This week was my first six day week in perhaps a month. Nothin much new with my practice this week except for wrist binding in marichasyna d. Surprisingly I got a lot of love from JB yesterday and when he adjusted me in baddha konasana a he placed his thighs on top on mine and then sat on me and stayed there for the b variation. After it was all said and done he commented on how much better that pose is getting for me. That was a dreaded pose and adjustment for me that usually made me want to cry and required several breaths to recover from. At the end of yesterday's class he asked me what pose I am currently stopping at and I suspect a new pose may be coming to me soon but then again who knows.
Today was led primary and I practiced during the later time slot with most of JB's assistants whom I refer to as the yogi all stars because they all have a pretty advanced practice. I'm talking 3rd and 4th series advanced. The vibe in the room was so different than the early morning class. I guess by 8:30 people have had a chance to actually wake up. I even felt unusually limber and flexible for a Friday practice and I knew things were off to a good start when I felt myself floating back into chuturanga during my second surya namaskar a. However, by my second one I was dripping in sweat, literally. Kurmasana was nice today as I've been focused on really getting my legs up close to my shoulders before even lowering down into the pose. I'm happy that it no longer feels like my elbows will snap when I practice that pose. JB then came over and helped me bind my hands and cross my feet. The past two days he's been doing something a little different as he adjust my legs in that pose. Instead of just crossing the left foot over the right in front of my head, he lifted up my left leg first and sort of shimmied it over my shoulder and slightly behind my head before crossing the right foot over.
Overall is was a really good practice and I'm a little disappointed that tomorrow's a rest day as I would love to try to do it all again. Guess it will have to wait until Sunday.
Some other interesting things are afoot but I want to wait until things are more certain before I go mentioning it here.
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Showing posts with label kurmasana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kurmasana. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Progress Report
Last week was a tough week on the mat. I should have taken a few days off due to LH but I was too determined to practice. The end result were a few terrible practices and a battle with my ego. It never bothered me before but last week I got insanely jealous when I noticed a few shalamates cross their feet behind their head in supta kurmasana. As a result I found myself questioning my progress over the past six months or so. Thankfully my hormones reverted back to normal and I was able to resume my normal practice without my ego or jealously getting the best of me.
This week I've been consistently binding on both sides of marichyasana d and I've been doing the fancy exit in marichyasana a about 70% of the time. The latter really depends on how cooperative my left hip is feeling. I've also been binding fairly consistently in kurmasana with assistance of course. Two weeks ago if someone told me that would be the case I would have laughed hysterically. On Monday I did kurmasana and attempted to move into supta kurmasana because an assist never came. As I started to wiggle my feet JB came over and had me do the pose again from the beginning. I may have grimaced internally, perhaps externally as well as I proceeded to put myself into the pose. To my surprise JB was able to cross my feet in front of me for the first time! Later in the day when I told one of the assistants of my breakthrough she said to me "I've been wanting to do that to you for some time now." I thought her response was priceless.
On Wednesday I practiced a few hang backs for the first time in a few days and I definitely felt that the bend was getting a little deeper and ever so much closer to the floor. As I came up from the first attempt JB was there watching me and I got an approving nod from him. He had me try it again with his assistance and he pretty much had me go all the way down to the ground before he stepped in to spot me. I was forced to take a leap of faith and it didn't feel terrible. Unassisted drop backs are coming, I can feel it, hauling myself back up however is a completely different story.
The last holdout in my practice is kukkutasana. It's the only pose that I simply can't do. It's baffling because I can lift my body weight in other poses without a problem. I can't have it all I suppose.
This week I've been consistently binding on both sides of marichyasana d and I've been doing the fancy exit in marichyasana a about 70% of the time. The latter really depends on how cooperative my left hip is feeling. I've also been binding fairly consistently in kurmasana with assistance of course. Two weeks ago if someone told me that would be the case I would have laughed hysterically. On Monday I did kurmasana and attempted to move into supta kurmasana because an assist never came. As I started to wiggle my feet JB came over and had me do the pose again from the beginning. I may have grimaced internally, perhaps externally as well as I proceeded to put myself into the pose. To my surprise JB was able to cross my feet in front of me for the first time! Later in the day when I told one of the assistants of my breakthrough she said to me "I've been wanting to do that to you for some time now." I thought her response was priceless.
On Wednesday I practiced a few hang backs for the first time in a few days and I definitely felt that the bend was getting a little deeper and ever so much closer to the floor. As I came up from the first attempt JB was there watching me and I got an approving nod from him. He had me try it again with his assistance and he pretty much had me go all the way down to the ground before he stepped in to spot me. I was forced to take a leap of faith and it didn't feel terrible. Unassisted drop backs are coming, I can feel it, hauling myself back up however is a completely different story.
The last holdout in my practice is kukkutasana. It's the only pose that I simply can't do. It's baffling because I can lift my body weight in other poses without a problem. I can't have it all I suppose.
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