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.

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.

Strong Monday

Monday felt lethargic.

I contemplated whether to practice or not. Thinking of the Lolasanas and the jump backs and the Surya Namaskaras. I lolled around with my husband watching the television, all the while looking at the clock, knowing that if I'd started just now I'd be halfway done by now.

I started at 8, not too late, not too early either (of course, I would like to practice in the morning but...) While doing Surya B I told myself to do just 3 rounds of that but I could not afford to have halfway warmed up leg muscles. God only knows how tight my inner thighs are. This time my downward dog and chaturanggas were harder - I kept my awareness on them to see how I progressed. Sometimes I faltered and my Upward dog became just a push up. My elbows splayed to the sides sometimes. Still not strong enough.

Inner left knee still has remnants of the pain, but after some rotation (inner? external?) it dissipated. I found out that I enjoy putting my head down in Prasarita Padottasanas, eventhough my legs have to be seriously wide when I do them. Despite Utthita Hasta Padanghustasana being my least favorite asana to do my legs are stronger because of them everyday. My Ardha Baddha Padmottasana felt VERY stable, surprisingly. I was very pleased. It's hardly ever I feel secured and rooted to the ground with one leg in lotus!

My Bhujapidasana was more grounded, thanks to the arm strength. My Garbha Pindasana was rooky, my rolling not so high as before, more haphazard. Perhaps it reflects my state of mind? Urdvha Dhanurasana still hurts, but I managed. I was sad that I could never do Urdvha Padmasana ever... but I let it go. Practiced the Dolphin and headstand variations. Tolasana, of course, was amazing.

It was a good practice. Can't wait to do simple yoga tonight. On the menu: Camel, Half Moon, Side Plank, Lolasana.

Estatic Practice

How do I start:

Thursday: Did not do any yoga. Body felt lethargic, I was down with the flu and cough, and just needed a rest.

Friday: Felt reallly sluggish, but dragged myself to Intro class. I think I took it easy that class, did not really push myself in all the poses. I did practice though on the new jump back style the teacher taught us, some sort of hooking one leg on your upper arm and swivel your legs back thing. It feels easier than the traditional jump back though. I'm really excited about

backbends. The teacher focused mostly on backbends especially the variation where you sort of slide your body back into a bend against a wall. I'm slowly working on that so I could feel an improvement, even in milicm. I could do my UrdvhaDhanurasana longer - 5 breaths 3 times even though it's painfully long but I managed to hold. So I could see an improvement in my backbend.

The best part came in my second class - some sort of an advanced class with arms balancing and inversions. That class is crazy! We were required to do double and triple chaturanggas for each sun salutations. And each sun salutations have their own variations - we did Camatkarasana (Wild Thing) which is one f my favorites, probably because I came across a translation to its name: "the ecstatic unfolding of the enraptured heart." Isn't that wonderful? I fell in love with the pose immediately, nevermind if I knew how to do that. But I was adamant to nail it, or at least half of it. And I did. Didn't manage to drop to a Wheel, but needless to say I fully embraced the meaning of the pose: I was estatic! Oher cool poses: Birds of Paradise, and Reverse Birds of Paradise. They were cool. Challenging, but great nevertheless.

One thing that I learned on that day other than that advanced class wasn't to 'intimidating' was the alignment - or misalignment - of my palms on the mat. No wonder my palms were not flat... my index finger sometimes isn't pointintg straight forward, in fact I realized that due to my spreading my palms out wide the index fingers sort of point towards each other insteadof straight forward. I spent most of the class staring down to my mat in amazement.

Saturday: Refresher yoga with our favorite yoga teacher. We did Side Plank which I nailed and also some sort of a hip opener, which I failed. I'm going to work on these poses to open more of my hip and adductor.

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!

Monday Full

I do not know what to make of this practice that wasn't said before. It was good, although for a brief moment I felt too lazy to finish. I literally felt that this is it - I'm done with ashtanga - I'm tired of suffering from injuries and being scared to suffer more coming injuries. I felt it in the forward bends, in my inner right knee. I've read about it, but there's nothing you could do except to ease off the posture. The stiffness of my hamstring just right below my butt. Feel it there too. My rotator cuff, as always, the elusive heartbreaker. sometimes there, sometimes not, but for sure, will always be there.

Was more aware on the palms. Made sure they were at least fairly flat. It was hard work, suffered doing the push up, and it was harder than ever, to be consciously aware of pressing my palms flat at the same time lifting up. I tell myself all this work is for a good bhujapidasana.

I have also let go of my attachment to the finishing sequence. As I evolve along the ashtanga practice, my priorities on it changed. I was into mastering jumpback, now not so, into mastering headstand, will never be so, then now I'm all into the after effect of doing ashtanga... like running does to me.

3 days of practice

Thursday: Light and easy yoga

I did a sequence of home practice, doing locust, warrior three, half moon pose and a slew of easy backbends to open up my upper back. I've also started on light breathing exercises. This excites me because I love how grounded and calm I feel after each breathing exercises.

Friday: Intro classAnother good class, this time I feel more relaxed, but was worked hard.

We went through the customary poses, but skipped janus up till mary D. Did navasana, then skipped up till Upavistha Konasana. Of course I failed the calf landing vinyasa but that's hardly my worries. I was happy I could keep to my breathing and enjoy the poses. We did the wheel pose and also Wheel prep against the wall, and I found myself getting a *tad* better in backbends. I'm happy with the progress although the whole process still kills me everytime. I also find that I miss working out in the morning. There's nothing better than having a huge endorphin rush earlier on to make your whole day feels a little bit better.

Body awareness today: noticed that my palms are not completely flat whenever I do Chaturangga. In fact, they kind of lean heavily towards the outer palms leaving the innermost side (the pad where the thumb and index finger meets) sort of gaping. This is bad for my wrists. Doing this further and further will hurt my wrists as it's not the proper alignment. I am working on putting awareness on that region everytime I do chaturanga from now on.

Sunday: Woke up to do a full primary but towards the end of standing postures I do not feel good. Not exhausted or tired... just a does-not-feel-good kind of feeling. I realized that it's my third day of menstruation, and I definitely did not feel any stronger to continue. I ended my practice with a super chill Savasana.

Looking forward to a Monday full.