I've added a link in the top left hand corner of the blog where I'll add updates over the next three months.
UPDATE ; Day 9 (Evening practice) TOUCHDOWN!
Most likely as a result of being a little more warmed up, more prep and having the time to have three goes at this tonight meant I was able to lower all the way to the mat this evening.
If I'm honest it's probably Samakonasana leaning towards upavishta konasana, a side view would no doubt show that my backside isn't in line with my feet (bit behind) but I'll take this for now, it's somewhere to work from and feels good. On the third go I lowered and was able to do some Vinyasa Kramaa hand/arm vinyasas and try a little pranayama and bandha work, feel that once I get used to it it will be relatively comfortable for a long stay.
Here's the picture just as I touch the mat and the video below that. the rest of the post is from this morning.
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| Touchdown 24/11/11 |
Here's the prep from a comment I left on a Samakonasana blog post yesterday.
Prep for me is some standing triangle postures, utthita trikonasana’s utthita parrsva konasana’s then the parasarita padottanasana’s. Down to the mat for upavishta konasana, some vinyasa Krama hand/arm variations, to the side etc. in that. Next, badha konasana then a long paschimottanasana, back up to parasarita padottanasana and then start lowering into samakonasana as far as I can go. Stay there for a few breaths then rotate to the side for hanumanasana, back to samakonasana hopefully a little deeper, rotate to the other side for hanumanasana and then back to samakonasana.
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Morning
I was just going to leave this post ticking away in the top corner but I think it finally sunk in this morning that this is going to be doable. Up until now I couldn't work out how or where the 'opening' was going to come, couldn't see the tendons (which i thought were what was holding me back) stretching enough, in this life time, to lower all the way to the ground.
But people do it so there must be a work around. It seems to be in in turning the knees up and kind of tilting the hip up, rotating the femurs ( on a femur trip at the moment can you tell)....
Anyway, still not sure what I'm doing exactly but stuff is happening, trying not to overdo it it with the growing excitement of getting closer, forcing myself to back off and let it happen over time, probably more like a month than three though.
Interestingly I'm already noticing a knock on factor in utthita haste padangusthasana. 2nd series tonight so see what it's doing to my leg behind head in there and planning on practicing a rare 3rd (for me recently) at the weekend just to see if it has an effect on vasisthasana and viswamitrasana.
Here's this mornings picture and video.
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| 24/11/11 (Day 9) |
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| 22/11/1 (Day 7) |
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| 20/11/11 |
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| 16/11/11 (First day) |
Having fun with it though, exploring some different prep postures, focusing on the breath, bandhas etc. Still feels a little silly and it's making me question what is and isn't asana but that's never a bad thing.
Here's the one from August 2010 when i had to film it for the triangle sequence.
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| 21/08/11 |
Posts
9 comments:
it's a nice challenge, and your split is already very good.
I think you mentioned previously that you where not finding so many preparation postures (except baddha konasana)
don't you think that either kurmasana or upavista konasana (from ashtanga) could be good preparatory postures?
(I'm asking this because I practice mainly ashtanga, but your challenge do appear very interesting to me :)
Thanks for posting your progress anyway: the improvement delay is impressive and can give confidence to others
Hi Louis
Thanks for the suggestion, i actually posted my prep on another blog yesterday here it is
'Prep for me is some standing triangle postures, utthita trikonasana’s utthita parrsva konasana’s then the parasarita padottanasana’s. Down to the mat for upavishta konasana, some vinyasa Krama hand/arm variations, to the side etc. in that. Next, badha konasana then a long paschimottanasana, back up to parasarita padottanasana and then start lowering into samakonasana as far as I can go. Stay there for a few breaths then rotate to the side for hanumanasana, back to samakonasana hopefully a little deeper, rotate to the other side for hanumanasana and then back to samakonasana'.
i don't really find the parasarita's enough for me while I'm working on it so have turned it into a VK routine. In fact in vinyasa Krama samakonasana comes up once after the Parasarita's in Triangle and then again after upavishta konasana in the seated sequence
Thx for your answer
so the ashtanga first serie is globally a good prep for the samakonasana
I think it can be good prep but I don't know if just practicing parasarita and upavashita konasana as in your regular practice is enough. If you think about kapotasana in 2nd there are several backbend that can act as prep postures and lead up to it but even then you tend to have to have three or more good attempts at kapo and then keep at it for several months. Samakonasana strikes me as similar to Kapo in that it needs some serious engagement. I've managed to get into a fair semblance of it quite quickly but for the last six months or so I've been focussed on my badha konasana and have it pretty wide open with my knees to the mat, think that has helped make it happen more quickly than i expected.
Aren't the two splits two different things though? The feet flat and parallel can only be pushed so far - I'm thinking rollerskating limbo style, but the other way with the feet pointing up is a whole different movement in the hips. If you think about it, assuming the hips are flexible enough, there's no need to go down into this, as you can simply sit on the floor and gradually open the legs away from each other until you reach the 180 degree point - less likely to result in injuries I'd have thought.
I too have been working on Samakonasana too, but outside of my Ashtanga practice (in Tae Kwon Do). Be very patient, it may take more than three months to get the legs all the way out to 180 degrees. You are already flexible, so you have a head start.
I do the Tim Miller routine (prasarita, then samakonasana, then hanumanasana) once a week with my Ashtanga practice. I find that it often is very intense, sometimes hurts, and that the hips are not quite open enough at that stage.
The best prep exercises for me after Baddha Konasana have been [1] deep lunges (start with regular lunge, then work to getting your chest to the floor) [2] half side splits (work to get the foot of the supporting bent leg flat on the floor, then parallel to the extended leg) [3] "extended" upavishta konasana (get chest flat on the floor, then open your legs towards 180 degrees, roll your thighs so that the insides of the feet are flat on the floor). I'm not sure that any of these poses have a real name in yoga.
After those exercises, your samakonasana and hanunamanasana will be much easier.
I think they are different Anon, the idea is to go as far as you can in the feet flat one and then turn the heels up and tilt the pelvis forward and lower ( got that from a video on Youtube and it seems to be working so far. it's a rotation of the femur heads in the hip sockets I'm aiming for.
practiced it again this evening but it wasn't as good, only difference was that i hadn't practiced any backbends and in particular drop backs, think they are good for the pelvis action, seems to be key.
Thanks for sharing your prep Seb, mine is similar I'm fishing out all kinds of things from the Vinyasa krama book to see what helps, The half splits you mention, perigrhasana (?) from 2nd series, was doing that this evening along with a lot of the Asymmentric bent back leg poses to loosen up the quads (virasana too). It is painful but not in a bad way, it's an interesting posture, I'm enjoying exploring it. Good Luck with yours.
looks great grim.
in watching the vid, a couple of memories popped up for me. i watched your feet kind of get hung up on the edges of the rug. i had a muscle memory when i saw that. i hate the rugs with the strings on the end. the heels catch on the knots. if you managae to slide them out that extra millimeter or so to get them past the knots, they then zip out off of the strings, which have little or no friction compared o the rest of the rug. the end result is tightening up in fear of an uncontrolled full split.
i think i tried a couple of different things. i tried to find a longer rug. i've never not used a rug. i hate the slip and slide effect on most mats from my sweat and i hate the mat fragments that result when i practice without a rug (never had a manduka). unfortunately, there's few mats that are the right length for my split length. looks like yours is siilar, about an inch or two to short.
another thing i tried, and it looked like you did that too, was to put one heel off of the mat and mainly slide out toward that leg. it works, but i thought that using one leg only was contrary to what should be occuring, same action in goth legs and hips. i worried that i'd eventially injure myself witht that approach. never did but i didn';t like it on priciple.
for hanumansana and for samakonasana, after the prasaritas, i would quickly fold my rug in half two to three times length-wise, so that it ended up along the back end of my mat. that let my heels slide more evenly the whole way. it also gave me a slightly elevated platform to settle down onto when i was almost there but not quite there for sama k. i found that even if i wasn;t able to split down, if i got most of the way and then let my self rock back onto the ground, i was able to feel some fermur head rotation that i couldn't perceive when i was up on my heels. i think the relaxation of the leg muscles from not having to hold me up allowed the femur to rotate, giveing me range of motiuon that i wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
i did this pose, or tried to do this pose, for years, but only made incremental progress until i finally let myself sit back. then, it started to happen for me. i had always looked at sitting back, with the legs at 170 or 160 degrees or whatever, as quitting or cheating. but it turns out that it let me relax into the pose
once down, once you've had a chance to re-control the breath, you can further work on the leg angle. if you put one hand on the floor behind you and one in front of you, you can press with your hands and lift a bit and the press the hips forward to widen the angle. i picked that one up from watching tim miller.
i know many people hate it when others watch them, but i've learned so much, both what to do and what not to do, from watching others.
it's rude of me to tell you how to do stuff. you hardly need my story to make it, you are there. but this one time, if any of those things help, that's what seemed to help me, anecdotal as it is. keep it up. i'm inspired by watching and reading what you accomplish. so far, it's mostly inspired me to walter mitty-like yaga fantasies in which i actually do things, but so far all i've done is to see if i still had my old mat. i've only had one mat ever. somehow that;s a point of pride for me. i'm weird that way.
and i tend to run on
take care.
thanks for the comment okrgr. Not rude at all, that's what this stuff is up here for, to provoke discourse discussion, constructive criticism, i've gained so much from all the comments over the years. that's why i'm doing this practice for Vinyasa krama, they don't have the community we have in Ashtanga, very little asana advice.
Find I'm still a little sore right up in the hip joints, not bad sore as in dangerous sore just overdone it a little, find my badha konasana hurts and isn't as flat as it was, no doubt SKPJ would just step on my thighs and push them down and tell me to cowboy up. Taking it a little easy, some hanuman work and a wider parasaritta, give it a week or two and then start working on it but more gradually, got excited i think when i felt it coming. But as i said, i know it's doable now so no rush.
Like what you said about the going as deep as you can and then dropping back and lifting up and going in a bit lifting up again and in a bit more, makes sense.
I have an extra long equa towel should use that, like the security of the traction on the rug though... perhaps i should try it in the bathroom, better floor.
thanks again for the novel, appreciate it.
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