Weekend fun!

Yoga weekend.

 Its been great as usual for me. I woke up Saturday for a much needed run, a simple slow 5.5km. Then I did a 30 minutes post run stretch with Tiffany C, which was simple and sweet, a lot of forward holds, with minor twists. Then the fun part - a yin/yang class with felicia and dice! Saturday is arm balance day - so it was a great class for me as it had eka pada koundiyanasana 2, flying crow pose and astravkrasana (my favorite!)

 The yin part was sweetly torturous - the dragon lunge was painful and my face was contorted. The pigeon pose was deepest than I've ever been, I could feel my hips and outer hips working and releasing. It was really good. When dice stepped in he had us do warrior and reverse warrior back and forth that reallllly burned the thigh muscle - worse than climbing up the steepest hills! Then we started off with eka pada koundiyanasana 2, which I somehow managed to get. The flying crow pose was hard... could not even find the connection between lifting and letting go, could not even engage. Astravakrasana was good/

Sunday is backbends!

 I started with Dice energetic backbends, it was a great prep class for me as we did many backbend lunges. A lot about stretching the side of your waist, elongating your torse, keeping your ribs in, putting your sternum up, it was a tough workout, but fun. We had to do some hanuman backbends, but I couldnt get there yet so it was semi hanuman with extended chest.

Then a 60 minutes hatha backbend basics with Noah M. It was good... and HARD. Something simple as just stretching your arms straight, elbows straight, juicing your ears was hard core. We did a lot of those lunges, stretching up until I could explode. A lot of arching your upper back looking up towards the ceiling. We also had to do some dhanurasana kickback, which felt good to the shoulders. Then bhujangasana, salambhasana, upward facing dog, all good.

I finished with a simple 15 minutes of shoulder tune up.

Wednesday usuals

As usual, LED Primary was good. I tried to focus on my breathing but did not somehow get to concentrate much. Bhujapidasa was ok, not worse, but could be better. At one point I could feel the jump back happening, but did not deliver to the end. I could feel the result of working on the Lolasana though. This time my Garbha Pidasana was better, but still forgot to count how many times I rolled. My Upavistha Konasana has improved. My backbend has improved!

I did Chakrasana, but still too scared to do Setu Bandhasana. Wheel still hurts... can't wait till it becomes easier.

Yin class was good. We did lots of hip opening poses, of which I did the night before. The teacher said it's too work on the spleen and stomach meridian. We did Lizards pose, low pigeon - or sleeping swan pose. And a variation of bent legs and lay back all the way. Feels good.

Now I'm in need of a gooood back - upper back - massage.

Wednesday Mayhem

Skipped yoga on Tuesday. Body felt too tired to even move. was glad for the rest and fully enjoyed it. Felt guilty maybe for a bit, the morning after, but was comforted with the thought of having a full practice and a yin yoga later on.

Wednesday practice was good. It went okay, for most times I was able to focus on my breathing, counting out the discomfort. I am happy that I remember most of the poses, thanks to regular practice. Nothing was especially harder or a struggle, and bhujapidasana felt ok. I struggled a little bit on Utthita Eka Padasana of course, they were so hard that day I do not know why. Finishing was always Viparita Karani.

Yin was crazyy! It was a mixture of gentle pull and relaxing. I almost fell asleep in most poses until drool was coming out from the corner of my mouth! Aptly so, as we were mostly doing relaxing sequences.

Normal yoga today. Yay!

Wednesday practice

My regular LED ashtanga class was ok yesterday, except that I let my mind wander off in certain poses. I hate how amazingly true it is: the fact that your state of mind decides how your practice is going to be for that day. I started the practice with an intention: DO NOT SHOW OFF. Which is usually the case when I realize that the other is less flexible/strong than me. This is why I love the home practice: where I have no one to compare to and can be truly myself, or the Mysore style class: where everyone is better than me and I am only one soul doing her job.

Of course there was this one lady who was already good in primary series, the other lady super flexible but that's about it. I felt some sort of a Hah! moment whenever she couldn't do what I could, and sure enough my balance faltered, I was unable to do it, I became stupid. Like Bhupidasana, was too eager to show her what I've got and I ended up being horribly stuck like never before coming down and unable to lift up. Humility.

Yin was awful. I suffered more in yin than in any other class. We did shoulder openers and I hate the Sphinx. Never really know whether to resign to the pose or use muscles to hold my shoulders.

One thing I know though: my body's betting better and stronger. I am also showing aversion in oily, nontasty food. Been thinking of being a vegetarian but I still do enjoy the meat. Maybe I should cut down.

Mastering the mind

Yesterday was really crazy class - crazy but good.

Went for an Ashtanga LED class with a full on tension in my neck from bracing the traffic, thank God the class have yet to start.

We went with Kino, whose short and (sometimes) very fast countings kept my heart rate waaayyy up and nearly gasping for breath. It was beautiful, not much thoughts were given, I was simply going through the motions. At some points ego and cockiness seeped into my heart, especially after a sucessful binding of Mary D, but I tried the hardest to kick them out. For fonishing sequence, instead of doing the modifications like at home, I opted for the invigorating Vaparita Karani until Fish, which I did a modified fish. Tolasana - or Uplutihih - was great as usual.

Then moved on to Yin yoga. A replacement teacher was in and she was pretty loud, quite a contrast with what the class suggests. But her poses were CRAZYYY. we did forward bend which was held for 5 minutes and it was crazy. Painful, good painful. Then the best part - lizard pose. I was struggling with it the whole time. The teacher said something like, "Yin teaches you to master your mind," and I was tyring to control my thoughts but all I got was THIS FUCKING HURTS.

We were encouraged not to use props at all if we could but the point is to relax completely so I of course succumbed to props. I have given up on showing off after the injury. then it was happy baby and the sphinx. Good massages.

Looking forward for today's lovely and quiet yoga. I'm going to still work on the backbends. Slowly.