Greedy heat, Curtains & Waylon watches TV
Posted in ashtanga yoga, dog! on 07/12/2009 07:12 am by karenWhen Muscle Man first suggested I do an intermediate practice, I was scared about what would happen to primary. Would it slip away, if I only practiced it once a week? I thought of the story about catching monkeys: if you put a treat at the bottom of a jar that a monkey can slip its hand into, but narrow enough that he can’t remove his hand once he makes a fist around the treat, then you’ve caught yourself a monkey.
Yeah, I was hanging on to my idea of primary…
No need to be concerned, though. Saturday is led primary, and about half way through, I realized my primary is actually improving.
This kinda begs the question about the efficacy of practicing the same thing every single day: sports science suggests you take a day in between workouts of specific muscle groups so you can recover and, in turn, optimize your progress.
The rationale for every day yoga practice (at least the one I use) is that yoga practice is about more than physical progress: the every day practice, far as I can tell, is about cultivating tapas more than about optimizing physical progress.
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Gonna go over to My Gift’s to help hang up curtains today. Not just hang ‘em, though. Put up the hardware. With a drill. On a ladder. Sigh. Can you tell I’m not really looking forward to that?
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So last night, I look over and there’s Waylon, sitting on the couch and watching TV. (No, we don’t have a blue and white print couch — that’s just a blanket for the dogs to sit on…)
07/12/2009 at 9:30 am
I know this is nuts but I’m so happy that Waylon (can I tell you I think of Waylon Jennings every time I see your dog????) does the sideways sit and he’s in good shape. I thought Fatty Rufus did that because he was fat. Maybe it’s just a thing. He’s so cute! Waylon, that is. And Rufus.
07/12/2009 at 9:41 am
We were thinking of Waylon Jennings when we named him!
Waylon sits that way ’cause he has super loose hips. He has all kinds of weirdo sitting and lying positions that seem pretty much impossible to pull off until you look over and see him doing it.
07/12/2009 at 5:29 pm
Once I think of Waylon Jennings I immediately think of my father. He loved Waylon Jennings.
Maybe Rufus just has open hips? He can’t do all those funky things Waylon does, like the froggy lie-down..
07/13/2009 at 6:47 am
Hey Karen, sorry, I mean karen!! I have found myself struggling with the same quandry: what happens to beloved Primary when you’re spending more time on Second (and the related questions: what happens to backbends when you focus on LBH and vice versa)? I am sure that this is what caused my Ashtanga burnout last year…I wouldn’t give up any part of Primary, so I insisted on practicing Primary PLUS all of Second up to Eka Pada. That was NUTS, for me at least.
It is good to hear that your Primary is still good, and perhaps even better. But what interested me most about your post was the bit about exercise science and the notion of not doing the same body party each day, or something like that. I too have considered that notion lately, and a friend of mine who does a radio show on sports medicine spoke about it, and what she said struck me: that we have a tendency to work NOT hard enough and then NOT take enough breaks. Basically, we tend to do the same thing every day at roughly the same intensity, when to make physical progress, we would be better served to have hard days and easy days and more than just one day off here and there.
Anyway, it’s all fascinating to me, and something I have had the opportunity to ponder on a personal level while my right hand is stuck in a fiberglass cast. The broken hand forces me to intersperse the yoga with street running, trail running and hiking (because after doing yoga on a given day, I feel as if my hand needs total rest). What I have found is that all of my activities have improved with the mixing-it-up methodology. Of course, I am unable to demonstrate causation….in other words, it could simply be that I am feeling better because it is sunny out, or that I am lighter by a couple of pounds for whatever reason, or that there is a psychological reason why mixing it up works better for me, as opposed to the exercise-physiology reason.
Wow, that was long. I should just write my own post about it. Ah well…
Lauren
07/13/2009 at 6:56 am
hi Karen
Waylon looks very human.
hugs
Arturo
07/13/2009 at 9:48 am
ditto Arturo’s comment.
ADORABLE. gaw.
07/13/2009 at 12:37 pm
Karen –Not surprised you’re finding it good to do 2nd and 1st on different days… I’m a long time lurker & was a long time Ashtangi who switched to teaching/practicing a style that doesn’t involve same-sequence-repetition everyday & find it much easier & more useful for my muscles/joints.
Actually did do a long post on repetition vs variation on my blog a week or so ago if you want to see the list of pros/cons rather than me repeating them here.: )
http://autumnlotusyoga.omblogger.com/2009/07/04/repetition-repetition-repetition/
Love your writing, photos & stories of your practice and Waylon and the Cop and the Gift!!
Elizabeth
07/13/2009 at 8:40 pm
Zauren!
I’ll write something coherent in response to your comment as soon as I am able. Lots of interesting thoughts…
Elizabeth, I am curious about Forrest yoga. I’ve looked at some of her MP3s, but then was confused about the levels. Is it similar to Ashtanga (i.e., a Forrest intermediate is about the same level as an Ashtanga intermediate, etc.?) Or do you go back to a white belt when you move to a new school?
07/14/2009 at 1:24 am
Karen — Wow, good analogy!!
In Forrest,there are some different techniques for carrying the body eg, wrapping/broadening the shoulders, lengthening up the ribs, relaxing the neck (hardest for Ashtangis but feels SOOOO good when you start to get it).
But, overall, the poses are waaaaay similar and you get to play with different fun stuff each class & a lot sooner than in Ashtanga — crow variations, handstands & forearms balances early on, lots of different backbends in a backbending class, pigeon variations like the world doth never seen before.
Plus, injuries are treated as things to work with respectfully & heal through yoga practice rather than push through which is what I kept finding in Ashtanga, though it sounds like you have great teachers!!
So, nope, you wouldn’t be a “white belt” and a lot of Ashtangis/Vinyasa/Power etc folks do crossover & just keep risin’ on up!!
07/14/2009 at 1:29 am
PS: To get started, I’d recommend the Forrest Intermediate DVD first off so you can actually see the techniques though it would probably be pretty straightforward for you.
The MP3s are mostly all-levels with some fun intermediate/advanced options and have the benefit of being really fun because they are live-recorded workshops. That said, the big 5 CD Intensive set would probably be the tastiest for you to play with once you have a chance to see what things look like. The set has a picture book to go with it, which helps.
Sorry for the long reply — you got me started on a fave subject!!
07/14/2009 at 9:48 am
Elizabeth, this is all fascinating. I need to read your blog to follow up, but briefly, what is wrapping the shoulders? Sounds like something I’m finding I need to do to sustain the 3S thing but have trouble putting in to words.
P.S. Does Waylon believe he is human?