My thoughts on Daily Practice

What do you know it's already march.

Firstly I would like to say that I missss my YG! I miss doing yoga online with wonderful teachers and awesome sequence. Cant wait to get my internet at home.

Great update: I have started my daily ashtanga practice since 27 January. I guess Nike really tells it as it is: Just Do It! I have been mulling about starting a daily ashtanga practice but so many reasons and excuses cropped up; shoulder injury, repetition injuries, no progression, more injuries. I am just afraid of injuries.

But when work hauled me off to Turkmenistan where globalization has yet to hit, I found myself not having the Internet as a source of my yoga sessions. As horrifying and bad as it sounds, it forced me to replace my Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays vinyasa sessions to ashtanga. Hence, daily practice.

It is crazy, and somewhat less of a big deal as my mind made it to be. It's just, after all, a yoga practice. I find that if I focus on the breathing the time flew by. But that doesn't mean it came easy. Every single morning at 510am I find myself wondering if I could simply finish the full primary. Sometimes I get discouraged halfway - what... only in Janu sirsasana? still a long way to go - but I forced my thoughts out of my head and just, do it, like a robot.

Physically, what has improved? You'll love my answer: Bhujapidasana!

I could now drop on my forehead and slip my feet through without 'walking' them on the floor... and lift myself up again easily! It is so smooth that I have forgotten how HARD it was for me to GET it. Just as I can't remember how it was for me to learn to drop my heels after Supta Konasana.

UHP used to be so good in Turkmenistan but back home I am struggling with the left standing side. I am thinking maybe it is the dark dim room (I practice with no lights on, only the hallway light) that affects my balance, but it is a good practice nevertheless.

Non Ashtanga related:

Wonderful backbends: can do eka pada raja kapotasana with my hands grasping my foot and my foot touching my head. My fingers now touch the floor when I do Wild Thing. Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana is wonderful as always.

CAN FINALLY DO HEADSTAND. Unsupported.

Lovely practice today: A flow of inversion holds.

 Kathryn B never disappoints. She had us go through a series of strengthening flow - downward dog plank chaturanga plank chaturanga plank and downward dog - throwing in bakasana, handstand hops and dolphin in between. The real treat comes in 1 minute inversion holds - 1 minute in headstand, 1 minute in forearm stand, and 1 minute in handstand. I managed to balance with just my knees close to my body for headstand, working on the shoulder and core balance. Although I should practice keeping the knees stacked on my hips instead of towards my chest. I managed to hold for forearm stand in 1 minute, but for handstand I was already tired. Came down halfway.

 I am currently obsessed with handstand hops.

musing

A new breakthrough in my primary series practice: improved jump back.

It happened to suddenly. I can't remember whether it was the Monday practice or today, but I managed to lift up and swing my legs through. I used to not be able to do that. I am right now recalling what I used to do, but I can't. because the swinging back feels natural. I think I used to lift and somewhat scuffle back.

Although I am able to swing, I still don't have the strength to shoot my legs back, probably because I have no strength to lower my body after I swung my legs through. This morning, I tried it throughout the practice and I did all of the jump back effortlessly, just lift and swing, nothing heavy, nothing resisting. Its just amazing. I was amazed, and just wow.

My handstand hops are still horrible. Hips still not moving over shoulders. I think 90% of it is the fear. Sometimes I get it, and it feel wonderful the flight. But today I did not.

I held a half sirsasana, not pushing to keep my legs straight. it felt good , minimal weight on head, shoulders strong and engaged. My neck's not feeling too chuffed and I wonder if it's due to sirsasana or the Urdvha Dhanurasana I have been practicing, putting my head on the floor before I lift up.

Leaving Out Poses

I notice that there is a pattern of poses I tend to forget and leave out while practicing:

 In Standing postures it would always be Utthita Parsvottanasana.
 In Seated postures they would be Parsvottanasana, Navasana, and today, the last three sequence.

 I do not know why these postures always get squeezed out from the practice list. Maybe I was doing it not in a mindful way. Like today after a good inversion exercise I laid in a variation of child pose for a while, got up feeling very wrung out and energized at the same time, and had a mental dialogue something like this:

 Ok sirsasana done. What a relief, oh I feel good, drained, but good. What else should I do? anything else after this? Savasana right? because I derserve this, don't I? Oh yes... *lies down*

I really should train my mind to stay focused even after an intense practice.

Anyways, worked my arms bad for Urdvha D this morning. Felt the side, muscle, the teres minor and major, stretch somewhat tickling and prickling in intensity. Love it.

2012 Reflections

My yoga journey thus far has been such a great great help in my life. I went through very difficult times emotionally and mentally with the help - the discipline - of yoga alone. Last month, ashtanga has ceased to be somewhat a foreboding experience, in fact, if I approach it as a breathing exercise the poses just flew by quickly. I also began to enjoy surya namaskar because I am working on my jumping. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Today, I got it on the last try, the hip over wrists, balancing for milisecond.

I have been practicing Ashtanga for 14 months.

Here I wrote last January:

I've told you that my target list for 2012 is to:

1) master Jump Throughs and Jump Backs

2) Do a good Setu Bhandasana and Wheel Pose

3) Half Moon Pose

4) Try a Mysore class

So what happened here?

1) I have yet to 'master' them but I have somewhat a unique way of doing the jump through and jump back. My jump back, on good days after bandha konasana, I could swing through, but could not till chaturanga yet. My jump throughs are better, I could easily swing through, although right now I am practicing lifting my legs up and putting them down with control. Control is key.

2) I have decided to let go of Setu Bandhasana due to my neck injury. Attempted it again in November after feeling that my neck could take it, but just one try and I felt the repercussion all the way down to my left fingers. I am okay with a normal bridge. If I am feeling adventurous then I'd do a dwi pada viparita dandasana. Urdhva D is now my favorite! I love it. Could do 5 breaths 5 times. And currently working on walking my hands towards my ankles. It's simply simply amazing how this was the bane of my practice with the pain - it was a teeth grinding pain really - and now it feels wonderful, open, and intense (of course, its a serious backbend, you've still got to feel it!)

3) Half Moon Pose - forever a favorite pose. I could do it now, and currently working on doing it without my hand supporting me. 

4) Oh Mysore style class. I started with Ganesh's class. Then it was with Liz, then went to London and did it with Sarai, then Laruga and Kiri. As much as I love Mysore style class I also LOOOOOVE home practice where I don't have to worry about my body odor, or being distracted in UHP or my ego getting in the way. As much as that is a good practice to  strengthen my mind, I could sharpen it with once in a while classes.

What are the other benefits of practicing yoga?

1) Nailed Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana. One of my favorites. I saw it first on Kathryn B, and I was intrigued with the degree of chest openess it requires. I worked so much at it, daily with a block, and once my Urdvha D got stronger I find it is effortless to drop into Dwi Pada. It's a goooood thoracic opener.

2) Nailed handstand and pincha on the wall. Slowly working on my strength, building the hold to more than 10 seconds. I have yet to consider trying to balance. My left shoulder is still refusing to open effortlessly, I still need to do stretches to make it feel good. 

3) Because I have been working on Dolphin and Pincha a lot, I could do a salamba sirsasana without wall assistance now, and FEEL the difference. Before, I did not even feel my shoulders. Now, I could feel it strong, engaged, steady, allowing my neck to breathe. In fact, my head barely takes the weight, whereas before I could feel the whole bodyweight pushing into my head. I only would do this in short spurts, just to strengthen my core so that I could learn to balance in pincha without a wall.

4) Chaturanga feels better - no pain on front of shoulders. I continously work on this, being mindful every time I drop down, making sure my alignment is correct.

5) Uttrasana feel great, can bend backwards now without support from my hands on the back of my thighs. PRACTICE!

6) Parsva Bakasana - can hold it for a few seconds now, without my butt resting on the shelf of my elbows.

Firelog pose still is hard to do, the funny thing is I can't figure out why, and which part needs work. I still can't do the full Bhujapidasana, nevermind the vinyasa. 

Urdvha Dhanurasana progress

I made a good choice resting my body last night. I do not know why, but I felt like I needed to not do anything. Yesterday's morning I took it easy with a slow yin class, nearly falling asleep (and did, from savasana until forever) because I was tired. That was my only workout.

 This morning, refreshed from a good rest, went for my ashtanga. It was more or less a good practice, with 50% concentration on the breath. Lost it halfway due to company of M, who came in while I was halfway through my first series. We talked on and off.

 When I did my urdvha though, I managed to hold for 5 breaths all five times, even walking my hands closer to my feet. But M told me she saw that I've been keeping all my weight to my upper body, and nothing on my legs. They were straight, bearing no weight. So with her guidance she made me grip her leg placed in between mine while I was in wheel, and that made all the difference. The first time though when she pulled me forward to transfer the weight to my legs, I couldn't tell which way was which. It was that disorientating. I would use this helpful tool to work the legs even more. Put a block in between and then learn to engage the quads. I cannot believe the progress I have made in my urdvha D. It took me a year to finally feel pain free, thanks to tips from Noah M and other wonderful teachers. It is all about patience and practice. I realized now that I love the journey and work put in the practice that I don't even mind not nailing it. Because after hard work getting it just feels amazing.

 No progress on Bhuja. Forget about the vinyasa. But well, its all about the practice!

Reflection of a yogi

I havent been updating. But thats because I was having a ball of time, loving my practice. It's been a steady 3x per week of ashtanga, with vinyasa tuesdays and thursdays, and weekends are for backbends and arm balances.

 What I learned: When you let go of expectations, and just enjoy practising for what it is a clarity for the body and mind. I tried to focus on my breath more, just inhaling exhaling, feeling good and sometimes feeling nothing at all, just awareness of my body, my legs engagement, shoulder engagement.

 Arm balances class saturday was really sweet. Pretty easy, with vashistasana variations (of which all 4 I could do) bakasana, prasva bakasana, titibhasana and bhujapidasana. I find that the more I get rid of my expectations or frustrations of wanting to nail a pose, I find a peace within the practice that is waaay better than nailing a pose. My neck injury taught me this. In a way, that injury was sort of a gift. A gift to realign my mindset of how I approach yoga.

 No technical updates here, just what I've been thinking about.

Journey of Practice

I skipped yoga today. Ladies holiday, beside, wasn't really feeling it.

I did ashtanga monday and tuesday, knowing that I wont really do ashtanga today (moon day) and the next 3 days. This time though, I am trying to let go of all expectations, and instead focusing on the breath. I often say that don't I, but this time I was adamant. Trying hard to level the in breath with the out breath (the outbreath always longer). I enjoyed the forward bends, the janu sirsana as always. I have noticed that I favor certain poses and dread certain poses. It starts from the beginning - surya namaska B is not my favorite, then the UHP, then the revolved plank, then Navasana. I always do feel happy approaching janu sirsasana, bandha konasana, supta konasana, and now wheel. Surprisingly. I love wheel now. Cant get enough of wheel.

I have also noticed that my jump back seems smoother after bandha konasana. Definitely the open hips is the main reason, which always amazes me because I feel the same, but my hips showed me otherwise (that they are more open after bandha konasana). Goes to show that you might not realize it, how your body are already reaping from the benefit of the posture.

My Garbha pindasana was the best one yet. It is obvious what a properly calculated breathing could do to make your GP roll as perfect as sushi. I came up high and did perfect 9 rounds. It's like cutting 9 slices around a big gooey cheesy cake.

I have decided to forever take out setu bandhasana. Have tried to incorporate the real setu bandhasana (charlie chaplin pose) with my hands supporting the head, but it might not work with my body and injury. I did on Monday, and felt the repercussions of it the whole entire day. On top of my always and continuous achy neck and shoulders, my left elbow and fingers were tingling and numb. Bad bad sensation. It couldnt be the finishing postures because I've done the same thing about a few weeks ago and nothing was this bad. Definitely not going to be in my practice. Maybe... I would do viparita dandasana instead. Hmmm.

Forgot to let you know that I've sort of incorporated a few poses of second series into my practice. Not an ego thing... I just feel my backbends would benefit if I could incorporate the first few postures. It's not really a real practice - straight after Urdvha D I would do the first 6 poses straight, sometimes with a tiny vinyasa in between. It is more like a backbend supplement.

Bhujaaaa

Tuesday: What a great choice, I took a vinyasa flow with Seane C, a class that concentrates on hips hips and hips. We warmed up with sun salutations a and b, and got started. It was hard! We did the fire hydrant pose first on knees which was hard enough as it is and then standing. I failed those... could not even lift up my leg! We moved to reverse lunge, a lot of warrior 2, triangle pose, bound side pose, then onto the low deep lunges for long holds. That was insane... it was just mental. We also did supine gomukhasana.

Wednesday: Full Primary... with modifications. No chaturanga... only once or twice... or thrice, can help it, but mostly I just did full plank. My current issue on the practice now is Bhujapidasana. It's funny, isn't it. This wasn't an issue for me from the starting but once you sort of get deeper you realize there are ways to deepend the pose and that's when you fail. Trying hard to get the descent down on Bhuja, as well as the transition from titibhasana to bakasana AND jump back. It's hard because I get so sweaty my legs slipped off my arms. Will have to wear pants when I practice. At least legs wont slip easily down in Kukutasana too.

Lovely practice, and now finding myself looking back forward for the udrvha dhanurasana. As always, the first three was a serious one, then the last 2 a more relaxed, stay as long as I could. Less pain on the back, if I took the time to properly lift up following noah m awesome awesome advice. Then for fun I did one dwi pada viparita dandasana. Feels good, can feel it stretching my upper back.

My left shoulder feels doubly sore right now. Have to carefully not push myself so hard on Friday.

A Real Yoga Entry

I was doing my daily rounds of reading yoga blogs and I just realized how different their entries are from mine.

Theirs are definitely more in depth, an exploration of their wonders and thoughts while going through the practice. I love the ones where the writer muses about the effect of a good, or a bad practice. They usually resonate with what I feel after my own practice.

My posts on this particular blog was at most, short, and squat. It bears a scary resemblance to my now quite defunct triathlon blog and literally has the mark of a triathlete. When I was training for races, I kept a blog/journal of my practice. They were always short, in lists, and informative: stating my drills, the routes, timing, and something new I introduced or learned. Hardly there was an entry about what I felt at that moment, unless it was really a mood changing training.

It sort of seeped into this blog.

The reason I opened a new blog was because I always feel I have a lot of things to write about with one interest. I just love to write, that I grew up with tons of blogs for my interests - I had a sewing blog, a running blog, etc and now a yoga blog. I had meant to use this as a vessel to chart my progress, both physically and mentally, well spiritually and emotionally as well into my forays of yoga. I wanted to write about how awesome this feels and how I am always feeling good after a practice. I want to yell out loud that sometimes I feel like I could sing from a good, hard practice. I want to write about how my hips would definitely feel more open after Bandha Konasana every single time. I want to write that practicing using a tennis skort is annoying.

 It didn't happen. What I have instead, is a bunch of hastily written blog posts on the practice I did, more on quantity, than quality. It's an old habit of mine, to keep a record of every single workout. It doesn't matter if it doesn't sound pretty.

Would I change it? I don't know. Most of the times I get too busy to keep track of my practice, which explains the harried entries. Usually I enjoy the good feelings just by going through it, and when the feeling left me I was just glad to have experienced it. Being a serial documenter growing up I am starting to want to enjoy moments in its purest form, not to have it delayed by writing a post or taking a picture of it.

Anyway, here's an entry I did on my main blog, which sort of explain my inner relationship with yoga:

In my yoga practice these days, I am obsessed about backbends. Backbends tend to choose their students. Someone would just take up yoga only for a day and could do an advanced backbend while alienating a dedicated yogi who’s been practicing for years. The thing about backbends is that it tends to make people practicing it to be emotional. It brings out the emotional picnic of panic breakfast, wistful lunches, and heartbreaking dinners. If you’re clueless as to what I am talking about, backbends essentially require you to bend backwards, which means you have to keep your heart open. Heart Openers is another name for backbends. And if you got issues in your heart, it’s not easy to make them open.

So here I go everyday working on my backbends. The process is challenging physically and draining mentally. I came to the world of yoga a skeptic on the spiritual mumbo jumbo of it. It’s just stretching, at least that was what I thought. But after bouts of crying and feeling emotional after a particularly intense session, I took notice. I would have a totally taxing session that night and suddenly burst out crying in the car on the way to work FOR NO REASON. Life was good. I just had sex. Money was aplenty. But I cried because I did backbends.

Needless to say, these backbends have turned me into a raging believer. It’s like having a totally heartfelt session with a therapist about my issues. It’s like writing in my journal with a cup of hot chocolate beside me, only I my body feels good afterwards. Sometimes I would think about my cat Daisy. Sometimes a face of a friend I have long forgotten popped up. Sometimes I came to it nervous, moody and irritable, but bending bending bending, I opened myself up to feelings I cannot describe. It’s a beautiful, emotional journey, and being a totally emotional person I never felt better.

Recappp

Wow I havent really updated in a while. Here's a recap:

Thursday: It was a public holiday so I planned to do a super long yoga session. First it was a 60 min class with Tiffany C, which was hard and tough, and it had me doing the standing splits and three legged dog and reverse half moon. Also crazy core work, like navasana crunches. Then it was a 90 minutes Marc H class. It was good. Attempted handstand hops and succeeded a few times. Loves it.

Saturday: Visvamitrasana class with Step S. What a class, it was fast paced to the point that I got annoyed. She never gave us any rest! But I managed to hold Visva for a split second on my left side. Worth it.

Sunday: Simple lovely class with Tara J. She's a little bit kooky, but love her twistting and side crane and urdvha poses.

Monday: Primary series. I did it in a no-nonsense style, just going through the poses concentrating on my breath, flow in and out. It went by fast. I attempted Setu B, supported. Felt it all the back of my body. Then did 5 wheel. And then I continued with second series - Pasvasana, Krounchasana, Salambasana, Dhanurasana, Utrasana and that's it. I think I'm going to incorporate the second series into my practice now... just to strengthen my back.

Daily night yoga: Handstand, Pincha, Urdvha, Dwi Pada Viparita, Bakasana. Loves it.

Last Mysore

the last class with Kiri was sweet. It was actually a moon day, but we went anyways. I took my time, this time properly breathing and focusing my breath on the postures. It was actually quite therapeutic. I got to (weakly) kick back after bhujapidasana. My supta K is still tight... K still positioned my feet on her knees instead of my neck. Maybe it's the injury... who knows. I told her I want to attempt setu bandasana... and she showed me, quite fast and abruptly, in my opinion. Maybe she felt I was more than ready for it? It was harddd, tough for the legs, and I foresee a looong time of supporting this posture with my hands before I got the guts to put them on my chest.

Went for a run this morning, and then did a 60 minutes of sweet flow with Jo t. she's fast becoming my favorite in yg! Her classes, like amy I, are always doable but at the same time challenging enough to break a sweat. It was a class filled with warrior 2 and 3, half moon, baksana, runners lunge, crescent lunge, twists, and a nice backbend to finish. Lovely!

urdvha

Fifth practice today with lovely K.

Nothing much, except that I felt soo tired and sweaty and out of breath. Maybe it is just lack of sleep... and a disturbed emotional state. My chaturranga was still mindful and proper; I skipped it sometimes if I feel I could not deliver it really well, alignment wise. My urdvha dhanurasana was good, the teacher asked me to walk my hands deeper and she helped me stretch. It felt good... only my armpits couldnt handle the stretch, the elbows always feel like splaying.

Fourth class was on a saturday. It was good, a bit fast because I didn't want to be the last one in. Again she helped me with urdhva D, it was good. Thankful for Noah M for the proper alignment and tips.

Thinking to attempt setu bandhasana tomorrow. Last class.

Yummy Practice

I have noticed a pattern.

When I practice ashtanga, I do the full primary series in the comfort of my own place. I do it every other day, with either hatha or vinyasa flow or yin in between. Reason? I do not want to overwork my injury prone body. Or maybe that is only an excuse. Maybe I am lazy to commit, to devote myself to a full 6 days practice.

I will get there.

However, when a visiting teacher comes and teaches at the KL shala I go to, I would take the full advantage to come and commit to a 6 day classes. And usually, it would be back to back. Only then I get to practice straight.

The first time I did it, it was 2 months ago. And I noticed that I began to feel lethargic and sick on the third day. It was such a horrible feeling, that laziness, that urgency NOT to get up and practice. Wanting a break. I had fever. I had sore throat. I just did not feel good. I went anyway, pushed myself and it went ok. I left the practice wondering if it was normal but Google didn't really tell me anything. Maybe it is just me.

Then it is happening again. Yesterday way my second day. It was, to be honest, a simple good practice. My bhujapidasana jump back was still horrible, but my urdvha dhanurasana was the deepest, and the most pain- free yet. I felt nothing, not even a twinge. It was amazing. The teacher helped deepened the pose by pulling my upper chest back and it felt realllly good. I wanted to continue but she was pushing me to pashimottasana. My left shoulder felt ok. I was careful.

Later that day, I felt it, the fever building up. And then my throat started to get sore. My head feels heavy, I felt sick. The same timing, the same symptoms. This seems too... precise to be a coincidence. Maybe this is the result of a straight back to back practice. And this decides whether you're devoted enough to commit and push to establish yourself a full 6 day practice. I know committing to a 6 day practice isn't easy, but if this is the preview of how you are going to feel it is a little scary. All that strength emotionally to fight your internal laziness, your reasoning of giving space to your body to 'relax'.

Today was a delicious, yummy practice. Everything was going well. I focused on my breathing a lot; attention did stray but I quickly reigned it in. My vinyasas weren't getting better, but the best part about it is that I don't really care. I have kept at this for a year, long enough to know that when the time comes, it comes. So many poses held evidence to that testimony: upavistha konasana, UHP, navasana, garbha pindasana. Today as I flowed through my garbha I noticed that touching my fingers to my head as I rolled up felt effortless, as was landing on my calves in supta konasana. And a few months back these two were so hard, so unimaginable to me. It really does work in your favor - practice, and hard work, and mindful alignment.

The teacher pushed me deep in urdvha dhanurasana again today, which I did 4 just for extra work. It felt goood. And as usual, my the UHP was the most dreaded part in the practice. With her holding to my feet I kinda have a hard time balancing, but it felt nice to let the feet rest instead of doing all the work. But for Supta Hasta Padangusthasana she strongly pushed on my straight thigh and asked me to lift up to kiss my knees. I did it! alhamdulillah.

Back to primary

After 6 days of time off, I returned to Primary. A visiting teacher is around, so I needed to take that opportunity to practice.

To be honest I caught myself going through the sequence in my head before I sleep, because it felt like forever since I rested!

I took extra care with my shoulder - skipping the chaturangga when I feel like it.

The teacher was sweet - why are they always sweet? - and didn't really adjust me much. Then came bhujapidasana. I took this chance to ask me questions - could I 'cheat' by walking my feet back and resting my head on the floor instead of slowly building strength to lower down? Yes, she said. You should do that, it will come to you later.

She taught me how to exist bhujapidasana. After bakasana, to lower my head on the floor, and kick back. By the time I wanted to try my arms were already fatigued, and when I kicked back the legs sort of fell in a heap on the floor, knocking my knees. Too tired to even kick back.

She said that I have strength.

Here's a thing I feel like I have to address: I hate practicing with other people because of my inner ego. I hate it when I mentally compare against other people... and feeling the pride when I know I am better, even to only one person. It sucks. I usually chastise myself, berate myself for feeling it but the feeling has come and gone. I do not get this when I am practicing alone at home.

5 days more!

Backbends and Injury

For Sunday I did an easy backbend. Well, maybe I should change the key word to detailed. And focused.

It was Marc h teaching, and his classes are superb for alignment in backbending. He taught us the basic of curling the upper body back for backbend while standing and clenching the block between your inner thighs to feel your tailbone tucking in. It was surreal, the backbending your body is doing when you are aligned. Not to say that it felt easy, it just felt right. I do not know whether I could bend more than I normally do, but I felt 'bendier'.

 A lot of cobra with good alignment. I only have to remember to suck my lower ab in to protect my lower back and my cobra automatically felt good. One bow pose, more standing and clenching and bending. Then urdvha dhanurasana, which was magnificent! He gave really good tips: lift the tailbone up, then move your shoulders back, physically moving the hands back, and curl your upper body more... and then lift. You will not feel it in your lower back. The bend is evenly distributed along your lumbar and thoracic spine. This is a class I could see repeating over and over for easy backbend days just to slowly cultivate that strength to dropback.

Then Monday I did a slow hatha with Steve E. It was a really good slow class - sun salutations, lunges, crescent, one bakasana thrown in, half moon, and ustrasana. Really relaxed and slow, with fairly strong poses.

My left shoulder cuff is reallllly injured. Hurts to even lift it up.

Tuesday: easy hatha with Amy I. did not even break a sweat, but it was a simple good session to stretch. I failed at the half moon arm circling thing btw!

Arm Strengthening Saturday

Woke up feeling well rested.

 Started the class with Jo T, who is slowly growing over me. I love her sweet voice and her accent, australian, and the fact that her classes are similar to Stephanie S, strong but doable. She lead us to a bakasana twice early in the class, lunges, one legged plank and chaturangga, half moon, and then visvamitrasana, the peak pose, which wasn't hard, as our bottom leg is supported in the middle instead of straight out. But it was a good stretch holding the leg up. Love the way she provided access for us to work with advanced asanas.

 Then it was a no-nonsense 20 minutes class with tiffany c, where she taught us ways and asanas to strengthen the upper body. It was a 2 minutes long dolphin pose with a block, to omit the alignment worries and focus on the strengthening aspect instead. Then some core work, with a block in between the thighs and our arms cupping the head, lifting the butt up while exhaling. Then it was a handstand against the wall, holding up 1 minute. I couldnt make it, my arms were shaking so bad. Even pincha against the wall I couldn't do in 30 seconds. Then she made us the the L-handstand and L-pincha. which was good, and I am going to incorporate that during my menstrual time. Then it was a downward dog with slightly bent elbows which put the whole outer part of my arms on fire. That was good.

Then a 45 minutes class with Jason C, whose voice irritates me a little bit but I love his classes because they are always delightfully dry but effective. He had us do repetitions of plank to chaturangga lifting up to downward dog again and again. I love when he asked us to pull our shoulders back and flay our palms away from our body, because I felt all the muscles and the sore parts engaging. That works the external part of the muscle but I felt the burning inside.

Great access to building strength in my arms shoulders and core to better prepare myself for arm balances and inversions.

Great day!

Week roundout

Tuesday I did a nice hatha with Dharren R. He wasn't really my favorite after 2 classes with him but I like that he gives good strong poses, and his flow was good. He threw in locust, bow, UHP and its 2 sisters (which I loved), half moon! humble warrior (another favorite) and best of all the last pose he threw out was astravakrasana! That was a surprise, a good one because I really love that pose. Nailed it somewhat, even with gimpy arm.

Wednesday was my last day practicing primary before my period came.

It was a much needed exercise. I omitted chaturangga from the whole practice just to give more space for my left shoulder to heal. After all, there is a mysore style class I will be going to next week and I plan to really practice to get better adjustments.

Things were good from the practice. I took my time, focusing on my breathing, aligning my awareness to what I am doing. I really took my time for this one; I was on leave, therefore I was not subconsciously rushing myself through these poses. My Bhujapidasana needs work... it is not improving probably because I am not currently pushing at the moment, with my shoulder and all. UHP of course is getting better and better.  Navasana always the hard one, this time I was too tired to lift my seat up but managed. Suptakurmasana I felt was still tight... wondering when I'll able to lift my feet off the floor but I am enjoying my time, no rushing. It was a sweet practice that came Urdvha Dhanurasana my back wasn't really hurting, and I managed to stay up for 5 breaths (albeit a shorter version) 3 times... plus 2 more times for strength and endurance. I was really a good practice.

Thursday I decided to do a long sianna s flow... which to be honest, wasn't really nice. I didn't really enjoy it because I felt she chatted a lot and in my opinion she sounded high. Maybe high on yogi endoprhins. But she gave good poses like half moon, bound half moon, reverse half moon, reverse UHP, natarajasana. Anusara definitely isn't my style.

 Today due to my period I skipped ashtanga and did 2 csimple classes - hatha with dice and yin with tiffany. These two are one of my favorites! I love dice because his classes are always challenging and worth it. And tiffany because hers are always so painful but it works. I love her variation and flow from warrior 2 with gomukhasana arms leaning towards front leg, then flowing to side plank, which she said strenghten the whole rotator cuff and shoulder girdle.

so arm balances saturday and backbend sunday!

vinyasa Flow

Today I woke up not feeling primary series at all. I checked the moon days and thank god that today was a moon day! I've never felt so excited. I usually look forward to a nice intimate session with the series, is only up to standing sequence.

 So I chose to do a simple vinyasa flow with stephanie s instead. I like her classes because her strong is my moderate, and I just felt like having a moderate exercise. Nevertheless it was a fun workout: lunges, high lunge, low lunge with side plank, bound angle pose, reverse warrior, three legged downward dog, lots of side stretches, janu sirsasana, urdvha d, and a nice sirsasana. I was sweaty! and I had fun!

 I've also incorporated daily handstand kick ups and pincha kickups. Some days it is a miss but mostly it is a hit. I am trying to stay up for as long as a minute but only managed to stay for about 5 long breaths now. It does get easier. Also, have to do dolphin everyday!

Weekend Relaxation

 took it real relaxed today with yoga.

 Simple core salutation, then lunges, birds of paradise, crescent pose, half moon, navasana, happy baby and nice savasana.

 Last week it was pretty slow: primary series on monday, hatha class tuesday and slow primary wednesday. Thursday I did a yin practice which was good.