28 June 2010 America welcome....
A little croissoont and tiny cup of coffee on board of airfrance makes the beganning of my three months journay with destination in Florida. Living in the city of London doesn't mean it's easy to take off. I've spent all night sleeping at the airport to take my very early morning flight to Paris. I m necked....
And here I am in the city of love-in transit. Only when the crew memeber anonced my destination to Miami I've realised that I am actualy going to Florida. its the beginning of journey to America. I am going to unknown but somhow I feel very safe as I am going to visit my friend. I am kind of happy to be welcomed by someone I know as usually I'm tent to travel to places where I have no clue who I am going to meet on my way and where I am going to end up. This is propably the sign of being grown up. I feel like I need to take my life easy and just enjoy every moment of it without constantly rushing around. I am glad to come to such a conclusion after years of crazy adventures. Nothing really amazes me much, I feel like 100 years lady who loved 100 lives. 20 years ago I was dreaming about traveling and acting. And here you go, since then my journey began and during that time I traveled around the world and eventuly discovered the biggest love of my life...dance and not only;) now I don't need to run anywhere, I've reached the happiness and satisfaction even if it's just the begaing of this journey...
8 July 2010
It took me a while to get used to the place, although I think I felt like at home as soon as I've arrived. My friend came with her friend to pick me up from the airport and I was driven along the miami to reach the south beach. it turned up that we are living in the heart of miami beach surrounded by ocean from both sites so we can admire both the sun rise and sun sat over the sea. its like being on the boat in the middle of the ocean where no matter happens sun rises and sats in the same water. Since one week I set up our www.yogaonmiamibeach.com company for homeless and whoever wants to join by donation. it was hard to run it in order to such a miserable weather. as it's a raining season almost every morning there is a big tropical fall of water. At least I can swim, in fact I shouldn't be practicing yoga at all considering my badly inflamed knee. This time something whirled has happened as I've got some cyst on it and it really harts. I hardly can walk and I keep practicing yoga and swimming every day. Anyway Miami welcomed me with all its beauty. Panoramic ways remains me of Caribbean and economic-ways is America I could imagine. I am meeting my friend's friends and trying to get involved in some yogic studio. every morning and evening I am on the beach where I relax and swim and in the middle of day I am at home in front of computer trying to sort out little things connected to my various activities. I might do a little bit of advertising for yoga activity in miami and try to find some locations in london for future performances from october. local festivals in london would be the main goal. I was a bit anxious as soon as i arrived but now it looks like I kept my feelings control and ambitions are well managed by myself. We've been with my friend to her father's house in Boca Raton (moth of rat), him and his wife invited us to tai restaurant. it was very nice food and most of older habitants of that area come from rich jewish background, so the community is really solidly protected and strongly save.
12 July 2010
Food poison...I was supposed to teach today the trial yoga ashtanga class at Synergy studio in Miami Beach but my belly didn't agree on it so I stayed still. In couple of hours suddenly I've got a bad stomachache and i ended up in the toilette. I am not sure what it was caused by but I've got really sick and weak. Likely nobody turned up for the class so I didn't feel that guilty. Eventually later on I started feeling much better until I had some dinner. I am afraid that I might suffer again this night as I ate the sour cream again and i think that was the main reason of my previous stomach problem. Anyway I'll spend a night in the toilette because of my stupidity and learn for the future;(
Every change in our life provokes different feelings and makes us feel miserable, I've also experienced it after I came to FLorida 2 weeks ago. When I thought I was established here for the summer, suddenly I started going through different mental stages. My mind was screwed up and I was struggling with my inner world. Couldn't really find myself in the middle of the american gold spring. I've been through my ups and downs and I couldn't figure out what was happening to me. I know the reason why its happening. As I haven't been practicing regularly yoga since one month after my head injury whole the emotional system started taking over my free spiritual life. I couldn't manage to control anymore negative feelings coming in and out. i was a mess and couldn't get out of it. I started reading the book about ' Relaxation response', practicing yoga on miami beach and watching it on line as I've got my knee re-injured, and finally I am coming back to normal. These changes of mood are threatening me as I am not used to them, my emotional and physical balance has been touched and I am about to rebalance my inner energy and physical capability. I am in Miami and I am trying to heal my knee and my head, I read about the psicology-meditation aspects, whats happening in the brain after something has got messed up , watch on internet ashtanga/vinyasa films to learn the ashtanga primary series and vinyasa flow. Basically it feels more like being in India than in America. But the life style here is much higher than there. I am not sure if its good or bad....I've set up my little community activity over here: www.yogaonmiamibeach.com. Yoga by donation on the beach, in fact the classes initially were supposed to be run every day 7.30-8.30am, and eventually I've changed it to tuesdays and thursdays classes 8-9am. In fact tomorrow I should be there-on the beach. i haven't advertised it yet so its always great excuse not to get up on time. Now I am not feeling great so I might skip tomorrow's class once again, but I'll try to get there and then swim as every day.
14 July 2010
The Yoga therapy for knee problems
As I've been struggling with a knee injury since three years I decided to do something about it. As I keep re-injuring myself each time I am in full physical activity I realised that I have to do research by my self how I can prevent the arising continues knee injury and related to it knee pain. As a dancer and a yoga teacher I've got pretty grounded anatomical knowledge so why shouldn't I use it in order to help myself and other millions of population struggling with similar problems to mine. Having lots of friends who are connected to the dance movement, yoga psychotherapy I am in good environment to build my own practice based on my own case which is the bad knee recovery. Below it's an article sent me by my dance partner, and it's very obvious especially for physical people but somehow we forget about the basic so easily. Just to remind about the quadriceps muscles importance in proper knee join function I thought that whoever is interested in the subject should take a 5 minutes and read what follows:
"Quadriceps Control of the Knee Joint
The quadriceps group of muscles form the major part of the bulk on the front of the thigh. Collectively these four muscles are the powerful, prime extensors of the knee joint but at the same time are vital for the stability and well being of the joint. Even if there is no wish to bounce around and so use the dynamic extensor role of these muscles, nevertheless it is important that they remain in good physical state or damage to the joint is likely to occur, whether at the time or in the long-run.
Anatomy of the Muscle Group
The name quadriceps means four heads but in this case, four individual muscles with a common purpose. Two of the four, rectus femoris and vastus intermedius, give the central power to extension of the knee, working through the patella as a lever, while vastus medialis and vastus lateralis assist in the extensor role but also give vital peripheral support to both movement and the joint itself.
Vastus intermedius is the largest of the four muscles. It is attached to and covers much of the front and sides of the femur. The central fibres run into the patella but on the two sides they convert into flattened tendon, or aponeurosis that run down on each side of the patella to the upper part of the tibia.
Rectus femoris runs down the thigh in front of the vastus intermedius and can easily be seen in a reasonably muscular person. It is the one part of the quadriceps that arises from the pelvis; immediately above the acetabulum of the hip joint. Because of this it is often said to be a flexor of the hip joint but in fact it has poor mechanical advantage over the joint, making it of minor importance in flexion under normal circumstances. Its prime role over the hip is in support of the joint, rather as a dynamic ligament. In practice the rectus muscle with the vastus intermedius, should be considered just as the power extensors of the knee. They both run onto the patella, from the lower end of which a thick, powerful tendon, the patellar tendon runs down into the tibial tubercle, the bony knob on the front of the upper part of the tibia.
The patella is usually called a sesamoid bone, i.e. a bone within a tendon where that runs over the major bone, not only reducing friction on the tendon but also lifting its line of pull, so improving the leverage and therefore efficiency. The patella is a very overgrown version, running over the lower end of the femur and so increasing the leverage of the quadriceps pull on the tibia. This is also improved by the tibial tubercle. The patella is always in relation with the lower part of the femur. With the knee straight it lies on the front, but as the knee bends it tracks round its lower end, its gently ridged under surface running in the groove between the two condyles of the femur. With the knee bent at 90 degrees the patella lies on the end of the femur and in full (grand) plié it is even further round. Because of the considerable movement of the patella on the femur, the patello-femoral joint has cartilage on both surfaces but the synovial membrane above also has to be quite extensive. This forms a pouch above the patella, under the vastus medialis and, with the knee straight, the supra-patellar bursa extends about three fingers breadths above the patella and controlled by a tiny slip of the intermedius muscle. The synovial membrane of the bursa unrolls as the knee is bent. It is this bursa that becomes filled with watery fluid, the so-called water on the kneee, in the synovitis of knee injury.
It is important to be aware that the femur and tibia are not in a straight line at the knee. Due to the upper end of the femur being set on the side of the pelvis the shaft runs centrally to the knee so that it meets the tibia at an angle; greater in a female due to the relatively wider pelvis. Thus, with the load of the body on the joint, the knee tends to be pushed medially towards a genu valgum (knock knee) unless effectively controlled, by pulling up of the muscles on the inside. As a result of the angle at the joint the line of pull of the muscles along the femur to the patella has to change to give a straight pull down to the tibia. If the patella does not have a compensating pull medially, it would move in line to the tibia: i.e. it would track or even dislocate laterally. This is in face a common problem; a spontaneous lateral dislocation of the patella is quite often seen in females, because of the greater angulation at the joint.
Vastus lateralis arises from the femur behind the vastus intermedius and runs down towards the outer side of the knee joint. It converts into an aponeurosis somewhat above the level of the patella where it joins that of intermedius over the outer side of the knee.
Vastus medialis runs down the inner side or the thigh, much as the lateral muscle. However it also has an oblique portion, arising lower down the thigh from the thick tendon of adductor magnus. This component forms the prominent bulge of muscle on the inner side of the patella, to which it is attached. In a way it can be considered almost as a separate muscle: it has its own branch of the femoral nerve that supplies the quadriceps. The oblique component is vital in ensuring that the patella tracks correctly over the femur and counteracts any tendency for a lateral shift. It acts in that important pull-up on the muscles on the inner side of the thigh that also control the tendency to knock-knee.
The lateral and medial muscles while, supporting the other two muscles in extension of the knee, also give valuable support to the inner and outer sides of the joint. In fact the quadriceps muscles together with the patella replace a joint capsule and ligaments over the whole anterior half of the knee joint . As such they are vital in producing stability in the joint. If they fail, as so often happens after injury or from disuse, synovitis (water on the knee) is most likely to occur. In the longer term degenerative and other problems of the knee can be put down to poor quadriceps control of the joint.
So important is it to ensure quadriceps control over the knee joint that anyone in hospital for more than the odd day is, where possible, given daily quadriceps exercises. Furthermore, even a minor problem around the knee joint automatically leads to central (i.e. the brain) inhibition of muscle control over the joint with rapid loss of muscle power and hence bulk. As an example a rugby-playing colleague of mine, some years ago, sustained a very minor knee injury and I suggested that he did not play the following week but keep exercising. At the end of a week he had lost an inch in circumference of the thigh, mainly due to loss of quadriceps muscle; this in spite of muscle activity.
Even after minor problems it is vital to try to ensure the quadriceps are kept as strong as possible. Firm regular pull-up of the quads, with the knee straight and held as hard as possible for a short time; repeated for about 5 minutes every hour should be the order of the day. This can be emphasised with the leg held out and a weight on the foot, to make the quads work even harder. Your whole future as a dancer (or even as a less physical person) depends on the control of the quadriceps over the knee; an otherwise unstable joint."
Later on I will build the yoga sequences connected to pilots exercises which will help to prevent the knee injuries and recover from them.
"Early operative treatment of combined anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament injuries is possible without increased long-term mobilization complications. The rehabilitation period is long, and aggressive physiotherapy is recommended. However, nonoperative treatment of the torn medial collateral ligament allows faster restoration of flexion and quadriceps muscle power. Our results favor nonoperative treatment of the torn medial collateral ligament in patients with combined injuries."J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2009 Jun;91(6):1305-12.
Range of motion and quadriceps muscle power after early surgical treatment of acute combined anterior cruciate and grade-III medial collateral ligament injuries. A prospective randomized study.
Halinen J, Lindahl J, Hirvensalo E.
Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. jyrki.halinen@saunalahti.fi
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19487506
"Avoiding constant re-injury (you know it's happening, you feel the pain) is critical. Obviously, it delays the healing process, but even worse, every re-injury and additional healing cycle means increasedscar tissue build-up in the muscle and tendon. Scar tissue is hard, inflexible, and tough to get rid of. As scar tissue develops, you lose the range of motion in your knee. Also, the more scar tissue, the more likely you will suffer from chronic pain or arthritis later on. Scar tissue means that your knee doesn't perform as well as it once did and it makes it prone to further injuries again and again.
If you have an injured knee, it's very important to heal it quickly and completely. Incomplete healing of a knee injury means it may plague you forever."
http://www.mendmyknee.com/?REF=GMKneeContent
16 July 2010
I started collaborating with one of the Miami Beach yoga studio by teaching 3 times a week. I am not sure about these classes as they are new so there is no people, I am supposed to advertise them by myself. On top of that I am expected to do yoga karma in the office (for free). I don't feel it some how. I want to focus on my own things but I am afraid that luck of knowledge of this yoga market might slow down my own activity on the beach (yoga teaching). From the other hand I think I should give it a go and advertise this initiative by myself. I am bit stacked because of this kind of relationship with another studio. May be I just should let them know what my plans are to be fair with myself and them. What I really want is to set up yoga dance classes on the beach 3 times a week Monday, wednesday, Friday 6pm-7pm yoga dance by donation. This is what I am going to do!!!!!!
