Monday, July 26, 2010

Random Practice Thoughts

At some point during a happy practice yesterday afternoon, the teacher who's class I was dropping into mentioned that I smile a lot in practice. I hadn't really thought about it until he mentioned it....but having thought about it, yes, I do smile a lot in practice. I'm happy in practice.
Add in my joy at practicing with a group and I'm really happy. After 4 or so years of primarily home practice, I don't take practicing with a group for granted anymore. The constant sound of ujjai is calming and I always have an easier time settling into practice with the sound of others breathing. Throw in the occasional adjustment or assist and the chance to share with other people the one thing I am most passionate about and what's not to smile about? :)

Practice Notes:
It seems I'm being revisited by the backbend vs. leg-behind-head tug of war. This has come and gone twice now and it seems it has returned for round 3. Currently, leg-behind-head has the rope on it's side. Backbends feel stuck and INTENSE! Easy dropping into kapotasana has disappeared and been replaced with dropping with a thud and clawing my way in. Likewise, comfort is gone from drop-backs. Lots of rocking and bent knees required just to drop back and come up. I've been adding the first few poses from second to my twice weekly primary practice to see if I could even things out a bit. No luck yet, just sticky backbends and achy hips.

Thoughts or suggestions from any of you out there in Cyber Shala World?

some extracurricular backbending maybe?

4 comments:

  1. Christine, a pleasure to meet you. Sounds like you are living the life - the regular practice life.

    Sometimes the tug-of-war you describe halfway through second series is rooted in the psoas not quite knowing how to shift gears. It learns some pretty subtle skills in order to stand up from a backbend, but then it sometimes gets confused again - along with its partner hip flexors - when the deeper FBH becomes habitual. It works out it time :-)

    Not sure if you saw when Karen first bought her yoga trapeze and blogged about it, but sometimes flipping upside-down gives new perspective, experience and great release for the deep hip flexors. It's a wonderful release as well as a learning tool - I have one in my basement and students love it.

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  2. Owl,

    Likewise, thanks for dropping in!

    Yes, the root of this definitely feels like it's at the psoas. After all the tugging back and forth, I'm very clear about where it's located now! It's reassuring to hear it will most likely work itself out at some point. Intermediate has been quite the adventure...

    I do think I remember when Karen blogged about the yoga trapeze. hmm...a fun new addition to the studio maybe... :)

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  3. Cool! I'm looking into getting one, but trying to figure out where I'd hang it. The house is old, lots of concrete block and stucco...hard to identify where exactly the studs are.
    Any tips on installation?

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