Darn those latissimi dorsi, back off!

Perhaps this is akin to the Ashtanga complaint '"My arms are too short to jump back" but there's a voice nagging away at me, a whispering imp on my shoulder, "Your lats are getting too big for binding".

I sort of want to be the skinny, stringy, sinewy yogi, the guy with the fingernails at the top right of my blog perhaps, but it seems it's not to be, my genes have other plans. Was saying to another blogger yesterday, wouldn't mind a buddha belly but a 42" chest  doesn't fit the profile ( something like that). And the chest, it's growing, the pranayamam, Ashtanga, they both seem to be conspiring, 42" is with the tape pulled tight, I'm being generous.

The picture btw is from July last year (only good back shot I could find), just after getting back from the VKTT course when I was probably the lightest I've been in years, 75 kg (just checked, 76.5 currently), yet still the lats. 

I don't get it, I'm a veggie, I eat little, twice a day, I avoided the Arm balances from 3rd, changed my jump through to straight legs ( less work on the upper body), cut out fancy handstands, but still the lats, what do they live on ,what do they eat.

Of course the truth of the matter is, they don't seem to make a difference, can still bind at the wrist in the Marichi's, Purna M, Passasana and what have you, just as with the gnashing of teeth about our arms are  being too short, this is no doubt just another paranoia.

I'm reminded now of Touchdown Todd (?) the ex US football player on Larry's The Rocket II Video, now that boy had lat's mine are latte in comparison.

Anyway it's an Ashtanga rest day, always a little out of sorts on rest days. Some pranayama perhaps, a little VK is called for .

Pressing the pause button

Just about to start my practice, this will make two weeks of following along with Sharath, either the captured live stream, his CD or DVD. It's been fun and a good way to get back into straight Ashtanga but I'm starting to count the cost.

M. exclaimed last night that I look more.... muscly, I hadn't noticed but I suppose so, all those jump backs and through I guess (tend to do less in my VK practice). What I have noticed is a loss of flexibility, these five (quick) breath stays in postures are not the same as the long long stays in Paschimottanasana, badha konasana, mahamudra etc. that I was used to in Vinyasa Krama.

Also, following just Primary as if I'm in Mysore for a month, I feel my backbends slipping away, wonder if I can still do a half decent Kapo. I  pause Sharath after urdhva dhanurasana so I can do dropbacks, the first week I just did three and pressed play again, last couple of days I've been doing five to ten just to open my back a little more.

In fact I'm hitting the pause button more and more, at paschimottanasana to do the four hand variations instead of Sharath's two or three and longer slower breaths. At badha konasana, Sarvangasana at Sirsasna, longer stays, longer, slower inhalations and exhalation.

The Led is not ideal.

I'm thinking of making my own led cd/audio file, just for my own use, a slower count and/or perhaps one with an eight breath count. I think CK told me once that the first edition of Lino's book had an eight count. Plus I've been getting into the Sanskrit count, practicing that, would be fun to do.

Can't decide whether to switch off the cd/dvd altogether and go it alone, at my own pace or stick it out for the month, probably the latter as if nothing else it's an interesting experiment and it is tightening up my practice.

Thank god for end of practice pranayama, so greedy for it at the moment, a chance to really wallow in the breath.

... and my evening Vinyasa krama practice, switched from working through the book, to working maha mudra, Paschinmottanasana, Badha konasana/kandapindasana, crave them.

All you with a 2nd series practice who go to Mysore for a month, how does it affect your 2nd, I imagine it comes back soon enough. God, wonder if I can still lift my Karandavasana.

5:59 Sharath's about to start the chant, little later this morning as I have a day off, something or other going on in London, we're off to Southall, going to buy me the longest Bansuri flute I can find.

Jump back and through variations

Question.
Do people feel bandhas are best served through the straight leg or crossed leg jump though?

I'm still undecided, see yesterdays post and comments for context.

Below are some of the different variations I've tried, some with more success than others



Some better examples of the straight leg





and the crossed

Born again Straight leg jump though.

One of the things that threw me out the other week, when I was trying to practice along with Sharath's led primary, was my jump through. I've been using a Kino inspired, floaty, half handstand thing for a couple of years but couldn't seem to tie it into Sharath's count.  I've been following along with Sharath's led ever since, trying to tighten up my practice, my vinyasa ( here meaning jump back/through) was the first thing that needed thinking about.

I decided to go with the straight leg jump through only trouble is, I've never really mastered it. I had a go at it off and on a few times, even tried to learn it blindfolded and though I eventually managed it, I never really practiced it enough to really nail it. A month of primary is a lot of jump throughs so the perfect time to hammer away at it.

And with some success, it's coming. The first couple of days I was landing on my heels most of the time and a couple of times, when tired, only just managed to make it through. It's still not graceful or elegant but I get four or five nice ones a practice now, it's becoming more consistent.

The ones that work best are when I really lift up through my shoulders, keep my hips up and almost hold my backside back. Oh and Uddiyana, that seems to bring the thighs up and allow me to catch and hold it a second before lowering. I think I need to try and hold my backside back even longer and bring my thighs up higher to really catch it,  need to slow it down too (Will update this every time I notice something else that helps).

Still needs work but I'm hoping by the end of the month of led primary's I'll have it settled in.



Bit of a change this morning, instead of the Sharath led I went for the Sri K Pattabhi Jois Led primary from Yogaworks. I have both Primary and Intermediate, I got on OK with the Intermediate a few months back but struggled, again with the timing, with the primary. Much better this morning, he doesn't give you as much time as Sharath to get in and out of postures and jumping through etc, which is fine for me, but what he does do is give you a little more time to breathe, so ideal. There are a couple of quirks, only Badha Konasana A, no B and no Parivritta Parsva Konasana for some reason.

Having both the primary and Intermediate i was able to cut and splice and make a couple of extra practice videos.

1. Primary to Kapo
2. Primary to Karandavasana
3. Primary to Navasana then 2nd

After this month of Primary I thought I use the Primary to Kapo for a couple of weeks and then the Primary to Karandavasana and then see about the 3rd one or just split and practice the yogaworks Jois led 2nd.

BTW has anyone got or seen Lino's 2nd and 3rd series DVD, be interested to hear about it.

Here's a tase of the Yoga works DVD's ( clink on the info for a link for getting hold of a copy).

Born again Ashtangi II, Mysore (?) Becoming Authorised (!)

Into the second week of practicing along with Sharath's led primary, I've settled into the captured stream from Joisyoga. They seem to have stopped streaming this on a loop and though Sharath is now teaching in Encinitas there's nothing about streaming Friday's led from there. My Guess is that they'll turn the NYC stream into a DVD. I'd buy it if they do, I prefer it to Sharath's CD and DVD, it's quite a bit slower, room to breathe.

I noticed while trying to see if they were streaming from Encinitas that their 'boutique' is online now, us guys get a t-shirt, that's it. Seems Sharath has a new DVD out too, half Primary, didn't I hear somewhere that Kino is doing a half primary as well?

The born-again Ashtangi thing is going well, enjoying the led primary every morning but it's exhausting, did I really practice at that pace every morning? I'm sweating buckets and kind of feel as if I've hit a reset button or having An American werewolf in London transformation going on, but spread over a couple of weeks rather than two minutes. I seem to be getting leaner, feel longer, limbs lengthening, becoming stronger perhaps, fitter too.

Switched my eating around from a light breakfast and dinner to a light breakfast and lunch then nothing but a banana or two until breakfast, working well, feel much lighter or at least emptier during practice.

Playing a little bit by the rules, even have my chin to my knees rather than forehead, hell why not, got my drishti going and everything. I also took a rest day on Saturday, complete day off, not even pranayama. That was quite nice actually, felt it Sunday though, hard first practice back.

The plan is to do a month of this and then perhaps add 2nd up to kapo for a month, then up to Karanda and split the thrid month. Never really did it that way, just jumped into 2nd ( just checked, i kind of jumped in, worked through the series a few times on my day off then did some primary to kapo for a while then primary to Karanda before splitting, so if not adding poses then adding sections), so like the chance to explore. But for now keep this up for a month, following along with Sharath's led, just as if I was in Mysore. That reminds me, I was asked two questions...

1. Now I'm a born-again Ashtanga, do I have plans to go to Mysore?
2. If so would I be interested in becoming Authorised to teach?

Mysore....I don't know, I've thought about it recently, especially since I sold a Sax last week and could buy a ticket. I just can't think of a good enough reason. I don't even practice in a shala here let alone go over there. If I went I could only go for a month so would only be practicing primary and I can do that here, am doing that here and as intensely as if I was in that room. I drop back and come up here pretty deeply (stop the video to do a few of those then pick it back up at paschi) so don't need to go for that. There are a few bloggers it would be nice to have the chance to practice with but I'm the least social person I know so would mostly be keeping myself to myself. Be nice to spend some time in India but there are other areas I think I'd rather visit than just stay in Mysore for a month. Be nice to see where Krishnamacharya taught all those years ago though. I don't know, see how I feel a few months from now, when does the shala open again, when do people tend to go, end of the year?

The second question amused me, thanks for that P. Would I like to be authorised to teach Ashtanga? Again, I don't go to a shala and don't particularly agree with hands on adjustments, be a bit hypocritical of me to consider teaching in that way, although I hear there are some ashtanga teachers who rarely adjust physically. Then of course there's the integrity issues of planning to go out there, what, three of four times, with that intention and the feeling of selling out I'd have from keeping silent and toeing the party line when I've questioned so much in the past and still have questions or concerns. ( Not critical of other teachers here, it would just be an issue for me because of my... well documented, concerns regarding the practice) No, no, no plans on that score, don't think they'd have me anyway.

Besides, though I enjoy practicing Ashtanga I don't think it's for everyone, it works for me and I seem to kind of need this kind of practice, at least for another couple of years but If I was to recommend a yoga practice then it would be Vinyasa Krama. No plans to seek to teach that either at the moment although I guess I would if someone asked, would feel obliged to given that Ramaswami has shared so much.

Re Vinyasa Krama, I'm employing Arturo's approach in the evenings after work and working through the different sequences, picking up where I left off the day before. Twenty minutes of Asana before pranayama pratyahara and japa mantra meditation. Seems to be working out nicely thanks Arturo.

One thing that did strike me recently, followed a question from Claudia concerning whether I considered Sharath to be preserving the lineage of Krishnamacharya. My answer was that I thought he was preserving the lineage of later Jois, which is fine of course, but that perhaps Manju might better be considered to be preserving early Krishnamachary ( of the Yoga Makarnada and Mysore) through teaching more in a manner of early Jois ( which I assume to be closer to how he (Jois) was taught/guided by krishnamacharya). But I don't know just speculating.

If then I'm interested in continuing/preserving/promoting Krishnamacharya's teaching, both early and later periods, then I should probably try and attend Manju's workshops and possibly, one day his TT's.

Has everybody downloaded their copy of Krishnamacharya's yoga Makaranda?

Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda .....at last.

The Yoga Makaranda was Krishnamacharya's first book, it was written in 1932, supposedly over four days and published in the Kanada language in 1934 and later translated into Tamil. It was clearly a major influence on Krishanamacharya's student Sri K Patarbhi Jois's own book Yoga Mala and of the Ashtanga practice we know and love, as well as many of the current popular styles of Yoga.

Last Summer I was fortunate enough to study the text, line-by-line with Ramaswami, Krishnamacharya's student of over thirty years, on his 200 hour Vinyasa Krama TT course.

This book may well be considered the source, the holy grail and thanks to the generosity of Lakshmi & Nandini Ranganathan the text has now been made freely available such that we can decide for ourselves, enjoy.

Read Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda

Download Kriahnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda

'...I ask that you do not sell it but you are welcome to put it on a website for anybody to download, to email further, or to lend your manuscript to be copied by anybody. It does have typos (remember, we did this in 2006 and planned to do a final revision or new edition later) but I think it is actually otherwise reasonable (we would welcome corrections and comments). Most importantly, it will accomplish our goal that people read what Krishnamacarya had to say without interruption and without censorship. The book is powerful and wonderful and I hope any of you that reads it finds it as meaningful and relevant as we did.'

Nandini (Ranganathan).

Another version of the text has just been published by Media Garuda, I ordered a copy, which arrived this week, before I was aware of a dispute regarding their edition. The background to this dispute can be found HERE, I leave you to make up your own minds about it.

The Media Garudu edition is, it has to be said, a nicely produced book. The pictures are beautiful and it has a nice layout. At the back are a series of line drawings showing the vinyasas in and out of the postures as outlined in the text. It also has footnotes. My first impression of these were that they often seemed to seek to bring the 1930's text in line with a more recent conception of Yoga possibly held by the publishers that did not seem necessarily in keeping with the original text, but perhaps I'm being unfair.

In the next few days I'll be doing a parallel reading of the texts to see how they compare and get back to you.

...and practice?

It's been good, motivation up and down but managed to get on the mat, in fact I noticed Friday that I hadn't taken a rest day in over a month. I don't take the usual Ashtanga rest or moon days but do tend to take a couple of days off a month, usually a Monday but recently I've been doing a very light core Vinyasa Krama practice on Mondays and counting that as a rest.

So there was the Back thing and trying to work around it and then the gungho, cowboy-up and power through it with Ashtanga and painkillers month that that seemed to sort it out. This last month has just been a steady Ashtanga/Vinyasa Krama month relatively straight AshtangaPrimary on Friday, Intermediate on Saturday and then Vinyasa Krama practice the rest of the week.

My Vinyasa Krama practice tends to be built around either Primary or Intermediate series Ashtanga ( I tend to alternate) but with more freedom to explore. So I'll switch around some of the standing postures or add a couple, spend longer in some postures or work on extensions to postures. The practice built on Primary tends to get wrapped up in hip openers, moving from the Asymmetric Janu's to Leg behind head and from Dwi pada into Supta Kurmasana, some time in spread angle poses and then work on Badha konasana and Kandasana, yoga Dandasana, that kind of thing. Then I'll get back on track for finishing. I tend to cut back the jump backs from between each posture to between sides, so I'll do all the Janu's on one side, jump back and do the other side etc.

This morning was one of my most enjoyable practices in ages. Being my day off I practiced a little later and even put some music on, the bloomin' Ravi Shankar CD I can't seem to stop playing. Now I never usually play music during practice, I tried once but ended up getting as far as Sury B before I decided it irritated me and turned it off. The Ravi is OK though and I was half way through the third time around before I turned it off for pranayama ( longggggg practice this morning).

So this mornings Vinyasa Krama practice was built around 2nd series Ashtanga, bit longer than usual but pretty much what I've been doing. Standing but with some of the VK one leg squats thrown in, want to do a post on these as I think they are great prep for dropbacks, kapo andLaghu. Then after Pasasana ( standing VK approach) and Krounchasana I work through the Vinyasa Krama Bow sequence, lots of Salabhasana vinyasas. I spent a lot of time on these this morning really opening the back. The sequence finishes with Viparita Salabhasana and gandha Bherundasana, deep this morning, could see all my feet not just my toes in gandha B and was tempted to try and take my tiptoes to the floor. I was going to film it to see why it was feeling so different but the camera dropped and broke. I took that as a bad omen so moved on to the Kapo and it's prep section plus Eka pada raja kapotasana. Got my ankles in Kapo, a mellow EPRK then did dropbacks, again very deep, slow and controlled, loving these at the moment. Backbends are coming along really nicely, pleased with them.

Sometimes I'll call that a day do a long paschimottanasana and then move on to finishing or skip the LBH and jump to the last third of 2nd. This morning I worked through the LBH poses, nice to have them back again, and even felt comfortable enough for Buddhasana. Managed the right side but not quite the left. Hang on which is the right side, I mean right leg over but left leg over that, that's the right side, right? I used all the LBH's as prep for my BadhaKonasana/Kandasana work then picked 2nd up again from Tittibhasana skipping the seven deadlies for a ten minute headstand with vinyasas instead ( only tend to do the deadlies on Saturday in the straight 2nd).

And that was it, tried to practice pranayama with Ravi but found it distracting so turned it off. Pranayama, some mantra meditation and a 10 minute savasana with Ramaswami's chanting in my ears. As usual I fell asleep for a few minutes, woke up feeling grand.

A note about finishing, again it's a blend of Ashtanga and Vinyasa Krama. At the end of my practice I'll do a short shoulderstand prep sequence that Ramaswami recommends then go into the first 5 minute shoulderstand. Sometimes I'll have a folded manduka under my shoulders. I stay up there with my legs relaxed for the first three minutes then engage my legs for the last two. Coming down I'll do a counterpose, usually urdhava danurasana. I'll then do a ten minute headstand, the first five minutes just working on my breathing, lots of bandha work, but the second five using some vinyasas from the VK inverted sequence. Coming down from that I'll do the second 5 minute headstand. I start off with Eka pada viparita dandasana and then go through the usual ashtanga finishing sequence minus the headstand (which I'd already done of course).

When I reach Padmasana after Yoga Mudra I do 36 breaths of kapalabhati then utpluthi for the next 36 and either arms raised, fingers linked for the last 36 or with my elbows up hands on shoulders. From there I'll relax my lotus a little so i get a nice level base and do my pranayama, 20 minutes of nadi shodana. I inhale for five seconds, hold for twenty while chanting the pranayama mantra in my head, exhale for ten then engage bandhas deeply for five and then inhale again ( there's a separate page at the top of my blog that goes into my pranayama practice in more depth). Finally some japa mantra meditation, repeating my short mantra in my head while going around the 108 mala beads, once twice or three times depending how I'm doing for time.

I'll come back to this post soon and add links to all the postures and sequences mentioned. Seem to have settled into this approach to practice so might stick this on a page of it's own somewhere.

I should add that this is just one approach to Vinyasa Krama. I'm heavily influenced by Ashtanga so tend to use that as a frame work to hang everything else on.

Was tempted to go and get a Bansuri flute from Southall this afternoon but decided to wait a bit, M and I have been meaning to visit on a Sunday, this makes for a good excuse. Fooled around with my large Sakuhachi instead, close enough.