This is the first posture of the Sun Salute series. It is a mild back bend.
Begin with Tadasana (Mountain pose). Your arms are resting at the side of your body, your palms facing inwards towards the body and the thumbs pointing forward. The shoulders are down the back and the torso is long and tall. Your gaze is to the horizon. Read the rest of this entry »
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Alice, who is just starting to practice yoga, asked me the other day “Why do we do so many Sun Salutes in an Ashtanga yoga class?” She also asked “Why are there two types of Sun Salutes?”
She said that doing all of those Sun Salutes was really challenging and that sometimes she needed to take a break because she was running out of energy.
Popularity: 71% [?]
Alice came to me the other day with a problem.
She had arrived early for a class and setup her mat in the practice space waiting for the class to start and chatting with some of the other students.
Suddenly a person approached her and said that Alice was in her spot and that Alice would have to move. As you would expect Alice was very upset about this and did not know what to do. After some hesitation and not wanting to cause a confrontation Alice moved her mat and props to a different spot in the room.
Alice thought briefly about leaving the class, but decided instead to stay and work on her yoga practice.
Alice wanted to know what she should have done in that situation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Way back at the end of May my teacher challenged her students to complete a yoga class a day for the month of June.
Yoga everyday did not mean everyday. We could
The month of June has 30 days with 4 Saturdays, 2 Moon days on Saturday and no lady holidays. That means I got to do 26 days of yoga in the month.
I have had mostly a daily practice already and making this commitment drove it the rest of the way to be everyday.
There was only one day during the month that I did not have time to complete my entire practice and on that day I did an abbreviated practice of 5x Sun Salute A, 3x Sun Salute B and the 3 closing postures Buddha Padmasana, Padmasana and Shavasana.
Now it is the middle of July and I am finally getting this last post of the series out. I did complete the one month challenge and I have only missed one day of yoga during the month of July so far. Yesterday it was pouring rain and I was due to practice at my teacher’s studio. There is no place to put rain soaked clothes at her studio, so I opted to stay at home.
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Well what a week! This is for the week from Sunday June 13 to Saturday June 19. In the previous weeks report I thought that this week should be mostly okay and that is the way it turned out.
I did manage to do a yoga practice everyday from Sunday to Saturday again this week. Read the rest of this entry »
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I did manage to do yoga everyday this week from Sunday to Saturday.
In my last update, I thought that Tuesday was going to be a bit of a challenge since I was going to be at a seminar right after my morning practice. Read the rest of this entry »
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I did manage to do yoga every day from Tuesday to Sunday.
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I started doing Ashtanga yoga in August of 1998. Now 12 years later I was able to bind in Baddha Padmasana.
Woot!
Oh, by the way, that is not a picture of me! I will get a picture some day soon!
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My teacher has challenged her students to practice yoga everyday for the month of June. After talking to her on the 1st of June, I decided to take her up on the challenge.
Here are her guidelines:
There are 30 days in June and 4 saturdays. So that works out to be 26 days of practice for me. Read the rest of this entry »
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During the course of an average mile run, your foot will strike the ground 1,000 times. The force of impact on each foot is about three to four times your weight. It’s not surprising, then, to hear runners complain of bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings, and sore feet.
The pain most runners feel is not from the running in and of itself, but from imbalances that running causes and exacerbates. If you bring your body into balance through the practice of yoga, you can run long and hard for years to come. Although yoga and running lie on opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, the two need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, running and yoga make a good marriage of strength and flexibility. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 36% [?]