tucking the tail bone in Kapotasana also Calcifying.

This relates to yesterdays post on tucking the tailbone in Salabhasana and Mayurasana which  in turn relates to the post on Heather Morton's back bending DVD where she talks about tucking the tailbone.

So I've just started coming back to 2nd series, used to be able to grab my ankles but that's gone south for a while. Exploring the tucking the tailbone thing in Kapo to work on deepening my backbend by creating more space in the spine.

In the video I'm tucking and at the same time trying to push my hips forward, go back a bit, focus on the tucking some more and pushing the hips forward and so on. It's not that I'm stopping and starting with the tucking but rather that it's hard to keep the tuck fully engaged so there's a constant bringing the attention back to it to make sure your fully tucked as it were.

A byproduct is that the tucking focuses the attention on the hips too reminding you to keep them pushed forward. Usually when starting kapo as you arch back your hips kind of collapse backwards with your body, keeping them forward all the way down is key to a deep kapo.

Anyway it seems to be helping, best of all there's less strain while the tuck is engaged and more control..

I bail a bit at the end, hands and feet are too sweaty to get a good grip on the heel and i didn't want to overdo it but you can see it's coming.




Calcified

I mentioned a while back how I switched my practice around with the colder weather coming on. For the last month or two I've been practicing a light Vinyasa Krama practice on the morning and my Ashtanga primary in the evening. My back had been playing up all year and with the colder weather I was just too stiff in the morning.

2nd series has lest forward bands and i find it easier on the back. Through the holidays I've been able to do my practice a little later so have shifter Ashtanga back to the mornings, kind of OK.

Holidays are now over and I'm back to work so back to having to practice early, at 5:30. So secondd this morning and it was an effort, really had to grind it out an exercise in the will. My leg behind head postures almost made me pause for a moment to wonder if I had ever put my leg behind my head before.

The second half of last year I tended to focus on my vinyasa Krama practice, on more pranayama and meditation and I have to say it's as if my body has calcified. Perhaps it's an age thing, to practice Ashtanga I need to keep practicing ashtanga, can't seem to move away from it for a while, it's all or nothing. I'm assuming that my flexibility will come back soon enough and I'll be back to where I was but it was a bit of a wake up call.

Interesting thing, I backed off practice last year because my back had been playing up (old injury brought back by falling off bike) but it's stayed stiff and painful in the morning ever since. Coming back to 2nd series I'm finding it's better in the mornings, not as stiff, perhaps i should have stuck with the practice rather than erring on the side of caution.

Other news

Finished the last of my practice notes for the subroutines from Ramaswami's book and only about ten more (up to Day 80)  to transfer over to the new book form for the new Edition of my Practice book. Another couple of days and I'll have it uploaded and can forget about it for a month or too before starting on a more serious revision.

Oh and my boss seems OK with me heading off to Mysore for a month or so next January, so who know, running out of excuses.