Ustrasana

Today’s yoga practice was fantastic again. The body felt light. To go through all the asanas was a joy. After ninety minutes concentration faded away, I finished the practice with a rather short closing sequence.

To practice daily makes every single practice easier (also the difficult ones).

I like to repeat asanas up to three times, when I think it would be good to go deeper.

To hold the asanas longer is a good idea. I use my timer a lot.

I take my time to get into an asana. To create length comes always first. Then I move forward or backward into an asana.

When in the end position I breathe deeply. Yet there is always also inner work to do. The bandhas are engaged. With every inhaling I create length. The hips move forward in ustrasana. The chest moves upwards, the hands press into the feel. The knees shall stay parallel, so the thighs move inward. The little toes move to the floor.

With every repetition the pose feels better.

One more practice this week. Saturday is rest day.

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Next months is another challenge on Instagram created my Carmen (cyogalife). The wall is used as a prop. The wall is indeed my favorite tool. I’m ready to be part of this challenge. My Instagram account is called: photoyogablog. Feel free to join. It’s an opportunity to explore new variations of asanas.

On Sundays my yoga week begins

So much went well today:

• I started my practice before breakfast. This allowed me to get deep into the twists. The breakfast after an intensive practice tastes also better. It feels as if it#s deserved.

• Today I was able to do 5 sun salutations A and 3 sun salutations B. Yoga in general doesn’t cover everything. The cardiovascular system doesn’t get trained very well. Only during the sun salutations and during back bending asanas my heart is challenged. My fitbit watch told me this. So to get back to 8 sun salutations felt good. My back does allow to do sun salutations B these days.

• 90 minutes I practiced one asana after the other. I linked them with vinyasas. This is a challenge in concentration.

These days I wonder how I can learn the asanas more effectively. Practice and all is coming, sounds easy and nice, but it’s not very useful. One must practice correctly. The didactic is neglected in the community. This is why I want to focus on my blog on this topic.

A useful advice is that if an asana is difficult, it makes sense to hold this asana longer than 5 breaths. It can be helpful to repeat the asana up to 3 times. Additional asanas might be helpful, too.

I repeated ustrasana 3 times. It didn’t feel so good as it used to. Each time it got easier. I had also put a block between my ankles to have resistance when engaging the legs. The knees move inwardly.

Amazing how optimistic I’m after each practice. Nevertheless the break was good. My back needed it. My practice is now pain free. It took me more then 2 years to feel healed at least 98 %. Sometimes when I pick something up from the floor, a sudden pain arises. It disappears fast.

My injury brought me back to practice alone. At home I can take care of myself and I can adjust the practice to my needs.