On the gym ball..

Thats what I've been up to lately...besides practice that is.

I've been rolling on my trusty gym ball;) Its a miracle invention when it comes to strengthening the core, me thinks;)

I haven't been feeling that much work going on in the abs for a while, save for when I crunch myself up to jump back maybe...but this is a different kind of tough..

So lets see, I like to do some variation of plank on the ball, arabesque (sp?) which is when u lift one leg off while balancing the other knee on the ball in some sort of quasi plank pose. Lift up to pike from plank, lift up from some bakasana position into a pike, headstand and move the ball around with one leg...wheeeww...and its super fun and pretty challenging..

I started this a few weeks back and my koundinyasana I and II have improved immensely, I think its all that core stabilization going on from all this. In fact I jumped out of koundinyasana (the twisted one) and that was sooo fun to do..I think the ball must have activated some deep forgotten muscles in me that made arm balancing so much better.

I'm actually starting to enjoy arm balances nowadays..although its really the saddest part of my overall practice. I've always been the bendy girl who can grab my heels and bend in most directions..but can't do much arm balancing..the tables are turning now...hahhaha...and nope, don't feel like I've lost much flexibility except the left shoulder is getting a little tight.

I'm thinking of adding some twists, parsva bakasana variations to my ball regime if I have time, think it'll tone up my obliques;)