exercises I can do to strengthen my inner thighs—maybe when I’m done with 8-weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee I’ll start these exercises and let you know what happens. Or, maybe I should just make sure I get to Aleta’s Yoga Booty Ballet classes on Saturdays at Yoga Matrika!
Please feel free to join me in my 8-week program with Rodney Yee. You can share your own experience by leaving comments on this blog. It’s OK if you start on a different day or we get out of sync. This is going to be fun!
Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk, the fearless leader of Team Matrika. Are you in Pittsburgh, PA? Join us for a great class at Yoga Matrika in Squirrel Hill.