After observing me in a few basic poses, we found that my Downward-Facing Dog revealed an obvious problem, probably related to my old rowing injury. In the posture, I have a substantial hump in my low back.

At home, I tried to do Down Dog in front of the mirror and attempted to force the hump down. The result was an increase in discomfort and locked-up sensations in the low back. I knew there must be a better way.

So this week at my private lesson, Jason worked patiently with me. Rather than forcing the low back flat, he taught me how to lift and lengthen my abdomen, torso, and ribcage. In order to do so, I found that I had to awaken my core, which I came to realize was quite lazy and probably a major factor in my back compression. Also, using the help of straps, I learned to create a sense of strength and stability in my shoulder girdles, which had been hyper mobile and overstretched in this pose. With a series of micro-adjustments, the pose felt much milder, more comfortable, and balanced. When I looked in the mirror to my side, I was pleasantly surprised to see that these mini-changes led to a beautiful line from my hips to my hands. For the first time, I felt the integration of the whole body in this pose, rather than disjointed parts of the body doing separate tasks.

It is also interesting to note that in my free-style swim stroke, I've often felt as if I had too much slack in the shoulders from attempts to lengthen my stroke through reaching the arms. Whenever I worked on reaching for a longer stroke, I felt that I was losing power at the beginning of my pull. This Down Dog lesson taught me that there is a way to create length by integrating the whole body but still maintain a sense of strength and stability in the shoulder and arms. I hope to apply this lesson in upcoming months as I work to improve my swimming technique.