My practice was fairly unremarkable this morning. I didn't feel sluggish and I *did* do my evening practice last night and enjoyed a lovely backbend. I'm always amazed at how much more flexible I am in the evening. I love the energy and atmosphere of a morning Ashtanga practice, but sometimes I wonder if I should move my practice to the p.m. Hm...anyway...
My knees feel a lot better - in fact, I'm tempted to add Marichyasana B back in tomorrow. I'll see how I feel after my hockey game tonight.
My hips are tight. Not in every instance (I'm fairly flexible in Baddha Konasana, for example), but they're tight in certain poses. In general, they've felt tighter lately and I've really started to notice it in my practice. Is it the biking I'm doing? The morning walks? Sitting around more since I'm not teaching a full schedule this month? Who knows...
I was perusing David Swenson's book and studied the photo of Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana more closely. His bent knee is all the way on the floor in that photo. I can bind in the pose, but my knee isn't on the floor - probably because my hips are too tight. I think I'm going to start approaching this pose differently in the coming week. Instead of coming into the full pose, I'm going to do a 'rock the baby' variation that's a hip opener. And I'll add a hip opener to my evening practice as well.
2 comments:
It might be the biking. I like to play with some Crossfit routines, which involves squatting with weights. I notice my hips and knees behave very differently depending on how much squatting I'm doing and how much weight I use. I don't use much ~ like 20 lbs, which is nothing to Crossfitters ~ but when I do too much, I feel it in my yoga practice. If I pull back on the weights and/or frequency, I'm okay.
I have read somewhere, it might have been Light On Yoga (!!!) that morning practices aren't always the best because your body is more stiff from sleeping. I know for some folks it helps wake them up but I understand the logic of waiting until later in the day to practice.
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