Midweek research report
Posted in ashtanga yoga on 10/15/2008 11:27 am by karenMysore at the shala. Nice.
Decided to go ahead with the samakonasana/hanumanasana addition to standing, since my hip flexors have been achey.
Weird things going on in the lower back and hip flexors. Weird as in “persistent Ashtanga practice,” not weird as in injured. Must just persevere.
Most interesting part of the practice turned out to be assisted dropbacks. Suddenly, I felt a very three-dimensional opening of the hip joints/flexors. Most visceral.
And realized, in a flash, that I’ve been thinking of backbending as bending two-dimensionally — as if I had a string extending straight up from each knee and attaching to the bottom of my rib cage, and that all it would take was stretching that straight line into a perfect, single-plane arch.
But DUH! The hip joints are ball and socket. There is revolution in the movement. A slight external rotation in the dropping back, and a slight internal rotation on the return.
It was quite a dramatic thing, to feel that sensation. I love how it made me have instantaneous three-dimensional visions of my own anatomy.
The aftermath, though, was less delightful. I suddenly felt unbelievably nauseated. It was very intense and lasted through most of the closing sequence.
Emotion, much?