Garbha Pindasana in Winter

I was asked about Garbha Pindasana recently in relation to which Primary series DVD I recommended for the home Ashtangi who'd been practicing awhile. I went for Kino's ( I tend to recommend the Mark Darby DVD for the complete beginner. Good Primary series DVD reviews HERE btw, especially in the comment section). I remembered she, Kino, had some extras for beginners, as it happens, she doesn't cover Garbha P in the beginner section but I did notice something interesting.

I've always had trouble steering in Garbaha P, fine if I keep my hands on my knees ( early video here ) or at a push keep one hand on my head and the other on my forearm, like a joystick, but both hands on my forehead and I invariable end up falling off to the side. On Kino's DVD, however, I noticed she doesn't have her hands fixed on her forehead but keeps them about an inch in frount. I suspect that little bit of space helps with steering. I tried it this morning and managed to steer pretty much OK although my equa towel was bone dry ( not sweating much in winter) so I couldn't get much purchase, noticed in the video that my fingers are actually touching my forehead, lightly.

Winter is a... bind for Garbha Pindasana. If your struggling with it in Summer then winter is your worst nightmare. I don't know how anyone manages it with trousers/tights/leggings/capri pants or whatever, I need skin. I tend to up the tempo through the Marichi's, full on Kino jump throughs to try to get a sweat up and if I don't manage it then out comes the water bottle (had to go and find it last week for winter practice). I go crazy with it, spraying inside of my legs, outside, feet, arms, shoulders even .

Getting the arms through, ( I have a post on that here) I try to create as much space as possible and just keep working them through ever deeper. I noticed Kino pulls up on her arm as if she's making an inappropriate gesture ( I do it on the video below), it helps, it all helps. Spray the mat/towel to help you get some purchase, I didn't here, not much of a roll the first few times so I had to compensate in the latter ones. Spraying the arms heavily helps when rolling up to Kukktasana too and especially when lowering back down. Spray the towel where your hands are going to go to or your lotus jump back will be as lame as mine here, almost buried my face in the mat. Hell, spray everything, set up a sprinkler system in your home shala for the winter.