I'm taking a rest day today, I need it.
Wednesday my back felt better so I had another go at full primary with second up to kapotasana. Strangely, this week's practice was much better and felt much stronger. Last week my knees played up in the bow sequence, they felt like they were going to pop out of alignment, however this week with an assist from D, I grabbed my ankles instead of my feet and lifted my thighs off the mat first, squeezing the heels and knees together, then lifted the torso. Obviously I couldn't see how deep the back bend was, but it felt amazing and very deep. D then left me to do the rest of the bows on my own, but I followed last week's instruction by keeping the knees together and relaxing into it, and once in the posture, taking my chin to my sternum to align it then lifting it away, which felt more comfortable and good.
Laghu and Kapo were better too. I can't take my arms over my head and I can't even take them into prayer in front of my chest when going back in Kapo, there is such resistance, such tightness and fear. Laghu feels better as I have my hands on my ankles when dropping back, but not Kapo. This needs work. I tried some drop backs after Kapo, but I had lost the energy, so went into finishing and had a nice savasana.
Thursday I could feel the extra work I had done. Parts of my body I hadn't worked before, especially my gluts and the triceps. A good ache :)
My new Thursday class is going really well. I have some dedicated students who are loving it. Next week I hope to work a little more on the breath before we start the sequence and I might even do a bit of uddiyana bandha and moola bandha practice. That'll show them!!
Thanks for sharing your practice, Micqui. Kapo seems to be the source of much fear, angst and even pain among many Ashtangis. I have posted on Kapo many times on my blog (in fact, it is probably the posture I write most about). But I think that kapo is ultimately a very rewarding posture: Do not let the fear and pain scare you. You may find the second part of the following post that I wrote some time ago helpful to you at some point:
ReplyDeletehttp://yogadragonden.blogspot.com/2012/01/should-yoga-hurt-or-how-to-do.html
Hi Nobel, thank you sooo much for your comment and I will be trying the sequence, but yes, it does appear a little strange. Guess it's to do with the hips, groin and forward stretch. I'll let you know how it goes. Today's practice the pain was back... I just did some UD's from the floor, no drop backs. My teacher, bless him, gave me a pod 10 minute back massage and topped it off with some Tiger Balm to soothe it. I'm so lucky with having some great teachers!! Nevertheless, I do not want to give up on kapo!!
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