Love Me My Power Yoga For Happiness!

... with Eoin Finn's dvd of course! I finally did it again this Monday with his sure to uplift "Strong, Free, and Happy" 53 minute class. It's the perfect time, the perfect sequencing, his voiceover is so calming and smooth, yet fun at the same time and it has most of my favorite practice goal postures for this year in it! All with no dread factor. Sometimes primary gives me dread. lol! But this doesn't. There's something happy and approachable about it yet it's no wussy either. It will challenge you as it mirrors the sequencing of primary but sprinkles in more arm balances along the way. Which I LOVE! It affords me the opportunity to practice Kino's arm balancing teachings a number of times throughout the practice. And the floor series has just the right amount of seated postures with jump backs which is rare among non ashtanga dvd's! And includes all these lovely arm balances: bakasana jump back, eka pada galavasana, ashtavakrasana to koundinyasana jump backs, tittibhasana, and kurmasana jump backs. I'm in heaven!

My Practice

It was so satisfying as I did the whole thang this time. Sometimes I cheat and only do two-thirds of it. But this time I did it all! Yeah me! It felt so good to do the arm balancing and notice my lift is more sure and my jump backs a touch better. My postures felt a little more fluid and open, my twists more upright and turned. For the standing warriors sequence, I was able to do it without breaking to straighten my legs! This is huge as Eoin burns your quads by keeping you in it FOREVA!! ~ burn baby burn with warrior 1, warrior 2, side angle, twisting side angle, without coming out of it once!! Yowza!! That will give you some wicked quads and a booty butt like no otha!! Then I finally was able to do an almost easy warrior 3 hold into utthita hasta padangusthasana into dancers pose. Yes! Lovely to see improvement in these as my warrior 3 can suck with me giving in to airplaning my arms instead of holding them out in front. For some weird reason it's almost agony for me to hold them out this way. But it was almost easy-peasy this time!

Floor was just as satisfying, with jump throughs getting better little by little. I did my practice front splits while they did abs. I already killed them in gym so there was going to be no abs! Splits are still painful but my mantra while in the pose is "just keep on keeping on and it will get easier, it WILL get easier" because I truly believe it will. Then I also added bhuji before we practiced kurmasana. Then we did my other goal poses of baddha konasana, ushtrasana and urdhva dhanurasana. Still suck but I just keep telling myself ...

... practice, practice, practice kino style and all is coming!

Mirrors, Mirrors!!

Finally yesterday I did my yoga. My gosh it feels like so long! I did do a wee practice in Miami with my dream come true mirrors in my room. OMG talk about a Bikram room to be jealous of. A full wall from tip to stern and from top to bottom! I was in love! I could analyze my postures to my heart's content. But alas, there was so much to do and so little time to do it in that I just got in one practice analysis. And that was it. Though my mat sat there hopefully the whole time. Sigh! But I digress ...

Strong, Free, and Happy!

Last night I finally fit in my yoga. And truly fit it in I did, as I did it late! Don't ask me how late. Suffice it to say it was well after 12am in between my midnight TV respite. lol! Anyhoo, I did the DAMN WELL just DO IT motto and got it done with my fav Strong, Free and Happy routine off Eoin Finn's Power Yoga for Happiness dvd.

I love this routine as it has alot of ashtanga elements. The standing flow has enough primary postures for me plus a really nice warrior series that will burn and strengthen your legs that's missing in primary. I can always gauge my yoga leg strength with this one and I failed this time. I copped out at the very last twisting posture (utthita parsvakonasana) as I already did long holds in warrior 1, warrior 2, parsvakonasana A, then B without a break! So sue me! Also the standing series has two nice arm balances in it that I love to always get into my yoga practice. Moreover, the seated postures also are ashtanga style with a compacted version of it including the jump backs and throughs. Eoin also includes more arm balances and my fav astavakrasana to koundinyasna jump back and tittibasana. And, YES!, I can still do the full expression of astavakrasana and transition on my right side but still having trouble transitioning into koundinyasana on my left. Practice, practice, practice. However, expressly because of lack of practice my jump throughs at the beginning were more like a drag through. Let's just say I was NOT happy about my backslide. But by the end of practice they were getting more bouyant. Yeah!

I subbed hanumanasana for side plank and supta padangusthasana for the ab work as I already killed my abs sufficiently at the gym the night before. But didn't go all the way to kurmasana and titti. Oh well, another time. But I was happy with what I did. So, overall it was a very satisfying practice.

... so practice, however way you can fit it in, and all is coming.

Mountain Peak to Supta K

I climbed the ashtanga mountain and alighted at the peak of Supta K. Or Supta Kurmasana to be exact, which is translated Reclining Tortoise Pose. Your supposed to feel reclined and relaxed, kinda like Kino looks in this picture. Not quite for me just yet as it's still a work in progress! But I love working towards this awesome pose. As it's one of the postures considered the peak in the ashtanga primary series. And just looking at it you can see why. Legs behind the head ~ oh ya! Who wouldv'e thunk it. But sometimes when I'm good and warmed up in my Mysore class ~ many moons ago now, ha! ~ I could get my fingers to clasp on my back and my feet to cross in front of my head all by meself. Thank you very much. Haven't perfected the feet cross OVER my head yet. But it's the journey that counts. The other fun thing about it too is that this is NOT the end of the challenge. Oh, you thought we were peaked, eh! Not yet, my friend. There's still the exit out. Which requires great bhanda, torso, abdominal lift control and balance to unravel oneself, place hands on floor, lift up, up, UP into tittibasana, then lift up, up, UP, some more ~ oh you still thought this was over eh, uh, uh! ~ to bring feet around to bakasana and ~ pièce de résistance ~ jump back to chataranga! Et voila! lol! But I digress ...

Peak to Supta K Class

I took this online ashtanga class with a great ashtanga teacher, Jodi Blumstein, all the way from Santa Monica, California in my very own living room with an amazing online studio called www.yogaglo.com. Ah, the marvels of technology!

I decided on this class as it was a short-n-sweet primary, stopping at my fav pose that has all the challenging binds, flexibility and hand balancing a girl who wanted to excel in gymnastics but failed abominably could ever want, without the dread factor of a full slog of primary, which I wasn't in the mood for. This was the ticket. And I loved it. We had a lovely shortened sun sal A & B then did just the fundamental standing postures up to parshvottanasana (when you go beyond primary you only do the basic standing postures). Then we did just the right amount of seated postures leading up to Supta Kurmasana skipping some of them. She wisely chose the one's that would limber us in the right places for supta though. Which was great. I made sure to do almost all the vinyasa's between sides whereas they just picked up between sides, as I wanted to keep the heat in my body for the peak K posture which is KEY. Though I fudged a wee bit just to keep my wrists safe. As it was, I was warm and sweaty but not as warm and sweaty as in my Mysore class. So what with that, and a lack of practice, shoddy me, I wasn't able to do my famous finger wrap and feet wriggle-n-shimmy-cross-over (see Daylene's first version of Supta K ~ NOT her second, lol! ~ as that's mine when I'm warm and ready in Mysore class, not bad eh). Oh well, it was definitely still satisfying to have gotten there almost full on. 

And I had a nice practice with the exit too. Lift, lift, lift and got those feet back into a sad little bakasana before a flop down and shimmy back to chatarunga. Haha! The exit needs ALOT of work still. It's very challenging because you need ALOT of lift in your torso in order to land you knees properly positioned on the forearms to be able to jump back (see again Daylene's knee position high up on her forearms and the lift she did in her torso in order for that to happen). The thing is, it's really easy to position your knees properly in bakasana if you're just doing it straight from the floor, but NOT when you're coming from tittibasana which is that straight leg position you get into before moving your legs back into bakasana. Otherwise your knees are too off the sides of the forearms which makes it impossible to attempt the jump back at all. So you flop off every time. Lift is imperative here and cannot be faked. That's why I love this posture because there's no impostering. You gotta work that lift. So it's great for practice. Lol!

... so practice lift and all is coming.

My First Ever Kino Workshop!!

... Last Sunday I went to my first ever Kino MacGregor Ashtanga workshop. She's this wonderful, inspiring, gold dusted, prolific, youngest ever Certified Ashtanga teacher, vlogger, youtube channeler, author, world teacher traveller, co-owner of Miami Life Center, producer of 6 dvd's, and so on, and so on. AND the youngest to be practicing at one of the highest levels of ashtanga, the Fourth Series. Too cool! I even have her 3rd Series DVD. Well, too be honest I have to confess, I think I have all her DVD's, among them her Introductory to Ashtanga (beginner's Primary series), her Primary Series dvd, Intermediate Series dvd (or second series) and one of the pinnacles of asthanga, the Third Series dvd. All of those dvd's are a fount of knowledge, where she gives both a full practice that you follow along with her as she practices with her voiceover and the other part of her dvd she provides a break down of the postures giving modifications where needed. She can talk alot in voiceover BUT there is SO much information to be had in her prompts that it's worth every bit of it to hear it as you follow along. And despite that the pace is so good that I still find myself in a lovely yogic trance while practicing along with her. She's amazing!! Anyways, I digress ...

Kino's Arm Balancing Workshop

I took her arm balancing workshop and boy did she work us over! At first I felt envious that the others beside me had already attended her primary series that morning and her backbending workshop that afternoon before this class. However, by the time we got 15 minutes into the arm balancing workshop I was very glad I hadn't taken any other classes that day as she made us work our arms and core like no other! She's boot camp! She gave us a little taste of the work that she puts into her practice that got her where she is today.

She gave so many gems in this workshop, one of them was in believing in ourselves and not seeing things as barriers, but approachable challenges to possibilities. The other was not to be intimidated by hard work and a little pain to get gain. That that is life itself.

Also, one of the main things she taught in arm balancing and the key to lift is that it's NOT all in the arms BUT the lift happens in the core or the torso and shoulders that make the body taught and stable which will create the lightness and lift necessary to lift out of the arms. That the arms do NOT take all the work and weight. This was an awesome revelation and reinforcement. As I was getting the gist of this before but it all coalesced with her teaching. And she gave us many key exercise tools to gain this type of muscle/motor control. One thing I've started to learn and it was again reiterated in this class is that it's actually not all about strength, but just as important if not more, that muscle/motor control is key! I've distilled it to the term "muscle/motor control" even though she taught it as core control and lift ... Funny enough this was also brought back to me a day later when I watched a youtube vid on scapular contraction when the physiotherapist talked about that same thing being not about strength but motor control. Really cool! ... Anyways she has this really approachable way of teaching and her demo's and explanations are SO good that it's just light bulb moments all the time!

The Funny Thing That Happened on the Way to Pincha Mayurasana

Pincha Mayurasana is my nemesis! I do NOT have the shoulders for pincha! And of course among all the arm balances we practiced we had to practice that one. I dread it since I'm abysmal at it. I can do crow pose, forarm headstand, side crow (on my good days), astavakrasana into koundinyasana b (again on good days), but I can NOT do pincha. I feel that I can't get my forarms in the right position and at the right shoulder forearm angle which should be straight up and down and mine is at almost a 90 degree angle if forearms are parallel. With that I kinda give it a pass on practicing. Ha! Well wouldn't you know it, keener that I am, I positioned myself in the first row RIGHT at Kino's mat. So when she wanted to demo partnering this posture who does she pick? You guessed it ME! My eye's got all bugg-eyed and I stammered and stuttered "Oh no Kino, I can't my sports medicine doc said my shoulders aren't aligned in my sockets so I can't do this posture properly" as I shook my head. Well she was not taking no for an answer not even if the doc said so, as she calmly looked at me quizzically and said "Well, lets just give it a try shall we." And up I went in a perfect straight line, I must say, and held that perfect straight line as she supported me up with her perfect adjustment. It was dreamlike, a true dream sequence if I do say so myself!! And when I got down the room broke out in applause!!! Which they did not do to two other demo's before me and at which I bowed a couple of times to the room. Lololol!! It was a hoot!!! That girl is magic, I say, just magic!!!

... as Kino reiterated, practice, practice, practice, and all is coming.