Didn't feel like practicing this morning, but having watched the movie 300 last night, I didn't want to let King Leonides down and forced myself on to my own Thermopylae. Hey, whatever gets you on the mat, right. As usual when I don't feel like practicing but do, it turned out to be a quite joyous practice. 10 minutes pranayama, a straight forward 2nd with no extra bits, 10 minute headstand, ten of pranayama and and ten more of pratyahara.
It was hot too, Thermopylae indeed, (hot gates), sweated a kilo and a half.
Intermediate yesterday too but with VK extras and some experimentation
Dropbacks.
I tried keeping my feet a little closer together and turning them slightly in, not really working for me, will keep at it though. However, dropping back a little closer to my feet is helping me come up more smoothly. Smoother dropback too as I'm starting to get the balance right between stretching back and pushing my pelvis ever further forward.
Kapo, heels from air.
I'm getting a deeper Kapo landing and walking in, managed to get my hands comfortably on my ankles yesterday but I do like the dropping straight back to the heels. The stretching the arms out before I fold my hands behind my head seems to be giving me the opportunity to push my hips forward a little and land on my heels rather than half way up my feet.
Ganda B
Got this tip from yogamatfire about bringing the heels out and down.
'As you start to bring your feet over instead of bring them down, bring the heels as far as you can *out* and away from your pelvis. Keep bringing the heels out, out out ..... and then down'
He also suggested I start further from the wall but I still seem to need it as a security blanket. Didn't get any closer to my head this time but it felt different and seems worth exploring for a couple of weeks.
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11 comments:
Hi, I was always taught to do dropbacks with the feet pointed inwards to open up the lower back more. What is the understanding of why you have your feet facing out?
hi Anon. It's just what came natural too me. Seems to work OK. I tried to straighten them but it doesn't seem to work as well. Not too bothered about it but would like to minimize it a little especially when I'm coming up.
I have the same habit, but it is actually wrong, beacuse we are overloading the inner knee ligament. It is supposed to be parallel, maximum hip distance. You are very meticulous with your backbends, so you will get there sooner than me. Lessening the distance between the feet is better than turning them inwards. Both will open the hips more but inward rotation is actually also a bad habit although more rare than outward.
Sorry gauranga das I have to disagree, I've been told by a couple of senior ashtangis that inwardly rotating your feet (only slightly I'm talking) helps open up and release any lower pressure on the back. Try it and see what works for you :)
Hare Krsna!
Thanks for the advice. I think I'll settle for not having them turned our so much, especially when coming up and yes a little closer together. Quite happy with how the whole thing is feeling at the moment so want to consolidate that and then just gradually losing a the splayed feet little by little.
Hi Grim., I was looking longingly at your practice schedule, posted there on the right margin. Sometimes I envy you the variety, but other times, I thank my lucky stars that I'm locked into a much less varied routine because it facilites the state of moving meditation (I do all of primary & attempt pasasana everyday bar the rest day & moon days).
Out of interest, did you teach yourself all of Intermediate, and if so, did it take you long? Did you split in accordance with the way it's taught at AYRI (used to be Pincha, but this year it's at Eka Pada)? Or, did you do it differently?
It's basically just Primary and Intermediate Steve.the VK variations are just the odd couple of postures from vinyasa krama perhaps to open me up more for leg behind head poses or backbends or perhaps a little extension of something some more spread legged seated variations. The Vinyasa krama Sequence day is because the course is coming up and to continue improving familiarity with the variations, options and possibilities.
re intermediate. I pretty much just did it, went through the whole sequence using Swenson's DVD and his book for variations on the more challenging asanas. It was heavy going so I then started adding chunks to Primary. I'd practice up to kapo and then later split at navasana and do up to Pincha. after that I started doing mostly intermediate but I missed Primary so started to alternate. I did a similar thing with 3rd but later decided I wasn't so interested in all the arm balances (less challenging for guys) so settled for alternating Primary and Intermediate and slipping in some of the 3rd asanas to those.
In retrospect I can see the value of adding new poses one at a time and then splitting. Jumping in as i did I lost the rhythm of my practice and it took a long time to get it back. I can see the point too of doing intermediate four or five days a week for a year or two, after that though I think it's nice to go back to alternating.
Thanks! My personal dilemma is that I can't quite clasp in pasasana, so I've been strict on myself and not gone any further into second. I cut corners, and in some cases, got moved on too early when learning primary ages ago, and lived to regret it for a number of reasons. But, Pasasana's been where I'm stuck for more than a year now and although it is definitely getting better, I do get phases of wanting to say, stuff it, and moving on. A test of patience I guess!
Hey Steve, re pasasana Globie is working on that on his blog 'The Journey of my practice' (it's in my list) He was just given it by Kino so is writing a lot about it.
I don't know, not one of the poses I'd personally consider holding myself at (bound to get some stick for that comment). I've heard of people not being able to do that pose for years. I can see the argument for pausing at Laghu vajrasana say as well as some other asana but pasasana, like mari D seems like one of the ones you just keep plugging away at while you struggle with the gatekeeper asanas. Just my personal feeling though.
I did it with heels on a towel for a while and then holding both ends of my bandana, working my hands ever closer, I think I have the ankles for it though, was so happy when I could bind while sweaty. I have a video of that, 12 November 2009, don't know if you'll be able to see anything in that you haven't tried already.
Thanks! I get a lot the fundamentals from Matthew Sweeney's pre-amble in 'Astanga Yoga As It Is'. If there was ever a basic handbook, that would suffice.
According to him, key postures in Primary are Marichi D, Supta Kurmasana, Garba Pindasana & Baddha Konasana. For Intermediate it's Pasasana (aaaargh!), binding the hands; not so much heels down though, Kapotasana, Dwi Pada & Karandavasana.
I reckon the process, in my case, is that I'm progressing slowly as I no longer get the regular adjustments that I used to get in London, so your tip on grabbing a hand towel (I don't have a bandana) might really help me. I'm on it.
I'm glad I re-read your response though. I was about to try grabbing a 'banana' !! ;o)
He has Pasana as a key posture, I'd forgotten that. Probably best going with the towel rather than the banana, although a young green banana might work under the heels, perhaps not.
Just a thought but what about trying Pasasana after your marichi D and before Navasana, Kind of using the marichi's as prep poses.
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