Below are pictures from yesterday morning (colour) and from the last Kapo picture I took in July (b&w). It felt a lot deeper as if I was going back steeper. It felt as if I was managing to keep my hips a little further forward and I was definitely able to spend longer walking back in.
In the video you can see I was trying to walk my hands up my feet but that didn't seem to get me anywhere. Next I tried coming form the inside of my feet for a change. Are my shoulders further over my feet this time, it's difficult to tell with the two different camera angles.
One thing I'm sure of though is that I'm finding it easier to come back up, I'm kind of engaging mula and uddiyana bandha and attempting to rock my pelvis, coccyx up pubic bone down which seems to generate some motion forward and up.
10 comments:
it has been truly amazing watching you transform...your practice is beautiful and your body has changed so much since you began this journey~~ Love it! Namaste~
thank you for this blog ... i ran into it a few years back and did not think it would still be around .... it came up when i was searching internet for jump backs, your tips where so helpful, then i was looking in my bookmars the other day and saw the saved sight and visited and per your recommendation have begun reading the vinyasa yoga book A BIG THANK YOU ... boy this book has clarified so many things, I want to thank you for your honesty on your site as well as doing what so many have been told to not do ... follow your own inner guru ... koodos to you
Hey anthony, did you only come to yoga 2 years ago? And already you do intermediate? Did you just practice every day? Awesome!
~Oze
Wow, been quite a week for compliments, thank you for these. I don't know about beautiful Tracey, perhaps it's just videoing well, still feels clumsy and awkward to me most of the time, though it does have it's moments. Getting used to feeling fit and healthy now, quite a shock when i come across some of those old pictures and videos, especially the one when I started and could hardly touch my shins let alone my toes. Quite something this practice of ours.
Yep still around Lance, two years now, god have i really been blogging that long, but then I hardly said anything for the first year just video after video. Really great book, great to see the asanas we do in the different context.
Hi Oze, I started Feb 07 but as a home practitioner I get to decide when I progress on to the next pose. In a Shala I might have been held back longer. As it was I perhaps started intermediate a few months before I should have, but no harm done.
Hi there - thank you for videos! I find I lose the "steepness" in my thighs as soon as my hands land (and especially when my elbows land) but I've noticed that doesn't happen in your clip...are you using your hands a bit to keep yourself forward and maintain the straightness of the thighs or does it just happen? Also, has your work in Kapo helped you Laghu Vajrasana? Despite making progress in Kapo I still find LV impossible and I wonder how others experience it. Thanks!
HI KMB
Losing the steepness was a BIG problem for me too, still is but it's better. Boodiba made a video using ropes to keep herself more upright, She also made one using a belt to hold around her thighs to push against.
There seems to be a link between this and karandavasana, you kind of rotate the thighbones inwards to go down and then try to rotate them outwards to go back up again (same for laghu). The further you can walk your hands in for Kapo B the easier it becomes to go back up again.
I don't think I'm using my hands to stay straight here I think I've just got a little better at it. Doing the standing back sequence from Vinyasa krama has helped give me a bit more control here, enabling me to hang back a little longer which gives me a little more time to think about what I'm doing. here's the link to that post
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/2009/09/vinyasa-krama-hands-locked-behind-back.html
Thank you Grimmly - I will check out Boodiba's video, I think I know the one(s) you mean. The Kapo and LV progress videos you posted yesterday were very helpful...your LV approach (hands to calves) is more natural to me than the way I first learned (hands to ankles) and it made a difference in my practice this morning! Thx
here's the link to the boodiba rope trick
http://boodiba3.blogspot.com/2009/04/its-really-hard-in-lot-of-ways-to-watch.html
I learned the old way with the hands down the calves towards the knees. i think I tend to grip my ankles now but the calves helped in the beginning.
glad it helped.
Thanks for getting back to me. how do you maintain your motivation for home practice? I have to transition to full home practice now that moving away from shala is inevitable. Have bought a house and need to save money on classes. Have set a room aside purely for yoga and my 2hr daily japa practice. Just worried I'll get lonely and unmotivated. Any hints/tips? you're an inspiration. I look forward top reading more of your blog and learning from you.
~ Oze
Oze, not ignoring your comment. but it's a big question and I'm thinking about it. Think i might do a post on Motivation this week sometime then everyone will get the chance to comment which might bring in how other practitioners motivate themselves, not just me.
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