3/24/2017 - Practice Journal

Ashtanga Practice Journal

It's never easy to wake up early in the morning, and this morning wasn't an exception. With quite a few new poses given to me lately, the practice is getting more and more challenging. Well, it's never an easy practice anyway.

Adding the Second Series to the practice has improved my drop back to Urdhva Dhanurasana tremendously. From Shalabasana, my back muscles and glutes are strengthen. From Laghu Vajrasana, my quads are getting stronger. Then my shoulders and the front body are opening up more from Bhekasana, Dhanurasana and Ustrasana. With all the asanas I have been practicing, I definitely can see the improvement on my drop back. And today was probably the best I've done so far. I am two inches away from doing the full drop back instead.

I have been able to do the drop back and come up from Urdhva Dharnurasana without problem, except my feet would turn outward when coming up. My work has been to keep the toes pointing forward (or slightly turning inward) while dropping back and coming up without stepping forward. I started with setting up three foam blocks (about 6" tall) on the floor. The idea is to drop back to where (to the foam blocks) I can come up with control instead of using momentum. Since I have full control of coming up, my feet are grounded, no stepping forward and no toes turning outward. So 6" was my starting point. I did that for few months and then graduated to two blocks (4"). Then I stuck with two blocks for the last year or so. I just couldn't keep my feet grounded when coming up with 1 block until this week. In the last few days, I warmed up with two blocks and moved my way to one block. Today, I just went directly to one block, and I was so proud of my accomplishment. I totally nailed it.!!!

Practice, practice, and more practice!!! Having faith in yourself and knowing all the asanas are in the body. You would be surprised of what your body can do.