Astanga

Episode III: Our heroine winces as she unrolls her mat, but manages to plow through yet another Full Primary with Beryl Bender Birch.

Ow, my rhomboids.

Still sore, but I felt better as I warmed up. I had a good practice, managed to do all of the binding stuff that I was doing yesterday. I'm still rocking Urdhva Dhanurasana, staying in the pose for the full duration of each hold and lowering down to my head in between repetitions. I don't know if my back is anymore open for all this effort, but I'm certainly building strength.

Full disclosure: I am substituting two poses in the series. For Janu Sirsasana C, which I hate anyway, I'm doing a quadracep stretch. In place of Setu Bandhasana, which I also hate, I'm laying over a bolster as a preparation for Urdhva Dhanurasana.

For a while there, I wondered if I should change the name of this blog because I wasn't doing very much Astanga. It's nice to be back to it. I feel better when I'm doing a longer practice. I have the time to devote to it (I'm not terribly busy at the moment) and I seem to be sustaining my enthusiasm for Full Primary.

I don't know how far I'll get with this Full Primary Streak I'm on (probably not too far, since my Lady's is coming up), but I'm riding the wave. I hope I will feel inspired to continue.