Another slow day at work (so far), so an opportunity to recount the week presents itself. I have been spending some time recently going through the ashtangi.net site put together by Julie/Suburbfreak. The site is aggregator of ashtanga blogs. Plenty of people discussing aspects of their lives and practices. Interesting to see how each person approaches it. Kudos to Julie and all who have helped her for all their hard work in making such a resource possible.

My first chance to practice this week was a mysore class Tuesday morning. At first glance, each day of the week might seem the same as any other in relation to the practice. A day is a day, just another chance to roll out the mat and start bending. But, it's not that straightforward. I have always been a little and sometimes a lot, uninformed about the history of how things are. Maybe that's why I liked Dan Brown's bestsellers, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demon's. They gave life to the symbols in our everyday life that we take for granted and often are blissfully ignorant about. I never knew there was any real background to the reason why our weekdays have the names they do (I never took languages in school, except for sliding through two years of Latin in high school without learning an iota of Latin). They were just the names of the days. Kind of weird, out of place names, but nothing worth spending energy learning about (Wednesday? What kind of name..., screw it, who cares.) Only since attending a few yoga workshops did I learn there's a story there, an astrological one. In many, or maybe most cultures, the days of the week correspond to seven heavenly bodies that are visible to the naked eye: the sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. Different cultures named each day based on their names for these planets or for the gods that they associated with them. Interestingly, in English, many of the weekdays are named after Norse gods. At any rate, there has to be a reason I'm going into one of my patented terminal digressions here. The different days of the week have different characteristics attributed to them, usually in reference to the characteristics of their associated planets and deities. Tuesday is associated with the planet Mars. In Roman mythology, Mars is the god of war. Similarly, in Hindi, Tuesday is called Mangalvar, so named for the Hindi word for the planet Mars. Tuesday's attributes are those we have learned to associate with Mars: courage, fiery nature, energy, maleness. In astrology, Mars is also known as the lesser malefic. It has negative connotations because many of the attributes for that planet aren't always that helpful: restlessness, rashness, violence, single-mindedness. When this was discussed in our workshops, Tuesday was presented like it was a day that we should tread carefully in our practice efforts. This kind of bugged me, because I saw myself as a Tuesday kind of person, a Martian. It seemed like it would be the best day for me. In fact, by chance, the day that I do my surgeries is Tuesday. In my classes, however, I was taught that Tuesday is a day of guardedness in Hindu culture. Brahmins don't shave on this day, for example. And, new endeavors are limited. Endeavors like getting new postures. New postures are never given on Tuesdays, traditionally. Tuesdays are days of mixed blessing: it's a day that I sometimes get the chance to practice, always a good thing, but it's a day in which I don't have the possibility of progression into new areas. So, I go into Tuesday practices with no expectations. As a result, I often have what in hind site seem like my best practices on those days.

This recent Tuesday was notable for a couple of clear progressions for me. I only did my second series poses. I did all my backbending research stuff. In Kapotasana, Tim adjusted me as deep as I've ever been. He had my thumbs just shy of the leading edge of my heels. I felt that I possibly could have been put all the way in to my heels, and I think he may have considered that too, adjusting me deeper a couple of different times before stopping. It was probably a good call, the risk of going that one step too far and causing injury was there, or at least my fear of it was. In the operating room, we call it the mistake of "good, better, oops": trying to make something good even better and ruining it in the process. Most of the rest of my poses were nothing spectacular, just par for the course for me. I did get into Dwi Pada Sirsasana on my own, something I'm now able to do about fifty percent of the time, or thirty percent at the least. I even held the balance part of it for a few seconds. After doing that part of it on my own, Tim helped me get a better positioning of my feet but I couldn't keep the balance after that. Very frustrating. I was also able to do a better Viparita Chakrasana. I went over on my own three times, with slightly better landings each time. That's the opposite trend from what I have done in the past. Usually, my first try is my best one and they degrade after that. I tend to let my feet come too close together as they approach impact. The resulting narrow base that my feet give causes me to often tip over to one side or the other when I land. But, if I concentrate on getting my feet out wide, I make some other mistake, like letting them get too far away from my hands. That results in a higher speed, out of control impact that draws looks from several mats away. On that day, I was able to get more things right than wrong and landed each try. I am no where near being able to come back up on my own. I can't even do that in Viparita Dandasana. To work on the feel of coming back up, I decided to turn and do my drop overs so that my feet came down near the wall. I then used one foot to push off of the wall to come back over. After doing that three times, nobody came by to do the usual supported version of the sequence with me, so I turned around again and started doing the drop overs followed by coming up to standing that close out the sequence. I don't think I made it up the first time I tried it. That brought Tim by to help. Instead of doing just those last three, he had me start from the beginning. Again. I wasn't tired though. When I first started doing these, I had some reluctance but it wasn't based on worries about injury, like my fear of drop backs. It was hesitancy based on fatigue. I've done them eight or ten times now and have felt stronger and less fatigued each time I've tried them. I still get some dizziness on occasion, mainly after doing one of the stand ups, but that is much less common too. So, I was very happy with how I did that day. On my scale of progression, those were some significant advancements.

I went to Tim's Improv class on Thursday. I wasn't needed in the OR until 9:30, so I figured I could practice and then cut out before the chanting and Savasana and still make it in time. When he asked what we'd like to work on that day, the requests were for standing balancing poses, Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana and doing walking handstands. I asked for a pose but was gently denied. After those requests and mine too, Tim said, "Well, before I get any more crazy suggestions, we better get started." He did a bunch of stuff, even trying to walk across the room and back in handstand, but he managed to arrange the sequencing of the researching and of the requested poses in such a way that we ended up doing the latter third or so of the third series. He's very skilled at putting these Improv classes together extemporaneously. It reminds me of a really good comic, like a Robin Williams, on an Improv night. It's artistry. I did get another first that class. I got my feet to my head in Raja Kapotasana. Not on my own, mind you. First the person on the mat next to me helped me. It's a very awkward position for the person trying to help adjust. They have to stand with their groin an inch or two from your face, put their knees into your shoulders and push you back towards your feet. She coached me into better positioning and helped me let go of some fear and relax into the pose better than I did in the past. I couldn't really tell how close I got with her but it felt good. When Tim came by helping other people, I went up into it again, hoping to be able to do it a second time. He obliged and got me to actually touch. This came about by him having to push back on my chin and draw my legs forward, but it never felt forceful when either of them did it. I'm sure it looked forceful, it's a wicked looking adjustment.

On Saturday, I went to the Improv class. That class is taught by the person who helped me on Thursday. So, I of course asked for Raja Kapotasana to see if I could touch again. We didn't do as much research but she got me very close. We also did, upon request, some "ab work". Ugghh. Fortunately, it was limited to a rep of three Navasanas, followed by three Ardha Navasanas, where we lower our upper body and legs further, so that each are only four inches or so above the ground. After that cycle, we then repeated it all again, but did a handstand in between each one instead of Lolasana. With each rep, she had me try to cross my legs and lower down and come through to sitting in a controlled fashion. She had to help me but she was there each time. It was very helpful to try that. Near the end of class, after doing our backbends, we did three attempts at drop backs. I had to wonder if this was directed at me. I doubt it but I wanted to show her that I could do it. Only, I couldn't do it. She came over for the last one and held my hips lightly so that I would know that I wouldn't do a facial and I went back to my hands with no problem. It wasn't the same thing as doing it though. After coming back up, I mumbled an apology to her for my fearfulness. Not many teachers give us the chance to work on that in a class. She has done it a few times now. I was disappointed I wasn't able to use the opportunity to overcome that mental frailty. It's just something I haven't been able to conquer.

Tomorrow, I miss out on Mysore. I get off at 8:00 but Mysore goes from 7:00 to 9:00. If there was one thing I'd want to change about my studio, it would be to have the chance to practice from 9:00 to 11:00, every day, not just Tuesdays and Thursdays. Next lifetime. At any rate, I'll do the noon prep class tomorrow.

I was talking with a guy after practice today while we waited for the bathroom line to move along. He's from out of town but I had recognized him from a previous visit to our studio. As we chatted, he asked me, "Aren't you that guy with that blog thing?" I thought to myself, "That's the second time in my life somebody's ever asked me that." When I nodded yes, he then asked, "Whatever happened with that?" Uhh, good question. Whatever happened with that? I got disenchanted with the effort that it takes to seem interesting, I guess. But, I keep trying on occasion. I told the guy, "You know, I was actually planning on putting a new post up today right after practice." Yeah. Right. It's now almost half a day later and the only reason I sat down here was that my wife left me sleeping on the sofa to go watch a movie. Nonetheless, words are appearing.

Lots of stuff I could have written about since my last posting during our trip to the Mt. Shasta second series workshop. The rest of the trip was great. I had really good practices. I mentioned in the last post that in one of the Mysore style classes I tried some poses well beyond my current practice range. I talked with Tim about it later. I was worried he'd think I was trying to show off to try and get moved forward. I wasn't. I just wanted to see if I could do the poses. I asked him if I had been 'inappropriate' in trying them. He kind of shook his head and said, "Hey, it's your funeral." Okay. Message received. I told him it was a one time thing, no offense intended, blah, blah, blah. That evening during the mat in the middle session in the yoga room, he kind of jokingly commented, "I don't know what got into John today, doing those poses from third. Back home he's always so obedient." When I replied that I was counting on him to stop me if I got into inappropriate ground, he said, "Ah, just testing limits then?" I guess so, maybe, but not really.

The other Mysore classes, I just did second series, with every research poses I could think of. I even did that on the Friday class. On Fridays, the current tradition in Mysore, India, and therefore in many of the Ashtanga studios of Guruji's students, is to only do First series. Tim told us we didn't have to do first or only first if we didn't want to. He noted that the First series only on Fridays is a fairly new tradition, that it wasn't always that way. I was glad to hear that. At home, if I get the chance to go to a Mysore class on a Friday, I'd hate to miss the opportunity to do my second series poses. Although it doesn't happen very often, when it has happened in the past, I would do all of first and then my allocated second series poses because I thought we had to. Now, I'll feel better about just doing the second series poses.

On the last day of the workshop, everyone gets together in the yoga room for goodbyes and what not. This is the first year we've made it to that session. In years past, we left on Friday, right after the last practice. The week in Shasta is powerful enough that the goodbye session has become known as the Circle of Tears. Everyone gets a little emotional and snivelly. Even I. First time in probably seven years or more.

After all that time in the refreshing mountain air, we then flew into LA. Our oldest two kids were at camp for two weeks at Catalina Island, about 30 miles off of the coast from LA. Our youngest stayed in Shasta with us but was going to Catalina herself for a week the Monday after Shasta. On Sunday, we all went over to Catalina to see the older two kids for Visitor's Day. They had been having the time of their lives. Our son, however, got a little homesick and wanted to come home when it came time for us to get back on the boat. We had been warned by the camp staff before going over there that this is pretty common. They get over it as soon as we're gone for 20 minutes. Or so they say. We chose to not give in and made him stay. He got pretty mad and went off to pout. That made me feel a little better. If he had gotten really upset and cried, I would have worried that something was not going well. But for him to get mad meant that he was fine. Our daughter e-mailed us a few days later that by then he was "so not into going home", so we felt relieved. Our youngest was enthralled with all the camp goings on, especially all the hand clapping, foot stomping and yelling games the campers did while they waited for their turn in the lunch line. She practiced the hand clapping routines endlessly that day in anticipation of her getting to go there the next day. Prior to dropping her off, we went to Noah and Kimberly Williams' studio in Hollywood for Mysore practice. I felt a little guilty doing it, but I did all of second again. I knew Noah could tell from my performance that I shouldn't have been doing much of it, but I wanted to maximize my chances at doing it while I could. We had lunch with them and a couple of friends of ours who are students of theirs and then we dropped Zoe off at the boat for her trip to camp. We now had a full week at home with no kids. First time since our kids were born.

Kiran spent much of the week teaching classes. She subs for a lot of people in our area and has her own class at a studio in La Jolla on Wednesday evening. I went back to my usual routine of work. The schedule of work made it such that I was only able to practice on Wednesday and Thursday. So, I went twice on each day. I hadn't planned on doing that, but there was no one else at home, the kids were gone, the wife was teaching, so why not. Wednesday I was post-call, so I was off during the day. I went to the noon class, which is an improv type class. Then I went to Tim's led first series class that evening. That was the first time I had done the first series in at least a couple of weeks. I did okay with it. I wasn't as stiff as I thought I would be but did get a bit more tired than I was happy with. It turns out there was a person practicing there that night who is famous. I wouldn't have recognized her at all if I hadn't heard that she may be there. She was very attentive to her practice. I guess one benefit of celebrity is that you learn to control your gaze in all aspects of life to avoid inadvertently encouraging people to come over and bother you if you make casual eye contact with them. Her practice, what little of it I could see from where I was set up, seemed very nice. Smooth, very capable. She left after half way through Savasana. She did it very discretely, not in the , "Hey, look at me. I'm leaving class early. I've got waaay more important things to do than lay around in savasana. Okay, you can lay back down now, I'm leaving" way that tends to piss me off. I realized that she probably has to do that to maintain any sense of privacy. Kind of felt sorry for her that she has regularly miss out on something like Savasana.

Thursday morning, I went to Tim's Improv class before going to work. I've been to this class maybe three or four times before. It's a class that tends to challenge everybody in one way or another. We did some poses that I've never done before. He did take it a little easy on us. When he got a request for arm balances at the start of class, he ended up doing mainly hand stand variations and pincha mayurasana variations and not the more challenging arm balances from the third series. They were fun though. We even got to try Sayanasana. One of the students asked at the start of class if we could do a pose called "Bird of Paradise". Tim said if the pose doesn't have a sanskrit name, we don't do it here. Another guy asked if we could do the pose where you stand with one leg behind the head. Tim demurred on that one too. "That doesn't sound too therapeutic for this group." he noted. That evening, I got away from work in time, so I decided to go ahead and do the evening improv class. No celebrities. Just regulars. I asked for the Bird of Paradise pose. It's harder to get balanced in than it looks, but then, my hamstrings are pretty stiff. We did some of the other fun poses that we had done that morning too, including one Tim called Svastikasana, from the fifth series. It looks like a combination of Garudasana and a pose in the Bikram series where you put one foot in half lotus then lower down and balance in a squat on the other foot, but the foot is kept flat on the floor, not up on the toes like in Bikram. I should note that the term Svastikasana is also used to describe one of the sitting postures, one that looks very similar to Sukhasana.

That was it for practice until this morning. Led first series again. I worked last night so I couldn't get to the second series class. Both classes were packed, more so than usual. I did okay with the series. It's a little limiting when we're set up real close to each other. There's some inhibition in some of the exits, like coming out of Supta Kurmasana and Bhujapidasana. It's very easy to whack someone, even with jump throughs. We had a really long Savasana. It was great. In most classes, they never seem to have enough time left for a decent Savasana. I was really thirsty by the end of class (I have maintained my pledge to not get up in first series and take a water break any more) so I spent the first half of Savasana imagining someone turning on a faucet of cold water from Shasta and running it wide open right into my mouth.

I haven't looked ahead yet to see what my yoga prospects are for this week. I already know that Sunday is out--moon day again

Hola. I'm away at one of those yoga retreats we go to a couple of times a year. Other than going to soccer tournaments for the kids, our free time these days is pretty much centered around yoga related activities. Kind of a monochromatic existence I guess, but we have a good time. This particular retreat is put on by my teacher, Tim Miller. It's spread over two weeks. They do the first series in the first week and then second series for the second week. Some people go to both weeks but most, like us, can only afford to spend the time and money for one of the weeks. Since my wife has almost finished the second series, this year we opted to go to the second series week. We did that last year too but I hadn't gotten too far along in the second series by that point, so I was a little out of place. This year, I've gotten a bit further into the series so I feel more confident being here. The retreat is in a fairly rustic (read what you will into that term) bed and breakfast inn in a small town near Mt. Shasta. It has to have been a very hot and dry year up here because the mountain seems barer than usual. The snow fields and glaciers are mere strips of white from the distance. This time of year can be fairly warm, but it tends to be cool in the morning. In years past, they would light a wood burning stove in the yoga room to get it warmed up before class at 7:00AM. We haven't needed to do that this time around.

Each day we have practice at 7:00. After a late but leisurely breakfast, there are outings set up for each day. These typically involve a two to three mile hike to a nearby water fall, a mountain lake or something equally scenic. The day wraps up with an hour or two session of discussion, asana Q&A, chanting, reading of stories from the Ramayana, pretty much whatever comes up. After dinner, most folks sit around and chat. I spend that time letting Tim take my money at the Scrabble table. It has become a fairly standard routine. One of these days, though, we're gonna play by the real rules, not the Tim Miller variations. As if that would make any difference.

The class is made up of the typical array of abilities that one would expect to find on a retreat, although being a second series retreat; the overall skill level is quite good. Rather than just do a guided second series sequence each day, Tim alternates a guided class one day with a Mysore style class the next day. In the past, he has also thrown in an Improv class for one of the days, just to add a little spice.

Our first day of practice was Sunday. I was expecting to be stiff. That's usually the case after traveling for me. All the crap food I tend to eat in the airport and in the plane, the prolonged sitting, maybe even the changes in cabin pressure, all seem to add up to a day of regressive bending. I was stiff. When I do second series in Encinitas, be it Mysore or even the rare Sunday led class, there's often some "research" poses that we do in and amongst the regular second series poses. These research poses, usually groin and shoulder stretches, make several of the more challenging poses approachable for the stiffies like me. In Sunday's class, we pretty much just did straight forward second series. I had a much harder time with a couple of poses than I usually do, especially the foot behind the head stuff. I had no expectations for that class though.

I really didn't feel like going on the hike that first day. I offered instead to watch Tim's young daughter while he led the rest of the group. He dropped us off at a nice shady glen at the side of the stream they were hiking along. I spent the next two hours trying to keep up with her imagination. It's been a while since our kids were three years old, so I'd forgotten how demanding it can be. My biggest worry, and her least concern, was that she would trip and hurt herself on the rocks that bordered the stream. To make matters worse, she took off her shoes and al of her clothes wthin 5 seconds of our getting there. I kept jumping around trying to gently steer her to areas of least risk without her knowing that. Like most three year olds, she is allergically averse to being protected or otherwise controlled. I had to develop the non-linear, non-rational thought processes she was playing with to keep her engaged and relatively happy. So we spent the better part of an hour naming various rocks (these were her dolls) and deciding which ones were worthy of keeping and which ones needed to be cast aside. Sad to say, after the first ten or fifteen dolls were chosen and placed in the imaginary house, almost no one else was good enough and they ended up in the stream or in the bushes. My job in this process was to come up with a different reason for each rock to be unsatisfactory so that she could discard it. "That one is too ugly." "This one is too mean." "Oh no, this one can't stay it's too, uh, too..., too furry." I don't think she ever got bored, though I can't take any credit for that. Her dad and the rest of the hikers came back right when we (she) was finishing the second soft drink and the last of the chocolate chip cookie, a dirty trick I used to keep her going when it appeared that the other activities she had come up with, like walking on the sharp rocks in her bare feet as perilously close to the rushing stream as possible and going over to inspect why the bees were clustering near a still area of water, were not going keep her attention too much longer. I realized I was out of kid shape. I had a mild headache from trying to maintain a conversation with her. I know that doesn't really sound like much but try to do itwith a three year old for a couple of hours. It brings a whole new meaning to emptying the mind of distractions and becoming one with what you're doing.

Yesterday's practice was a Mysore style class. Before the class, Tim told us that we should do whatever we felt was appropriate to do. It looked like most people did second series. A couple of the more advanced students did third series. Some folks did first series. Last year, even though the week is set up to be a second series week, for the Mysore classes, I did the first series and what second series poses I had been given up to that point. This year I decided that since I get to do second series so infrequently at home, I was going to do full second series each day, even the poses I hadn't been given yet. Then, when he said that we could do whatever we thought was appropriate, I thought, "Why not do some of the third series poses? I think I can do them (I've never done most of the foot behind the head poses in third). It's not like I'm expecting to do these poses normally. And he did say he'd stop us if we got into doing something that was inappropriate. Screw it. I'm going to see if I can do them." I think playing with Tim's daughter the day before affected my ability to think rationally. I worked through the second series okay. Not my best ever but serviceable. I couldn't quite get into Dwi Pada Sirsasana on my own, a goal for this week, but I did hold the position after he put me into it, my biggest goal for the week. I held each of the headstands, some of them waveringly but upright nonetheless. Then, I started off into third. I've done the first pose in that series, Viswamitrasana, at the most twice ever. And it showed. That is a pose that really tests your bandhas, your balance, your strength and, you have to be able to extend your leg in abduction (the kind of motion your legs makes when it goes into the side splits) really well, which I don't. I weebled and wobbled for a bit but I didn't fall down. I glanced to see what Tim's reaction would be to my impudence but he was helping someone do their finishing backbend sequence so I don't think he saw me. Good thing. Onward I descended. I have done the second pose, Vashistasana a few times. I don't think I did it too bad but my wife informed me afterward that I looked horrible in it. Still no shouts from across the room to stop. So, into the crux moves. I think I can do the foot behind the head moves fairly well, if I am reasonably warmed up and are not too tired. Well, I can do the single leg things okay. I suck at the dwi pada postures. The third pose in the series, Kasyapasana, is one we do fairly commonly as a preparatory move before going into Eka Pada Sirsasana. I can usually get my extended leg almost straight but I usually don't get it down to the floor. I got through that one and entered virgin territory. Chakorasana is a pose that we go through as we transition out of Eka Pada Sirsasana back into Chaturanga. I've never tried to hold the straight leg up for the full five breaths. My foot usually slips from behind my head as soon as I get the straight leg raised up, because that's the next move in the transition. I was getting tired by this point. Poses with the foot behind the head have a lot of strong muscles working against each other. They're all pretty taxing. I had to re-do Chakorasana a couple times on each side to be able to keep the foot behind my head. My extended leg was looking pretty ugly, bent at the knee and no where near my face but I was able to approximate the pose. Bhairavasana took me several tries on each side, with increasing longer breaks between each attempt to catch my breath and wipe myself down so I wouldn't slip as much. Some where into the middle of doing this one, Tim strolled by on the way to help another student and said, “John, what are you doing?" I wasn't sure if he was asking about my doing the poses or the fact that I had been sitting there resting between attempts, doing nothing for a minute or so at a time. I avoided looking at him and muttered that I was doing "research" and pressed on. I though Bhairavasana would be where I had to stop because I had trouble figuring out how to get my back leg back there without my top leg slipping off of my head. I finally managed to get the right degree of extension and was able to hold the pose. Once in it, it really didn't feel like I was doing it that bad. Skandasana, the next pose, I didn't think would be too hard. It wasn't. I still had to take a couple of tries on each side to figure out the balance shifts and the counter pressures necessary to come to standing. By that point, my difficulties were more an issue of fatigue than inability. I almost stopped there. I was worried that I'd be tired enough that I wouldn't be able to keep my balance in Durvasasana, where you stand upright, or as close to that you can with one foot behind your head. I didn't want to blow out my back or anything by pushing too far. I decided to go ahead though. That was the pose that I really wanted to know if I could do. I knew going in most of the others were do-able. I wasn't sure about Durvasasana though. But I did okay. I wobbled up on my right and held it. As I bent back over Tim was looking at me, as in "Why?" I got upright on my second side but lost my balance so I let my leg come up off of my head and decided to call it quits. I had answered my questions. It was late and I was tired and I didn't want to make Tim come over and tell me off.

Today was guided second series. We did a few researching poses for the foot behind the head poses but otherwise it was straight forward. We held Kapotasana for a looong time today. That took some wind out of my sails. I almost domino'd a row of people when I fell out of Baddha Hasta Sirsasana C, the headstand where your arms are in the same positions you would use for Pincha Mayurasana. That is my worst headstand. I fall out of it more than even Mukta Hasta Sirsasana C. My shoulder range of motion is better but I still have a very hard time coming up. I can't use my core to get my legs up, like I can on all of the other headstands. I have to push myself way past the midline. Sometimes I even have to hop to get the feet moving up. Since there's often not a point in the lifting of the legs where I have a stable base, I some times go boom. Today I tried to steer away from the woman right in front of me, but falling over to the side just endangered the lady on the mat next to hers. My feet landed about four inches from her face. She blinked, I think, but that was about it. She never wavered a bit in the pose. That was pretty remarkable.

Well, I have to drive into town and find a place to log on to the net so that I can pos this, so enough for now. Hopefully I'll get a chance to add more later in the week. I'm sure I'll need to edit it later, I'm using my wife's laptop and with her keyboard I mishit the keys even more than I usually do, but it will have to stand for now

Hey.   Back again.  Here every month, just like clockwork.  There just hasn't been much to say.   It's been a very slow month.  I've only been able to practice a couple of times a week,  sometimes less.   As for Mysore classes, I think I was able to get to one of them in the entire month.  This week, I was able to go to Mysore Thursday and Friday but my teacher was out of town for a much deserved vacation.   Figures. 
 
I would have thought practicing this  infrequently would have resulted in me losing ground but I think I've kept most of my range of motion.  I did lose endurance though.  When I did both the first and second series poses in the Friday class, I got a lot more tired than I used to.  I started to skip the attempts at Viparita Chakrasana at the end  because it takes alot out of me usually and I didn't have a whole lot left in the tank.  I went ahead and tried to do what I could on my own.   I didn't do the assisted part where we actually end up doing the sequence, as opposed to me just trying to do it..  But I did try to do it on my own.  I only get to try that when I'm in Mysore class really.  I don't think I'll have too many more chances at Mysore in the next few weeks either so I had to at least try it.  Unfortunately, I still suck badly at it.  I think there's supposed to be some kind of bend occuring in the back but I just end up doing one of those "Timberrr!" things.  Every time I try and arch my back  to lower my chest and let my legs drop down, I tend to lose my center of gravity back to my front side and end up falling that way instead of lowering the other way.   So, by the time I've managed to actually get my feet over and down, I've already ended up doing five or six handstands of varying duration.  When my feet do come over, they tend to land too close together and I usually fall over to one side or the other.  The worst is actually landing it.  Then I realize that going back up and over is not physically possible.   I can stand up after coming over but not without moving either my feet or hands in from the initial landing position.  I didn't expect this one to come easily.
 
We're going to a workshop up in the Mt Shasta area soon.  I'm hoping to get in  classes whenever and wherever I can to try and get back in shape for that.   The workshop is geared more to my wife's level than to mine, so I need to get it going again so that I can get as much out of the class as I can.  The classes that I have been able to get to recently have been mostly weekend improv classes and a couple of second series classes, so I have gotten in some reps.  But I'm not at the point that I feel good about doing that level every day.  When I only do a hard class  once a week, I can psyche up for it.   Doing it every day, 'nother thing.
 
Ok, enough with the kvetching.  I've noticed that personal blogs, mine included, gravitate toward that mentality.  Lots of self deprecation, if only's, i'm not worthy kind of writing.  It's easy to slip into for some reason. 
 
I took my kids for a hike in the hills the other day.  I have a friend who wants to hike up Mt. Whitney this summer, so she asked me to do a practice hike with her.   We had both tried the Whitney hike with a couple of other friends about five or six years ago.    We didn't make it then for a variety of reasons.  She's been training pretty hard for this attempt.  We were going to hike on a trail that goes up a relatively low level peak in our area called Mt San Jacinto.  You can take a tramway up from Palm Springs to the trail head at 8400 feet altitude.  Saves a lot of slogging up the  trail on the other side of the mountain that goes up from the 5500 foot level.  From there, it's a 5.5  mile hike to the top.  I didn't think we'd be doing too much distance.   We were there mainly for her to get used to hiking at altitude with a pack on, so I took the kids along.  Dad bonding with the kids.   What a guy.  As you might expect, the kids sprinted ahead of us old folks.   I gave them the obligatory warning about the tortoise and the hare, with the usual lack of effect.  We stopped and had lunch after a couple of miles.  I thought we'd head back after that but it was still early and they wanted to keep going so we went on for another mile.  From there, we could see the trail going up the last couple of miles.  Nobody was hurting so they kept going.  The kids started to flag when we were about a mile from the top, at roughly the 9,800 foot level.  My son was the first who wanted to bail out.   I told him he could quit at any point, I didn't want this to be a death march for them.  He bitched about it but he couldn't bear the thought that his sisters would go to the top and then give him a hard time for bailing out.  We had had a house guest stay with us recently. The guy had told Jake a couple of aphorisms, one of which went something along the lines of, "The easiest thing in life is to quit or fail".   He looked at the girls onthe trail ahead and angrily said, "Fine!  I'm going."   We went a bit further and my youngest slipped and scratched her hand.  She looked tired and didn't want to keep going so I stayed with her while everyone else went on the top.  By the time they got back down to us, it was 5 pm.  Given how they seemed on that last bit going up, I was a little worried at that point that they would be so tired from going that far at altitude that they would run out of steam and have to stop on the way down, putting us at risk for having to hike in the dark.  That, or they might be fatigued enough to trip or fall, maybe getting hurt.  Then we'd have really been in a tight spot.   They were tougher than woodpecker lips though.  They knew they were doing something hard and they pulled together  There was none of the ususal bitching and moaning and cat fighting.  I know it was only a hike, but to me it was one of those times in life where you find out what you've got, what kind of person you are.   I was extremely proud of how they did.  So, I didn't rub it in that the 60+ year old lady we were hiking with beat us down by at least a hundred yards.  Tortoises rule.  We were all very tired by the time we got home at 11:00 that night.  Next day I was dogging it.  The kids, however, never felt a twinge.  It was just another day to them.  Youth rules. 
 
Tomorrow, I going to Sunday first series.  Given all the crap food Ive eaten today, I'm expecting a fairly dense expereience.  One last kvetch.   Good to be back.  Hope I can keep myself going.  It's more fun after I've finished one.  It's kind of like doing practice: once you get going, it gets easy to do.  If you put if off, it gets easier to not do. 
 
 
 
 

I've hit another lull. I just haven't felt that I had much to say lately. Not feeling especially creative. But, some new happenings provide reason to emerge from the fog. The annual teacher training that our teacher holds each summer is at hand, providing at least forty new people to practice amongst. We also had an innovative improv class yesterday that I enjoyed. And, for some reason, my wife has been bugging me to start blogging stuff. What's up with that? Plus, it's been over a month since I last posted. When I started to put in links to other Asthtanga blogs, some of them became dead blogs with no updates. I decided that if a linked blog was inactive for over a month, I was going to unlink it. I still haven't done that yet but plan to. So, I've violated my own minimal activity rule.

Our class yesterday started out with the teacher remonstrating us gently for not giving her much to work with when she asks us for suggestions of what we want to work on. The truth is that most of us are just too lazy to come up with god ideas. We'd rather that she do all the creative work in making each class fun, fresh, challenging and focused on just the things that we really need. It's waaay too much work to come up with ideas of how to do that on our own. I had just commented to the person on the mat next to me that we should suggest to her that she do something that we had never done before. I saw though, that that kind of sugestion was really just a vapid non-idea. So, I had a spur of the moment insight and asked if we could do some stuff from all four of the first four series. Then, to make it hard on her, I also suggested that we do at least three postures from each series. That was a little unfair to ask for somebody to come up with on the fly. She had to assess the class, some of which she had never seen before, and try to come up with postures from those series that were do-able but still challenging and fresh. She did a great job with it.

We started off with an exploration of the dark side. In good Iyengar fashion, we did our inversions early, right after the sun salutations. We first did three separate handstands, each lasting about a minute. All of them were supported in one fashion or another, either using the wall or using a partner while we worked on various muscle actions within the execution of the pose. It was hard to focus on the desired action though, as I was mainly trying to avoid having my shoulders give out. Plus the guy next to me was cracking jokes. I fell out of the pose once while we were against the wall when he made me start laughing. After hand stands, we did head stand and shoulder stand. We did some twisting to the side but only with the legs straight up. The room was too crowded to do the kinds of twisting variations in which one or both legs are lowered while you twist.

With out recapping the entire class, we ended up doing Arkana Dhanurasana and Marichyasana E and F from the 4th series, Dighasana, Eka Pada Bakasana, Hanumanasana and Viranchyasana A from the 3rd, Pincha Mayurasana, Parighasana and Gomukhasana A & B from the 2nd, from the first, I think the only poses we did were Baddha Konasana A & B. It was a fun class, it was different enough but not too much for most.

I decided to go to the Saturday pranayama class that comes right before that Improv class. The Saturday morning class is usually not as challenging as most of Tim's weekday classes. The Saturday class is meant to be a kind of introductory approach. We do all the same pranayama sequences but usually the lengths of the inhalations, exhalations and the retentions are not as long. Although I hadn't been to a pranayama class in quite a while, I expected to do okay. The teacher yesterday had me sweating though. As I said to her afterwards, I guess I'm out of shape, pranayama shape. I've noticed one downside to doing a pranayama class and then practicing right afterwards. When I get to Padmasana at the end of practice, I find that I often don't have the patience to do as good a job with the ujjayi breathing. It's like a subconscious 'I've already done this, I don't feel like it again'. Some of the pranayama classes have evolved to become pranayama /kirtan sessions with a shortened pranayama session followed by singing chants. I like that to a degree but since I rarely get to go to pranayama, I don't want to have it be regularly shortened to sing. That may be the blasphemous voice of inexperience and ignorance speaking but it's just what I'd prefer to be doing. I'd rather have a kirtan or two each week than have a truncated pranayama session so that we can do some chants too.

As I mentioned above, the summer crush is on. With all of the teacher training students, every class is going to be bursting at the seams. While it's great to see new faces and see how people do, it's also nice to have enough room to do your practice without having to focus on the person next to you to avoid whacking them or to avoid messing up what they are doing. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Tim normally does his own practice after everybody has left from the 7:00 Mysore class. When the TT course is going on, to help alleviate the crowded conditions, he lets people do their practice at 9:00 while he is doing his. It's not led or Mysore style. There's no adjusting, it's just self practice. But for me it's a gold mine. I gives me the chance to practice after I've been on call the night before. Normally, I can't get to a morning class because I don't get off until 8:00, so I have to go to the noon classes which are led prep classes or come to the evening classes. Those aren't bad classes, I like them, but I'm not getting to work on things that I most need to work on. Going to the morning class means I get the chance to do either the full Monty with all of my first and second series poses, or to focus on just the second series poses with any needed/desired research poses. Plus, I get the chance to work on Viparita Chakrasana, which I don't ever get unless I can get to a Mysore class,meaning once or twice a month.

I haven't decided what to do for class tomorrow morning. I'll have to see how call goes tonight. I haven't done a thing so far, except write a prescription, so I'm sure to get killed tonight. Too bad, I'm there tomorrow at nine.

Too bad my teacher has been out of town. This has turned out to be week fairly full of practices. After doubling up on Wednesday, I did manage to get out of bed Thursday morning and into the 7:00 Improv class. I also made it out of work early enough on Friday afternoon to make it to the 5:30 Intro to Second Series class. I had to leave that class as everybody else was going into Savasana. I was due to be on call at 8:00 PM at a hospital about 30 miles away, so I couldn't indulge in the end of class reward. I got smoked at work, everybody just kept coming in and delivering, I got four or five hours of sleep, but never more than an hour and a half straight. I was up at 6:30 doing a delivery and then all my rounds, so when I got off at 8:00 AM, I didn't feel tired anymore. I was in my morning swing. So I decided to go ahead and go to the Saturday morning Improv class too.

I think I don't process short term memory well. I always have a hard time remembering exactly what it was that we did in a given Improv class. I am able to maintain a general sense of what we went over. But if I later try to recall the sequence of what we did, like if my wife asks for a detailed run down, I can't re-create it. Today in class, we did a short sequence of standing postures on the right side. When we switched over to do the other side, I couldn't remember the order with which we had done them. Plus, I used the wrong name for the pose when I asked the teacher which one we were supposed to be doing. The medical term for this malady is TMB syndrome--Too Many Birthdays.

The general upshot of all those Improv type classes over this week is that I got a lot of hip and groin work. I got plenty of reps at Samakonasana and Hanumanasana. I got in a couple of shots at doing the Eka Pada and Dwi Pada Sirsasanas. Plenty of backbending. Various other standing and arm balancing poses. Lots of chances to do "different" stuff. It was a good week. I didn't do much standard Ashtanga though. Wednesday night was the only full first series practice I've done in two weeks. Some weeks just work out that way.

A couple more folks from the studio are in or are on their way to Mysore. One got there a couple of weeks ago and one leaves for India tomorrow. A few other Ashtanga folks we've gotten to know one way or another will be there soon too. I keep asking people to look into how going to Mysore with kids works out for the people they meet there. Haven't heard much detail yet but I gather people have done it without the sky falling down. We keep this "just maybe" pipe dream going that we'll get there someday. The biggest hurdles are risk for the kids and time. As those who have gone keep telling us, the only thing to do is to just buy a ticket. Once the commitment has been made, I've been told, details have a way of getting worked out and the multitude of reasons why it's not practical or feasible or even possible tend to evaporate.

One negative for going nowadays is that it's really not the kind of experience that our predecessors had, even for those who went just four or five years ago. The process sounds so much more formulaic now, not the more personal, one-on-few teacher/student setting we've heard described to us by our teachers. It would still be a watershed experience, just different than what we've always envisioned it's like.

I couldn't think of anything good to ask for in Improv today. I had a couple of ideas but they didn't seem right for the group. I don't want to ask for stuff that I can do readily. Nothing there for me. I also see no point in asking to do stuff that might seem cool to try but that none of us, except the teacher, really has a chance in hell of doing. The usual litany of requests, "hips", "shoulders", groins", gets old sometimes. I'm sure the teachers wish we could be more creative. It's just hard to come up with stuff that we haven't done already done a whole lot, that would be intriguing to try, and that we are actually capable of doing. After thinking about it some today, I've got a couple of suggestions I'll throw out to see if she'll bite, pending the class size and make up.

My eyes are burning. I need to take a shower. I never showered after class this morning. Hopefully nobody in the movie theater this afternoon was overwhelmed. We (my wife, my son and I) went to see "Troy", an awful attempt at making an action/chick flick. Action as in lots of hacking and chopping in big and small battle scenes. Chick flick as in Brad Pitt, the Legolas guy and all the other eye candy for the girls. A bad attempt at doing what worked for the crossover crowd in "Titanic" and "Cold Mountain". Brad does wear dresses pretty well though, I must say.

Second Series tomorrow. We'll have to see which practice shows up. I'm not expecting much. I asked for extra butter on my popcorn and she gave it to me. Sludge central.

Well, I did one of my classic Homer Simpson moves this past Sunday, Mother's Day. Way back a ways, I picked up a call for Sunday evening. The call that was available was a 24 hour shift but I opted to only pick up the second half of it. It was Mother's Day after all. Plus, then I could go to whichever of the two Sunday morning classes I wanted too. Sounds intelligent so far. So when my final schedule came out a couple of months ago, it had me on call at this hospital from 8 PM till 8 AM. Again, the normal shift is 8 AM till 8 AM the next morning. So, not paying attention, I write in that I'm on call from 8 till 8, like I usually do. Come time to check my schedule for the week coming up, "Oh look, I'm on call on Mother's Day. That sucks. Okay, so we can do Mom stuff the day before. Besides, I need the work with all the various bills coming up." So, I stroll into work at 8 AM, bright eyed and bushy tailed. I see the guy I think I'm supposed to be replacing. He gives me a weird look and says, "What are you doing here? You're not on call for the day are you?" Then he quickly adds, "But, if you want to work it, I really don't want to. I've been trying to give up this call for weeks." Turns out he was the one whose call I took half of. He was scheduled to be there in the day and I wasn't due in till that evening. Doh! Since I was there and did need the money, I sent him off to surprise his wife. I had missed the second series class anyway, so why not? He probably laughed at me the whole way home.

Monday I went to the mid-day class. It's a shorter version of the first series. The teacher occasionally throws in some other things as well. Monday's class was pretty straight forward, which I had hoped it would be. I've got to do that stuff regularly or I lose it in some poses. After we did our back bends before the closing sequence, she had us do some drops backs. "If you want to, otherwise do some more back bends" is kind of how she put it. I was already standing up, I had gotten up on my last two back bends reps. With her standing right there to help me, it was the perfect opportunity to at least try to do the drop back approach she had suggested to me, right? So, I of course just sat down and did another couple of back bends. I'm nothing if not consistent. Consistently finding ways to avoid the edge, I am.

My teacher left town for a two week East coast sojourn. He left earlier than he had to. Maybe he wanted to have some fun with the family in NYC. When I found out he was already gone, it changed my mood about practice this week. I had made some switches in my work schedule on Thursday to get to the 7:00 class, thinking he might lead that before going to the airport for his trip. I had also intended to go to the Wednesday night class, which he also leads. I hadn't made it to any of his classes lately, so I was looking forward to a couple of them in a row. Not to be.

With Tim gone, I decided to break the rules and do two practices today. I went to the noon Improv class and also went to the evening led First Series class. I was able to go to the day time class by virtue of having worked last night. I had a relatively straight forward night so I felt I had enough rest to do both classes.

The noon class was a fun class, not too out there. It flowed well, which is sometimes a problem in Improv classes. We did stuff I need to do, though there's really not much I don't need. I was surprised to get to do Viparita Salabasana again, including the prep pose against the wall. That's a good pose, I like it. Can't do it, but I like to try it. The prep pose inverted against the wall is a great upper back stretch. We also did Hanumanasana, twice. The first time came where it is typically inserted, after the Prasaritas. Then, we did a bunch of groin stretches culminating in a second round of Hanumanasana. The teacher asked the group, "Doesn't it feel so much better doing it the second time?" Not to me it didn't unfortunately. I need more of that stuff. I can sometimes get all the way down to the ground when my left leg is forward but not when the right is forward. That right side is definitely the "bad" side. It's closer than it ever has been though. Same old story though. If I don't do that pose for another week or so, I won't be able to get either side down to the ground. While I have made encouraging progress in all of the splits, it has been glacial.

I lost some of my motivation to do two classes in one day as I rested in Savasana. I hemmed and hawed a bit through the afternoon but ended up going after all. The room was a bit more crowded than usual. I don't think they all knew Tim was out of town. Some seemed a little surprised when the teacher announced he was filling in for Tim. There were a couple of bendy boyz set up across the room from me. I glad they opted to go there and not next to me. Had they been closer, I would have probably tried to see if I could stay up with them. It would have been a futile waste of effort and energy since they were both well out of my league.

I was next to a woman visiting from Germany. She told me she is vacationing in our area. She is a climber and plans to go to several of the climbing spots in our general area, like Joshua Tree, etc. Having heard that she was a climber, I made some assumptions about what aspects of the First Series she would be good at and what she would have a harder time with. She didn't follow my expectations though. I figured she had to have tight shoulders and groins. She could easily put her hands on the ground in Prasarita C. I didn't think to look over during Baddha Konasana, but I don't recall her struggling with any aspect of the series. I think she had to be helped into Marichyasana D, but so do most people. From what glimpses I could get, I thought she had a really nice practice, which is doubly impressive since she's a climber. She's from Munich. I should have asked her if she knows Alan Little, a person I've come to know through the various ashtanga bulletin boards and from his own web site. I couldn't remember if he was still in Germany, and if so what city. I figured they had to know each other if he was still there. They're both climbers and ashtangi's. If I see her again, I'll ask. That would be pretty cool if they did know each other. If so, that would be the second person I would have met who knows Alan, a guy who lives in Europe that I know and like but have never met. Odds on that?

I had planned on going to class tomorrow too. For some reason, I'm even less motivated to do that class than I was today's evening class. Hopefully a night's sleep will re-empower my drive to go but I may end up blowing it off and taking the kids to school. If I do that though, I'll catch endless crap from the better half

Things have cooled back down here, in temperature and in opportunities to practice. Gone are the days of four and five yoga classes a week. I've settled back into the norm of two or three chances a week. I did get in three practices this week. It could have been better. I had hoped to get done in the OR yesterday in time to make it to the evening Intro to Second Series class. We didn't finish our last case until almost 9:00pm though, so that plan didn't work out.

I did make it to class Thursday evening. That is usually an Improv type class. Since the Tuesday evening First Series class didn't happen this week because of the moon day, the teacher decided for the Thursday class to mainly do a first series progression of poses, with a few extra things thrown in. That was fine with me because I've been wanting to get in some more forward bending. For extras, instead of doing the usual Urdhva Dhanurasana sequence of backbends, we did some other things, including Vrschikasana. Since most of us in that class aren't what could be described as adept, those of us trying to do the pose did it with the teacher assisting us. The first time I tried it, I felt a real strong cramp come up in my left hamstring as I tried to contract into a deeper back bend. I guess when most of what I do in yoga class is a stretch of the hamstring muscles, when the time does come that I make a strong hamstring contraction, it shouldn't be a surprise that the muscle spaz's out and goes into a cramp. After stretching things out a bit, I was able to re-try it and got as far as I can go in that pose. I had no further protests from the hamstring. That ham has been unusually stiff since then though. I've been trying to do things cautiously. I know it wants to snap in half on me just to show it's pissed off at having so work hard.

Today's class was the Saturday morning Improv class. In this class, the teacher will sometimes have a pre-arranged plan of what she would like to cover in the class. Other times, she will ask us for suggestions of things we would like to do. She will then make up an extemporaneous progression of postures to cover as much of that as possible. In the last few classes, we have done the kinds of things that I definitely need to work on. It's almost like I had sent her a wish list of poses and she went out and followed my list. Lately, I've been wanting to work on the various aspects of my body that are limiting what I am able to do in back bending. All the groins and shoulder work and the progression in class towards a particular kind of back bend that we have done the last two Saturday classes have been made to order for me.

While driving to class this morning, I was thinking what kinds of stuff I would want to work on if I were to volunteer a suggestion. My first idea was to suggest a class that focused on balancing. Not just arm balances, but doing all kinds of balance poses. I think one of the most lax aspects of my practice is my bandhas. I know how to bring them into play but I don't always do so when in practice, at least not with intention. Balancing poses are the kinds of poses where you are really forced to bring them into play if you want to be able to do the pose at all. With poor control of the core, Utthita Hasta Padangustasana is not happening. With steady breathing, engagement of bandhas, finding the balance within your core muscle groups, then you've got a chance. While we do go into various balance poses from time to time, I can't recall a class devoted to that particular focus. I tried to see how many different kinds of balances I could think of to see how much could be covered in one class. There's quite a few but I don't know most of them.

I also was thinking about doing some other advanced back bending posture, or at least working towards it. In the last two classes we worked up to Viparita Dandasana and Raja Kapotasana. I was wondering where we could go next and was thinking of suggesting Viparita Salabhasana. I've asked for it in that class once or twice in the past. It's a great sequence to work the back in ways that we usually don't get. Tim has done it in at least a couple of the Improv classes of his that I've gone to. The actual pose is well beyond me but the variations leading up to it are do-able and are very helpful.

I really was thinking about those two suggestions today. I've been thinking about the balancing pose theme for some time now. The reason I emphasize that is that our teacher went over those exact two areas in class today without any suggestions on my part. Enter Twilight Zone theme. After some typical opening poses, we did several Dighasana pose variations early on in the class. Then we did a bunch of arm balancing poses, including variations of Eka Pada Galavasana and Bakasana. We then went back to the opening of the groins by doing a series of Anjaneyasana variations. With the recent work we've been doing on developing the groins, I can clearly see improvements in the depth that I can get in my lunges. The poses are also far less taxing for me. I used to have to pull out and catch my breath about three counts into the fourth variation. Still, as much as I wanted to be doing them, after about the fifth or sixth variation, as I waited in Chaturanga, I would find myself hoping the next words out of her mouth were not going to again be, "Now, step your right foot forward....".

As I mentioned above, we ultimately went on to do Viparita Salabasana. We didn't do any of the approximations that Tim will sometimes use, like inversions with the front of our bodies up against the wall and our chin and chest on the floor. After a couple of warm ups, we just tried to do the pose. We, or at least I, used a blanket under my shoulders for lift so that I could get my hips high enough to allow my legs to come up. Even so, the teacher had to catch my legs as they tried to return to earth. Once in the pose, it wasn't that hard. For the next progression, the teacher helped us with folding our legs down towards our heads. I must have looked (or maybe sounded) like I was at my edge because she didn't take me very far. From how it felt on my end, I could have been taken quite a bit further. I don't know that I could have put myself anywhere near where she put me, but I could have been taken further without it getting scary. It's a hard line to walk though, better to come back another day.

After doing that work, we did some backbends. She then had us work on dropping back and standing up. In all my classes in the last four years, she is the only teacher I can think of who has ever gone over how to do this in a class. She had actually talked with me after class last week about my fears in doing drop backs. She gave me some different approaches to try that would help me work past some of those fears. We were doing some of those exact things today. And they helped quite a bit. In the past, when I have made gestures at dropping back, I would hold my hands in a namaste or prayer position in front of my chest and begin to arch back from there. Once I got to what I thought was my maximum back arch I would either chicken out and stand back up, or on a few occasions I would let something go in my legs, extend my arms and drop down to the ground. A couple of times I even made it to the ground by landing on my hands first. The other times I tried it, I ended up landing on parts of my body that are not designed to be landed on.

When going into a dropback, two things worry me. One is that I sometimes get dizzy in mid-arch when trying to do a full dip backwards. I can't predict when it will occur. I worry that I'll feel okay until just at the last second and then, as I am going past the point of no return, my head will go all fuzzy and I might auger in, never to breath again without a respirator. The other consideration that holds me back is that I know my shoulder range of motion is somewhat limited. The farther I go into the arch, the more my arm extension shrinks. I can extend them if I focus on that particular thought as I drop back. But if I'm instead thinking about some other aspect of the process of dropping back, like "Where the hell is that floor???", my arms tend to bend at the elbows and my hands move closer to my head. In that setting, even if I landed on my hands, they would be so close to my head that I wouldn't have enough cushioning to prevent the head from making impact. That kind of head banger drop back has happened twice. My arms just didn't get where they needed to be for it to be a safe thing to try. After we talked about those anxieties of mine, she suggested that instead of reaching back over my head as I arched back, I should start out with my arms down and straight with my hands on the back of my thighs. As I bent further into the back arch, I was to move my hands further down my legs. Eventually, there comes a point where you can't arch any more and have to bend the knees, release the weight and drop onto the hands. To do that in the approach she described, you have to swing the arms around as you rotate the shoulders to get the hands in the right orientation to accept the landing. I was able to arch pretty well today. I could see the back of my mat, which is a laughable thing for someone bendy like my wife but which is very good for me. I just couldn't get myself to release. I'm still working on it. It will come. I think it will anyway. I guess right now I'm thinking that if I try it and screw it up, that will just further heighten my anxiety. I guess I'm waiting for the day when I have built up such a range of motion that there is essentially no reaching a point of no return and having to let it go and reach for my life. I must be expecting at some point to be able to just reach back and place my hands on the floor, or to at least just ease them to the floor and not go barreling into the floor as I do when I have let it go now. That would be nice. Not having to pay taxes would be nice too, but that ain't happening either.

On Wednesday, I went to the LA area (that term literally translates to 'Southern California', but in this case I was in Woodland Hills, an area north of LA proper, near Malibu and Santa Monica) to work with some other folks on a special kind of surgery. We got done at about 3:30 so I hopped in my car for a dash to an afternoon mysore class at Yoga Works in Santa Monica, about 15 miles away. When I told the folks at the hospital I was trying to get to Santa Monica by 4:00, they kind of shook their heads knowingly. They know the traffic so I was kind of bummed to learn that I'd probably get there late, but a partial mysore practice is better than nothing. It turns out I had LA traffic beginner's luck. I got to class only ten minutes after it started. Even so, there was almost no mat space left. I started to set up on this little stage-like thing on one end of the room when one of the assistants had me move to a space she had people squeeze open for me. The practice room has windows that accept a lot of sun and the room was packed. It was waaay hot in there. And no ceiling fans. I almost got up to get a cool-down drink after just setting up my mat. Maty Ezraty was the teacher for the class, along with a couple of assistants. I knew from talking with others who have studied with her that she places a different emphasis on alignment and on getting things just right than many of the people that I was used to. Whenever I go to another studio, I try to get a feel for the place before I start my practice. I'd prefer to not stick out for doing things real differently from everyone else there. In Maty's class, I opted to keep it a straight forward ashtanga practice with no extra poses thrown in for fun, no researching and no flourishes. Just the basics. I was curious to see how long it would take before she tried to get me out of my bad habits and into better form. She came by a few poses into the practice and asked if I was in for just the day. I should have gone to her at the start and introduced myself but I got caught up in trying to find a space and get set up without causing too much commotion and never got around to it. She saw from my t-shirt that I studied with Tim, so she jokingly said she wouldn't try to do too much to me that day. She did come by and correct my knee position in both Utthita Parsvakonasana and Virabhadrasana A. I let my knee go forward to somewhere near my toes. She prefers that it stay directly over the ankle with no forward tilt. I'm glad to do it either way. Funny, Utthita Parsvakonasana is one of the poses I least like. It doesn't kill me or anything. I just don't really like it.

At any rate, since I was late, I figured I would have to move through the class fairly quickly to get all my poses in. Most of the people around me were doing First Series. I felt a little awkward starting almost 15 minutes after they did and getting to the Janu Sirsasana sequence before they had finished the standing poses. I got a couple of smaller adjustments, like getting a squash in Paschimottanasana, but not too much attention came my way until Marichasana D. I knew Maty would have to come by on that one because I do it so egregiously. Sure enough, from across the room, a loud voice announces "Okay, lets undo that and start over". She came by and had me change the position of my foot so that it was on the floor right in front of my sit bone, instead of out lateral to my hip where I usually slide it. Then, she eased me into my wrap. I had a hard time not laughing at myself. She was telling me, "Take it easy man. Twist from here. Slow it down man, slow it down", with the word 'man' sounding like something out of a Cheech and Chong routine. I got into it but the positioning of things pressed my weight backwards so I wasn't able to stay upright. I appreciate the effort to help me see what I was doing, I just can't yet get my body into the place where I can keep in balance in the form she recommends. I'm working on it. Tim had tried to get me to make similar shifts as well.

As I got closer to the end of the first series, I was getting pretty tired from the heat. I had already gotten up for one cool-down drink. After debating for a bit about just stopping after Setu Bandhasana and going into backbending, I decide to go ahead and press on with my second series poses. I didn't think I'd get them all in since it was already 5:25 and the class was scheduled to stop at 5:55 but I went on anyway. I got as far as Ustrasana when again, from across the room, I hear her say, "Hold it, hold it. Joel (the assistant teacher who was closet to me), get a strap. Strap his knees. Put a block between his feet." How shameful. I was so bad I was being Iyengarized. I looked around at the pitying glances from the regulars. The assistant had me go get a strap from across the room. To me, that was a walk of shame. I've never been sent for a strap before. In truth, I didn't feel any shame, I really wanted to be shown what I was doing wrong and how to do it better. We use straps in our improv classes for some poses. Tim helped me better understand the arm and shoulder action in Urdhva Dhanurasana once by strapping my elbows--I couldn't even go up into the pose with my arms being forced into a correct alignment. The arrangement of my legs after all the strapping and positioning of blocks for the Ustrasana had me wondering though. They had me put the block between my ankles but with the narrowest side up so that my feet were only three inches apart. That led to my knees being in an unusually narrow stance too. As I started back, a not so subtle "No! No! The groins, don't let him push out with his groins. Keep your hips over your knees. Arch here (pointing to my lumbar back)." I ended up doing the pose a couple of times, never doing it well as I struggled to figure out what to do internally to accomplish what Maty was describing. I was pretty tired after that. Since that is one of the easier back bends to do in the second series and since I was needing so much correction, I decided I shouldn't go any further. It doesn't take much to talk myself out of practicing when I'm tired. I quickly went through my closing and took a 10 minute Savasana. I hadn't done much looking around the room when I practiced. In the looking about that I did do, I noticed that the one "extra" thing that I could see people doing was that they appeared to do handstands before doing backbending. I didn't see anybody doing drop backs or doing Viparita Chakrasana. There were some people working on Second Series and one or two folks doing Third series on the other end of the room but I didn't look around that much so I don't know if they did that extra back bending stuff or not.

Well, I've got to cut it "short" here. I've got to hustle out and find a Mother's day card and some flowers before everybody gets home. I'm at work tomorrow, so today is functionally Mother's day. I know I need to proof this, I'll do it later after I've managed to cover my butt.

It was hot today. India hot. I drove home from work at about 10:45 in the morning. The car thermometer read 100 degrees. I know they're not the most accurate things in the world but, really. 100 degrees? That occurs on the planet Mercury and in Uganda and places like that, not here. We've got this huge ocean right next to us with a current water temperature of 63 degrees F. Despite that refrigerating influence, the air temp along the coast today was in the 90's. Inland a few more miles it was in the 100's. Hades reborn. It was only in the 70's in Galveston and that's the whole state of Texas further south than we are. Curious weather. Hopefully not a portent of the summer to come.

I was worried about the studio being too hot but the room stayed temperate. It got warm enough for good tapas but not so hot that we lost it in the heat. I did have a loose back bending day though. I was able to come up to standing twice with negligible futzing around. I almost felt confident enough to try dropping back. I did go down one time using the wall. Such a puss.

One of my first teachers has been coming to class recently. She had moved away for a while, had a child, etc. Seeing her back in class made me think about the various teachers I've seen through the four years I've practiced at Tim's studio. I guess there's been two cycles of turnover among Tim's assistants in that time.

When I first started, back in mid-2000, the main teacher, other than Tim, that I can remember was Dominic Corigliano. He had worked with Tim for many years. A couple of years ago, he left for an almost two year long stint in Mysore with Guruji, culminating with his being certified last year. He now travels about teaching internationally. I didn't go to Tim's studio much that first year, I did mostly gym classes, so if there were other steady teachers, I didn't get to know them well.

After Dom left, the next group of teachers that I remember were Dennis Dean, Mark Linksman, Kim Toledo and Matias Flury. At various times over the last two years, all have moved on. Dennis has his own studio up the coast a ways. Kim moved to Hawaii for a while. Mark just recently moved up to the great north woods somewhere, Wyoming or Montana. Matias moved to Costa Rica and will also be in India a lot.

Now, Tim has a different cadre. They have all been teaching with him for many years, overlapping with the other teachers who have moved on. As the others have gone on to other things, these current teachers have become the 'big kids' in my mind. And then there's the even newer folks, like my wife. Since Tim has been doing this teaching Ashtanga stuff for about 25 years, if there's typically a turnover rate of about three years, I figure he's had about seven or eight generations of teachers and assistants come through. It would be neat to see a sort of genealogic tree of Tim's teaching line constructed. Maybe Krishnamacharya on top, with Guruji next level down, Tim below that, then all of Tim's various students who have become teachers in their own right. With each person would be a short bit on their life and what they're doing now. Equally interesting would be to see how many of that lineage are still practicing yoga in some form.

In my comments section, a guy named Rod Mcalister posted the following:
"I wonder if you have any thoughts on your frequency of practice and your lack of injuries, atypical of most astangis. You lament your inability to practice as often as you like but maybe in the long run it works. "

Very interesting area to me. I really don't practice as one should. Ideally, I would be doing something everyday. I don't. I choose to practice almost exclusively in a class setting. I could do more at home. I know a guy who does. He will even practice late at night, even after midnight, to get it in. I admire that commitment and drive and admit that I don't have it. I can't even truthfully say if I would like doing that kind of thing or if it's workable because I've never really tried it. I don't think I have ever done a practice at home. I've done it at work more than a few times, but never at home, that I can remember. So, when I moan and complain about missing out and being deprived of chances to practice by the demands of the real world, it's partly my choice.

I have had some injuries. For the most part, they have been muscle strains of one sort or another, all trifling when looking back through the retrospectoscope. When I first started, I took a David Swenson video to work. I was trying to practice along with it. Somewhere in the video, he talks about jumping through. He made a comment about floating through, or something along those lines. I tried to float my feet up to my hands and immediately felt a significant pain in what I think was the quadratus muscle in the lower back. That slowed me down for several weeks. Later, still in the first few months of doing ashtanga, I strained or pulled a pectoral muscle doing Supta Pada Angustasana. When I tried to let my leg go out to the side, the leg just overpowered the pec and hurt something. These both got better mainly by resting and then starting back slowly. There was an important lesson or two. If you do get hurt, if you let it heal, it will. If you keep trying and are patient, you will regain any lost ground and will eventually be better than you were when you got injured.

After I had been doing stuff for about a year, I decided to go to a backbending workshop given by one of Tim's assistants. I wasn't very warm but I still tried to push my limit in what we were doing. I didn't have any pain at all when doing the poses. Later that night, while at work, my lumbar back steadily got more stiff and more painful. I got to where I could barely stand up straight. I ended up stopping practice for several weeks. In fact, I started doing some other stuff while recuperating that I kept doing rather than practice, even after I had recovered. After a few months of slacking around, I started back and it felt like I was stiffer and more incapable in backbending than I had been in my very first class. I probably was. Another lesson learned. You can take time to heal, but if you take too much time off, the resulting stiffness will result in you going through more pain than you need or want. Aversive training I think they called it in Psyche 101.

After that, I had a pretty long stretch without any problems. Then one day, I had problems folding forward. Each time I practiced, my left hamstring, which had always been my "good" side, got worse and worse. Somewhere, I must have done a careless forward bend that strained or tore it. It took me quite a while to get rid of the pain and to get the full range of motion back, probably five or six months at least. I still hesitate when folding forward in Parsvottanasana, even though it's been almost two years since I hurt it. I've had a couple more minor tweakages of my back that came from trying to do too much in one sitting, but they were the "rest it for two days and it will get better" kind of problems.

But real injuries? No, I haven't had any. And I do think it has been because I haven't felt impelled to push things. I've been satisfied to progress as I will. It has worked for me. If I hadn't seen steady progress, perhaps I would have gotten impatient and pushed and gotten hurt. Or, I might have gotten frustrated and quit. Instead, I've moved past so many postures that were once perceived as, "I'll never be able to do that" kinds of things. I think, somehow, from day one I got lucky enough to have adopted a non-attached perspective with regards to my asana practice, without really knowing what non-attachment was. I have an advantage in that I'm 46. I honestly don't expect to be real flexible or real strong or anything.

I've gone on too long for such a simple question. But one other comment Rod made was interesting. He noted that my lack of injuries seemed atypical for an ashtangi. I don't know the people in my studio well enough to comment on that. I've never seen a bad injury occur in class. Well, my wife did whack a guy in the head by accident once, bad enough to send him to the ER for stitches, but that doesn't count. He was back in class the next day. I can't think of any stories about, "So and so, who used to come all the time but had to quit when they blew out their ________ (fill in the blank)" I know people can and do get hurt, but I don't see it as a ubiquitous thing. Is it?

In this last month, most of my practices have been either improv classes or second series class. I've only had a couple of classes in the last three to four weeks in which I did a first series practice. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm just accustomed to the exact opposite: mostly doing first series, with the occasional chance to do a weekend improv class. At any time in the past, If I only did two first series class in three weeks, I would develop noticeably stiffer hamstrings, adductors, etc. That hasn't been the case here though. There's enough work on those areas in the second series and in improv classes to keep me in a generally acceptable range of flexibility. Doing these other classes has re-drawn my attention to my back, shoulders and groins. I've never had much range of motion in any of those areas. Since all of them come into play in back bending, I have usually just accepted my lot as a stiffie and done what I could in those kinds of poses, never really expecting to achieve looseness. Some of the recent Saturday improv classes recently have been structured at working all those segments of backbending. I've gotten much better insight in how I should work at things and have new motivation to improve in these areas.

This week didn't turn out to be as void of opportunities to practice as it initially appeared that it might. I was able to go to a Thursday evening class. That class used to be a led first series class but it has recently evolved into an improv class. The class tends to be a mixed group of skills so the teacher does keep most of the class composed of first series poses. He will throw in some researching work on different areas though, depending on what people ask for at the start of the class. Someone asked for arm balancing, I guess, because we did a few of the easier third series arm balances. We didn't enter them from the standard tripod headstand though. We used variations that allowed us to go in from a squatted or seated position. They're still plenty challenging, though the finding of the balance point is completely different. I think it's almost easier, for me anyway, to do them from the normal tripod headstand entry. Either way, I struggle more with getting out of the poses than I do with getting in them or with staying in them. No lift, no bandha action. Still working on it.

Saturday's Improv class was again one that seemed to focus on the groins and shoulders. Instead of working up towards doing Viparita Dandasana, like we did last Saturday, this time, we worked up to doing Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana and Raja Kapotasana. We didn't really do those poses, most of us anyway. A few of the "bendy Wendy's" could do them but most of us were doing postures that were approximations of the poses. Near the end, when we were trying to actually do Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana, I asked how one goes about making the change in grip on the back foot. Almost nobody goes into the pose by reaching back over head and grasping the foot. Most people reach under and back with the arm and grab the foot in one fashion or another, then move the hand to the correct side of the foot and rotate the shoulder around and up so that the arm ends up reaching up and back. I can reach back and get my foot and bend it forward using a Bhekasana type grasp. In that approach, my elbow is up high with my forearm pointing down and my hand gripping the top of my foot with my thumb right next to my big toe. To transition into Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana from that grip, you have to somehow drop the elbow down and rotate it in as you reach your hand around the lateral side of the foot and grip the foot with the thumb on the little toe side of the foot. I managed, with an assist, to get my hand on the foot in the right orientation, but my elbow was locked down next to my hip from the weird angle my wrist and shoulder ended up in trying to get the foot. There was no way I could get the arm to rotate so that I would be reaching back over my head. At my current level, that pose for me is a groin stretch. I don't have any where near enough shoulder range of motion to be able to get into the back bending part of it.

After doing our best at Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana, we moved to variations of Raja Kapotasana. These poses definitely worked the back. We did it with our chests against the wall initially. It's a little uncomfortable to do that but the support of the wall lets you at least approximate the pose. It becomes a bit easier when you reach back and grab your knees. What killed me though was bending my knees and trying to lift my feet toward my head. I immediately started to get full on hamstring cramping in both legs. Not an action they are used to doing, I guess. After working on Raja Kapotasana, we did Vrschikasana with partners to support each other. I've felt better about doing that pose each time I've done it. Not a hint this time of fear about passing out or collapsing. I just wanted to see how far I could get my head up. Not as far as I had hoped naturally.

Today I went to the led second series class. For some reason, today's class was more crowded than usual. We were crowded in with about six inches between mats and still ended up having to start a third row of people going down the middle of the room. Today ended up being a fairly warm day too. It was the first time this year that I drove to an early morning class wearing only a t-shirt. With the warm day and the full room, the room temp was up there. I got more tired this class than I have in my last few tries at the full second series. It didn't really show up until Karandavasana. As I was being assisted into the part where you bend at the waist and then tuck the knees into the armpits, it felt like I sagged downward a bit instead of going forward with head. Once I lost that little bit, it felt like I couldn't keep it up. As the teacher helped me back into straight legs, I had to go down with my head to the floor. My shoulders just wouldn't hold it anymore. Once things started falling apart, I couldn't get back in place. I couldn't do an normal exit with my head down and ended up just sort of flopping my legs down to the mat. As the rest of the class was being assisted through Karandavasana, I snuck off to the bathroom for a quick drink and rinse of my face with water. I've been trying to be better about that but today felt that it was needed. I did do better after that. I held Mayurasana, which I usually can't if I'm tired. I also did better than usual in Vatayanasana. In Vatayanasana, I usually have a harder time balancing on the first side. Maybe the movements of the vinyasa move the foot that is in half lotus position into a spot that is throwing my weight off line or something. I typically have to place my left foot a foot away from the right knee to have any chance at getting my upper body into an upright position. I can usually do the other side okay. On that side, my foot is closer to the knee. Not close but closer. Today I got both feet about six inches from the knee. It's definitely not my best pose. My worst pose in the second series is Supta Urdhva Pada Vajrasana. Fortunately, I'm not alone in that respect. I did less bad in Sapta Sirsasana than last week. I had to come down in Baddha Hasta Sirsasana C, the variation in which the forearms are flat on the ground in a Pincha Mayurasana position. I did make it up into the pose, which I often can't do. My weight shifted towards the way I was facing and I wasn't able to get it back where it had to be to stay up. My tight shoulders and the fatigue of the class were again working against me. I held the rest of headstands. I let myself tripod my arms back a bit more than usual in Mukta Hasta Sirsasana C so that I could get up and stay up for once. We had a fairly short Uth Pluthihi. The whole time I was in it, I was visualizing making the exit back to Chaturanga with out touching my knees down. No joy. I didn't even get my knees back past my hands before stalling out and going to ground. One nice thing about Tim in his led classes, he does let us have relatively long Savasanas. I was able to cool down and was well relaxed when it was time to get up. I looked like I had just fallen into a swimming pool but I felt pretty good.

I know there were some other things I wanted to get into but I've forgotten them, for now at least. Maybe they'll pop up later on. This week has only two chances for practice. I work tonight, so I'll go the noon class tomorrow, which is mostly first series. Tuesday is a full moon. I'm traveling up to the LA area to help out on some cases on Wednesday. I'll try to jigger the schedule Thursday to get to one practice or another. That will be it though. I operate all day Friday and am on call Saturday and on Sunday. It would be great to give up some call but quarterly taxes, property taxes, insurance, all kinds of stuff is due in the next couple of months. The real world steps up, the yoga world steps back.

The EZBoard ashtanga message board appears to have changed its web address when they did their recent server switch. a couple of the folks who wrote comments here gavethe following URLs as the new functioning addresses. Significant screw up if you ask me.

http://p196.ezboard.com/byoga84291

http://b26.ezboard.com/byoga84291

I looked at my "hit count" for this page earlier today. I was getting nearly twice as many hits as usual. They were coming from a pretty wide array of sites as well. I figured out why when I tried to open the EZBoard site for my daily reading. That site has been down all day because they are making a server switch. I guess since the EZBoarders have lost their usual source for daily ashtanga blather, this site has been serving as a fill in. Unfortunately, I haven't put anything up lately, so they've been doubly SOL. Since there's no telling when EZBoard will come back up, I should make some contribution here. It kind of bugs me when I want to read something and there's nothing to read, so I should do unto others.

I've only been able to practice two times since my last entry. On Saturday, I went to the improv class and today I went to mysore practice. The improv class was manna from heaven. I couldn't have asked for a class better designed to meet my current needs. I've been trying to develop some capability at doing Viparita Chakrasana, the "tic-tacs" from handstand into backbend and back to handstand that people sometimes do in the backbending sequence before doing the closing postures. As I moaned about in several previous entries, it's a very dynamic sequence that is difficult to think about what's going on while you're trying to do it. With most of the rest of the poses we do in the first and second series, things are static enough that you can mentally look at what you're doing and figure out things. You can make all kinds of adjustments back and forth to see what works and what doesn't. That isn't very feasible in V.C. though. At least not for me, not yet. Too much is going on too quickly, and it's all pretty edgy stuff when you haven't done it much. The teacher of Saturday's class asked what people wanted to work on. When nobody offered anything more creative than, "you know, the usual stuff" she told us she would come up with the theme. And, fortunately for me, it was a very organized step-wise build up to Viparita Dandasana, a pose that has actions similar to what I have been trying to learn how to do in Viparita Chakrasana. We did some of the usual standing sequence poses that she warms up with. For core and balance work, she had us do several variations of Ardha Chandrasana. Then we went right to groin stretches--a series of lunges, splits, etc to open the front of the groins. Then we moved to shoulder work, eventually progressing to Pincha Mayurasana variations. From there, we moved into a progression of back bending poses. At the time, it looked like we were doing an extensive build up to Kapotasana but the ultimate pose turned out to be Viparita Dandasana. We did a lot of variations of it, initially with the feet on the wall, then several with partner support in lowering to the mat without the wall, then some on our own without the wall or a partner. I got a great stretch of my back and shoulders. I also got a much better sense of the weight shifts that I need to be working towards. In the past, when I was in an unsupported Viparita Dandasana, I would usually make an attempt at coming back up to headstand. It would typically amount to little more than a futile hop of my feet upward. They would never get much more than a couple of feet off of the ground. I have never come close to taking the weight back into my back and shoulders. One of the things I learned in Saturday's practice is that I will never get up that way because all my weight has been behind me. I'll never get up until I can get my weight pushed forward past the midline where my head and hands are in contact with the floor. I did some pushes in that direction but I don't yet have the chest or shoulder opening necessary to get far enough forward with my weight. But, I do have a better idea of what I should be doing. The same will apply to Viparita Chakrasana, both in dropping over and in coming back up. I've got to focus on finding and eventually moving around that balance point. After doing all that back and shoulder work, the backbends we did at the end of that class were the easiest ones I have ever done, and we did them in the fashion that usually kills me, where you only come down far enough to touch your head down momentarily between each rep. That was a very reinforcing thing to have happen. Do the prep and the range of motion will improve. The postures will come.

After that great preparation class, I did nothing for the next four days. I never said I was smart. It could have been worse. The week originally was set up such that I wouldn't get to a class until next Saturday. Yesterday afternoon I checked my clinic schedule for this morning. A couple of the early morning appointment slots hadn't been booked yet, so I converted them and made arrangements to go to mysore class this morning. I had originally planned to go to Pranayama class too. After pranayama, in mysore class I was going to do my full sequence of first series and second series poses as assigned so far. I was feeling pretty stiff this morning though. I decided to use the pranayama class time to get in some hamstring and back stretches. As I stretched out, I decided to go with just the second series poses in mysore class. I planned on using the extra time to do all the prep poses I could remember, including the same Viparita Dandasana sequence that we had done on Saturday, to see if it would give me a better Kapotasana and Viparita Chakrasana. I was pleased with how they went. The improvement would have only been discernible to me, the poses would have looked no better to an onlooker, but it was a clear improvement nonetheless. In Kapotasana I felt a deeper back arch as I went back over. I was able to get my hands further along my feet than I usually do when I'm going on my own. When the teacher adjusted me a little further, I didn't feel the usual build up of tension in my shoulders. I don't know how Tim perceived my attempts at Viparita Chakrasana. To me they didn't feel as out of control as they were the last time he helped me try it. He still ended up doing most of the work but I sensed that I was understanding which direction things should be moving, even when I wasn't able to get them there. The rest of the practice today was middle of the road-ish. I was stiffer than I would have liked but not excessively so. The work before class helped. I got assisted into Dwi Pada Sirsasana. Once in the pose, I really felt like I had a good chance at balancing today. I was trying to push back against my legs with my shoulders and arms. I was right on the balance point and began to drift back a bit. I was thinking the guy who adjusted me was still there behind me and that I would be able to rebound off of him back up into the right spot. He had moved away though. I ended up rolling backward all the way down to the ground and out of the pose. Ignoble.

That's about all I can come up with today. I guess I could have chopped it up into a few more paragraphs to make for easier reading. Nah. No other classes for me until Sunday morning. Next week looks grim too.