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!

Go Kino! Go Kim!

I've been having a very successful week keeping up with my workout schedule. And it's made me feel like Superwoman! With aching quads and chest to prove it! lol! Yesterday I did Cathe's Gym Style Legs and tacked on Lean Leg's & Abs (just did the legs portion, okay, I'm not that Superwoman) to give me an added cardio hit. And on Monday I did my favorite yoga teacher Kino's Primary dvd. She's such an amazing ashtanga teacher, so generous and prolific in sharing her vast knowledge. And her love of all things ashtanga and her eagerness to share is infectious! But I digress ...

Kino Primary

Because I'm feeling I have to psych myself up to do anything physical these days I decided not to push myself and just get on the mat and JUST DO IT DAMNIT. However much I do, whether just standing or up to supta-k or even not up to supta-k, I was just going to go how I feel. With that I had a nice practice and really only did up to the marichyasana's and then did Fit Chick's version of closing, my goal postures: supta-padangusthasana, front splits, ushtrasana, urdhva dhanurasana (wheel), back to ushtrasana (great sequencing by the way, as doing camel first helped me with wheel and wheel opened my back up more for a deeper camel again. Nice!), then front splits and my final "badass" konosana before savasana. That was perfection for me.

... so practice what you can and don't sweat it, and even fit in your goal postures, 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.

Cathe, Kino and Travis!

The dynamic trio! ... I'm so proud of myself as I just did 3 workouts in a row since I've been back at work starting this past Monday, with my awesome go to trainers. I decided to print out a workout schedule and try really hard to focus and stick to it. I find that planning, printing and having my schedule in front of me at my desk is really helping me with my motivation and focus. I was finding that in my heart I want to do it. The heart drive is there BUT my physical, psychological motivation was lagging behind once the evening came around. This way, seeing my planned schedule and also knowing my days off is really helping me so far. But the true test is time over tension and consistency. So we'll see!

My Bakasana Ideal
(arms straight, knees higher)

My Bakasana Reality
(arms bent, knees lower, but getting there!)

I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet. Just an overview as I need to get to bed!

Travis Monday: 

On Monday I did my hearthrob, Travis', Ultimate Yogi Flexibility and snuck in a bakasana (arm balance) and jumpback to chatarunga. Weee! I felt stronger the second time around. Love the front splits in this one which he has you sit in forever! I'm practically groin down on one side. Yes! My hammies feel quite knackered the next day, but you know it's just stretchy growing pains — the Travis' leftover effect — pummelling my hammies to submissive openess. All's good.

Cathe Tuesday:

Then on Tuesday I did the awesome Cathe's XTrain All Out Low Impact HIIT. My achilles have been feeling a touch twingy lately from all that plyometric jumpy fun I've been having. Been icing diligently but thought what better time than this to try her dvd. Man, this got my heart rate up. It was funtastic.

She uses alot of low impact cardio moves that really hit the quads hard making it anaerobic too. Those quads burn!! There was floor work then step work and finally glide disc. I'm still having trouble with those discs. I can't quite keep my feet on them without them sliding off during the exercises. I'm trying to figure out what the magic trick is. But overall this was an amazingly fun, challenging, HIIT, quad quaking sweatfest without any impact that left my quads nice and sore the next day. I even felt the soreness in my vastus medialis muscle (the teardrop) muscle close to my knees. Nice! This is a muscle that's always been hard for me to engage properly yet is key to keeping my patellas stabilized. So, it's nice to know that all those vastus medialis leg extension machine exercises that I do at the gym is paying off.

Kino Wednesday:

And I topped it all off tonight with my favorite beautiful ashtangi yogini teacher, Kino's Primary dvd. Not that I don't have other fav yogi teacher's ~ we all know me and Travis ~ but sorry Travis I have some other loves too. lol!

With Kino's dvd, I love her pacing which is a bit quicker and her impressive non-stop dialogue of instructions. Some will love the chatter and some won't. I love it. It actually keeps me focused and in the zone. Also, if you really listen to what she's saying her directions are a phenomenal gold mine of tips, teaching and guidance into each posture. Literally a treasure chest of information. And I got to practice my jump backs and throughs. I will master you yet! Funny, the Travis set has helped give me more strength and stamina for the primary which is a nice bonus. I'm actually not surprised as I thought it might.

Hmmm, I don't think I was successful in keeping it short. Oh well!

So, it's been a good week so far and it's just past hump day! Now it's all down hill from here. Weeee!

... practice, schedule ~ do whatever works ~ and all is coming.

Last night I got my fold on ...

Like this, like a yoga teacher!

And finally, finally, I actually looked almost like it! Awesome! ...

I always wanted to fold over my legs like my many favorite yoga teachers, Kino, Kathryn Budig, Dice Iida-Klein, with a FLAT back, no space and with my face at my shins. Well, last night it was so warm and I just felt like doing some practice postures to get my flex on and by my third fold and press I kept going down and down and down and lengthening and lengthening! I thought shoot man this feels like IT! So I went to my trusty mirror (see my "Through the Looking Glass" post if anybody's watching) and low and behold I was pretty much there! Man that was SWEET! Really, really SWEET!

But never to be satisfied! This is my next Mount Olympus so that I can do Titti's!!

What a screach! Never to be outdone!! Lol!

... and all is coming.