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.

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!

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!

Morning Yoga!

Early morning yoga makes me happy and in a good mood.

 I realized that I have sort of not become attached to Ashtanga... which is good, in a way, because I know all about repetitive stress injuries. Not to say that Ashtanga gives you injuries, but you can get a little overexcited and overwork your joints. Especially in a practice that is as taxing as ashtanga. I am glad of my decisions to do ashtanga only 3 days a week, 5 max, but 5 is very rare. I like my cozy little ashtanga schedule - either monday wednesday and friday or tuesday thursday and saturday. And in between, I have fun with other types of yoga, my favorites would be a basic hatha, or a vinyasa flow, or restorative and yin! Before 'glow', I used to have my own fun with my own home sequence, taken off yoga journal's home practice. I still treasure them to be honest, and if in a pinch with no internet connection and resources I would turn to the home practices as a guidance.

But with glow now I am having a ball of a time discovering classes and teachers I would never though I'd have access to. Today I did a nice 20 mins sequence of morning yoga with Amy I. Very simple routine, cat and cow, downward dog, one legged downward dog, then with a twist, bow pose, warrior 1, half moon, bound half moon - that got me sweating - pigeon pose  and twisted pigeon. It was a very good workout for 20 minutes! I continued with Kathryn B, a 30 minutes flow with reclined hamstring stretches ala ashtanga, with you leg to the side and cross over while the other leg is flat on the floor. Then some thread needle with the thighs, then puppy pose, thread the needle with the shoulders, warrior 1 and warrior 2, triangle pose, and little handstand kicks, which I failed miserably. It then followed with some twisting poses, which felt good.

 Love it!! I feel like doing yoga all the time!

emotional hatha

Last Saturday I went for 2 classes. The first was a gentle hatha class that incorporates breathing, gentle stretching exercises and tons of intention settings and self affirmations. I was in an upset mode when I arrived; and the teacher's gentle undulating voice and tone and made me feel like the sadness was washing all over me like waves and water. There is nothing I can do but except that this is what is happening in my life. I have to acknowledge this sadness, and think on how I want to deal with this. I need to evaluate why this upsets me so much. The asanas were simple; table, purvottasana, gentle downward dog against the wall. She had me in an assisted handstand. But at the end it was just sitting against the wall and it went for long minutes and I just felt sad, so sad. I felt like crying.

The second class was fun. As usual it was Birds of Paradise and Reverse Birds of Paradise, which I love! Love it as much as Half Moon Pose. I love the balancing aspect of it. I noticed how much better I am at standing and balancing pose, that even when I stumble my foot manages to root my whole self steadily again. The triple chaturanggas dont even hurt at all now, and it feels so easy to do!

I also did eka raja pada kapotasana! my other hand barely managed to grasp my foot but it held... even for a few seconds. You need to have a really warmed up back for this. We started with mermaid's pose. I could do tripod but not the headstand variation.

I woke up today with my whole body aching. My uppder back!! and butt and abs. Ohh the agony... the pleasure.

Teachers

I love yogaglow.

I do not know how else to say this but to really really feel grateful that I signed up for it. I knew from a start that I love the freedom of home practice. Which is why I took to ashtanga the way I did. Once you got the sequence memorized, you do not have to worry about anything else. And it's a good thing that I am a stickler to alignment and I love reading on basics and proper anatomy usage to really make sure that the poses I do are safe.

Prior to the website, I have been enjoying my own home practice - using the much appreciated yogajournal home practice. It was good enough for me, and most of the times I ended up adding my own poses that I seem fit to be included in the flow.

this website just made it easier. And it just strengthened my resolve. Sometimes I give up a little tad to early in  holding a pose, but when you have a teacher egging you on or encouraging you to just hold a little bit, you do. Like today's 90 vinyasa flow class I took with amy ippoliti, about chest openers and being happy. She did a killer sequence of urdvha  dhanurasana, which we have to hold for 30 seconds. I've never held for that long before. and 3 times! I was figuring out how to last for the last time until she said, "when you're in the pose and you feel like you can't hold it anymore and need to go down, that is the time for you to take a deep breath and hold on to many 3 more breaths. This is to let you know that you can persevere through hard times." That was a good thing. That is actually the essence of my journey of exercising and 'training', be it running, cycling and swimming. I think that's why I totally love solo sport - because the only real opponent if yourself. And if you can conquer it, then maybe, perhaps, your determination in life just got a little bit steelier. I always go back to the toughest times of when I don't give up to pull me through a current tough crisis - mentally, emotionally, and especially physically - that I am plowing through.

 So after that amy class I moved on to tiffany crushank's leg sequence, but eventhough its only 30 minutes I was tired halfway so I stopped. It's a good energizing sequence for sore legs. I did kathryn budig's shoulder stretcher and oh my god... my sore shoulders diminished. Even before the session is over I was freaking out inside on how much my shoulders don't feel sore anymore.

 I finished the session with a 7 second handstand x2, a 7 seconds pincha and a melted leg pincha, with a headstand with blocks. Felt good.

 Love it.

 Yesteday's ashtanga ended after Bandha konasana because I was too damn tired... and apparently it was because of the full moon. I thought I was pregnant. hahah.

Tuesdayy

Simple and easy yoga session yesterday:

 1) core salutations warmup

 main set:

 - downward dog
 - warrior 1
 - warrior 2
 - downward dog

 - garudasana
 - high lunge
 - warrior three with eagle arm
 - half moon pose
 - standing split
 - reversed half moon
 - utkatasana
 - squat pose
 - bakasana
 - chaturangga dandasana
 - downward dog

Then I did backbends sequence. Camel pose growing beautifully!

Backbend

Yesterday I worked with my backbends.

 Warmed up with core salutations.
 Then did the strength and grace sequence:
 utkatasana,
 standing forward bend,
 high lunge,
 downward dog,
 and forearm plank,
each for 15 steady breaths

then
locust
bow
headstand (in lieu for the tripod headstand)
ends in balasana

Then I worked on the sequence with high lunge variation, eka pada raja kapotasana variation (this one really pulled my quads) and then a while on the pincha mayurasana variation, where you're supposed to melt your whole legs on the wall.

I thought it would be easy, but it is hard! First of all I had a hard time figuring out which way was up and down. And then trying to get my butt there was the problem, either my lower back or my shoulders aren't open enough. But I managed after the third try... just lightly grazing my butt on the wall. This pose definitely going to be one of my favorites to work on.

Then the urdhva dhanurasana against the wall. Melting my heart to the wall isn't easy, could feel the lower back responding to the gentle squeeze.

Then I did the normal backbend sequence: sphinx, cobra, locust, bow and my favorite - camel.

 This time my camel were nice. I practiced really lifting my heart up and trusting my lower back could take it and FELT the difference. No intense feeling, just nice uplifting sensation. Lifting up I tried engaging my lower back and butt to pull me up and it worked! Definitely going to try this from now on, to strengthen my back and work on dropback.

Loved the session yesterday :)

Split wednesday!

Quirky practice yesterday.

 I knew I wouldn't have enough time to squeeze in a full practice in one go, so I did what I had to do: split them.

 I did the surya namaskar and standing poses before iftar, went to the shop did my stuff and then came back and continued with the sitting and finishing poses afterwards. It was more relaxing and definitely not pressurizing for me. The standing poses felt magical! I didnt really sweat but it was a good workout! I love it when your breath and your focus and movement go together. My uthitta hasta pandangustasana felt steady and balanced, and I could lift my legs up to my knee now.

 sitting poses as usual, my jump thorugh and jump back has somewhat improved maybe 2 percent, but it was significant to me. I am now working on doing the full supta kurmaasana complete with the correct vinyasa getting out of it. Also with garbha, although my arms would be tired. I am also practicing to straighten my legs in navasana, no easy feat I tell you!

 It was a well deserved shavasana.

 Tuesday:
I did a normal sequence of bound lunge, triangle pose, reverse triangle, locust, warrior three reverse half moon. I also did the core strengthening exercises - the side plank and jumping from bakasana as taught by kino. and I practiced on my side crow - getting there! hehe. alhamdulillah!

Tuesday recap

Tuesday:

 An invigorating practice

- core salutations x2
- tadasana
- utkatasana
- hasta padanghustasana
- cat variation
- cow variation
- salambasana
- uttrasana variation

Moved on to:
- pigeon pose
- pigeon pose variation
- mermaid pose
-  king pigeon pose with strap

Backbends:
- sphinx
- baby cobra
- cobra
- locust
- half bow
- camel

 I also worked on my new pose to try Natrajasana. I love the fact that I thought my leg was up high and to glance at the mirror and realized it's way further from my hand than I wanted it to be. I like this pose and chose it to work on because its a mixture of many things: a shoulder opener, a balancing pose and a backbend. I used a strap to practice holding on and lifting up.

 I also tried the King Pigeon.

Saturday Normal

Saturday was a normal hatha class with friends. We did Half Moon Pose, Dog pike and finished it with a flourish of Bakasana. It was good, especially when I could do it perfectly. I felt bad that I let ego took over.

Monday was supposed to be a mysore style class with the group at the hotel near where I work, but was too tired last night to even comprehend having to wake up early and pack.

Will try to go either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Tuesday Hip openers

Tuesday Yoga was fun. But I wish I had worked up the sequence before, saves time and effort of looking at the books mid pose.

I did the Surya Namaskara A and B (5 and 3 respectively), and all the standing positions in Primary. I like this idea of still working on Primary without actually working on Primary, if you get what I mean. A nice prep for my maybe future 6-days a week practice.

Then I started with bits and pieces from home practice:

downward dog (5 br)

triangle, dd

bound side angle, dd

locust, dd

half moon

king dancer

downward dog

then working on hip release:

crescent lunge,

lizards pose,

rock the baby,

thread the needle (hip version)

pigeon pose

angie's yoga pose, where the shins are on top of each other and I lean forward. that feels good.

Working on alignment next, basic twists and roll up and happy baby.

Then backbend prep:

sphinx

baby cobra

full cobra

locust

flying locust

camel against the wall

then upper back arch on a chair.

It was then I started to feel realllly dizzy. I feel like puking.

Savasana. Nevertheless, it was good work.

Restorative Yoga

Last night I did an easy, slow, relaxing one hour plus yoga.

Followed the home practice sequence from yoga journal:

downward dog

triangle pose

extended side angle

half moon pose

janu sirsasana

bound angle pose

reclining pose

then continued to

sphinx

baby cobra

cobra

locust

bow

camel

bridge

more upper back opener with a chair. Releases the tension in my neck.

cat and cow.

worked on a few neck poses - thread the needle, etc. some shoulder opening poses from yogatic.

I forgot to do the dolphin sequence. will do it later.

it was a good one hour, to work on my poses, things I dont usually do if I do ashtanga.