Sunday, November 15, 2009

495/261: Smooth Sunday.

One of those Sundays where I was very tempted to linger in bed, take another day of bed rest from the Friday and Saturday's asthma difficulties - treated with multiple tisanes, water, soup, rest and more episodes of Lost than should probably be watched in one sitting.

SilentSpeaker easily convinced me over GChat to practice - basically reminding me that I could stop at any point I wanted to - my original plan was to go simply do Primary. Breath came so
rhythmically almost like a metronome, each pose floated into another. I ended up easily smoothly practicing through laghu vajrasana and as I move to backbends D comes over and adds kapotasna a and kapotasna b. Very surprised and excited by this - still trying to work on the illusive "stall" thing when transitioning between ustrasana, laghu and kapotasana.

Thinking maybe break dancing lessons next..
or maybe give capioera another shot...

After three long holds in urdhva dhanurasana, three quick standing to dropbacks and immediately into assisted, and down half way on the last drop, D grabs my wrists and firmly plants my hands right to the lower calves. Of course, my hands slipped down a bit, and heels came up a teeny tiny bit - but oh, that hold was glorious.

There's been a bit of a return to backbending work in the cybershala - and after this morning's fairly successful exploration of tiriang mukhottanasana (LOY 418-9) decided to see where things are in the backbending department.

Started with a little chair work from Iyengar class, really working to try to get the pelvis tucked, extension through the front body, spine deep into the backbody, and lots of rotation through the shoulders.



And then of course, a little play with urdhva dhanurasana and dropbacks.

7 comments:

Grimmly said...

Yay videos! Nice drop backs and come ups, wish I could do that first time without all the rocking. Like the chair thing too, will try that, my hang backs could do with some more work.

Portside said...

Hey Grimmly. Thanks!
Right now I'm really trying to work on the rotation of the pelvis, broadening the back of the thighs, and really trying to get that extension from the chair in the free standing UD.

As for standing - for me broadening the back of the thighs really helps me on the a transfer of strength from up the legs to center of the chest.

alfia said...

I like these videos, thak you for posting them. I will try the chir thing in my vinyasa class, my students will surely appreciate it!

karen said...

I LOVE the chair work. Do you know of any resources online or in books re: those kinds of Iyengar exercises?

Arturo said...

those videos are really beautiful, well your form and control. the one with the chair looks wonderful.
hugs
Arturo

Portside said...

Alfia - I hope that has helped your students!

Thanks Karen! As for resources, the prop work I work with is from the Iyengar classes I've attended - primarily two teachers from UnityWoods in DC. I know there's a book, Iyengar Yoga the Path to Holistic health that shows many set-ups and it's available through Amazon.

Online, check out the photo galleries of San Diego Yoga Studio. They seem to have the largest collection of prop work that I've been able to locate on the web. LOY has no prop work and Geeta Iyengar's Yoga: A Gem for Women seems to assume familiarity with prop work.

In my very limited Iyengar experience the teachers do a lot of the prop work based on the needs on the class, both taking students deeper and working with physical limitations with similar prop work. Quite elegant to watch really. When I'm back to DC and have a chance to swing by UW, I'll take a look through their bookstore and see if I can come up with any further recommendations.

Thank you Arturo! Planning on working on the video quality - I have a feeling it's more of a lighting issue in my apartment.

karen said...

Wonderful! I'll order the book this evening!