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.
Showing posts with label kathryn budig. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kathryn budig. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
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!
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!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Crazy weekend classes
It's been one crazy weekend of yoga. I thank my internet connection and the access to many awesome yoga videos.
Saturday morning I did a crazy standing flow class with KB. It was supposed to warm me up, and it did, but it was mild. Lots of warrior one and two, half moon, lunges. I continued with a one hour session with Jo T, who uses the word rhomboid as a key in her class, so I was expecting lots of upper body workout. But it was mostly just forward bend, janu sirsasana, some lunges and sun salutations. It's different, but what I loved the most was the slow gradual buildup to stronger poses. I felt tired, without really sweating much.
Then I decided to go for a yoga class. I expected thst it would be a vinyasa class today but she changes her schedule every first saturday of the month. So it was actually a full primary series led. I was on my period! Did not see this coming. But I ended up doing the whole practice except for the finishing sequence. It was actually awesome, and I was veryyyyyyy tired. I think I might have compromised my chaturranga due to the tiredness and I could feel the front of my shoulders a little bit sore. But what I hate the most about going to a class is how easy my ego gets in the way, especially when I am the most 'advanced' student/ I hate it when that happens. Because it is very hard to keep my mind focused on NOT feeling the ego. This is hard because I came from a background of sports where you should feel your pride and that churns you on. Also I noticed how short I've been holding the poses for. We did the class with david robson's gentle drumbeat and his counting is superlong!! But it works. I feel like I've been cheating on myself a little bit with the short 5 breaths. Need to breathe longer.
Today I woke up to a crazy 30 flow with KB. It has a loooot of lunges, with one leg downward dog and pike (she has us kissing our knees hehe) and crescent pose. The crescent pose was crazy aweosme... and tough. Lifting my whole body up, lifting my chest up, it was all I could do not to explode from the sheer effort of it. Oh I always have a hard time with my upper backbend. It was a very challenging class! It ends with eka pada raja kapotasana, but by that time my psoas were screaming. I did not even remember how my upper body felt like because my hips were on fire.
I finished with a nice 45 minutes of shoulder opening poses with Tiff C, who looks a whole lot like Natalie Portman. She's just too pretty. With her earrings and all. Her shoulder openers were intense, and I couldn't really settle, found myself squirming left and right just to ease of the mild intense sensation on my supraspinatus and infraspinatus, especially when I arranged them in sort of a cacus arm and played with the angle.
Anyway, I'm kinda hooked with how good yoga makes me feel. I'm so glad I got crazy over this.
Saturday morning I did a crazy standing flow class with KB. It was supposed to warm me up, and it did, but it was mild. Lots of warrior one and two, half moon, lunges. I continued with a one hour session with Jo T, who uses the word rhomboid as a key in her class, so I was expecting lots of upper body workout. But it was mostly just forward bend, janu sirsasana, some lunges and sun salutations. It's different, but what I loved the most was the slow gradual buildup to stronger poses. I felt tired, without really sweating much.
Then I decided to go for a yoga class. I expected thst it would be a vinyasa class today but she changes her schedule every first saturday of the month. So it was actually a full primary series led. I was on my period! Did not see this coming. But I ended up doing the whole practice except for the finishing sequence. It was actually awesome, and I was veryyyyyyy tired. I think I might have compromised my chaturranga due to the tiredness and I could feel the front of my shoulders a little bit sore. But what I hate the most about going to a class is how easy my ego gets in the way, especially when I am the most 'advanced' student/ I hate it when that happens. Because it is very hard to keep my mind focused on NOT feeling the ego. This is hard because I came from a background of sports where you should feel your pride and that churns you on. Also I noticed how short I've been holding the poses for. We did the class with david robson's gentle drumbeat and his counting is superlong!! But it works. I feel like I've been cheating on myself a little bit with the short 5 breaths. Need to breathe longer.
Today I woke up to a crazy 30 flow with KB. It has a loooot of lunges, with one leg downward dog and pike (she has us kissing our knees hehe) and crescent pose. The crescent pose was crazy aweosme... and tough. Lifting my whole body up, lifting my chest up, it was all I could do not to explode from the sheer effort of it. Oh I always have a hard time with my upper backbend. It was a very challenging class! It ends with eka pada raja kapotasana, but by that time my psoas were screaming. I did not even remember how my upper body felt like because my hips were on fire.
I finished with a nice 45 minutes of shoulder opening poses with Tiff C, who looks a whole lot like Natalie Portman. She's just too pretty. With her earrings and all. Her shoulder openers were intense, and I couldn't really settle, found myself squirming left and right just to ease of the mild intense sensation on my supraspinatus and infraspinatus, especially when I arranged them in sort of a cacus arm and played with the angle.
Anyway, I'm kinda hooked with how good yoga makes me feel. I'm so glad I got crazy over this.
Friday, August 31, 2012
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.
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.
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