Astanga

I realised this morning that it's been over a week since I did an Astanga practice. So that's what I did, using the little application I've been using on my iPod to time the poses.

Before I started, I edited 'Routine', modifying the sequence I input the other day and fine tuning it. I brought all the holds down to 30 seconds, added extra steps so that two sides of Utthita Trikonasana, etc. were timed separately. I tried it out and though it worked very well, I realised that I didn’t have sufficient transition time between poses, especially in the seated poses, since I was doing vinyasa. I turned on the 'pause between steps' setting, but this really broke my flow.

I need to either add transitions between poses, bump up the time on the poses to include transition/vinyasa or persuade the developer to add the option to pause after each step rather than all-or-none (I've emailed him - I'm sure I'm not the first person to request this feature). I will mull this and revisit.

My noon class was so much fun that I realised that I felt like doing yoga again in the afternoon. This almost never happens, but happily, I had a children's yoga class to teach in the afternoon. I took my high energy to class and we worked on Urdhva Dhanurasana, dropbacks, Ustrasana, handstands and Supta Kurmasana.

I haven't done Supta Kurmasana in months, but I bound on the first try...then couldn't bind on subsequent tries. Oh well...need to open those shoulders, and hips and back and...

It was great fun and I left energised and exhausted, simultaneously. So I went and bought a burrito and BB's. :-)