March is the vinyasa month.
Yesterday I watched a lot of YouTube videos on yoga and also on asanas and vinyasa.
I started with an interview with yogi Swenson, who sat years on my sofa in my practice room via his great book. He’s a yoga teacher and has decades of experience with students. He described the journey of yoga how many experience it: First the learning curve goes up. Then comes a plateau. The plateau might last rather long. It’s when students often stop practicing. After this plateau it gets worse for so many. A setback is experienced. And here I am, but I don’t give up. Since this back injury years! ago I’m not yet where I've been. I’m so much weaker. I lost many asanas and vinyasa. I’m relaxed and keep practicing. The yoga practice per se is so fulfilling no matter how advanced or modest my practice is on a given day.
When I write this blog I don’t come from a situation of I know it all. I am a modest student. I’m looking for the next tiny step.
And here it is. The first step when jumping backwards is to lift up. I use blocks, because my core is not strong enough to lift the body without this useful height of the blocks. .
I also watched a Youtube video by David Garrigues. He got a question from a student. She wrote that she was working on jumping back for 10 years now and she was still not able to do it. She asked if she should give up?
David’s answer was very motivating. If you like to learn a fancy movement give it up. Yet the goal is not that fancy movement, it is to get stronger. Strength is necessary for so many asanas in the series. Strength is so important in general. His recommendation was to lift up and to hold the position as long as possible. Blocks can be used. It helps enormously. To give up on the hidden goal of this crazy movement is not an option.
This morning I practice primary and I lifted myself up between asanas and between sides. It’s so easy to omit this strength exercise. Yet then nothing moves.
When I hear that someone worked on a pose or a movement for 10 years without success I know that the method was not effective. It’s huge tabu in the Ashtanga community. Just doing it again and again might not bring the wished success. One must exercise correctly. The Ashtanga community is huge and in the meantime the asanas are broken down into tiny digestible pieces. There are teacher who share their knowledge on how to learn something correctly. A lot has changed in the meanwhile, yet there is still a lack of information.
One must pick oneself up where one is. So let’s lift up the ‘heavy’ body and let’s count how long one can stay there.