Updates..

Lets see, what have I been up to recently..Well lets start with the last Thursdays vinyasa class. B teaches the class and its quite interesting sometimes, he changes it up quite often, which like I mentioned before I like coz there's all sorts of surprises in there.

But he seems to have remembered my dismal epidose with kapotasana a few days before and decided to throw in all the prep poses and kapotasana itself into the class. I knew he was gonna get into it when he asked up to do some padangustha dhanurasana preps. He starts by asking us to use a towel to pull 1 foot at a time and then reaching with the foot without the towel. I have a very flexible left hip which extends back quite a bit, but an annoyingly stiff right hip (thanks to the sacroliac joint problem I think) that is a good few inches behind in flexibility. So left side was great, but pulling with my hand on the right side is always harder. Anyway after trying it a few times with and without towel, he'll get us to do some supta laghuvajrasana stuff, head on floor, hands on ankles etc. After that he asked us to put our hands behind our shoulders on the floor and lift into kapotasana B. I was fine with that and infact got my hands to about and inch from my toes.

B came by to see if I needed help (and yes I DID), but a bendy girl with the most impossibly flexible spine was already putting her head down and had managed to catch her foot. Shucks! and B walked off to help her catch her ankles. And I was left to my own devices...which basically means I gave up after holding kapotasana B for about 5 breaths. Its the right side which I feel resistence in my spine/sacroliac joint. More on that today too...but am coming to that.

Well, yeh I was a little disappointed that I didn't get it again, and extremely envious of the bendy spine girl who seemed to get her ankles effortlessly. OK OK I was watching her because I noticed her backbend in cobra way earlier in class already. I admit watching people, and comparing myself to them all the time. Very non-yogic of me. I remember reading someone's blog last time and he mentioned he likes to watch others, and looks for the person with a well rounded practice. Thats what I do too....human nature I guess. When I see someone with a nice posture, I start wondering if they have the same expertise in other asanas. So far I came across 1 person that really really impressed me overall. I think she teaches, and has a really beautiful practice. I mean I have seen some senior foreign teachers have practices like that, but local teachers where I live, thats kinda rare..

Anyway this girl which really impressed me had loads of flexibility and bandhas of steel. Good grief! She was floating effortless in class and it was hard for me not to stare a bit. And she has great flexibility as well, forward bends, backbends, twists, arm balances, inversions. Everything was incredible. I don't know how she got like that, is it natural talent or did she actually had to practice to get that way??? Anyway I hope to get that way one day...maybe far into the future..hahah

Ok off topic, back to class, after kapotasana, B did more restorative stuff, nothing of note. sometimes he goes into inversion mania and makes us do headstands, arms balances, handstands etc, but not on Thursday. For the record my inversions are not exactly great. I think I have a lack of core strength, so in headstands I kinda sway around, pincha is not much better and the best time I had was with blocks and straps. Handstands...well I suck at them.
As in I was always too chicken to go up until a few weeks back. And without a wall, forget it! I can kinda kick up with one leg at a time against a wall, but thats all the progress I have made so far. Ahem, but I figure they are not really part of primary series anyway, so not really in a big hurry to get it at the moment.

So, today I had another class today, this time D's class. D 's sequence is pretty standard, and I think I have mentioned it before already.Nothing much new today, but I was determined to get my backbends back, and did the full eka pada kapotasana both sides today, right side was difficult again. Anyhow I think going into it from the side by grabbing the opposite big toe overhead by putting the foot into my elbow and then swinging around back face forward is bad form in my opinion. I figure I better reach overhead straight and grab the toe, but I haven't gotten to trying that yet. I think it kinda crunches my side waist and its not really symmetrical for the spine. Anyway will try it another day.

Anyway new discovery past few days. I found that if I sit against the wall in baddha konasana and put a block behind and push against it, I can give myself a cool adjustment in baddha konasana A. Usually I rely on B to squash me into it, but he ain't around or available all the time to do it, so this is really the next best thing. By levering my arms, I can push my spine straight and use my body weight to push my hips open and knees down. I think this is the best way I have discovered to help myself in this pose. After a 2 minute hold, I can actually see my knees sink down to floor by about 1 inch! cool...its gonna be part of my everyday research pose from now on.

Now I just need to find something to open my shoulders more for kapotasana. Tried the block between hands and elbows on chair trick I read on Yoga journal, but its really painful, so I gotto come up with an alternative. Will update once I get it!