Wake up call - The hidden arm balance series

So this week has been ...a bit of a wake up call.

There's me, letting go of some of the asana madness, dumping the fancy showy stuff, the party tricks.

Turning my back on 3rd because of the arm balances there seem, for a guy at least, a little ...excessive, like we need more upper body strength. So a calmer, softer ....gentler practice, no more handstands in the Sury's, gone the high Kino jump though in preference for the straight leg or subtle Sharath variety. A focus on a meditative Primary, even 2nd series has been replaced with a  Vinyasa Krama backbend version.

And what do I find? Working through the Vinyasa krama sequences, there buried in the Inverted sequence, a couple of hidden away arm balance subroutine that hit you like a two by four in slapstick sepia.

And I'm weak I tell, ya, all my assumed upper body strength out the window, down the proverbial toilet. I can imagine Krishnamacharya perceiving Ramaswami to be a little pleased with himself one morning slightly cocky perhaps (OK I can't imagine it either but for arguments sake), so BOOM, he hits him with the full Mysore.

So at the end of the headstands in the  Inverted sequence, you float up into badha haste sirsasana C for twelve breaths, then you push up into pinch mayurasana (out of practice  with 2nd remember). Stay there for a number of breaths, take your legs over and bring your head and chest through, stay for more breaths, fold into lotus, hold that for a bit, unfold and take your legs over into vrischikasana A.

Next come all the headstand variations from the end of 2nd but you switch from one to the other first and then do them again floating up to each one Ashtanga style.

Up into Muktha hasta sirsasana A, from which you then PUSH up into handstand (tried three times, FAIL), take the legs over into handstand vrischikasana although, it seems,  you don't take the feet to the head. Drop down to the headstand, lower into bakasana and hold it for long VK breaths, up again and then down into bhuja peendasna. Then of course you take it back up into headstand fold your lotus and lower into urdhava Kukkutasana, up and then down into Ashtavakrasana on both sides before finally going back up and dropping out to downward dog.

All those transitions are done without dropping out of headstand and going back in, your up there the whole time, hard.

I was a quivering wreck and you can tell from the video there was a lot of editing going on, lots of forced breathers from falling out of the postures.



Yeah, you stay on your forearms on the exit, how strange is that.





So maybe there's something to be said for 3rd after all, perhaps I need it, cos there ain't a lot of grace in my arm balances at the moment, not much composure... a lack of focus.

If that wasn't enough of a wake up call I ended up practicing 2nd series this morning... I know, I know it's Friday, I'll do Primary this evening.

I shifted Primary to the evenings when it got colder because my back is just so stiff in the morning, like a numb saddle across my lower back. An old injury that plays up in the winter but to be honest it's been there a little all year, since I came off my bike last winter. Not sure if the yoga has helped, it gets me mobile but sometimes I wonder... Still, forward bends are almost impossible for a couple of hours in the morning but back bends don't seem affected so much.

This morning I decided on Vinyasa Krama backbends but then ended up doing 2nd series and it was, quite frankly, a shambles. backbends were OK but I've been taking it easy with my kapo for a while and it shows. Bakasana lame, hardly my nice floaty jump, twists were OK. Skipped the Leg behind head postures, just did a long gentle paschi, tittbhasana's a disaster, shabby, Pincha was hard work, hardly a tight lotus in Karanda and it took three goes and a lot of will to raise it again.

Mayurasana was OK, but then I did the extra VK Bow series prep early on, nakrasana embarrassing. Vatayanasana was the highlight perhaps, nice and tall... and so on up until the headstands which were Ok but not a very elegant exit.

So I can still do it but it's shabby and needs a lot of tidying up before I can think of regaining any focus in it. Second series in the mornings then

... and I suppose, back to doing the odd 3rd once 2nd is a little tidier.

(Sigh) Back to the drawing board,

...oh and my Pranayama was lousy too, couldn't get the rhythm right.

I think the lighter morning practice has meant I've lacked discipline in other areas too, eating a little too much junk, getting fat, OK not fat but not my preferred practice weight/shape/condition. Do you know what I mean, that kind of ideal ...state for practice, it's not just weight but a general overall condition that seems ideal for practice.

Yeah, I know, having a bit of a winge, a gripe, bit irritable but I'm aware that my posts so often tend to be, "Wow, practice was great, this went well" etc etc, thought you'd appreciate a practice was lousy post.

...and then I gave M. a hard time about fresh cranberries, sorry honey, she was right of course, dried cranberries in a chestnut, cranberry and walnut loaf isn't going to work.

Santa did bring me one early Christmas present, a few extra degrees in the home shala.