See this post from last Friday for context When a Blog post comes back to bite you Iyengar 108 dropbacks challenge
from today's comments
Q: Were you generally satisfied with them?
A: I think I feel glad to get the 108 out of the way, to know it could be done now it's more a question of can it be done well ( by me). All these thing, tricky poses, long holds, 108 sury's or drop backs , every time you nail them you see a little more clearly that it's not what it's all about. We know this of course but need a reminder every now and again.
That said, there's nothing wrong with having some fun and giving yourself a little extra motivation and besides, the Will, like the body, needs exercising too.
Like you I want to work on the breath more, I think I was happy with a couple of sets of ten got a nice rhythm then lost it, fifteen to twenty is a nice number to play with, perhaps thirty-six. I do want to keep exploring this for a while and yes let's still do it for our birthdays as an incentive. After then I think I'd rather save it for a holy day or somebody elses birthday, certainly not Thursdays. I did 108 sury's when SKPJ died, kind of feel that things like this should be saved for such occasions, perhaps when you need to ask a boon, tapas, no?
Still can't get over Iyengar's feet how close together, straight and solid they were, 108 like that would be something to celebrate.
Q: Do your knees or ankles ever hurt from having them turned out for so many dropbacks?
A: No feet don't hurt, back feels fine too though a slight crick in the neck. When I started this experiment, what Friday, I was keeping my feet straight, lifting my heels, been using that approach for the last few months, I like it a lot better. Trouble was after twenty or thirty your thighs are like jelly, switched back to having my feet turned out and much easier for large sets, right at the end of this though my legs were quaking a bit. Want those straight, flat, rooted feet of Iyengar
UPDATE : Morning after
Was expecting the worst, a lot of stiffness perhaps but as it happens I'm feeling pretty good. No stiffness in the back, the little crick in the neck has gone and legs don't feel like jelly. Stomach muscles are... not sore exactly but feel as if I've done some serious crunches, a Pilates work-out from those crazy twins perhaps.
Practice this morning was supposed to be built around the Asymmetric series but I ended up doing the seated sequence again for all the forward bends; long paschimottanasana and it's variations interspersed with Tatakamudra ( see this post ). I did the paschi/tatkamudra combo yesterday as a counterpose, perhaps it helped to iron out the dropbacks.
What else, a couple of goes at taking the lotus back up higher in Karandavasana and a look at jumping to Urdhava kukkutasana (post to come on that) then long stays in the inversions and on to pranayama etc.
A nice morning after practice.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Saturday, 18 June 2011
When a blog post comes back to bite you : 108 Dropback challenge
And of all the post to come back and bite you.....
So this goes back to a string on comments on this post about Iyengar. I'd come across the wonderful video below on youtube, forty-two seconds in Iyengar starts popping out these dropbacks one after another and in comments to the post we found out that he did 108 and that this wasn't so unusual in Iyengar circles, a birthday treat as it were.
Struck by the rhythm and working on my dropbacks at the time I decided to launch the '1 week Iyengar 108 dropback challenge'. Here's the first post. Funny enough I can't for the life of me remember what happened to that, lets have a look. Here it is, Day 7 OK so I got up to twenty, think I carried on doing multiple dropbacks for a little while but then changed my approach. Now I tend to do five to seven.
So anyway, why am I bringing this back up? A comment turned up out of the blue this morning...
Grim
To go back to Iyengar challenge.
I did finally learn to standup from dropbacks this time last year.
Anyway, last few days at shala I've been doing 15-20 on the breath. Today I did 30 which just felt awesome.
108 for our birthdays right? I'm in!!
AC
I checked when her birthday was, mine being quite soon on the 24th of next month...
Grim,
Mine's some 6 wks today.
This morning I just trotted out some 50 dropbacks, so although 108 is for b'day if it comes quicker then I'm going for it!
When it's done on the breath it's such a joy and there's 'ease' to it.
108 WE MUST DO IT!!
AC
And so I said why not...
Grim
Great, I have a partner in 'crime'!
I started doing more than x3 dropbacks in order to rid myself of my hand waving habit on standing up and its seems to be working.
Mon it was 13 dropbacks, Tue. 15, Wed. 21, Thu. 30 and today 50. Sat. I rest from dropbacks but on Sun. I'll probably start the fun again.
Let the fun begin.
AC
Fun?
Got home this evening at 6pm, quick Vinyasa Krama Bow sequence as a warm up and then off I went. The video below is speeded up, I count 52 ( I thought I'd managed 54) in three lots. I took a breather after twenty of so to see how I was doing it as I wasn't sure about the rhythm and then another for a couple of minutes after another twenty to remind myself how Iyengar was doing them.
It's hard work, legs ache and the breath is tricky to keep steady but then if you look at Iyengar he's not really moving his feet at all and ....well... he's Iyengar isn't he.
I started off with my current way of dropping back, raising the heels then went back to trying my old feet turned out, still hard work.
As it happens my back feels perfectly fine, no stiffness, I did a couple of counter postures, long paschi, see how it feels in the morning. A bit of work on this to get my leg strength back and it should be possible..... shouldn't it?
Now is it silly, pointless or is there something to be gained from this. The rhythm Iyengar achieves is interesting, the steadiness of breath and perhaps that action is stimulating for the spine, we'll see.
My birthday is in five and a half weeks, A's in six.
Morning after Update
Back's a little stiff but nothing to write home about, thighs really ache though, need to reintroduce some of those squats from the Vinyasa Krama 'On one leg sequence', have been saying for a while that strong legs help your dropbacks.
So this goes back to a string on comments on this post about Iyengar. I'd come across the wonderful video below on youtube, forty-two seconds in Iyengar starts popping out these dropbacks one after another and in comments to the post we found out that he did 108 and that this wasn't so unusual in Iyengar circles, a birthday treat as it were.
Struck by the rhythm and working on my dropbacks at the time I decided to launch the '1 week Iyengar 108 dropback challenge'. Here's the first post. Funny enough I can't for the life of me remember what happened to that, lets have a look. Here it is, Day 7 OK so I got up to twenty, think I carried on doing multiple dropbacks for a little while but then changed my approach. Now I tend to do five to seven.
So anyway, why am I bringing this back up? A comment turned up out of the blue this morning...
Grim
To go back to Iyengar challenge.
I did finally learn to standup from dropbacks this time last year.
Anyway, last few days at shala I've been doing 15-20 on the breath. Today I did 30 which just felt awesome.
108 for our birthdays right? I'm in!!
AC
I checked when her birthday was, mine being quite soon on the 24th of next month...
Grim,
Mine's some 6 wks today.
This morning I just trotted out some 50 dropbacks, so although 108 is for b'day if it comes quicker then I'm going for it!
When it's done on the breath it's such a joy and there's 'ease' to it.
108 WE MUST DO IT!!
AC
And so I said why not...
Grim
Great, I have a partner in 'crime'!
I started doing more than x3 dropbacks in order to rid myself of my hand waving habit on standing up and its seems to be working.
Mon it was 13 dropbacks, Tue. 15, Wed. 21, Thu. 30 and today 50. Sat. I rest from dropbacks but on Sun. I'll probably start the fun again.
Let the fun begin.
AC
Fun?
Got home this evening at 6pm, quick Vinyasa Krama Bow sequence as a warm up and then off I went. The video below is speeded up, I count 52 ( I thought I'd managed 54) in three lots. I took a breather after twenty of so to see how I was doing it as I wasn't sure about the rhythm and then another for a couple of minutes after another twenty to remind myself how Iyengar was doing them.
It's hard work, legs ache and the breath is tricky to keep steady but then if you look at Iyengar he's not really moving his feet at all and ....well... he's Iyengar isn't he.
I started off with my current way of dropping back, raising the heels then went back to trying my old feet turned out, still hard work.
As it happens my back feels perfectly fine, no stiffness, I did a couple of counter postures, long paschi, see how it feels in the morning. A bit of work on this to get my leg strength back and it should be possible..... shouldn't it?
Now is it silly, pointless or is there something to be gained from this. The rhythm Iyengar achieves is interesting, the steadiness of breath and perhaps that action is stimulating for the spine, we'll see.
My birthday is in five and a half weeks, A's in six.
Morning after Update
Back's a little stiff but nothing to write home about, thighs really ache though, need to reintroduce some of those squats from the Vinyasa Krama 'On one leg sequence', have been saying for a while that strong legs help your dropbacks.