Hatha

My brain enjoys having a day off, but I'm not sure my body does.

All day, I was spontaneously stretching my shoulders and hips. Finally, I just unrolled the mat and enjoyed a good half-hour hip-and-shoulder-stretching session. It felt soooo good.

And then I ate a vegan mini-cake!




I love Saturdays! :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Astanga

I feel like a python. During the workshop last weekend, I devoured a huge amount of information and now it's just sitting there while I slowly start to digest. Digesting could take weeks. Or months.

Over the first couple days of practice this week, I started to build a clearer mental picture of what I had learned. I thought to myself: 'Okay, I kind of have a handle on this.'

But I really didn't and I don't. I will...eventually. I know for certain that a month from now, I'll still be having these awesome lightbulb moments when something D told me a million times during the workshop suddenly comes into sharp focus. "Oh. THAT'S what he was trying to get me to do!"

Case in point: Bhujapidasana.

Pre-workshop, I shot a nice little video of Bhujapidasana. This was back in my 'glory days' of Bhuja. This month, I had finally come to peace with the pose and could pull it off with grace and confidence.

Now? I'm back to struggling. Over the weekend, D got me started trying to jump into it. This hasn't been going very well, but every morning I try at least three times before coming into the pose my old way and moving on.

It took a day or two, but I finally figured out that if I shoot my feet forward with the intention of plopping them on the floor, I'm not going to get anywhere. I need to keep faith that I will actually land on my arms. I literally need to 'pretend' that's possible.

So I try and most of the time, I land on my bum. And that's if I'm lucky! When I actually *do* land on my arms, it HURTS. I have a big bruise on my left tricep from one of my hopeful crash landings.

I need to keep my chin up - literally, as well as figuratively. When he was helping me learn this, D held his hand in front of me to provide a Driste, then offered feedback on what my head was doing as I jumped forward: "No, it dropped a bit. Dropped a bit again. You did it again..."

*sigh*

It feels impossible. But today, on the third repetition, I finally jumped roughly onto my arms. And stayed there. To celebrate, I lowered to the floor and completed the pose. It was not the 'prettiest' Bhujapidasana in the history of the pose at least I did it.

Just don't get me started on the exit. *sadtrombone*

Yin Yoga

Last night, I was trying to justify an Epsom salt bath even though it was 9 o’clock at night and I had done my practice hours before. Besides, I wasn’t really *sore*.

Or was I?

I experimentally starting moving my arms around. Actually, my triceps were sore and I had a bit of soreness in my abs. Then I moved my legs one at a time and discovered that my hamstrings were a bit tender and my quads definitely sore. And OwMyHipFlexors. And so on... I was sore almost everywhere.

Apparently, my entire body is in such a state of constant ache from my practice that I don’t even notice it anymore unless it’s particularly dire. I think this is absolutely hilarious! So much for developing mindfulness!

(And, yes, I got my salt bath)

My hip flexors have definitely been an issue this week. Actually, they’ve been achy since I started Intermediate. My body-gremlin, Nitara, is happily settled into my left psoas too. I’ve taken to doing some Yin Yoga in the evening - hip openers specifically - to keep my hips from cramping up. It’s been really helpful. I’m starting to warm up to the Yin Yoga.

Yin Yoga was my practice this afternoon, for the Moon Day. Just a half-hour of hip openers on the floor to keep the Prana moving. A little bit of gentle backbending too...that’s all. No, really!

Okay, okay, I ‘fess up! I did Laghu Vajrasana a few times. It’s amazing how much easier Laghu is (and how much stronger I am) when I haven’t done an *entire* practice prior to working on it. I think I’m very close to the full pose (with a hold!) now and I just need to push myself a little bit harder in the context of my regular practice. That was a good discovery!

I did miss doing my practice this morning, but I have to admit, it was great sleeping in and lazing around too. Moon Days are such a treat!

I’m looking forward to Primary tomorrow.

Vinyasa

Best Saturday ever! I slept in and spent the morning in my jammies, reading in bed for two hours while sipping chai and cuddling with Princess Fur (who couldn’t believe her good luck. UP! On the bed! And attention! Yay!).

Before teaching my Saturday class, I did a low-stress, just-for-fun yoga practice at the private gym I work at. This venue has mirrors. I wouldn’t want to practice with them on a daily basis, but they’re nice for an alignment check every once in awhile.

It’s weird to see myself in the mirror. I don’t tend to spend time a lot of time looking at myself, so it’s always a shock. I’ve aged!!! And I look far different from how I perceive myself. Odd.

I warmed up with some Suryas and the fundamental poses, plus Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. Then I moved into a series of hip openers (mostly lunges), quad stretches (a long, luxurious hold in Virasana) and hamstring stretches.

I spent a lot of time in variations of Eka Pada Raj Kapotanasana, trying to balance the stretch between my quadraceps and iliopsoas group.

Laghu Vajrasana was next. I used a sloped bench as the ‘stopping point’ for my head and came up and down about ten times, experimenting with the positioning of my head and shoulders and focusing on coming up with a strong inhalation, something I tend to fail at a LOT. I’m starting to feel more comfortable coming up.

My big Light Bulb Moment of day was head position coming up in Laghu. I’ve been leading with my head instead of my chest, which was making the pose awkward and impossible. The head needs to come up last. Duh. I knew that. Sort of. Well, now I do! And yes, I know that needs to happen when I’m standing from a backbend too. All of these puzzle pieces are gradually coming together...

Then I moved into backbends. I did just one Urdhva Dhanurasana from the floor, walked my hands in and held it, then moved over to the wall for hangbacks. I did several, trying to drop my hands as far down the wall as possible so I could practice coming back up again. Then I did three dropbacks to the floor.

The third one was the charm: my hands lightly plopped to the floor. It was SO awesome. I stopped there so I could end on a ‘high note.’ I’m finding that the more I can move my hips forward as I reached my arms back, the lighter my dropbacks become. When I can find that ‘hang’, the magic happens!

My feet were mat’s width distance today, which I think is the right distance for me. My biggest challenge these days is keeping my toes from pointing out as I drop.

Question for my reading-audience: How far apart are your feet when you’re dropping back? Is a slightly wider stance allowable?

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I’ve become slightly obsessed with my hip flexors lately. Over the past few days, I’ve started taking little ‘lunge breaks’ throughout the day to stretch everything out. I’m feeling huge movement in this area of my body. I’m a bit sore, actually, but in a good way.

These opportunities for Quality Time With My Psoas seem to pop up everywhere. Here are a few of my favourites:

-Waiting for the elevator

-While riding in the elevator

-In the Dog Park (Princess Fur sniffs, I stretch; we’re a good team!)

-Before teaching a class

-Waiting for water to boil in the kitchen

-After a bike ride

-In the line-up at the library (didn’t even raise an eyebrow; they get too many crazy people in there)

At home, I’ve added ‘hangback breaks’ as well. This is particularly convenient while I’m in the kitchen. Hang back, go stir the vegetables. Hang back again, go check on the rice. Hangback, go prepare the tea.

Whenever I’m sitting for an extended time period, I make a point to stretch after I get up. Since I’ve been doing a lot of sitting around this weekend (reading), there have been many, many opportunities to counteract The Lazy with some light stretching. It feels good!

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Here’s this week’s State-of-the-Backbend.

Slightly less deep than the week previous, but I’m bringing more weight into the feet in this rendition, so it’s toss-up. Given how exhausted I was that day, it’s a pretty good showing. Hopefully, next week will show more opening in the hips?

I wish I had thought to bring my camera with me today. I would be interested to see what my backbend looked like after the hip openers I was doing. Maybe next week...

Hatha

I decided to start the week off right with an overabundance of sleep. I slept in until 8 (late for me!) and then scrambled around trying to get my morning stuff completed before I left for my noon class.

I didn't do my practice until the afternoon. My left hip has been really bothering me lately - not an injury really. It's more like a constant cramping sensation, the kind you get if you've been sitting in one place for too long. Except, I can feel it when I'm walking around and it's *yucky*.

Argh.

So I did a Hatha practice of hip openers and spent a lot of time in Eka Pada Raj Kapotanasana (Pigeon Pose) today. My hip felt better afterward, but now it feels crampy again. Might be Astanga growing pains...?

I'm going to take my crampy hip to ice hockey tonight and see if that snaps it out of its funk! A few body checks will do it some good (just *kidding* - my league is non-contact, or it's *supposed* to be!).

Today was busy, busy, busy again. I spent the afternoon catching up on all the stuff I wasn't able to get to over the weekend, because I was busy.

It's a shame because it was such a pleasant, quasi-snowy, drowsy day. I would have loved to just sit by the window and read a good book. Maybe tomorrow?

Vinyasa

It's an Astanga 'Moon Day' today, new moon, and according to the tradition, a non-practice day. I don't always pay attention to the Moon Days, but today, I was feeling heavy and lethargic, so I happily surrendered to another option: short vinyasa practice.

I did Lisa's Hip Opening Flow #2, 30 minutes. This class is not as heavily 'branded' with YogaDownload terminology and poses - it must be an 'early' one. Interesting, there was a definite 'Anusara' flavour to the class too, which surprised me. I didn't know Lisa had a background in Anusara. I certainly don't notice it in her later classes.

Nice class, though not my favourite. For a class targeting hips, it wasn't very hip. (Ha, ha? Okay, bad joke. *hangs head*) Maybe the longer versions include more and better hip openers. Seriously, adding a Pigeon pose doesn't cut it - there are so many other hip openers. I was hoping to learn something new.

Today was guitar lesson day. I trudged to my lesson with my tail between my legs because I was feeling like I had made absolutely *no* progress since my last lesson. In fact, I felt quite stuck. Guitar Teacher got me unstuck, which is a relief! It will be easier to practise now. I won't feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

I've been teaching her hand mudras. Last lesson, I showed her Vishnu Mudra and she's keen to learn others. This is a good excuse to bone up on my Mudras!

Tomorrow: Half-Primary *and* my H1N1 shot. I'm finally in a 'priority group' that qualifies, so I'm wasting no time.

Vinyasa

Oh no. I'm going through one of my sick-of-Astanga phases, I'm afraid. I couldn't coax myself into the Primary Series this morning so I treated myself to a led vinyasa class.

I loved the 30 minute version of Hip Opening Flow #4, but the 40 minute version was even better. It's my all-time favourite, hands down. I loved the Supta Garudasana at the end too. I'm going to add that to my classes next week!

I was so calm and happy afterward, I did my meditation before getting up to make lunch. Today is a holiday here - no classes for me, but ice hockey stops for nothing so I'll be playing a game tonight. I'm meeting the girlfriend at the sushi place for a Thanksgiving maki feast later on this afternoon.

My plans for the afternoon include hunkering down with a good book and doing some knitting.

I'm thankful for hip openers and guilt-free hibernation followed by Japanese food and high-aggression ice sports! Hurrah!

Day 329

Another good practice today! I'm teaching hip openers in my classes this week, so I had the opportunity to practice Eka Pada Raj Kapotanasana (Pigeon Pose) over and over again as I demonstrated it in class. Not an Ashtanga pose, but it is a powerful hip opener and for some reason, I'm feeling it in a big way in my right hip. It feels good, like something is being released.

I'm still feeling strong and energetic. At the beginning of the week, I was hopeful that I could put in five days of practice this week. Alas, my lady's holiday is coming up any day now, so I'll save that hope for another week (maybe next?)

What I would really like to do is get back into a routine of a six day practice. I think I should do this before I start easing back into full primary. The goal is to gradually build back up to full primary six days a week, which is what I was doing before I got sick.