Seeking more than building strong, healthy bodies.  Building strong minds, spirits and relationships, including with ourselves, and learning from each other.  We are all teachers.

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Desert Nomad Yoga

Muscular Imbalance and Yoga

 

 

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.

 

Buddha 

The passed couple of weeks I’ve been working with a new private client, we’ll call her Emily.  Emily is a beautiful, amazingly driven woman who knows how to make things happen and how to succeed.  She’s just recently achieved her master’s degree while working more than full-time for a children's research hospital.  She eats right and tries to exercise almost everyday.  She has also endured the devastating tragedy of losing her mother last year and a close uncle soon after that.  Yet throughout all that she has done an admirable job of succeeding at work and in her master’s program.  She has also been battling almost crippling back pain, resulting from something diagnosed as facet syndrome.  As we are exploring ways to bring relief and healing, we are also exploring how this originally happened.  Interestingly, in yoga the root chakra is associated with family and security matters and I have to wonder as we begin this journey what role (if any) her recent tragedies play in her physical suffering.  For that matter, I’m still wondering how my own family history relates (again, if at all) to my sacral struggles after Nila was born.

Broccoli Pesto

My new favorite thing!  I make a ton of this at one time, freeze smaller containers and then use it in all kinds of ways!  Throw it in a skillet with some spaghetti squash or whole wheat noodles and asparagus.  Smear it on crackers.  Smear it on some James Ranch burgers or veggie burgers.  Smear it on Salmon or mix it with Tuna. 

Ridiculously easy if you have a food processor or blender.  Throw garlic & broccoli into a pan with a little olive oil, then sauté for a few minutes.  Let cool.  Throw mixture in blender or processor with walnuts or pine nuts and parmesan if desired.  Add more olive oil and blend, continueing to slowly add olive oil til desired consistency. 

Bennies

Like other cruciferous vegetables, broccoli contains the phytonutrients sulforaphane and the indoles, which have significant anti-cancer effects.    A study published in the cancer journal, Oncology Report, demonstrated that sulforaphane, which is a potent inducer of Phase 2 liver detoxification enzymes, also has a dose-dependent ability to induce cell growth arrest and cell death via apoptosis (the self-destruct sequence the body uses to eliminate abnormal cells) in both leukemia and melanoma cells.  Sulforaphane may also offer special protection to those with colon-susceptible genes, suggest a study conducted at Rutgers University and published online in the journal Carcinogenesis.  Sounds like I’ve found some riveting mags to subscribe to, huh?  Research on indole-3-carbinolshows this compound helps deactivate a potent estrogen metabolite (4-hydroxyestrone) that promotes tumor growth, especially in estrogen-sensitive breast cells, while at the same time increasing the level of 2-hydroxyestrone, a form of estrogen that can be cancer-protective. Indole-3-carbinol has been shown to suppress not only breast tumor cell growth, but also cancer cell metastasis (the movement of cancerous cells to other parts of the body).  Broccoli is also an excellent source of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Dietary fiber and and Vitamin A.  Bon Appetite!

Nila Says “Hi!”

Ingredients

 

2 cups Broccoli

6 clovers Garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 to 3/4 cup Pine nuts or Walnuts

1/2 to 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

 

The difficulty is that I usually eyeball this, so feel free to adjust to your own tastes.  This is more or less what I use

What we are coming to realize together is that while Emily has worked very hard to stay in shape, her efforts have been a little lopsided.  Emily falls into the category so many of us Durango athletes fall into.  She worked one muscle group far more often than it’s counter.  Over time, this causes one side of your body to become stronger than the other, and these stronger muscles pull your bones in a way that the weaker muscles begin to lose their ability to counter, creating an imbalance that can pull the spine out of its natural alignment and leave it vulnerable to injury.  Lucky for us, we practice yoga right?  A solid yoga program should work all of your muscles—front and back—while it stretches them at the same time.  This will improve your overall posture, allowing more efficiency with less risk of injury.  But even with yoga, if we aren’t working each part of the body, it becomes little different to other one-sided activities.  If you don’t have time or money to come to classes, look at your home practice and whether it works and stretches the whole body and make sure your yoga practice stays well-rounded.  Backbends?  Forward bends?  Standing poses?  Core?  Arms & shoulders? Seated? Restorative?  Some of us have certain poses we shirk away from (mine are one-legged standing poses).  If you have particular poses you really struggle with, try practicing those more often and allow yourself to be imperfect.  Every time you try, you get stronger—mentally and physically.  I believe the same goes for the meditative and emotional aspect of yoga.  We can be so critical and judgmental of ourselves.  We also need to practice being compassionate and patient with ourselves.  We can practice this in yoga and then we may find it easier to practice it in other areas of our life as well...and we may find that we can re-balance ourselves.