Astanga

I had a terrible practice today. I felt heavy and gummy and tired. Supta Konasana (Reclining Angle) is my canary-in-a-coal-mine pose. If Supta Konasana feels yucky, I know that my body is in a bad state. When it feels great, I'm in bliss.

Today was one of those non-bliss days and I felt achy in shoulderstand too.

I couldn't bind in Supta Kurmasana and don't even get me started on Marichyasana C. Ug.

But I had a fantastic headstand. I felt rock solid and confident and loved every minute of the hold.

I'm struggling with my new eQua towel. I really had to spritz the hell out of it to get any kind of traction for standing today. I'm thinking that I may need to return to a bare Manduka for standing and set up the towel for my seated poses (before Dandasana). This is what I was doing before. Unless I'm *very* sweaty, I slide around too much.

I didn't have high hopes for my backbend today, but figured that I'd better take my State-of-the-Backbend photo since it didn't happen on the weekend.

I was pleasantly surprised. It felt like a terrible backbend, but it was actually better than I imagined it would be. I was really feeling the 'front stretch' today. And I was feeling the stretch in my shoulders.


Here's the side-by-side comparison with my last backbend from June 26th: