Astanga

I’m feeling better today. Also, today was my ‘Astanga Lite’ day; I “just” did full Primary. I had a bit of a vacation! ;-) I took it easy in the standing poses, worked a bit harder in the seated, but overall, it was a shorter, easier practice.

I lowered the blocks for my ‘lift-ups’. Now it’s that much harder to lift my toes clear of the floor. I knew I wasn’t working hard enough! Now I’m using an ‘inner lift’ more, rather than just the strength of the arms.

In Marichyasana C, I need to remember to unsquare my hips before coming into the twist (bring the extended leg forward and the hip of the bent knee back). This directs the twist into the mid-to-upper-back, away from the sacrum and lumbar spine. I’ve been doing this, but probably not enough.

This morning, I played around with the hip alignment, exaggerating the rotation and it made world of difference in the pose; it felt more comfortable and I came deeper into it. I don’t notice as much of a difference in Marichyasana D, but again I’m probably not drawing my hip back far enough - I’ll continue to work on it.

No backbend prep today. The first Urdhva Dhanurasana was a tiny bit stiff, but the others felt fine. And I am getting stronger! The count wasn’t as long. Funny how that works! :-D