Astanga

It wasn't difficult to get up for practice this morning since the Shala opened late, at 9. But getting through it was a challenge. I was SO creaky and stiff. Just two days off and I could feel the accumulation of Lazy in my body!

My gimpy hamstring was feeling it the most. I didn't lose too much flexibility, but I definitely felt the injury more. The gimpy shoulder is still tender, even after a couple of days rest. I modified vinyasas today.

The wrist bind on the first side of Mari D disappeared again. I even came out of the pose and tried again, but it wasn't going to happen so I accepted the finger bind and moved on.

The teachers are still away, so I played around a bit in Supta K. I sat up after Kurmasana and brought my left leg behind my head, then lowered down and brought the right leg back, hooked the ankle over. Then I did bound the fingers.

It worked pretty well! In past attempts, I haven't been able to get the fingers if I hooked the ankles first, so that's an improvement. It was definitely deeper, but I wasn't able to keep the ankles behind my head when I lifted up for the exit.

I spent some quality time with backbends since I had the time and no one was watching :-D. I did three creaky Urdhva Dhanurasana and then I did a second set of three, focusing on walking my hands in, trying to go deeper each time. It felt really deep to me, but I have a feeling it wasn't that great.

I did four more backbends to practice rocking, but I wasn't very happy with them. The third one was the best. I was able to lift onto my tippy fingers, but I wasn't finding that elusive lift of the chest.

I think my upper back is a bit stiff. I was feeling it when I did my supplemental backbending at home afterward. I had to repeat Ustrasana multiple times to find a pose I could hold for any length of time.

I did a bunch of hangbacks. I was noticing that I seem to 'pop up' when I straighten my legs. I tried it a bunch of times: hung way back, then straightened my legs as I lifted back up. Pop! A few times, I generated so much momentum, I actually tumbled forward onto the futon.

I'm going to keep playing around with this idea.

Dropbacks are slowly improving. I'm inching the feet closer together, suppressing the urge to angle my feet out and trying to keep the legs straighter in the first part of the 'hang'. I did five dropbacks today. I tried rocking in the last two, but I was going nowhere with it, so I gave up.

Teachers are back tomorrow and it's a 'six day' practice week. Healthwise, I'm feeling so much better! I'm hoping for some great practices in the coming days.

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