Led, Baddha konasana, Italian!
Posted in ashtanga yoga on 08/22/2009 04:19 pm by karenLed primary this morning. Looked like around 20 people. HOT as hell. It was pretty nice. 
I know there are people who come to led class once a week and that’s all the Ashtanga they do. I have no idea how they can sustain that kind of practice — doesn’t it HURT if you only do it once a week? I’m thinking of running and weightlifting, and I know that if you do those things once a week, they never become easy. I don’t know. I admire the once-a-weekers’ courage. I wouldn’t put up with that kind of pain.
***
I love baddha konasana. When MM suggested I do up to marichy D and then my intermediate poses, I immediately started doing ALL of primary and then intermediate poses. Because once I’m at marichy D, how could I not do baddha konasana?
If you look back through these archives, you will see blood, sweat and tears devoted to this asana. It is definitely the pose that I’ve had to work hardest on. In fact, there were months there where I couldn’t do it at all because my right piriformis went berserk. And then months where I’d do it and the jump back out of it would be stiff and one-legged, because I couldn’t immediately extend my right leg once I was out of it.
Now, though, I love it! I can fold up and put my sternum on my feet and press my knees and chin into the floor, and it all feels delicious. Especially the little crack in my sacrum. That’s the best!
I never really focused intensely on this pose. It was so seemingly opposite anything my body had a tendency to do that I just took it in stride and made an attempt at it, day after day after day. I think it may have been a full year of VBG picking up a sandbag — two at the beginning — and plopping them down on my back. Still, through all of it, actually GETTING this pose to budge seemed like such a pipe dream that I never really got invested in the whole process.
And now it’s my favorite pose of primary. In part, no doubt, because it took a lot of work. Even sans the emotional drama.
I have this little dream that some day I will feel the same way about kapotasana. Something I worked my ass off for, something I wasn’t “made to do.” But something that’ll be super-satisfying in the end.
***
Italian food tonight! The Cop is taking a week of vacation and booked reservations at a place we love. I was just talking with My Gift and asked her to join us. I hope the restaurant doesn’t have a fit about the extra person.
***
Oh, and a little story. I was doing assisted dropbacks with MM and then he had me do a urdhva dhanurasana and was pressing down against me and encouraging me to press up into my arms and legs.
“More into your arms!”
“My arms don’t straighten!” I said. “Why is that?”
He made strongman arms. “You’re like me,” he said. “Too many lat pulldowns.”
“What am I going to dooooo?” I said dramatically.
“Get a new body next lifetime?” he suggested.
Yes. Next time.
08/23/2009 at 10:39 am
Love that illustration! It’s so weird.
Our led primary practice was 90 degrees. Not on purpose, but because the a/c unit can’t combat the 100+ temps and having 15 people jammed into a tiny space. By the end, I had every article of clothing on my body rolled up as far as possible. Sopping wet.
I don’t know how people pop in and do a practice here and there, seems like it’s just asking for constant soreness!
I think I like the postures I worked hard on also- feels like the ultimate pay off to finally do them with no trouble or stress! Maybe you’re muscles will relax over time and you’ll straighten your arms. Surely you can recover from the lat pulldowns?! Maybe?
08/23/2009 at 5:14 pm
hi Karen
i hope you can feel that way about Kapo sometime in the future, it may not be realisticd. it seems to be a long term project to get this pose well. i discussed the practice with someone this weekend with whom i practiced in SF. our focus of discussion was not so much getting the right bend and getting to the toes, but focusing on doing the right breathing sequence into the pose, in the holding the pose and in the exiting the pose. we tend to freak so much about the pose we forget that there is actually the challenge of doing the breath counts correctly.
hugs
Arturo
08/23/2009 at 5:18 pm
it seems Liz and i are reading at the same time in different time zones. hi Liz! i’m back in the mainland. Karen’s and Owl’s are the only sites i can read without dwama.
hugs
Arturo
08/23/2009 at 7:56 pm
Hi Liz, Hi Arturo. Oh yes, Arturo — I won’t feel like the pose is worked out ’til I have a nice even breath — that’s how I can tell that I’m really *in* a pose — when I can breathe well. The thing with kapo is that the backbend revs up my nervous system, so it’s tough to get grounded into the pose & the breath. Lots of practice will help, no doubt!
08/24/2009 at 7:30 am
Good morning,
It sounds like you were describing yoga tourism….this style class one day, that another…..”if it’s Tuesday this must be vinyasa”. That’s just turns out to be way too much mental agitation for me.
Once in a very great while, we do experiment with non-ashtanga practices in and out of town, simply as R&D or, (mostly for what turns out to be) simply exercise. Out of curiosity, I went to a local studio for a “hot” class friday night and it turned out to be one of those “lunge-a-thons”. Maybe you’ve seen these? 1 1/2 hour class, literally 1 hr. 10 minutes of stepping onto variations of warriors and lunges. Place was packed. By the 20th warrior, I couldn’t help but chuckle when the instructor called out for yet another. Live and learn. I won’t do that again.
Regarding “feeling like a pose is worked out”…..is it ever? I guess getting over the major obstacles can feel like an accomplishment, but it’s always changing. And sometime it feels like we’re going backwards.
Breathing smoothly throughout is huge. As well as the getting in and out of the pose with easiness. Maintaining attention all the way through the exit is very helpful for me. Oh yeah, and letting go of what I think a pose is suppose to look like.
best,
Jeff
08/24/2009 at 2:24 pm
Hi Jeff,
By “worked out,” I didn’t mean to imply any kind of mastery! I think of it as when I have a pose kind of sussed out — understand the way to coordinate the in and the out, can breathe pretty evenly, and (I guess, most importantly, to me) can let go of any anxiety I might feel ahead of time.
Lunge-a-thons. Haha! I’m NOT a fan. And a lunge-a-thon in a heated room? I think I’d go crazy.
08/24/2009 at 6:01 pm
Nicely put.
For me, it’s not so much the anxiety, but more like despondency, as in: “oh here come that right knee thing again!”
: )