Last night, I devised a sort of 'plan' for my yoga week.
Monday - Primary Series, full & 60 minutes total meditation
Tuesday - Primary Series, full & 60 minutes total meditation
Wednesday - Primary Series, half (to Navasana) & 40 minutes total meditation
Thursday - YogaDownload class of my choice (30-40 minutes) & 40 minutes total meditation
Friday - Primary Series, full & 60 minutes total meditation
Saturday - Primary Series, full & 60 minutes total meditation
Sunday - Primary Series, full & 60 minutes total meditation
If I can pull it off, it will be the first time I've done the 'six day week' since the summer.
It's much easier to do a daily 90 minute practice now that I'm not bicycling around town to my classes. I tend to shrug off the biking and not consider it 'exercise' but I *do* cover a lot of ground commuting to my classes. Some weeks, I was riding hard for almost 3 hours a day. It started taking a real toll once my full-time classes kicked in.
When I got my subway pass at the beginning of the month, I noticed my energy levels change right away. I had more energy for everything, including asana practice. I'm strong and healthy, but my body does get tired - I tend to forget this. It's great to be able to put my energy back into my yoga practice again. And I'm getting tonnes of reading done on the train. I may finally catch up with my book list!
Practice today was full Primary. I skipped Janu Sirsasana C and Setu, did everything else. I bound *and* crossed my ankles in Supta Kurmasana. Headstand was terrific. Overall, my attention was terrible, though. I'm going through a pretty intense 'monkey mind' phase. I'm seeing it in my meditation too, though not as much as in my asana practice.
*snip, snip, snip* A long rant followed that last sentence, but I thought better of it and moved the entire thing to my private blog. Some things don't need to be shared with the entire Blogiverse.
In brighter news, we had a nice 'Indian Summer' here (is that politically incorrect?) on the weekend. The high was 18C yesterday. I took the dog to the park and we sat in the sunshine, underneath a lovely golden-leafed tree. I meditated for a half-hour in the sunlight with fallen leaves as my 'zafu', then the girlfriend and I had an impromptu picnic in the afternoon light. After our walk, I took a long nap. It was the perfect day!
I'm going to hold onto that memory on this gray, gloomy Monday. By mid-week, it will be cold once again.
4 comments:
Sounds like a plan. I'm terrible for making plans like this, scetch them out at work. Not so bad now that I've settled back on the more traditional 4x Intermediate 2x primary but I still mess around decideding when to do Full Vinyasa and what to do on the rest day as well as how to work the pranayama meditation and chanting into my day. And then of course two weeks later I come up with another way of arranging it. Fun though.
Good luck with your six day weeks
grim
@Grimmly
Thanks, Grim. Yeah, what is it they say about the 'best laid plans'? :-D
Since I'm doing yoga every day this year, it's the intensity that varies. My rest day will be Hatha Yoga, which is actually really fun after 6 days of Astanga.
I didn't know what 'full vinyasa' was truly was until I read the description on your blog. I never do that, but I do vinyasa between sides always.
Wow what a wonderful plan
I tend to do Vinyasa either between sides or between poses (depends on how I am physically holding up) My teacher also told me that If I become tire it is important for the quality of the pose amd maybe only do 1/2 Primary until I can complete the entire series without compromising the pose. Meaning- she didn't want me exhausted and being extremly sloppy and possibly injuring myself. So I too have to modify where I feel it is best.
@Flo
That's wise advice! When I first started Astanga, I didn't vinyasa between sides and I modified the vinyasa as soon as my arms became tired (dropping to my knees and doing 'eight points pose' instead of Chaturanga). Strength is best build up slowly.
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