Astanga

I have to admit, it’s *really* nice to be back in a regular routine again. I woke at 5 a.m., did my light therapy and salt bath, did 10 minutes of mediation. I took Princess Fur out briefly, got her breakfast and I was on my mat by 6:30. It wasn’t painful at all.

For some reason, practice feels less overwhelming when I do it early in the morning and there’s something very soft and meditative about the pre-dawn hours. I forgot how nice that is.

I had a space cadet moment in the middle of Primary! I totally forgot about Bhujapidasana/Kurmasana/Supta K. I was already onto Baddha Konasana, wondering why it felt so easy, when I remembered and went back. Then I repeated Garba Pindasana and Baddha K again, since I love those poses anyway. Lately, I’ve been popping right up into Kukutasana from Garba. That’s such an amusement park ride of a pose! So much fun!

I worked hard today! Gone are the days when my practice felt ‘easy’. By the time I get through my Intermediate poses, I’m already feeling tired and then I still need to work on backbending!

Dropbacks and standups were better today. I’m thinking these through a bit more. For the dropbacks today, I opted for slightly wider feet (they’re off the mat again, but literally flush with the edges), and I’m trying to keep the heels from swivelling inward as I drop. I’m also maintaining the ‘hang’ for as long and deep as possible before I finally drop to the floor. This will be my work in dropbacks for the week.

I’m still dropping to the futon to stand up. This week, my focus is threefold: deep inhalations while rocking forward, getting a feel for how far forward my hips need to be to smoothly come up, and engaging the legs strongly to come to standing.

Today, I stood up three times. The first one was bad (I didn’t come up evenly), the second was better (it was just sloppy and I took a few steps forward) and the third was pretty good (smooth and controlled)!

Susan commented yesterday that my painful knee in Parsva Dhanurasana could be due to a tight IT band on the outside of the left leg. I did a Yin ‘butterfly’ as a preparation before Dhanurasana and I think it helped. I had no pain my knees during Parsva Dhanurasana until the very end (so I aligned my legs hip width apart for that last hold).

The 4 minute hold in Sirsasana was a bit too much for me this morning - I had to come down. I checked the timer and I did manage to hold for over 3.5 minutes, so that will be my goal for the week. Maybe next week I’ll be ready for the 4 minute hold.

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When I first set up the Facebook Page for the Reluctant Ashtangi, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do with it. I spend a LOT of time online and most of it is spent reading or researching. I regularly come across amazing stuff. The FB page has taken shape as a means to share the links and resources I find on the Internet and to recognise some of the amazing bloggers I read on a daily basis.

My posts from that page also appear on my Twitter stream, which also appears on my blog page, so there are multiple ways to view the links. I hope they’re useful to readers of this blog.

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I know some of you have been pining for the 70s Yoga Ladies. They miss you too! This week, Kareen is back with us to demonstrate a series of postures guaranteed to ‘increase your bust’. I know that’s a concern top of mind for all of us!

And not just the ladies...there’s some benefit for the gentlemen too! According to Kareen, this series of postures “builds the bust for ladies and expands the chest for men.” (italics are hers)

Also “firms and reduces a “layered” tummy.”

A few of the poses may look vaguely familiar if you practise the Primary Series. I know! All this time you’ve been doing Prasarita Padottansana C and I’ll bet you never realised that you were actually ‘augmenting’ your assets. Yoga Chikitsa for the win!!!

The Bust Builders:

“DO it often if you are concerned about your bustline!”

Astanga

Today was my last completely unscheduled day before the whirlwind of my fall schedule hits. Now, you might think I would spend this day productively, getting ready for the coming week...

Ha, ah! Fat chance!!!

I’ve done diddly-squat! I slept in (11 hours of sleep - I think I’m officially ‘caught up’ from my night of insomnia). I practised. I went for a walk and ate lunch. My body wants to take a nap right now, but reality is now sinking in. I have work to do and an early bedtime ahead of me.

Oh, that 5 a.m. alarm tomorrow is gonna HURT.

I had an unexpectedly good practice this morning. After a three-day break from the Intermediate Series, I was worried about those backbends. They were actually pretty good! I was tired, but rolled through them. Primary was excellent. All of my usual wrist-binds were present and accounted for. Supta K was solid.

An issue has come up in Dhanurasana. I’m currently doing the pose with my legs and heels together. That’s going pretty well, actually, given how *impossible* that felt when I first tried it. Parsva Dhanurasana is still a ‘weird’ pose for me, but I’m doing it and it feels okay.

However, as I was coming back up from the second side of Parsva D today, I felt a sudden sharp pain on the outside of my left knee. It was intense enough that I came out of the pose to check things out. The knee felt fine, so I continued and did the five breath hold in Dhanurasana to complete the sequence, but I did it with my knees and heels hip distance apart because it hurt my knee to keep them together.

I know what you’re probably thinking and I agree: If a specific alignment hurts, I should modify. Got it. But does anyone out there know what could be causing this weird knee tweak? Is it something I’m doing in correctly? This is the one pose I didn’t receive a huge amount of guidance on the last time I saw D&J. I’m feeling a bit lost.

I’m raising the bar in Laghu Vajrasana. Today, I removed the block. I tried to come as close to the floor as I could, hold for five breaths and come up. I repeated the pose three times successfully using this method. My head is *very* close to the floor now, less than 10 centimetres.

Backbending: Urdhva Dhanurasana felt fine and my dropbacks were smooth and light. I’m still modifying the distance between my feet (wider than the regulation ‘hip distance’) for the dropbacks and my toes are always turned outward by the time my hands hit the floor. I feel like I’m stuck in a bit of a rut here. If I try to bring my feet closer together, I *really* turn the toes out and almost roll onto the side of my feet as I drop back (but, amusingly, my heels stay on the floor).

Standing up: I did three dropbacks-to-standups from the futon, but standing was a bit dodgy today. Not as dodgy as last week, though.

It’s all just a process, I guess - a two-steps-forward-one-step-back sort of thing.

My three-minute Sirsasana felt easy-peasy today. It may be time to bump that up to four minutes.

I’m still meditating in the mornings too. I’ve bumped that up to 10 minutes, but I think I’m going maintain that until I adjust to my new, busier schedule.

Astanga

I woke up with the alarm this morning, made the bed, swept the floors and ran my salt bath. And then I was struck with an attack of allergies so intense I could hardly breath. I was out of medication, but I dug through the cupboard and managed to conjure up a baggie with two allergy pills. I couldn’t tell if they were the ‘day’ pills or the ‘night’ pills. I decided to gamble.

BUZZ! You’re not a winner. Thanks for playing. They were the ‘night’ pills. *sigh*

By the time I got out of my salt bath, I was almost comatose (those pills make me extremely drowsy). I stumbled to the futon and passed out cold for three and a half hours. I’m lucky I woke up in time for work! So there was no yoga practice in the morning. My Manduka mat looked sad and lonely sitting there all by itself as I rushed off to teach my classes, but it was waiting for me when I got home.

When I miss a morning practice, scheduling gets tricky. There are not many 2-hour holes in my day when I’m teaching 4 or 5 classes! Fortunately, my night classes haven’t started yet so I was able to skip lunch and practise in the afternoon, shifting my big meal of the day to the evening after I got home from my late afternoon class. It all worked out and I had a fantastic practice from 2-4 in the afternoon.

Today, my silly brain finally got the memo about Pasasana: This pose is a twist!. Who knew? ;-) I’ve been trying to bind in Pasanana without really twisting very much. No wonder it’s been such a trial!!! Today, I worked on coming into a deeper twist before going for the bind and I was able to grab my entire hand! Okay, I finally get how a wrist bind might be possible!

For fun, I also tried to do the pose with feet flat to the floor, but I fell over backward. I still need a towel under my heels.

I’ve been struggling a bit with Dhanurasana and particularly, her evil twin Parsva Dhanurasana. In Hatha yoga, we do this backbend with the knees, legs and feet hip distance apart. It’s different in Astanga, though the specifics vary from source to source.

I’ve read ‘legs together’ but also ‘feet and heels together, knees slightly apart’. At Shala North earlier in the week, I spied on my Intermediate Series neighbour. She kept her legs together in both Dhanurasana and Parsva Dhanurasana, so I’m assuming that’s how DR teaches it. The teachers at Shala Central taught it that way too, so I’m trying for that. It felt impossible at first, but I’m discovering that I *can* do it, my backbend just isn’t as deep.

Parva Dhanurasana is an silly, evil pose. Every time I roll to the side I feel like I’m crushing my pelvic heads to smithereens. Ouch! As I linger there on my side, I feel like I’ve capsized and I’m scanning the skies for rescue. But help never comes. Instead, I find myself back in Dhanurasana, wishing it was over. By that point, my knees feel tweaky.

Hate, hate, hate. There! I said it! I hate this pose. Does anybody like it? Given that I had 8 new poses to deal with, I guess it’s not so bad if I hate just one of them.

I didn’t spend as much time in Laghu as I usually do, but I tried (and succeeded!) holding the pose for four breaths with my head on the block, then came back up (with difficulty - I’m definitely pushing my edge here).

My dropbacks are getting better. Today, I managed two genuinely strong, controlled dropbacks with a long ‘hang’ before lightly coming to the floor. Today, I tried dropping back to the futon and standing back up again without pausing to ‘rock’. Exhale down, inhale back up again (with a little push). It’s a bit scary, but do-able.

And one final note: I learned the hard way that ‘cold dropbacks’ are not accessible to me. I tried dropping back for fun while teaching a youth yoga class this afternoon and ouch!!!. I came down hard on my left wrist and it was smarting for a few moments. I was furious with myself, but it was fine. However, I won’t do THAT again.