Rope Siriasana: Loosening My Rectus Abdominis Muscles

Tomorrow I meet with my new oncologist.  I am feeling somewhat apprehensive.  I continue to hang on to my temporary respite from doctors as I neglected to complete forms they need from me.  Last week, I had to drag my feet to the cancer center for updated blood work.  I think tomorrow's appointment will push me back into monitoring my medical needs.  I am ready nonetheless.  I have to be.  That was a nice escape for a while.

While I was working on revamping my food blog, I learned there is now a way for people to be notified via email of my new posts.  My loyal readers had been asking for this for a while.  I added a new gadget on the right side of my blog.  Go ahead and add your email address.  Happy reading!

Anyway... back to the point of this post.  Two weeks ago, I groaned when the teacher asked us for the second day in a row to do rope siriasana.  I often prefer to opt out of doing that pose.  Before my hysterectomy, I was simply too scared of doing this pose.  This is what it looks like...

The fear of this pose stemmed from a bad yoga teacher who was not certified.  She did not carefully explain the steps to me.  When I got into it, I fell on my head.  Ever since, I had this creeping dread of this particular pose.  I was able to successfully avoid doing it as much as I could for a long time.

After my hysterectomy, it seems like my teachers ask me to do this more often in the recent few months than in the past 15 years of yoga classes.  Dang.  The first of the two days two weeks ago, I went into the pose while facing my old inner fear.  I panted heavily.  While I was fighting my fear, I realized that I had this other feeling...  like this pose was extremely intense for my abdominal muscles.  I stopped after five minutes and told my teacher I was done.

When she asked me the next day to do it again, I groaned.  She asked me what was going on.  I told her.  She said she would show me step-by-step how to enter the pose safely and how to exit safely.  As for the intensity I feel in my abdomen, she asked me to focus on where specifically as she hasn't heard of anyone complaining of that issue.  Once I got the fear out of my mind, I focused on the feeling.  I was able to stay in the pose for about five minutes without panting.   I got out and told her where...  rectus abdominis (also known as the "six-pack" muscles).  She said, "Aha...  those muscles must have tightened as a result of your hysterectomy."  Remember how it took me so long to rebuild strength in those.  Now they're tight!! Agh!  She encouraged me to continue working on those muscles.  The reason why this pose feels so intense is because of the gravitational pull.  She proceeded to show me some poses that would work the same muscles with less intensity.  Those did feel good.  After the class, those muscles felt so tired.  The past two weeks, I have been focusing on working on them little by little.

My teacher showed me a book called, "Iyengar Yoga Cancer Book" by Lois Steinberg that includes some suggested poses to work on those muscles.  I wish I had known about this book when I was recovering from the surgeries but glad that it is available as a resource.