Thursday, August 20, 2009

Astanga

I practised in the morning because I had a day of teaching ahead of me. I'm continuing to work on my 'Sharath Cramming' - that's what I've heard it called on other blogs. Apparently, many people are showing up to Shalas to brush up on their Primary or Intermediate Series in anticipation of Sharath's visit.

*raises hand* Guilty as charged!

Full Primary Series today, doing everything. My problem poses are Mari D (used to bind, now I'm not even close) and Setu Bandhasana (ouch, my head). Janu Sirsasana C is actually coming along. It's not my best pose, but I can even do the forward bend, sort of.

I'm really embarrassed that I can't do proper jump-backs and jump-throughs so I've been diligently working on the 'take it up' in the vinyasas. I'm hoping that they'll magically come to me if I keep 'doing my homework'. That's how it played out with Chaturanga.

I'm open to any additional advice. I realise that it's probably not going to happen for me before Sharath gets here, but I'd like to do this eventually. And yes, I've tried using blocks. I just can't do it without the blocks. I feel stuck.

My first Urdhva Dhanurasana was so yucky that I stopped and thought it through. I realised that my hips were tight, so I did a few hip openers and voilà! It was better, not great, but better. My shoulders are still very tight, though. There's a great shoulder opener discussion going on over at Karen's blog. She recommends Erich Schiffmann's video. I found this sequence on his website, so I might start with that.

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm attending a yoga conference downtown, the same one I'm volunteering at. It was a last minute decision. The teacher enrichment sessions look good and the roundtable in the evening should be interesting. I receive a good discount on the half-day rate. I'll also be there on Sunday (attending in two sessions and volunteering for a third; long day). I'm really excited about it!

Some yoga randomness:

I found this article interesting. I do agree with the premise. I've experienced this first hand; I find it easier to maintain a healthy diet when I have a regular practice. And besides increased mindfulness in the general sense, it's tough to ignore the muffin-top when it's hanging in my face in Halasana. Just sayin'.

Some non-yoga randomness:

Hold on to your hat, Dorothy! A fantastic storm just moved through the city. Funnel clouds were spotted downtown and the sky turned this eerie yellow colour. Here's a photograph of the storm as it moved in. Within minutes of this photo, torrential rains came down with zero visibility. It was pretty scary. The dog is still hiding in the closet.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You will do just fine with Sharath...I don't think you need to "cram" for a 2 hour workshop cause how do you know even how much time he is going to be able to spend on you personally. There's liable to be 100 people in the class.
You know your stuff :) Also for flexibility, focus on no meat,more veggies and less carbs. That's what I learned in India.
Enjoy every minute :)
A Cyber-friend :)

Openingslowly said...

Ha Ha, Halasana muffin top, I was contemplating mine this morning at that very moment ;-)

karen said...

Yup, that's the Schiffmann shoulder sequence. I went and got the video because I love his voice. The sequence works the same, though -- whether you have audio or not. :-)

Kaivalya said...

@Cyberfriend
Thanks for the encouragement! :-) I hope there's a 100 people there. That would make is easy to melt into the crowd...

My diet is about 90% vegan. I experimented for a while with eating fish but I've moved back into a vegetarian diet again. When I was full-on CRON last year, my diet was very low-carb with tonnes of veggies, but it didn't make a bit of difference with my flexibility.

The biggest factor seems to be my weight - when I'm heavier, everything tightens up. But *nothing* seems to help my back bends...argh

@Openingslowly
My Halasana experiences have ranged from a mere 'muffin top' to 'jabba-the-hut'. It's definitely a motivation to lay off those Banana Pancakes! lol

@Karen
I love his voice too! It's very soothing.