Astanga

I just returned from my third ice hockey game of the season. We won this one, 3-1 (Season tally: 2 wins, 1 loss). My body is finally adjusting to skating again after the six month break. Even better, my brain is finally connecting with my stick. It's always embarrassing when someone passes the puck to you and it flies right by, down the ice. Oops. Argh!

Last week, I even had an assist. No such luck this week, but I was holding my own on defence and I'm starting to have fun again. It was a bit shaky in the first couple of games, but I really do enjoy myself once I get into it.

Today was busy-busy. I taught one class, went to my guitar lesson and almost immediately headed to my hockey game. I was in motion from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.

I did my yoga practice first thing in the morning, after walking the dog. Even with the time crunch (and inadvertently oversleeping by an hour) I managed to pull off the full Primary Series. First time in ages and it felt great. I felt strong and powered through. I had a really great Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana and Sirsasana was fabulous.

My hamstrings are very open these days. I'm going to give full credit for this to the YogaDownload Hatha classes. Both the Gentle Hatha #1 and #2 (with teacher Jackie) have a plethora of hamstring stretches with looooong holds. My forward bends have significantly deepened. Since I did a Hatha class yesterday, I'm still feeling the effects of it today. Makes me wonder if I should do these classes more regularly.

I have Erich Schiffman for my shoulders (thanks to his shoulder sequence, I'm now regularly binding in all the Marichyasanas again - yay!), Jackie gets a nod for hamstrings. Now, I just need to find someone who can tell me how to bring some flexibility into my back.

After viewing my recent State-of-the-Backbend, I decided that there was technically nothing stopping me from doing dropbacks. Instead of doing 3 Urdhva Dhanurasanas today, I did one from the floor and did dropback preparation for the others.

I took a photo of myself doing the prep work and discovered that there is practically *no* bend at all in my back. It's a very sad state of affairs! Might need to go to a teacher for help with this one.

Advice, anyone? I'm looking for resources, tips, prep work, DVD suggestions, anything... What worked for you?