Unfortunately Anurag was unwell today, so we just did the lesson with Natalia. We started with a led standing, then did Mysore style. It was really cold today, so in the led portion we went a bit overboard on the Suriyas... We started with the regular 5x Suriya Namaskaras, then did 5 really fast ones with no hold in Adho Mukha Svanasana. Admittedly it was a great warmup. Then Suriya Namaskar B we did the usual five, but followed by a five breath hold in each of the positions!!! Suffice to say that I was suffering a slow Chaturanga Dandasana death by the end of that. Then just for good measure, we did five more Bs!!!
Standing was really good, and I got loads of adjustments from Natalia. She really is amazing. I've had a few Ashtanga teachers now, but nobody, not even Karla comes close to Natalia's adjustments. In Prasarita Padottanasana C today she stood over my head and hooked into my arms and pulled hard! I said "mas" and so she pulled harder as I breathed. It was just amazing. She says I have space there, I just haven't used the space before, and so she has to clear out the joint. I don't think i quite translated that right, but the general idea is there.
In Utkatasana I have to sit more. I don't know what the limiter is on this one, but my Utkatasana always looks more like Tadasana!! Also she would like me to get lower in the Virabhadrasanas to open up my hips and strengthen my legs.
In seated is was the same "Shoulders Back!" that I got from Anurag. It's clearly my big problem. In fact this afternoon at lunch I got told the same thing, and that it needs to become a habit to sit with my shoulders back instead of forward.
The big treat for today was the jump back and jump through lesson. Firstly the Jump through lesson: I had to jump into a half-handstand up to her hands, again and again until it was automatic. Then she grabs my hips to stabilize me, I pull my knees to my chest, and try to swing through. It was really fun, but again the limitation is my legs not being able to pull close enough to my body. Then there was the Jump-back lesson. So for the jump back, I need to lift up like in Navasana, and try to swing my legs through. They get caught on the ground, so I stop there. Then I reach forward, and go back as normal. Natalia says that one day it will just come through automatically when my legs decide to fit.
She actually says i have too much strength, and it's stopping me from feeling my body through the movements, and that i can just rely on strength to do everything. At the same time, this will be great when I can swing through, because will be able to come up to handstand when I get the flexibility.
I got some fantastic adjustments in Marichyasana A and B. She really gets into it. She pushes my knee with foot, while pulling my arm with her two hands. This gave me a great bind in both A and B, better than I've ever achieved on my own. She also bound me in C with pure brute force, and I loved it. I skipped D because I got told not to do it yesterday, and she said that wasn't cool. She says it's best to try to do it every day, and in time it will come.
We tried Bhujapidasana together. It's still a new pose for me, and I'm quite glad I can get some semblance of it going. She said I shouldn't cross my feet together until I can comfortably sit on my shoulders. At the moment I'm just sitting on my elbows. Again, I'm too strong, instead I need the flexibility to do the pose. So she said we should go through a series of stretches to see what we could do about my flexibility. We started with doing Padmasana, which I found easy, and she was surprised. Following that we tried full pigeon pose on both sides. This too was easy for me, so we tried half pigeon... Ahaaa, that's what I need to do to stretch out. We did a version of half-pigeon on my back with her applying pressure. She said I need to do these stretches a lot.
Did lotus, too easy, then full pigeon, too easy, then half pigeon on back with adjustment. said I need to do this a lot.
From here I did closing on my own. It was nice and long as I took a lot of extra breaths. In Karnapidasana my arms and legs don't go down to the ground so I got a nice adjustment.
After the class, I started chatting to Nuria about Mysore. She had gone, as had Anurag and Natalia, and I wanted to know what level of practice I needed to have before going. I really want to go, and would like to know how many years I should practice, or more accurately, what level of practice I should have before heading there. Interestingly, she said that it was great for beginners to go. She said that my level of practice was sufficient, and that I should go. Not only that, but she said that it was better for beginners to go when Saraswathi is there as there are less people. When Sharath is there, the shala is packed, and it's just too stressful for a first-timer.
Over Lunch we chatted about my lost tooth. General consensus around the table was that now that I have accepted the change, and have no attachment, I might as well get it fixed. Then when I got home, my housemate Greg found the tooth. The universe is beautiful like that. As soon as I had accepted the change without attachment, the universe gave me back my tooth.
On a final note, my side abs hurt!
No comments:
Post a Comment