Wow. Amazing strength-to-weight ratio and extremely hypermobile joints. Is it yoga though? It seems more like contortionism. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! If you can find inner peace by turning your legs around backwards and then wrapping them around your head as you bend yourself in half, well, you have my utmost respect. She does look remarkably calm and centered.
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Ah, Padmasana. My most coveted pose. One I fear will always be a struggle, especially after my knee popping experience in January. I had worked for a whole year to get into Padmasana comfortably, only to be derailed in two seconds by pushing just a little too far in the pose. Luckily, the damage wasn’t serious or permanent. However, my knee pops more than I would like, and my always stubborn right hip has become belligerently stiff. Meanwhile, thanks to months of one-sided hip-openers, my left hip is more flexible than it has ever been. Guess I’m going to have to start over at square one.
My plan of attack? A faithful practice of this series of poses, from the article “Growing up a Lotus” by Donna Farhi Schuster. Because I’m currently six months pregnant, I’ll have to modify some of the postures, but I’m hoping the extra relaxin in my system will help soften things up. This time, I will approach the pose with humility and patience. And a giant belly…
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Some yoga poses require extreme relaxation to achieve. I myself do not recommend achieving that relaxation with alcohol, but it is interesting to note the amazing positions our bodies can get into when our physical and mental resistance is…impaired.
Setubandha Sarvangasana: supported shoulderstand
Here is an interesting supported version of Seal, or Cobra:
See more Vodka-induced yoga poses at EnglishRussia.com.
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When I first started practicing yoga seriously, I wanted to have my butt kicked. I wanted to sweat buckets and wake up too sore to walk upstairs the next day. I was compelled to learn all the poses on the covers of Yoga Journal, and predictably, I skipped to the “back of the book” in my yoga manuals. Who has time for meditation and Pranayama when you could be perfecting Eka Pada Rajakapotasana or Natarajasana? That type of mentality was probably good for me at the time, as I had just given birth to my second baby over 9 lbs, and was very squishy and out of shape. I hadn’t exercised AT ALL for nearly a year and my body craved the intensity. After my first power class, I dissolved into Savasana with tears running down my face. It felt amazing to be dripping with sweat, legs shaking, hair sticking to my forehead, muscles warm and stretchy as pulled taffy. I was strong! I was flexible! I wasn’t just a post-partum milk-cow with a flabby belly and 20 lbs. of extra flesh. I highly value that kind of practice, particularly in a class setting, where I feel supported by the combined energy and breath of the women around me.
The yoga I practice at home is much slower, lazier, and decidedly non-butt-kicking. It’s more butt-accepting. I roll out my mat, or just a blanket, and do what feels good: Child’s pose, Down Dog, Puppy pose, Cobra, Cat-Cow, the basics. It’s an exploratory process. No plans or routines or goals, just me and my breath, and the poses that flow naturally. Sometimes music plays a part, sometimes my over-stimulated brain wants a little silence. I find both physical and emotional release in the hip-opening poses, while backbends and deep forward bends alternately energize and soothe. I like to be on the floor, feeling grounded and connected to something solid. Rooting down through my feet in Tree pose, time slows and the chatter in my mind becomes quieter. I never sweat in my at-home practice, and my muscles are rarely sore the next day. But I am definitely refreshed, relaxed, and re-focused. I feel like rolling out the mat right now, actually. Maybe I’ll turn out the lights, put on my thunderstorm CD, and lay on the floor in Savasana for a half-hour. Ahhhhh. Sounds heavenly.
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Yoga is the fountain of youth, folks. No arthritic wrists for her! The full article has pictures of 83-year-old Bette Calman in Peacock, Crow and a variation of Tripod, all of which require crazy upper body strength. Women lose 10 to 15 percent of their muscle mass between the ages of 20 and 50, and then the decline accelerates. You gotta use your muscles or lose them! You could just grab some dumbells and start lifting, but let’s face it. Weights are boring. Arm balancing is fun! Read the full article about this amazing yoga teacher at DailyMail.
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I will never understand the lengths people go to anthropomorphize their dogs. I find it disturbing, particularly when little costumes are involved. I’m inclined to think Man’s Best Friend should be another man. I will, however, admit to crying like a baby at the end of Marley and Me, and I don’t even like dogs! Cats, on the other hand…Maybe I’ll organize a “You and Your Kitty” Yoga class. Cats are much more flexible. Read the article at NYTimes.
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I don’t know how much inner peace you can cultivate in these poses, but they are stunning to look at. Plus, I like their spandex suits. Maybe I can convince my husband to get his booty to yoga class so that we can learn some cool partner poses. I’m not sure I can talk him into the stretchy jumper, though…
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First of all, it’s not really a floor. Floors are hard and sturdy, immovable. If it was a “floor” it would be too inflexible to allow a baby to pass through it. It has to be elastic and stretchy. Think of it as a pelvic “hammock.” It’s like a muscle sling that cradles your internal organs and keeps everything in place. During the nine months of pregnancy, you slowly weigh down that sling as your uterus and baby get bigger and heavier. The hormone relaxin makes all your soft tissues more springy and flexible, and that hammock starts to sag under the pressure. Then the big day comes, and the muscles are stretched beyond capacity. It’s amazing that our bodies return to some semblance of normal after this process. There are things you can do throughout your pregnancy that will help prevent damage to your poor pelvic floor.
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Thanks to the success and popularity of Slumdog Millionaire, India seems to be everywhere these days! Bollywood is becoming a big deal, and why not? Have you ever seen Lagaan or Om Shanti Om? Big, extravagant, fun, colorful, over-the-top, and full of extraordinarily beautiful women wearing fabulous clothes and dancing their butts off. I’m definitely a fan. But to illustrate just how different our cultures are, I wanted to share this little news item…
Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India’s Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.
“Don’t worry, it won’t smell like urine and will be tasty too,” he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges.
The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.
Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called “gau jal”, or “cow water” – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched “very soon, maybe by the end of this year”.
[...] Read more at TimesOnline
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Ooooh, I’m jealous. This looks so fun. And just imagine the spinal decompression! I vow to find myself a yoga harness and go nuts with it. I know OmGym makes one, and it looks great, but I wonder if there are any other options. I seriously think I would just invert all day long. Plus my boys would love it. MUST HANG UPSIDE-DOWN FROM CEILING!!!!
(Christian Hansen, The New York Times ) via The Denver Post
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