What happened to your shoulders? Did I miss this somewhere?

Once certified (and fully kicked out of the house of Devi's in which I'm currently living — this part is still up in the air), then it's possible — I do miss the Bay area. Except I remember it as a tough place to be not-rich, and more importantly, I'm really liking New England, and specifically the Boston area, so my plan is to stay here unless something obviously better comes up.

Way back in the well, I think, but no biggie.

In ~90 I dislocated my right shoulder, tearing the ligament across the front, the cartilage that forms the cup the humerus rides in, and one of the two biceps tendons. The first two of those were repaired in ~91, in an operation that intentionally took away a lot of flexibility, supposedly in exchange for stability. But that causes my shoulder to tend to roll in and forward, and twenty years of the resulting lousy posture has made it permanent on both sides — or so I thought. Except not, as it turns out; it's not normal but the posture is improving.

Not much of a yoga issue, but in ~93 I suffered a third degree separation of the same shoulder (that means completely severing all three ligaments at the distal end of the clavicle). That was also repaired surgically, with them moving a fourth ligament to replace two shredded ones and sawing a centimeter of the clavicle off to prevent arthritis in the joint. One weird result is that my shoulder floats on nothing but soft tissue, with literally no bone-to-bone articulation — my entire right arm, actually, and right shoulder blade are detached, bonewise, from the rest of my body. But perhaps weirder is that that doesn't seem to matter.

I also have what are called hooked acromion processes, which means I chronically irritate or tear one of my rotator cuff muscles (the supraspinatus). That actually is a problem in some yoga positions, but I can make adjustments and understanding this whole business firsthand will make me a better, safer instructor.

Oops! Sorry for the rehash. Glad to hear yoga has been beneficial for your body too, thats awesome. I expect some sweet pub toasts from you in the future doing gnarly twisty moves

I'm hoping to obtain from Devi the yoga pictures she's taken of me recently — some of them look really good, good enough that I now have a set of business cards (tutoring plus yoga) featuring them.

A yoga video toast will have to wait until I can do something really cool.

The body thing is cool — it's been fun watching it change back to something approximating what it was when I was younger. Having a sixpack back was a surprise. And more importantly, it really feels good. (I guess to be genuinely healthy I have to add in some dedicated cardio work too, but I've never found a form I don't hate .)

keep ur head up atak <3

It's better to have love and lost than to have never loved.


Glad to see you using this experience to move yourself forward.


I understand what you are about to go through wrt pup. Being a teenager is the hardest thing in life imo.

My only advice is keep doing what you have always done, be there for him and don't stop enforcing rules. They need rules even if it is so they can break them. But they also need to know that you love him when he breaks the rules.

I think my daughter is moving with me Jan 1st, I haven't really told anyone because I don't like to say stuff and not have it happen but I know how much pup means to you and I know the reasons why you always let him live with his mom. I was in a similar but not as extreme situation but it came to light that when she reached a certain age, she needed what I can give her.

So get your **** and life in order so that when pup needs you, it is easy for him to come to you. I'm happy that even though things didn't work out for you with Devi, you appear to be in a better place mentally than you were pre Devi.


Best of luck bro . I'm proud of you.

Ps you should read the big brother finale sheep reveal, thingy quoted you calling me a snake, it made me warm to see how we've come full circle and how I've always enjoyed our little battles.

Nice job, Mac. That was very classy.

Agreed.

With pup, it's difficult because part of his being a teenager is reduced communication (from an already low baseline), plus not telling me the truth all the time; recall that I'm a continent away and you see that it's difficult. But I do make sure that he knows I'm always there for him — I'm just not always on his side against his mother when it turns out he's making **** up about her.

The pictures of you doing yoga are on facebook - isn't too difficult to get your hands on them

Would you like me to tell you how facebook works?

[never mind — no longer relevant]

Classy and Mac don't belong in the same sentence so thanks for putting a period in there to screw with the grammar nits.

Atak,

We should take our nemesis to the next lvl and start txt'ing barbs!!!!!!!!!!! B

I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet, Mac — this is a long journey.

My yoga-is-good-for-you brag pictures, then I'm off to canvass:





(The dog in the background had just stuck his nose in my face while I was in the previous pose, an event it turned out I was not quite solid enough to make it through, considering the giggling...)










Warning: male nipples:

holy crap atak, you look buff - what is your diet?

I just eat pretty much whatever at this point — did try to add some more whole grain, and to eat breakfast, and include some healthy snacks through the day, but I'm still likely to down a 16 ounce steak at dinner or whatever. Immediately after a weightlifting session I'm likely to have a smallish (~500 calorie) protein shake if I can't get a meal for a while.

I have dropped my caffeine to one cup of coffee per day, mostly because it's supposedly tough to get at Kripalu and I had a serious dependency. I doubt that matters much, though. And I do take vitamins (normal amounts).

Since I met Devi and started yoga I've dropped only about four pounds net, but there's been a redistribution.

Actually I'm being a little disingenuous in attributing all of this to yoga — the weightlifting is not insubstantial.

good genes, then - I hate you

Bigger

I love tejas but not god fearing I ban alcohol as much.

Sorry. I get it.

Though actually I'll say it's not just the genes. I've lifted on and off (admittedly mostly off) since I was 13 (no, that was not a good idea and I wouldn't have let pup do what I did), and so my body has in effect learned to be god at growing muscles. (Upper body, at least — my thighs never grow and my calves are relatively toothpickish.) I think the reason is that I have long-established neural pathways for activating those skeletal muscles, so I can get a lot out of a weightlifting session.

But the body fat thing — yes, I think that's mostly genes, plus never having been heavy (which trains the body to like being that way) — I've never been more than say six pounds heavier than in those shots, except for a couple very brief stretches a few pounds more than that while I was on certain drugs.

Twss

i'm not sure you get to complain - you're pretty wiry yourself, no?

Good luck, Sir!

yeah, but I got a little spare tire that I've never been able to get rid of

yay atak looking pretty killer and happy!

Best of luck to you, Atak.