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Monday, March 12, 2018

Flexibility with the Valentino Brothers: Two Month Update

Week 1

So, in early January, I wrote about how I was going to get flexible with the Valentino Brothers.  And for a full month, I was on it.  I was following the videos three to four days per week.  I was feeling pretty good about it.  I wasn't feeling necessarily more flexible in the moves I was doing with the DVDs, but I did feel more flexible in my yoga classes.  It doesn't make sense to me, but that's how it felt. 

Anyway, the first weekend in February, I was screwing around after doing one of the DVDs, taking photos and probably holding poses a little too long.  I then went to Twirly Girls, where I danced alone for about an hour, then taught a two and a half hour party.  At the end of the party, the girls asked me to dance for them.  It was during that dance that I suddenly knew my knee was not okay.  My knee was swollen and the kneecap kept feeling like it was popping off.  I hobbled around for a couple of weeks, icing and heating, and trying to be careful.  I was skipping pole and lyra classes (see that update HERE), but carefully doing some yoga.  My knee would be "almost better," and then something would set me back.  For example, I was probably at about 95% better, and my Monday yoga instructor told everyone to squat down, and I did so without thinking.  I was immediately set back a week in recovery from that.  I was scheduled to teach at Jen's studio, Wildcat Parlour, last weekend, and I was just trying to keep my knee well enough to make it through that workshop.  Well, I not only survived that workshop (as well as taking her heels workshop beforehand), but feel like my knee is still about 95% healed.  I can't squat all the way down with weight on my knee but I can almost put weight on it if I'm sitting on my knees and start pushing myself back towards child's pose.  So, I'm getting there.  I had put a note in my calendar for today that I would go see Tobe if I wasn't better, and I think I am going to be able to avoid a visit for now. 
Month 2

Last night, after about five weeks off, I tried one of the flexibility DVDs.  I wasn't able to do all of the moves, and I was extremely careful about the ones I did do, but I made it through.  I also did a video to get screen shots.  Obviously, there is no huge difference in my before and after photos from the last two months. 

So, here are some photos (and the two long videos of my ramblings, which is where I'm taking my screen shots from).  Hopefully in another month or two, I'll have something more exciting to report. 

First week:



Last night:



Week 1

Month 2
Week 1

Month 2 (don't mind my creepy face)

Friday, March 2, 2018

Operation Upside Down: Months 7 and 8

I haven't posted an update in awhile.  If you want to read my last upside down update, you can find it HERE.  Where do I start?  I guess here, with the excuses and whining.  I spent most of January sick and February with a knee injury.  Also, I am just exhausted, and it's freezing cold (well, California cold, which is cold to a Californian), so making a 25 mile drive for an 8 PM class requires a special kind of motivation that I just don't have right now.  I'm tired and frustrated, so I missed many classes in the last two months.

I enjoy Janet's Bottoms Up class because I like and trust her.  I know I won't completely squish her when she tips me backwards.  But the 8 PM start time means I don't get home until after 10 PM on a work night.  I enjoy Jen's lyra class, but the 6:30 PM start time means I need to leave straight from work and pray that the traffic gods are on my side.  It stresses me out.  Plus lyra hurts 100 times more than pole.  And I feel like since I've turned 40, I ache a lot more than I used to.  My hands hurt for two days after lyra.  Currently, I'm rocking a bruise across my hips from a forward fold.  I barely did a forward fold.  I'm not trying to be a circus performer.  So what I've determined is that I really go to lyra to see my friends and laugh.

This knee injury has been plaguing me for a month now.  I believe what happened is that I hyper-extended it while doing the flexibility DVDs (you can read the first post on that HERE), then went to Twirly Girls to dance for an hour, and teach a two-and-a-half hour party.  By the end of that night, I knew I wasn't okay.  I've been limping along by icing and heating, taking cinnamon, using arnica and being extremely careful in yoga (I have to do some kind of movement).  I haven't done the flexibility DVD in a month.  I feel like the worst of the pain and swelling passed within a week or so.  But one little wrong step or tweak puts me back in it.  I am 95% better, but that 5% keeps me down.  I can't climb the pole because it hits my knee in just the right (or wrong) spot.  I can't hang from my knees in the lyra.  I can't sit on my knees for any reason.  I tried to just simply squat down on Monday and that actually put my recovery back at least another week.  In fact, as I write this, I should be in class, but I am aching so much (let's blame the rain), that I don't want to chance hurting myself any further.  I am supposed to teach a workshop in ten days so I am just trying to keep myself at this level until I get through that.  Then I can fall apart.  In fact, it is probably time to get myself to the doctor, but I know they're going to tell me to stop doing what I'm doing and I don't want to be told that.

All this being said, I don't feel like I've lost any strength.  On the nights I have been able to get to class, I do get upside down.  I haven't improved, but I haven't moved backwards.  I can kind of get my knees driven upward, but Janet still has to tip me backwards.  I also wonder if part of my problem is that I need a new goal.  If the goal was simply to get myself upside down, I've done that.  My goal never said: get upside down alone or gracefully or whatever.  I also wonder what's the point?  Just to say I do it?  I don't see myself getting comfortable enough with it to suddenly start throwing it into routines.  So, if I just simply wanted to be strong enough to throw my ass upside down, I did that.  I am in the process of figuring out what I want out of pole.  Is it to be strong?  I haven't been taking any flow or dance classes, so I feel like I've lost a lot of that fluidity.  I think I have a lot to figure out in the next month or so.  I only have this one body and I don't want to be lazy but I also don't want to push myself into injuries that could be avoided if I just listened to my body.  I mean, I can't even squat down to 90 degrees.  I don't want to lose mobility, and I feel like that's happening at an alarming rate.

So the whining is done.  Here are some videos from the last two months.





Performing for Robert and Twirl for a Cause:





The day of the knee injury:



Bonus:

This is where I am pretty sure I hyper-extended my knee.  I was doing the flexibility DVD and trying to take photos to show progress over the previous month.  Someone on Facebook talked about yoga being the portal to hell and then a friend photoshopped this.  So, it's kinda true.  But the photo makes me laugh so I am sharing it here with you.


Made it back to class last week, although I was pretty limited on what I could do.



So, there you go.  I really don't know what the future holds for my "pole career."  I am trying to be kinder and gentler with myself in 2018.  Judge myself less.  Love myself more.  And I don't know that pushing myself through injuries is honoring that.  I guess I have a lot to decide, with no real deadline forcing me to make a decision.  I will certainly let you all know what is coming next!