I've been lazy as far as backbends are concerned. I would do my five Urdhva Danhurasanas and then more often than not give coming up a miss. I probably got around to dropping back three times a week and even then I'd do one and call it a day. Had always felt the whole back bending aspect of Ashtanga to be a little over rated and out of proportion to the rest of the practice. Still feel a bit that wayBut due to the knee problem I had recently, I decided to work on backbends for a while, and it's kind of turned into backbending month. I've had some good Kapo's, grabbing my heel, managed to walk in and brush my heel with my fingertip in UD and now my dropback and come back up seem to be coming together.
Wish I'd focusing on this more months ago.
Yesterday was the first time I dropped back and came straight back up again three times in a row. Each time I came up was a little smoother/easier. It's still untidy, there's still a lot of rockin' and rollin' and my feet are a disgrace but it felt good. there's a video on YouTube where the guy drops back, rocks gently back and forth and on the third rock forward comes smoothly up, that I would like to be able to do. If I can make today's practice consistent it looks possible.
Sometime or other though I'm going to have to address my feet. One of the drawbacks of practicing at home is that you can allow yourself to get into some very bad habits.
6 comments:
Down: marvellous!
Up: perfectly respectable... now control your feet :)
Hey you are officially allowed to do pasasana now! :)
Hey fancy that, I'm legit. Couldn't believe the second one, up on the second rock, where the hell did that come from. Hmmmm the feet, will have to think about that.
Nice one! I've got the same issue with my feet. I call it "spatchcock feet"... y'know, like the spatchcock chicken dish with its legs splayed out! The past couple days have also been backbend days for me. There's definitely a backbend buzz in the air!!
It's wrong to be envious, right? Looks great. I only wish my back would bend even a fraction that much.
Hey, is it legit if you lift your heels to drop back, then either splay your feet or lift your heels again to come back up?? David Swenson does it.....
Although most mysore teachers will chastise you for lifting heels when dropping back / coming up its better alignment wise to do this than to flare the toes out sideways (pretty much every other yoga style has no gripes with heel lifting)
Once you get the hang of doing it with heels up you can then work on grounding the heels over time.
P.S nice blog Grimmly
Hongkongstuey, seeing that name in my inbox made my day, thanks for the comment. I think your right I'd rather lift my heels than have them splayed out like, how did you put it Skippity, spatchcock feet. But don't think I've ever been a lifter, just a splayer. Probably best to learn without either bad habits, too late for me, but how the hell do I break it.
Swenson lifts his heels, Lew? I hadn't noticed Must have a look.
Spatchcock feet : (
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