Day 5

This is my fifth day of practice and I feel that I've found a nice rythm to the sequence. I'm working on keeping my eyes closed during Tree pose (Vrksasana), quite a challenge at first but very rewarding especially if you have nothing very interesting to gaze at.
Still struggling with the flexibility required to master Pyramid pose (Parsvottanasana). After reading the description provided in Light on Yoga, I turned to online sources for other potential modifications and variations. There are lots of the them out there but I particularly enjoyed the layout and wording of Yoga Journal. You can click here to read what they have to say. I do think it's counter intuitive that this asana is called an Intense side stretch since you are folding forward. I feel the pose mostly in my quads so I'm guessing because of my flexibility I'm not feeling the full benefits.

I thought the following picture was particularly impressive because her back is so straight and her torso is completly connected with her leg. A beautiful example of the full expression of the pose.

Namaste!

Day One

Highly motivated, I managed to convince my 16 year old "too cool for yoga" sister to join me for some stretching and relaxing yoga that tones and firms your bum. We started with some basic seated stretching exercises to warm up our muscles for the first sequences.

This is how it went:
*Mountain pose;
*tree pose;
*triangle pose;
*side angle;
*warrior Iⅈ
*and pyramid pose
(repeat for both legs, we did it only once but alone, I would probably repeat the sequence twice for both legs.)
*Shoulder stance
(we held it for thirty seconds twice but if you have ever taken a Jivamukti class, you know you can hold it much longer)
*plough pose
(we went into plough pose on our way down from each shoulder stance staying their for only one breath)

From there, we did some gentle stretches lying on our backs and a couple bridge poses (as a counter pose to plough pose) and ended our practice with a 5 min
*savasana (corpse pose).

Over all, we did 25min of yoga. We could've held the various poses longer and done more repetitions but for a first time it was pretty good.

The sequence is basic and enjoyable. I have a hard time with pyramid pose and try to avoid it (terrible I know) but if I do it everyday for a week or even two, as suggested by Iyengar, I should improve considerably and maybe just maybe I won't shudder with dread when it comes up during my next yoga class.

I've used English words for the asanas but one in this first sequence, I'll slowly and gradually switch to the Sanskrit.

What kind of warm up/cool down exercises do you do?

Namaste


[Picture credit yogayoungsters.com]
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Welcome!

Hi!

It's decided, if I'm going to fulfill my yogic needs by practicing on my own, at home,I might as well share it with the world. Hopefully this will provide me with the added motivation and support I need.

Day after day, I will tell you about my practice, my struggles, my victories, in what I think to be an entertaining and informative manor. If you wish to follow along, I would be thrilled to hear about what you're doing. I'm following the sequences described in the Appendix of Iyengar's Light on Yoga. (A book I strongly recommend for those that wish to deepen their knowledge of Yoga.)

Words of caution
Although I will be describing sequences and commenting on the proper way to execute certain asanas, this is by no means a valid introductory course. I strongly suggest you take a few classes with a certified teacher to get a feel for the basic postures and sequences. Remember, yoga is a personnal practice, always listen to your body, yoga should never be painful, and it should always bring you joy.

On that note,

Namaste