Shoulder motion
Posted in ashtanga yoga on 10/15/2007 08:14 am by karenGah. Dinner with the parents. **Heavy** practice this morning.
Bleh.
Started to walk my foot in during urdhva dhanurasana. Immediately felt how it was crunching my sacrum. Switched to my hands. Much better. It puts the stress in the lower thoracic instead.
VBG had me step away from the wall and set up for a dropback. “Go ahead,” he said.
Oh, the wall. “Am I close enough?” I asked, entertaining visions of hitting my head on the floor as I totally missed the wall.
He nodded.
Oooh, it was kind of nice. I only had to touch a couple of times going down. I tried this a while back and was totally uncoordinated. This morning, I walked down, then walked back up with very few touches. The newfound coordination is because of the hand-walking business. I realize now that I had some kind of unwritten kinesthetic “rule” that hips and shoulders stayed parallel. It was just how I moved. Reinforced by decades of weightlifting. Anyhow, it was very cool this morning to move down the wall and back up with just a few touches. My legs were nice and grounded, and I realized that I used to do it backwards: my shoulders would be like cement, and all of the movement was in my hips. Today, though, the legs were cement and the shoulder girdle/upper back was articulating/initiating movement by adjusting side-to-side in relation to the stillness of the hips.
Duh! It seems so obvious now.
Okay, Tova. You can thank me for inventing this again. 
10/15/2007 at 11:29 am
10/16/2007 at 1:06 pm
Hi Karen
It took having a day off work, but I finished transcribing notes from a workshop with Kino and Tim, and the part on UD resonates with the discussion you’ve been having with Tova, Bindi and others. Actually, I was surprised as I wrote it that one comment was a repeat of something discussed in the blogs, about not bringing the feet back to the hands because it might hurt the sacrum, instead bringing the hands to the feet. I am interested in the mechanics of this asana because, I don’t know why, I have still not come up to standing unassisted from UD. I’m close to doing so, but I’m not there yet. Anyway, as I mentioned in Vanessa’s blog, I’m not trying to get eyeballs over to my blog, but if you visit it, you might find something useful. I think Kino and Tim are very special people.
Cheers,
Arturo
10/16/2007 at 6:15 pm
well, i was going to say, what the heck are you doing bringing the feet in? I mean, golly, by now we all know that’s a no-no! (and you should eyeball arturo’s blog.)
10/16/2007 at 7:46 pm
Hi Arturo, I have this notion lately that once I get my hands walked in to my feet enough, the coming-to-standing will just happen.
Yes, Lax — I reprimanded myself for my thoughtlessness as I started to walk my feet in. And yes, I saw Arturo’s blog. Further reinforcement of the “hands, not feet” rule.
Thanks for that, Arturo!
10/17/2007 at 5:11 am
tingly-foot-kapo here.
(the foot was tingly for a month then disappeared, btw.)
you might have mentioned this & i missed it, but have you tried rocking yet? one thing that worked for me to stand was walking my hands in, making sure my weight is in my legs, and then practicing rocking..exhale (weight goes back over your shoulders), inhale (hips move forward, weight over your feet). exhale back, inhale forward. When you feel more comfy doing that, on an inhale forward, try to let your hands lift just an inch off the ground and then come right back onto the ground..just to get the feeling. Practicing that might help… and i apologize in advance if this was already discussed at some point. i’m falling behind on my blog-reading!
10/17/2007 at 8:42 pm
karen, it is true that if you just walk the hands in, some day you will say to yourself, ‘gee whiz, i think today is the day I can just come right on up’. and you do!