Ahhh my friends, another one! Another marvelous practice! I went over at about 11 am, so that I could combine practice and teaching (I teach a 1:30 class on TR), since the gym and the university are about a quarter mile from each other.
Stronger, lighter sun salutations; some soreness in the deltoids and shoulders, from this return to vinyasa. Big, friendly standing poses; good concentration; ujjayi breathing and dristi and hop to the front! Head not to the floor in all four Prasarita Padottanasanas but I let it go. Decent balance; better with the left leg extended than the right. Some tough vinyasas in seated, but better flexibility in the back than yesterday, throughout.
A lot of intentionality in the Marichyasana sequence. Careful breathing, slower, more intentional movement; something about the twist is really cranking the hips open. I noticed this in the standing twists too. Seven wrist binds out of eight poses--just you wait, Mari D with the right leg in half-lotus! It's coming!
Still cannot jump into the arm balance and the setup for the tortoise; that's still fine. ONE TIME, outside practice, I landed a jump into this. David Swenson says that the yoga fairies sometimes play games with you like that. But the poses were deep and satisfying, and today I LANDED all of the Bakasanas, including the jump in Intermediate.
Today's Intermediate was very similar to yesterday's, as far as binding or not, but the backbends were more open, there was less pulling in the front body--hurrah! I have discovered that one of the very best poses for cracking open the front-outside of my hips (where I keep all my tension) is this one, which may seem odd, but if I look back, really open the throat chakra, I feel this really pleasant, never-too-intense cracking open right in the magic spot, that line where the abdomen becomes the upper thigh.
I'm going to change my playing-around with Kapo; today I was moving the hands in, but what that does is pull my back long and straight, and I lose the "dorsal arch." So what I'm going to do is concentrate on pressing the hands DOWN and the navel UP, sort of working toward Kapo B in order to get Kapo A.
The twists remain fantastic, and I did the three sections of Eka Pada Sirsasana (foot behind head: first put it there, second fold forward, third press up with it still there) on both sides and stuck them AGAIN! Milagro! True, it's not exactly a "comfortable seat" in the pressup, and I'm sure I'd lose it if I were made to hold it for 10 breaths rather than 5, but for 5, I can do it, swing through, chaturanga!
Today I went to backbends after that, and did three press-ups, the third being the straightest of the arms (but hands still wide, not under shoulders as they have been in the past). Nonetheless, these were far better than yesterday's backbends, and in the three hang-backs after, I could see the edge of my well-loved red rubber mat! Hurrah! Then I went to the wall outside the track and took a handstand (as Clayton had me do in SF) and then closed. Magnificent. And it took 100 minutes in all, I still had a big ole half hour to clean up and prep my class--Conan, we've won again!
I am loving this "dedicated space" thing. Not for 80 bucks a month yet, but I'm loving it.
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