Self practice notes

Had a great practice today and yesterday. I've gotten rid of the mirror that I have in my room that I look at too much most of the time during practice. There is a difference...I can feel it. It makes my practice so much more centred and internal. I think I need to ban mirrors from now on...;)


Due to pure laziness I've been stopping mostly at the end of primary series..I do add in some quad and shoulder stretches and loads of UD to make sure I don't lose my backbends though. Facing kapotasana on a daily basis is a little too much for me to handle..so I skip;P

Instead I've been doing an assortment of crim arm balances like parsva bakasana, koundinyasana etc. I figure it could help my bandhas..who knows.

I've realized something lately about my jumpbacks though..which is pretty close to a revelation to me. Its probably pretty obvious to everyone else, but for the perennially bandha challenged person like me, it was quite a discovery. Now..I've managed on occasion to somehow or other jumpback from sitting. Other times I just lift and swing..hit the floor and then bunny hop back. Recently though, I remembered J said to me to keep pushing the hips upwards even if the feet hit the floor, and I end up almost standing up before hopping back. Well, I've been doing that whenever I get stuck and really lifting the hips and pushing the hands downwards.


So...the past 2 days, I've kinda built some muscle memory into the body to do that under all circumstances..whether my feet hit the floor or not..and I've actually managed to FLOAT my jumpbacks!!! I mean I managed one of those actual floaty ones ala Lino Miele instead of the quick and dirty swing and throw myself backwards variety of jumpbacks...HOW INCREDIBLE IS THAT???? I mean I never thought I'd be able to come close...Of course I can only do that once or twice before getting stuck again...but this is a start and I'm really excited!

So I figure that appears to be the answer to my short arms and long torso problem. I've always thought to squeeze myself into as tight a ball as possible to swing through the arms backwards...now I realise if I can get the lift upwards, the length of my arms don't even come into play..its core strength/bandha. So THATS what they are talking about...how come it took me so long to figure it out???

Losing too much weight again..

Thats what I think Ashtanga is doing to me...;(

I'm one of those skinny women who can't seem to put on weight as it is..now I'm losing too much for my liking..

Seems like since I've put in all those jump backs (or my best rendition of them) into practice, I've been putting on bulk in the arms and shoulders and abs...but losing it where it counts;P Now this might be fine if I had much to spare, but the only place I've got some spare meat is in the hips and butt...

I'm now trying to cut down on the vinyasas a bit, and eating like a horse just to see if it helps me bulk up more. I can see the bones sticking out of my ribs and collarbones and shoulders...ewwww...

Well I know, this is not a blog about my how I look and Ashtanga, but its a real bummer for me, and I'm pretty darn vain. I don't see how some people can practice just as much or more than me and still remain quite curvy all over while I'm kinda wasting away...

Recently I had dinner with a whole bunch of people who practice and one of the girls had lost so much weight that she looks positively sickly. I'm really afraid to look like that.

On the other hand, obviously with weight loss, its much easier for me to lift up etc. Yes the jumpbacks have improved, and so have jumping back from tithibasana. I have to admit its fun to lift so high up after bhuja and supta k into titthibasana/bakasana and then jump back. I've seem to have gotten a whole lot better at doing that action.

The other day, my new teacher was trying to get me to jump back from upavista. I don't usually do that exit, cos I always just cross and lift. But he asked me to just press down after urdva upavista konasana and lift up. It was good (by my standards). I got my hips up almost into a handstand!!! but once I pull them back from there into bakasana, I fell out of it... I never thought I could do that though.
It always looked to much anti-gravity for me to pull off.

Everything is a little stiff and weak these few days because its the time of the month and I'm also easing off everything to hopefully not have to look like a walking skeleton.

No progress in any poses...but lots of muscular development in the arms and abs like I said. I can pretty much see my six pack....which to be honest wasn't what I was hoping to achieve...think its a little too much for a woman. I prefer a much softer look...