Friday's Primary, yep.

One of those glorious practices Friday, I'd skipped practice in the morning because my calf had felt funny when I stepped out of bed in the morning, bit of a twinge as soon as I put any weight on my foot. A light Vinyasa Krama and pranayama practice seemed called for.

But it's Friday, for all my Vinyasa Karma, and that's mostly what I've been practicing this month, I never skip Friday's Primary. I think I've missed it maybe three times through illness since I started Ashtanga four years ago but even then I made up for it on the Saturday.

Was going to do that this week, practice Saturday instead, but came home after watching those Chuck and Maty video's determined to practice. I think it was 7pm when I finally got on the mat, late for an Ashtanga practice, for me anyway.

Three weeks of mostly Vinyasa Krama, more flexible but you do lose the fitness edge so I felt it a bit, sweated buckets, started to feel it in the arms towards the end, "what another jump through, jeeze". Also, I had something to eat in the afternoon, a few hours before but still felt like throwing up a couple of times.

Yep, glorious practice.

Ahhh Ashtanga.

I think I miss the discipline of Ashtanga, not saying Vinyasa Krama is easy, it's not, blooming hard sometimes but there's such a calmness to it, you kind of ease into the practice which then flows nicely into your pranayama and meditation....

...feels somehow ....less of a .....well, discipline, less tapas.

I've never really struggled that much to get on the mat for ashtanga, motivation has always been good but there's still that mental decision to practice, a statement of intent, as if your taking hold of your life by the scruff of the neck. You can live around Vinyasa Krama but not ashtanga, not for me anyway. Need to go to bed earlier, eat lighter, hell your almost mindful of every activity you perform throughout the day and how it might impact on your practice. Not sure that's exactly healthy but the mindfulness that you carry with your all day.....

Interesting how the approach to practice changes over the years, seem to be stripping it down more and more, less flourishes, less fancy bits. Just a nice, tight, clean practice. Still think Sharath takes it a little fast in his CD, DVD, Led workshop but I'm a big fan of his economy of movement. KISS. Keep it simple stupid.

So back to Ashtanga in the morning for the discipline it provides. The last couple of weeks have been useful, working though the full Vinyasa Karma routines again, but morning belongs to ashtanga, that's just the way it is.

In the evening I want to work on something in Vinyasa Krama that I've played with and thought about for some time.

An hour practice,
20 minutes of Vinyasa Krama subroutines
20 minutes of Pranayama
20 minutes of meditation

I've practiced that off and on for a while but not really thought that carefully about the subroutines in the asana section. How I would teach an hour class if I only had twenty minutes for asana and still do justice to the range of postures and subroutines..

but that's for the Practicing Vinyasa Krarma blog.

....here I want to look at rebuilding and sustaining my 2nd.