So I shifted my main asana practice to the evening a month or two back, when the colder weather came on. Morning tends to be a light Vinyasa Krama practice, tadasana, paschimottanasana, whatever sequence I'm working on for the Practice book etc, nothing I need to strip off for. Then I settle down to some extended pranayama and a long sit (meditation).
I've been practicing my Ashtanga in the evenings, Primary, occasionally 2nd but mostly Primary.
For the last couple of months I've been waking up stiff as a board hardly able to move, feels like a saddle of numbness covering my lower back. It's an old back injury (carrying too many Pizza Dough trays ) that started playing up around this time last year when I fell off my bike, kind of twisted to catch the bike, so that and all my joints playing up, again old injuries, this time Aikido.
The hand/arm variations in tadasana helps, that slow, mini VK On the feet sequence I do helps in the morning, but I didn't want to over do it.
Evenings are fine, I went back to Primary partly because it seems good for my joints, gives them a lot of work that I seem to need this time of year to stop them seizing up. Strangely backbends are fine and I have a feeling that the Heather Morton sury has been helping.
Last few morning's I've felt less stiff, yesterday I did all of standing, this morning I thought I'd go for Primary.
But it's cold, still cold, radiator turned all the way up, space heater blasting away and yet half way through, around navasana, I realised I didn't really have a sweat on and Garbha P was going to be a problem.
Decided to film it (tend to do any filming after practice), turned the camera off when M. left for work so there's about ten minutes from the middle of a cold winter practice.
I reign in the jumps a little, don't even think about lifting my heels in kurmasana, struggle to get my arms through in garbha p, was expecting a disaster there or at least when I tried to roll up into Kurmasana. Badha konasana is a bit off, the samakonasana work I was doing seems to have played havoc with that...
Oh and a question....how do you lift the feet up in konasana b without letting go of the toes, raising the legs a little and then grabbing the toes again...hints/tips/suggestions?
To everyone struggling with their chilly winter practice....
group hug
.... OK, was kind of kidding about the group hug.... oh all right then
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10 comments:
Upavistha lift = inhale from the chest on the floor position while holding onto your toes. Exhale and dip your head back almost to the floor, then strong inhale and pull up. The legs do a quick abduction, then adduction on the way up. Matthew Sweeney mentioned that at a workshop and it made all the difference in the world for me. The very strong inhale and the abduct/addict combo does the trick.
On that first inhale, you lift your head, arms straight. Not sure if that was clear.
I am first in line for group hug! hee hee
Looking good in the video in spite of the cold, I am about to hit the mat...
I wanted to share two things with you, of course you are way more advanced than me, so I just want to clarify that first, however, I heard two things from John that may help...
The first one is totally unsolicited. You know the jump into buja? I asked John this week how to make it more smooth and maybe i will one day do what you do, jump straight into it.
He said I needed to do a whole lot less, not squat the legs so deep down for the jump, instead, just keep the tail high up and barely bend the knees, then look at my landing spot with strong dristi and go for it. This had a suprising effect, it all worked out more like floating...
on the badakonasana, his advise (order pretty much) is that I keep the heels strongly pressing into each other, he tells me this helps in engaging mula bandha, then the feet tend to open like the pages of a book...
Thank you Karen can't wait to try it, it's something I've never worked at, tried to lift them a coupele of times but nothing happened, always planned to come back to it, perhaps it's time, am sure I'm not alone.
Unsolicited advice always welcome Claudia you know that. Neve really been happy with my jump into Bhuja, into Tittibhasana too, another thing I've always meant to come back too. I used to have a nice float into bakasana, sonds like what your saying is similar to that, will explore tonight.
Baddha konasana is a bit strange at the moment, ever since all the samakonasana work, think i may have tro choose between that and the kandasana i was getting closer too, will try the heels thing.
This feels like one of my old posts, have a jump through one for tomorrow too, memory lane : )
Bloody cold here too at the moment, and the huge gaps under the door next to where I practice + fuses blowing when I turn on heaters don't help, so I know what you're saying. Don't know how it happens that we have 50 degrees in the summer but almost as cold as England in the winter. Feels a bit better to know I'm not the only one practicing in the cold though.
Tony,
Uphavista Konasana is done wrapping your hands around the feet (applying thumb pressure at the big toe joint). Completely evacuate the lungs, catch your bandha & lift on strong inhale, looking at your third eye. No squinting.
I've never attempted it holding the big toes, but I'd imagine it's unnecessarily difficult.
Soory to hear it's cold there too bibi, i keep noticing little cracks in the curtain during practice and reaching over to block out the draught. Only a few months to go. Winter's good for ana Ashtangi, we consolidate our practice, no? put off anything too fancy until the warmer weather comes along.
thanks Steve, no squinting.... really. Am quite excited about this upavishta konasana thing. Put off trying to lift up when I first started and never got around to considering it until now.
You can check quite easily by whizzing along to 46 minutes in, on Sharath's primary series dvd. Somewhat surprisingly, the whole thing seems to have been put up on YouTube lately, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLBiuzaAut0
Hey, he goes feet to hands rather than lifting up while still holding on , no wonder I was happy to do it that way for so long, used to practice along to it all the time.
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