The first video is kind of long. If I remember correctly it includes:
Dropping back to wall, walking down, walking back, squishing chest to the wall.
Dropping back to the floor, walking back and pressing chest to wall
Dropping back, coming up onto fingertips
Hang back, then coming back up from hang
Dropping back coming back up by bouncing off wall
Dropping back arms outstretched
Dropping back coming up but still having to splay feet to do it.
...that kind of thing. Still need to splay my feet to come up. Decided to try and come up without splaying a couple of times and then just come up with reduced splay. Need to keep the action of coming up in my head and hips while trying to make the switch.
The back bends got so deep that I couldn't resist a couple of Kapo's. The first one was nice,
landed very close to my feet and managed to walk up and grab my ankles again. The second one however, the one below, I managed to grab my feet for the first time from the air. Admittedly, it's only my toes but it's a start.
Had a bit of a shock this morning, the usual stripy long pants I use have been in the wash this week. I fished out these that I hadn't worn for a while but thought would do the job. Wore them a couple of times this week but it only struck me this morning, these had got pretty snug on me. In fact, I seem to remember using them when I first started practicing Ashtanga three years ago.
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22 comments:
Woo hoo! Congrats on the toe grab! I'm jealous. And congrats on the drop in pant size. It's always nice to find an old pair of clothes and discover that they're too big to wear. :)
Thanks Arkie, but I think it was about four pant sizes. I was not that healthy : )
Found myself cheering when you grabbed the toes!, you go!!! :-)
Ah, the Liz technique. Yep, that Liz is full of helpful tips...
Thanks Claudia, toes, they're a start.
Thanks for the reminder Susan, forgot the arm back before the head bit came from Liz, have just added a sentence, must reread her post
Your chest tounching the wall!! Envy envy! The finger tips looks hard to do, will try it soon.
not as envious as i am of your coming up without splaying your toes out nappper, inspiring though to know that it's a habit that can be changed
Feet from the air any place is a BIG deal!!!
Was excited. I think it came from something Liz was saying about taking the arms back before the head, I think I try to do that here but am in two minds about it and only half do it, should work that some more. Looks like it might have made a difference, though it might have been all those deep backbend exercises just before Kapo.
I guess it's hard to say what helped. Might've been a combination of the prep and arms, but also you've been working hard consistently lately.
I'm keeping my approach Venki. I went to change one thing in the first wall drop yesterday and he was all, "Hey!!!"
Anyway... I still can't get my feet from the air, but my hip flexors are opening a bit, more so than my shoulders! I'm taking a break from filming myself because I need to detach myself a bit from my own obsessive tendencies. I get too self critical! I want to try to stay in the process more for a little bit and be more Arjuna about the physical results.
And you know my knee thing is STILL there. It's easy to think it's gone or pretend it's not there now, cause I'm not doing Astanga. But when I test it out? Still there...
I hear what your saying re the filming and the obsessive tendencies. I was getting a bit obsessive about the backbends last week, lots of filming lots of analyzing followed by lots of planning. Throughout practice I was looking ahead to the back bending section, all a bit disruptive. Was Ok because I'm off work and have the time for some good pranayama/meditation in the evening but it wasn't how I'd intended to spend the fortnight.
Been fun though and i've made some progress, can just put it on the back burner now and let it all settle in.
Best thing though is that it puts things in perspective, you start to obsess about these things and yet every time you nail something, after the initial delight, it's like, so what, the object of the focus dissolves, very Patanjali. That stuff is fun, and overcoming challenges is always good but really, it's a little absurd too. Perhaps that's the point.
A nice thing about Vinyasa Krama is that the big poses get downplayed. They're still there of course but you have all these slight variations around a simple pose, such that the simple poses gain dominance. Because it is such a simple pose all there is to focus on is the breath and with each variation the breath becomes more and more dominant. It's nice when the big pose comes up but by then your so mellowed out and the big pose is just another variation built on all the other variations.
I think it suits me better, downplays some of my other tendencies.
Something that comes through from your writing about Venki. Whether your relating something about backbending, pranayama or meditation, it all has the same air about it. A mental discipline, focus, can't put my finger on it. Do you know what I mean? It's like he's working on your mind as much as your body in asana.
But that's just how it comes over to me from here, perhaps I'm completely off the mark.
Toes from the air!! That's flipping awesome...I'm jealous. What was Liz's technique? I had a look for it here in comments and I will check at her place too...do you take arms back over head right at the beginning or just as you start to go back?
I tried to check back after Susan mentioned it but couldn't get to her page. If I remember it was something about taking your arms/hands back and over and bringing your back last, something like that. Remember wanting to try it out. Looking at the video again I don't seem to be doing that so perhaps Susan is referring to something else. Anyway think she wrote about it within the last week or so. I need to give it a proper try. To be honest I think it's more a case of getting the hips forward and becoming more comfortable with the hang back, all the while pushing the hips a little further forward and up.
Intersestingly, what you see on these two videos was pretty much the whole evening practice except for a couple of Sury's, one or two more dropbacks, one more deep ankle grabbing Kapo and finishing with some arm/leg raises and a long Paschimottanasana. No other warm up poses.
You are TOTALLY on the mark about Venki, Grim. He'd told me I needed to learn his morning sequence, not for asana but for mind control. The back bending is meditative anyway, especially the way he teaches. It's magic. And then the morning poses are very, very simple but broken down & held - similar to you working from your book maybe, it takes the ego out.
He was joking about the best way of getting a Manduka back in the bag, but in some ways I don't think he was kidding when he told me this morning, "Stay with me and I will teach you everything."
And today he gave me some comments about what I'd call "stages of ego" in regards to poses, attachment, excitement and then: getting beyond the excitement of ego, equanimity.
I think he knows I am familiar with all these concepts, but he reminds me at every point. I LOVE this teacher! He is the real deal.
As much as I'd like to go back to Goa, smoke hash every morning and blow out the engines doing balls out vinyasa, I know I'll learn more if I come back here next winter.
That should read, bringing your head back last.
Hahahahaha Ashtanga forms the body. I thought lately: Grimmly became thinner......:)
You keep up a wonderful practice, I love it.
So glad you've clicked with him Boodie, in fact with each other, next year sounds like it'll be quite something. Love that it sounded like he was going to give you homework, things to work on after you leave.
Think I've been the same weight/size for a year and a half or so Ursula, it's all done with mirrors.
Whee! Great blog and great backbends! (Just followed you over here after I saw a bunch of referrals from this page, and thanks for the lovely shout-out, by the way!) Half of this Ashtanga Vinyasa lingo is Greek to me, but the videos are great, cause I know a backbend when I see one! :) Of course, now I'm just wishing I could come and show you how I learned to get into "kapo", or "full camel" as we'd say in Bikram. LIttle bit different technique, same exact pose.
The "dropbacks" as you call them are one of my least favorite things - it's not the dropping back I mind so much as the getting UP - but I'm getting better at them! As far as I'm concerned, the real trick is to just stand up without even thinking about it. Total mind fuck. :) I live in Cali, so I like to go and practice them on the beach. The sand makes me braver.
(By the way neither of those are in the beginner's Bikram series, but they're both in the advanced, which is why I know and love 'em!)
Thanks J (dancing type of) I should be careful of the 'lingo', was Ok when I was mainly Ashtanga and it was mostly ashtangi's coming here, noticed a lot of non ashtangi's visiting now I'm doing Vinyasakrama so i should include the non sanskrit where possible. i remember it used to bug me in the beginning when i had no idea what everyone was talking about. And we make it worse by having little endearments for some of the really tricky ones we go on about a lot.
Will keep an eye on your place in the hope that you'll show me the bikram approach to Kapo, (full camel).
Coming to LA for a course in the summer, will be near Venice beach, always wanted to try backbends on sand, space is too small here to practice falling out of handstands/headstands etc so can give that a go.
Oh goody, LA. It's not quite my neighborhood, but close enough. Look me up this summer and I'll come show you my tips and tricks on the beach! ;)
You bring the tricks J, I'll bring the sand.
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