Naldaramjo

How's your shoulder doing, by the way?

Thanks, Kit.

Not workout related per se: Anyone on here struggled with anxiety? Have you found relief and equanimity through meditation? If you know of some resources available online, please share them with me. Here, on by a DM, if you like.

It's hard to tell from this angle, but her back is as flat as can be. She is incredibly flexible, and her form is impeccable, no doubt owing to her circus-type work in the past. I'll pass on the cue, though, because I've been surprised time and again about how significant intention is to the sensation I experience during a stretch.

Partner stretching is alive and well at the West Coast College of Massage!😁

Hey, @Kit_L, you're very welcome. It's sure been a process. If I were to use the first post of this thread as a starting point, it's taken me about 3 years. I think, however, that I became interested in Stretch Therapy before ever joining and posting in the forums. When I decided to become more dedicated, I am not sure. I have found the progress to be intermittent. Sometimes, I made great strides in mobility, and other times, I felt stuck in a rut and mystified as to why. Each time I had a breakthrough, it was such a revelation. It was as if I was experience certain movements for the first time. Other significant changes have been attitude related. My RMT program has helped a lot with that, both directly by constantly reminding me how miraculous even a dysfunctional is on so many levels, and indirectly, by not giving me enough time to worry. haha The biggest thing I have learned recently is that, if muscles are strong, tight, and yet stretching them is simply going nowhere, it might be connective tissue that deserves some attention.

Second semester of RMT training began this week! Excited to begin practicing with the public. Mobility I recall @Kit saying in either a very old post or in one of his YT videos that the quadriceps play a significant role in overall body tension. These past weeks, I have been experiencing that first hand. I have finally decided to give my thighs some focused attention with a foam roller. Well, not exactly a foam roller, because I have found those to be too unstable. So, I have been using the flat surface of the end of a hexagonal dumbbell. It has been some of the most intense myofascial work I have ever done to myself, but it's hard to overstate how significantly it has changed how the muscles of my hips and legs have responded. Glute contractions feel more complete, and I also feel less resistance during glute bridges. Glute stretches actually feel like glute stretches! Internal and external rotation feel more normal. There is less of a pinching sensation in my hips whenever I go into hip abduction. My TFLs have finally begun to soften. The fronts of my thighs are now soft enough for me to nearly 100% in child's pose, something that has not been possible for as long as I have been trying. Overall, really happy with these changes! ~ I recall posting a photo of my squat ages ago, and funnily enough, I still have not "mastered the squat," but I am closer than ever before, and, more importantly to me, I don't feel as though the positions I am getting into require as much effort to hold. Eventually, I will upload a new photo, but not yet! Mindfulness Meditation has taken a back seat these days. However, I have been so busy with things that deeply interest me that it hasn't seemed to matter as much. That is, until it has. I try and bring noting into daily life when I can, and I can feel that there is still good work to be done on the cushion.

Thanks to both of you. Happy New Year as well! Mind Hygiene...I like that. Cuts through all of the intellectualizing. I sat once since I read your post. Just 10 peaceful minutes on my cushion. What does that Yoda quote mean to you, @Kit_L? I like it, but I do wonder if I am missing something in its apparent profundity.

Hi @Kit_L, just wanted to say thank you for your input. You (and others) have given me a lot to mull over. I appreciate you taking the time to give me such a thoughtful response. I have taken a break from meditation for now, because when I asked myself "why am I meditating?" or "what am I hoping to accomplish with meditation?" I came up blank or overwhelmed. I think I've complicated things quite a bit by reading as much about meditation as I have. That's not to say that the literature hasn't been edifying. It's just that, at this point, I think focus would be far more productive than "dabbling." But...what do I focus on? We'll see.

Thank you for your thoughts. Your last answer is interesting - does robustness disqualify specificity with respect to a meditation practice? And, given that you mentioned that you are primarily drawing from life experience, do you think this holds true in life? For example, would long distance running not be robust, since other forms of exercises would ultimately lower one's running potential (at the upper limits of ability)? It seems that, in order to pursue any single thing to an exceptional level requires sacrifices along the way. I just wonder if different styles of meditation also require similar commitment. Thanks for your thoughts, Nathan. I appreciate what you are saying with respect to having common ground with one's teacher during meditative discourse. I have only visited a couple meditation centres so far, and I haven't found a teacher with whom I resonate, but I can see the value in consistently sticking to a single practice. The guy who taught me during my visit to the Shambhala centre mentioned the controversy. Quite the scandal, IIRC!

In my last post, I mentioned that I'd applied successfully to serve at a Vipassana meditation retreat. The acceptance email I received, however, turned out to have been sent prematurely. The reason that my application was declined was because, since my own Vipassana meditation retreat in January, I had practiced various other forms of meditation. I'd gotten the impression in the past that Vipassana meditation centres are pretty strict, but I didn't realize that this strictness extended to one's practice away from the centre. As well, I have been looking for a meditation community in Victoria, and I have now tried two different places. The second place was a Shambala meditation centre, based on a Tibetan tradition. The technique I worked with there was essentially samadhi, in both sitting and walking postures. After the sit, I talked with my teacher about how I liked to experiment with different meditation styles, using what works and not using what doesn't. He mentioned that, at some point, he said to me that, were I to continue coming to the Shambala centre, it would be counterproductive to continue practicing other forms of meditation. I am sure the similarities between these two experiences are apparent. My question is: what do you guys think? Does dabbling interfere with spiritual growth? Does this depend more on what one defines growth to be? Are there forms of meditation that could actively work against samadhi, for example? Against insight?

I have signed up to be a server at a Vipassana 10 day meditation retreat beginning at the end of November! It's in Merritt, BC, about 360km from my home. I'm thinking of biking there!

I have found a meditation centre in Victoria that is doing in-person sits! I'm not sure how jarring it'll be to step into a "curriculum" part way, but I'm sure there will be something I can learn, and it will be great to connect with some of the local meditating community. Recently, I have been finding inspiration in ballet rehearsal videos, and I've been able to activate new muscles and encourage greater relaxation through the plié movement. My shoulder continues to slowly heal (dear god it's slow), and, at the moment, my back is mildly tweaked. But it is all getting better, and, more importantly, so is my relationship with it.

Meditation I am currently reading Seeing That Frees, by Rob Burbea, a book recommended to me a while back by @Nathan. When I first heard of this book and read a bit about it, I found it intimidating; the concepts of both emptiness and dependent arising sound esoteric and abstract. However, that is proving to be anything but the case. The book is eminently practical from the first few pages, and I am frequently seeing myself reflected back at me in the myriad descriptions of dukkha and in the examples used to elaborate on them. Movement I recently completed a 3000 km bike trip around British Columbia and Alberta. Lots of movement there! But not too much mobility work. Now back at home, I am continuing to work with my body, its ranges of motion, and its dysfunctional compensations. Glute inactivity and relative weakness continues to be something I observe, and, while I am much stronger now in that area, I still feel there is room for improvement. My shoulder has not completely healed, but it seems to be, slowly. Patience. Therapy CoAT Method I was fortunate on my bike trip to meet Marjorie Haynes, a registered massage therapist and founder of the CoAT Method of fascial manipulation. This technique is difficult to explain, but, from what I have learned, it deals directly with the fascia, and it treats the entire fascial network as interconnected and interdependent to a degree that I'd not seen previously. Thus, a fascial restriction in the shoulder might not release completely if there is a network of imbalanced fascial tension connected to that shoulder. This imbalance could be localized, or it could be spread throughout the body. A CoAT practitioner would look at the fascia in other parts of the body -- in the opposite leg's quadriceps, for example -- to see if there was any pulling, and address that first. Here is a direct quote from her website: Beginning my RMT Program In January, I will begin training to become a registered massage therapist. It's a 20 month intensive (and expensive!) program. I am a bit intimidated, but I am also invigorated to be stepping "into the unknown" and into a career that intimately involves me with holistic health.

Long time no see, amigos! I am currently putting together an application package for a massage therapy program offered in my hometown. One of the requirements is a short essay that outlines why I would be a good fit for the program. The essay should include (according to their criteria): why I want to practice massage therapy what experience I have with massage therapy (this is vague, so I guess either as a student or as a masseur) what I have to offer the massage therapy program edit 1 - I have updated this essay to reflect suggestions that @Nathan provided me with. Thank you Nathan! edit 2 - trimmed the fat edit 3 - removed essay, as the final draft has been submitted (and approved!). Thank you to anyone who offered feedback/advice.

Meditation Report Soon after completing my meditation retreat, I decided to go "back to basics" and build my concentration with exclusively breath work. I am slowly following along the guidance offered in Jonh Yate's (Culadasa's) The Mind Illuminated. This book contains a bewildering amount of information, and sometimes, the sheer detail of the instructions provided is overwhelming. However, the "interludes," where, instead of talking about the meditation technique specifically, the author examines different analytical models of mental processes, are fascinating, and, much to my surprise, they have actually facilitated a deepening of my concentration during practice. I'm not sure what the specific reason for this is, but I think it is this: seeing the brain in such a way, it becomes much easier to emotional remove myself from the content of my thoughts. Beyond that, I am not thinking too much about why it helps, but it certainly does. Following the breath is now nearly default, and my sensitivity to mind wandering has increased significantly. It feels good. 🙂 I am still practicing for about 30 minutes per session, 1-2 sessions per day, but I feel like it might be time to deepen my practice further, circumstances permitting. Mobility Report In addition to working on my medial glutes, I have also begun focusing on the muscles of the groin, or rather, the hip flexors, internal rotators (whatever they're called), and anything else. As the latter have strengthened, I have noticed the former exercises to feel much freer! It's as if the groin muscles are finally relaxing when I work on the lateral hip muscles, giving me a much greater range of motion. Good news! All of this does wondering for my sitting, too, because now it is effortless to sit Burmese-style on a light cushion. If only I'd figured all of this out before enduring the excruciating pain I did during my Vipassana retreat!!

I just looked up Pelican pushups...wow! Gotta have some strong shoulders for those!

Now I'm wondering, what is a bicep push-up exactly?

Butt activation continues! The previous exercise circuit's effectiveness dropped a bit, so I started exploring different ways to activate my medial glutes. A new exercise I'm doing is a side lying leg lift, but slightly modified. Instead of having my legs in line with my body, I have my hips flexed at a 90 degree angle,about half-way into a fetal position. Then, with my ground contacting leg bent 90 degrees at the knee, I straighten my upper leg and perform the leg raise. Even in this exercise, I found it difficult to isolate my medial glutes. Many other muscles tried to compensate. So, I performed about 20 small leg circles before attempting the usual movement. This brought the burn out in the medial glute, as well as some other deeper areas in the butt. I still can't do many reps, but I can already feel significant improvement in my "butt feel." I usually pair this exercise with an adductor/hip flexor strengthening/lengthening movement, and I've found that the pair work quite well together. For upper body mobility, I am working on strengthening and lengthening my serratus anterior muscles. As I near the end of my range of motion for this movement, my arms often start shaking, so I know I'm moving in the right direction! The end range of motion exercise movement is like this: Also, finding time to do some cool new hikes in the nearby national park: In other news, I am moving back to Canada from Korea after five years of living here. Feels a bit surreal.

Hits during jogging? I also have some pretty stiff ankles, and they're probably one of the limiting factors in me not being able to bodyweight squat. Some of my friends in Korea are able to make a 30 degree angle between their lower leg and the ground...I often wonder what that kind of mobility would feel like. Still...outside of the BW squat, I rarely feel that my ankle ROM is actively harming me. I see you are wearing Vibrams...those are great for ankle strength, stability, and ROM improvement.

The learning of my body continues. I have a hunch as to why my butt has been so resistant to relaxing. My gluteus medius muscles are quite weak. Weaker than I really knew. They've also been quite hard to isolate in both stretches and strengthening exercises, the TFL often taking the bulk of the work. So, I've been experimenting with different glute activation exercises, and I found a circuit that has over the past 4 days significantly improved my ability to activate my medial glutes and increase my active range of motion. There's still a lot of interference from the other lateral hip muscles, but I finally feel like I'm making progress. 🙂 Here's the exercise circuit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6VsTA011hU My ROM for the clamshells is quite small, but it's already started improving. The band really helps me engage with the target muscle. We'll see how all of this newfound strength affects my ability to relax my butt muscles as I continue. Meanwhile, my left shoulder slowly but surely continues to improve. It might have been one of the tiny rotator muscles that was pulled (or torn? I'm not sure), because I've heard that those tend to take a long time to heal.

You are so hard on yourself! Embarrassing to whom? You're doing so many good things for your body. I think you can afford a bit of confidence. 🙂

It seems like I got some work cut out for me. Many trigger points and many muscles as tight as tendons, it seems, especially the medial glutes! Direct pressure inside the butt (i.e. piriformis) is excruciating! I've tried these stretches before, but I can't get them to work for me. I'll keep experimenting with angles and intensity and see how things feel. Thanks to both of you for the references :) Thank you for the suggestion. I do like lying hip abduction exercises, but in the pigeon pose I encounter a similar problem to what I stated at the beginning: I can get good ROM, but I have zero stretching sensation. So, I feel like I'm working around whatever's tight rather than through. Perhaps I'll experiment with hip height, and see what happens. 🙂

That ball looks intense! I do have one similar, although perhaps a bit smaller. Ive tried using it in the past, but aside from extreme pain, I've not felt much release. You recommend using it before some stretching? I've also discovered that relaxing my groin muscles had improved my ability to activate my medial glutes in a wider range of motion, so I will also continue to work on relaxing the fronts and insides of my legs.

Back to my regularly scheduled program... Has anyone experienced and subsequently released extremely tight gluteus medius muscles? My hunch is that they are also quite weak, perhaps causing my IT band and TFL to work too hard, although I can't seem to find an isolating enough exercise to confirm or negate this hunch. In addition, I can't stretch them. The feel like tendons when I bend forward to do something like a piriformis stretch. The "stretching sensation" is non-existent. Any ideas or experiences are welcome :)