Thursday, 22 March 2012

Kapotasana Progress videos Dec 08 to present

Noticed I hadn't updated this post since 2009, related posts for each approach can be found either by the link in the youtube description or looking a couple of days either side of the date below the video. I started yoga/Ashtanga March 2007

The first twelve video's are from a camera phone take a moment to load up and don't seem to show up on an iPad or mobile device.

The last video is from this morning.


08 Dec 08 Drop back to wall


03 Jan 09 First Drop back---------


04 Jan 09 Reaching toes


13 Jan 08 walking hands back


5th Jan 09 Working on Kapotasana B


1st Feb 09 deeper bend


6th Mar 09 Up from Lagu + deeper Kapo


13th Mar 09 First come up


13th Apr 09 Side grab


15th Jun 09 after few weeks off backbends


19th July 09


6th Oct 09


 First ankle bind 4th march 2010


First feet from the air 11th March 2010


First heels from the air + hands behind head approach Apr 29, 2010


First time catching ankles Jan 18, 2011


25 breath kapo (rishi approach) Jan 29, 2012


Tucking the tailbone approach Jan 4, 2012


Heels from the air, ankle bind, richard freeman influence 22 Mar 2012

15 comments:

nycashtangi said...

Hi there
your blog is really insipring. I gave up on an ashtanga practice last year that I had been cultivating for the past 5 years and miss it so am trying again but this time without a shala to go to, and just regularly at home. I am halfway through the primary series ( at MAri d) and i navasana and most of the closing sequence. In the room you practice in--do you turn the heat on or have you found building internal heat with beathing is all that is neccessary?

the one thing i liked about going to the shala was group practice and all the heat/moisture that would geneerate that, i miss that feeling and hope i can recreate it at home?
do u use a humidifier or aything like that?

Grimmly said...

HI NYC, Good luck with getting your blog up and running and with getting back on the mat.

You asked about heat at my place. Now it's getting colder in the morning I'm turing the radiators on. I have the heating set at 20 degrees and i practice at an angle to the radiator with the top of my mat closest to it. When it begins to get really chilly i also have a little fan heater. Last year i was trying to get the temperature up to shala heat at around 30 degrees (a few posts on here somewhere exploring this) but it was too much and I went down to 27 and now I aim at a comfortably warm room and let Ujaii do the rest. Works for me. I remember seeing videos of Lydia who practices in the Canadian Rocky's practicing with a bobble hat on.

nycashtangi said...

thanks for the advice. Which blog is Lydias? I am curious to read one from someone who is practicing in a cold climate. thanks much.

Maria

Grimmly said...

Lydia's blog is Being with yoga, here's a link to the bobble hat video
http://beingwithyoga.blogspot.com/2008/12/cloudy-days-hot-chocoloate-and-press.html

Joan(yogagodess) said...

Wow great progress. I am still on the wall. You did develop a great thoracic curve and that extra little pelvic shift from the Freeman work makes your spine so evenly curved and long in the deep backbend.

What is the music in the background?

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sEsYsJZRCs&feature=player_embedded

chek site Interview with Shubha and Sribhashyam son of krishnamacharya

Grimmly said...

Thanks Joan i've added some links to the original posts. It's still amazing to me that the backbends have come along as they have it was never an area of practice i expected, always an interesting posture to work on, still find it the most psychologically challenging.

The music is probably Bahgavan Das, saw a video of CK's blog and it blew me away http://youtu.be/k0k2qWhAy_4
The best album for me is love songs to the dark lord, i started practicing along to it when i shifted Ashtanga to the evenings, helped me get in the mood for practice .

Grimmly said...

Thanks for the link Anon, I've actually been sharing it this week on my Facebook page am planning a post.

Óscar Montero said...

Last kapo show huge control of the body also of the mind: slow movement, not hurry, sensing and feeling the root to the ground. It is nice to see in motion, and of course the progressión from the begining.
God practice!

Grimmly said...

Thanks Leon , certainly feeling more comfortable and controlled, think the seeming steadiness of mind is more a case of trying to focus on ten things at once, sit bones together, pubic bone to coccyx, unit forward, sacrum through, legs straight, lift pelvis off legs, lift out of pelvis, roll shoulders , open chest, leave space between shoulder blades, bandhas, breath, kidney wings, little more out of the hips, press toes into the mat, roll legs inwards.....how many's that? Probably reminding myself of a few of those several times as I go back and over. look forward to when I internalise all those such that I don't need to think about any of them anymore .

Óscar Montero said...

Grimmly, all this actions and your last comment about internalize, make me think on a concept: ideokinesis, and the pictures from Erick Franklin's books, instead of having many things, taking a picture of it. Normally I do us you, but I will check his books in some point.

YouChick said...

Hi Grimmly,
Nice work on the Kapo. Inspiring! I couldn't help but notice in the earlier videos that you seem to be wearing trousers, which seems an unusual choice of clothing for asana practice. :-) I'm wondering if you worked on that posture after or during a full series practice, or if it's something you worked on separately, without doing all of the previous postures first. I'm starting to add some second series postures to my practice, but just learning how to put my body in the positions is so laborsome and disruptive to the flow. I'm curious how you went about adding new postures to your established practice.

Grimmly said...

Hi Youchick, I don't tend to film in the middle of practice but at he end of practice especially if one thing comes up that I want to work on or Kapo for example that seemed a little deeper, more open. I tend to throw some pants on, perhaps a Shirt to stay warm and just to be a little more ...modest : )
I started ashtanga with The Swenson book and all it's modifications, I pretty much just practiced 2nd series as a whole modifying where necessary.
Anoher nice approach to 2nd series though is Ramaswami's Vinyasa Krama I've posted on it quite a bit, it has more prep postures for Kapo than 2nd, the bow sequence in particular. How about the usual standing then Ramaswami's Bow sequence add on ushtrasana and perhaps laghu then go straight to Urdhava danurasana and finishing, nice practice. the Vinyasa Krama Asymmetric sequence is a nice lead up to the leg behind head work too, good hip openers, same thing, standing, some of asymmetric then on to finishing.

Some of the tricky postures I tended to work on in a second practice in the evening, Karandavasana for example, a little warm up and then lotus in headstead up and down and then tripod headstand etc just playing around with the posture really same with jump backs, chakrasana, dropback and the third series arm balances all suit a second mini experimental practice.
That's pretty much how. Approached it all anyway, hope that helps.

YouChick said...

Thanks for the feedback. I don't have Ramaswami's books (librarians are on strike here in Toronto) at the moment, so using your Vinyasa Krama Practice Book as a guide, would you suggest doing all the subroutines under the Bow heading? I'm not familiar with these postures, all new stuff for this 15-year Primary series veteran. I'm a bit intimidated. I tried Manduka the other day and my knees are still reminding me about it.

Grimmly said...

Sorry you chick, i missed your second comment.

No I would avoid the Viparita salabhasana and Bherundasana for now and as I said go into manduka one leg at a time and without pushing the foot down, more a suggestion of a push/press, work up to it. the rest should be OK.

But Vinyas Krama is flexible, so don't feel you need to do the whole Sequence each time, choose a couple of the subroutines and add them to your regular practice

i think that is a nice approach for ashtangi's just add the occasional VK subnroutine to your regular ashtanga practice, can be extra preparation or development or just exploration of some of the other possibilities.

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