Two weeks off. Back bending!

I have a couple of weeks off, starting this weekend. I'd planned on doing the Asymmetric sequence the first week and Supine the second. These are the two longest sequences in Ramaswami's Vinyasa Krama book and it made sense to go through them while I have some extra time. However, all the good stuff coming out of Boodie's place at the moment has seduced me to the dark side and back bending. (besides Asymmetric isn't taking as long now that I'm becoming more familiar with it. I've also cut Supine down a bit by practicing the Sarvangasana sequence with Sirsasana in the Inverted sequence).

I'm a little ambivalent towards back bending. On the one hand I tend to feel it's a little over emphasised in Ashtanga, the whole back bend sequence at the end of practice let alone the Kapo's and Vrishi's that await, and yet.....

You have to admit they are the coolest postures, such wonderful, shapes, classic poses one and all. Ustrasana, Kapotasana, Salabhasana , Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana, Vrschikasana, Chakra Bandhasana......

I should work at them more and Boodiba always inspires me to work hard, to work harder.

The deciding factor was her writing about staying longer in the poses, this is something I'm into at the moment, breathing through the poses, fits in with what I'm working at in Vinyasa Krama.

The main back bend heavy sequences in Vinyasa krama are the Bow and Vrajasana Sequences, though of course back bends crop up through most of the sequences, often as counter poses.

The Bow sequence subroutines are built around

Makrarasana, Mandukasana, Bhujangasana , Rajakapotanasana, Salabhasana, Viparita salabhasana, Bherundasana, Dhanurasana.

To this I've been adding the Vajrasana sequence form the Meditative poses Sequence which includes Subroutines around

Vajrasana, Balasana, Ushtra nishada , Advanced Ushtrasana and Kapotasana

These seem to go together well, the Bow sequence acting almost as preparation for the deeper back bend's of the Vajrasana Sequence. After those I should be nicely set up for some long Urdhava Danhurasana's and Slow controlled Drop back's.

The rest of my time off I'd planned to take up with extending and developing my Pranayama and chanting routine, plus some quality time with the second half of the Yoga Sutra's and Sankara's Brahma Sutra commentary. Been reading a book on Sankara and my guy Heidegger recently and the young Adi is blowing my mind.

So quite the yoga fortnight, looking forward to it.