The peanut gallery has spoken. Intermediate is apparently a bit like cod liver oil: difficult to get down but ultimately very good for you. So I’m going to give it a shot. Not today and not tomorrow, because these are my most intense teaching days, but I’ll work it into the schedule, probably starting on Friday.
I don’t say it often enough, but I’m deeply appreciative of the advice I receive from the more experienced Astanga practitioners out there. The Cybershala always comes through for me when I have a question or feel ‘stuck.’ I doubt I would have persevered this long if it wasn’t for the community of Astangis on the web.
Today, I continued with my Primary and added the finishing poses back in: shoulderstand, headstand and the lot. I had a perfectly acceptable mediocre practice and I’m happy with that.
I worked on my lift-ups. They’re not fancy. Right now I’m just crossing my ankles, lifting my feet off the floor, pulling them back through the blocks and then lowering down so I can manually come into a high plank and do Chaturanga. I’m working the bandhas and visualizing kicking back into the high plank - that's my next goal. It will come in time.
My bind in Supta Kurmasana went bye-bye again. I’m still having some SI joint issues, have been plaguing me since Monday. Are these two things related? Perhaps. My lower back is cranky too, which isn’t helping.
I did prep for my backbends and did three Urdhva Dhanurasana from the floor.
3 comments:
Well, here's another voice from the peanut gallery... if you've only been back at full primary for less than a month, and have SI joint issues and a sore lower back, and are thinking of starting intermediate on the advice of internet yogis, and without a teacher... please be careful??
@Susan
I've been practising Primary regularly for almost three years, with brief breaks here and there.
As a teacher myself, I'm already familiar with many of the poses in Intermediate. My own teachers trained with Guruji, as well as Iyengar. If I felt uncertain about anything I encountered in Intermediate, I could easily get their advice.
The issues with my low back are historical and get *better* when I'm doing more backbending (which is one reason I do it, even though I don't like it). The SI stuff is new and I'll certainly keep an eye on it.
As I did with Primary, I'll venture into anything new with great care. I'm pretty conservative - in the 14 years that I've practised yoga, I've never been seriously injured in my practice, so I'm not afraid to move forward.
I will be careful :-)
Yes, you've been at it for 14 years, haven't you.. I guess you can go for it :)
Sorry, it's my role to be the voice of caution where internet yoga advice is concerned :)
Hope you enjoy and that it's good for your back!
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