Backbends suck.
I suck at backbends, and I am bitter.
YC
Copyright 2005-2007 Lauren Cahn, all rights reserved. Photos appearing on this blog may be subject to third party copyright ownership. You are free to link to this blog and portions hereof, but the use of any direct content requires the prior written consent of the author.
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About Me
- Yoga Chickie
- Northern Westchester, New York, United States
- I live by a duck pond. I used to live by the East River. I don't work. I used to work a lot. Now, not so much. I used to teach a lot of yoga. Now not so much. I still practice a lot of yoga though. A LOT. I love my kids, being outdoors, taking photos, reading magazines, writing and stirring the pot. Enjoy responsibly.
Bygones
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2007
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October
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- The ultimate in poetic justice...NSFW!!!
- Swan Pose and Pasasana
- Swan Pose
- Backbends suck.
- I Fought the Law ....and LAU won!!!
- A Laghu like this
- Pat Metheny Trio
- Lazy Moonday
- It's Feel Your Boobies Month!
- Krounchasana
- Impermanence
- Deeply criminal
- Pincha My Asana
- Too much pitta? Or is it just hot in here?
- Rescue me?
- Another day, another round of backbending
- Why work is boring nowadays
- The luxury of a nap
- Strap on
- They have some nerve.
- I have a blog war hangover
- It works
- Lucky for youze all, my camera's batteries are dead
- OK, so, here I am at the wall. It's really sad.
- Not that there's anything wrong with that
- I'm not talking about out-laws
- For Vanessa, not my sister, the other one...
- 10 Seconds to Yoga Nidrasana
- Revamping...but for what?
- I got Bakasana! (that's crow pose for you non-Kew...
- Catch and Release
- Balance
- Yeah, well, i think I'ma gone smoke mahself a doob...
- Day from HELL. But I got Pasasana.
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October
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Ashtanga Blogs
23 comments:
open yer g-d hip flexors, Lauren!
your pits aren't your problem. open your psoas!
The beauty of the Ashtanga system: there will always be something you suck at.
or lots of things....
And the beauty of yoga is that it really doesn't matter.
It's been a while since the last time you groused about parivritta parsvakonasana. How's it going with that one?
My psoas won't open. I am trying, but it's glued shut.
Carl, pp is going okay, thanks for asking. not my best pose, but not fraught with drama because my relative suckiness at it is not keeping me from doing fine at mari c, d and pasasana. By contrast, backbending is ruining every updog and is not boding well for kapotasana...
Sandbags. Guaranteed psoas-opening action.
Where do you put the sandbags? Please elaborate...
Oh, sorry. For me, the psoai, iliaci, pectinei and adductors are all too short. I can feel them when I'm sitting at various angles in the halfway baddha konasana that I do for my minimal hip rotation ability. My knees don't set flat against the floor, either. And even though baddha konasana isn't about cranking on the hip flexors, you can get at them by setting sandbags on your knees while you do it. Since you're flat in the hips like I am then maybe you'd feel the sandbags the same way. I stack them on and concentrate on letting go of the resistence. The first few upward dogs after that are killers though. I have to hang out and just have myself a bunch of ujjayi for a while.
The last time you posted about the backbending, I started really thinking about it. I checked my hips' ability to rotate inward and outward when I was 1) leaned forward, 2) standing upright and 3) leaning backward. For us chair dwellers, the hip joints' rotation ranges change as we bend backward or forward. Seems like a no brainer, but the knees eventually have to point straight ahead for the backbends that are judged to be good. The only way to cheat and make that happen sooner, that I can see, is to do a sort of laghu vajrasana where you settle back on some cushions instead of the way it's shown. David showed this one to me when I griped about my quads being uneven and too short. My knees need for me to take it easy in this but still it DOES help my quads and my hips when I've been doing it. The hips and quads partly govern each other.
I meant that the pelvic bones and femurs are governed by the quads as well as the hip flexors.
i told you, swan and sleeping swan. just do it and stop grousing!
NO. Virasana. She needs virasana. AND pit openers. Her fucking pits are not flexi. PITS. Do lots of ustrasana, yc, lots of it! Can you lie down in virasana? I can lie down and spread my buttcheeks on the floor. I'm gonna take a picture of it...
and cranky, wtf is SWAN?
I am soooo good at Virasana and Supta Virasana that it makes me sick. I make myself sick! Why can I lie down in that pose, but I can't backbend? Why are my pits so rigid?
Cranky and Laksmi, you are BOTH right. And Carl too. Psoas, pits, shoulders. They all need help.
Of course, Vanessa, Julie and Debpc are right too. But that's just a bit virtuous for me. I am feeling whiney and spoiled at the moment.
okay, i'll say it again: camel. camel. KAPOtasana KAPOtasana. You must suffer in it. gomukhasana--have you done this cow faced pose?do it! YOU DO! can you grab your hands? NO? PITS! PITS! But you do have something funky going on with your legs. Practice trying to straighten your legs in a backbend. straighten straighten. God. We need to just do some remedial work. HOLD your backbends for a minute a piece. Are you doing this?
But why are you thinking so far ahead? Why thinking of Kapotasana? Are you there yet? No? Then FOCUS ON WHERE YOU ARE. It's normal to think/wish for/expect the next pose, but you certainly take this to the extreme, girl.
Gomu: i grab hands on both sides, but it doesn't open my pits. It only helps open the front of my shoulders for binding poses. How can i change my approach so that i feel it in my upper arm, rather than my lower?
Why ustrasana??? That doesn't do shit for pits. I am quite adequate at ustrasana. Will post photo later. It helps open the chest, and the hip flexors, but not the pits.
In kapotasana, unasssisted i can only get so far. It seems like in any pose, there is a critical point at which you can get something out of it unassisted. Before you reach that point, you're just grasping at straws. Or air.
Ms. Mindbender, i'm sorry, but i was under the impression that it is customary for teachers who have studied with Manju to give ten or so poses in one day.
Where did i get that idea????
Lauren
I'd rather leave that conflict out of this conversation, if possible. Are you saying that you are practicing up to Kapotasana now?
I am practicing through krounchasana, but my teacher wants me to do the backbends of second series and is going to steadily be teaching them to me. I suppose i will spend a looooong time at that. No rush. But i do realice how painful kapo is going to be if i don't have a better backbend, and by painful, i mean a pain in the ego.
But the steady work you will be doing on the backbends before Kapotasana, together with the Urdhva Dhanurasanas, will help you lots. I can't emphasize enough the Urdhva Dhanurasanas. For two months, I worked solidly on straightening my legs on them. That's what opened my armpits which were really tight after years of teaching Body Pump classes.
as my teacher told me... you have to find your legs.
WHERE ARE my legs?
yes, yes, I have been saying spend time in urdhva and straighten the legs. YOU DO.
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