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

Astanga

Wow, that felt *great*

Full Primary today, practising with the Power Yoga DVD. Yes, I'm back to Beryl. In fact, I'm thinking of declaring a 'Weekend of Beryl' and doing the DVD every morning, maybe until Monday. Bonus points if I can stretch it until Tuesday (I'll never last till Wednesday though, not with teaching four classes a day...)

I love that DVD. It's like a warm blanket of Asana on a cold morning.

Today, during Utpluthee, (which Beryl calls Tolasana...David Swenson calls it that too, come to think of it...I wonder why?) I was cheerfully holding for a very quick and easy 10 counts and I remembered when I first started practising with this DVD, I couldn't even last one count (I think my exact thoughts were: “Fat chance!”)

Well, Sharath's CD cured me of that. Now? Beryl's the easy one! 10 happy counts! I was actually enjoying myself.

Measuring progress in poses is fun! (and motivating)

Speaking of which:
- I'm binding easily to wrist in Marichyasana C
- I'm binding to mid-hand in Marichyasana D (it's only a matter of time now). The knees are almost on the floor too!
- I'm crossing the ankle myself in Supta Kurmasana. Teacher P helped me the last time I visited Shala Central and I've been chipping away at this every time I practise. Today is the first time I did it easily on my own!

The rest of my day will be easy. I teach just one class and then I'm spending the afternoon/evening working at the soup kitchen.

And, since it's a cool and misty day, maybe doing some of this: