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 More thoughts....Moderators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> Iyengar Yoga | Message format |
karmann |
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| Some of you may recall that I posted a while back about my inability to do Urdhva Dhanurasana. (Or rather my inability to do a decent approximation of the pose.) So now I am back in Iyengar class at level 2 and she is teaching it to us- yay! We haven't actually done the pose yet but we are doing preparation for it. I am using the chair to do it over which is pretty intense for me. I think I've discovered that the main reason I can't do it properly is inflexibility in my mid (and maybe upper?) back and maybe it's not my shoulders after all. Anyway, I've decided that I will not attempt it on my own until we attempt it in class. So I get my chair out at least every other day and practice. I am slowly getting a little more flexible. In Iyengar they teach you the chair preparation and your feet should be at a wall- heels on the floor near the wall and the rest of the bottoms of the feet on the wall. Why is this? She said we would see why but I have done it many times now and don't see it. Does this give stability to the lower back? Last week we did a bunch of different backbends- some on the mat like bow pose and I think fish (I'm not sure of the proper names). Then we did some backbendy things on the rope wall. Interestingly enough, I find backbends very intense, difficult and frightening. Interesting because in my ancient history I used to do them quite well and easily. Granted this was 30 + years ago, but still, I would have thought my body would have retained some kind of "memory" for it, if not some ability. Yet I am actually scared doing some of these backbends. Anyway, class is so intense no matter what we're doing and there's no time for contemplation of any kind while we are still working. So last week after regular poses we did sivasana and alarmingly, I started to cry. And cried all through it (very quietly.) I am not an emotional person usually and it wasn't sadness either, so I was really taken aback. I was pretty sure it related to intense backbending but can't figure out why. Maybe that's how it'll have to be. What else... I am loving being in this class but I find it very difficult. When she has an opening in the level 1 I take that class also (when I go it's just on a week-by-week thing.) Right now I really feel like a spaz. Sometimes she will give a simple instruction and I don't get it (or sometimes it's as though I don't RECOGNIZE it, especially if she worded it differently before.) I am definitely getting stronger, especially in the arms. Maybe it's the backbending, but I almost never get that tired-back-achiness-after-a-long-day-at-work -thing. Sciatica remains a mild peeve though. But thankfully, no more than mild. So all in all, it's going great.  | |||
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| OrangeMat |
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The crying is from the heart-opening. Totally normal. Alarming, for sure, nonetheless. Believe me, I know too. I was working a very minor backbend by myself yesterday, makarasana in a variation where I didn't lift any limbs, just rested my forehead on my crossed hands (can't do hands on opposite elbows yet, so I just have hands on hands, palms down). I've been trying to work my right shoulderblade onto my back without muscling it there, just trying to direct gravity appropriately (well, that's how I think of it, directing gravity). Well anyway, so I finally figured out how to get my right side chest to soften down to the mat just as much as the left side felt it was. and have the right armpit hollow and widen out as well, and wouldn't you know it, the sobbing ensued. My first instinct was to suppress it, but after 2+ years of this, I've finally learned to let it all flow. So I cried. So like you said, it is quite disturbing when it happens, but totally an OK reaction. Be glad that you're having these openings. Things that have been stuck (since ancient history, as you put it) are loosening up and moving out. It's a good thing. | |||
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| OrangeMat |
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Oh, and I just read something about sciatica in my Anusara manual that made me think of you, karmann, so it's so funny that you posted about it. "Apply all the leg principles, especially Inner Spiral to help ground the thighbone. Backbends, especially Urdhva Dhanurasana with a block between the upper inner thighs, release the psoas and allows the femur to move back into the center of the hip socket." I understand that just getting up into U.D. is still a challenge for you, let alone with a block between your thighs, but still, it's worth a consideration. Congrats on all the progress, though! | |||
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| kulkarnn |
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| Great Job and congrats. Do not take that Sciatica lightly, if not too seriously. karmann - 2007-07-31 10:13 PM Sciatica remains a mild peeve though. But thankfully, no more than mild. So all in all, it's going great. | |||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442      | karmann - for me the weird pose was headstand. I did plenty of headstands as a kid and loved being upside down. 25 or so years later and trying to do it in class? OMG!  I would have fits of uncontrollable laughing - very strange  OM referred to the work in the legs during backbends. That is the thing that you are supposed to "see" while working at the wall. Don't worry that you didn't see it right away. You obviously had some other learning to attend to at the time. And ALL of my teachers have had these moments - one actually told us she had recently had a "aha! moment" about something BKS Iyengar had taught her over 20 years ago.  We have actually found the same thing in dancing- a teacher will tell us somehting in a new way and we say "ohhhhh! That's what they were going on about in the beginner classes!" Sometimes we just have other things to think about that day. (week, month, year, decade ) | ||
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