CK since Sunday

[muck_a_luck]

Oi. Sunday was hiking. We did a big piece of the Limberlost Trail, and went down toward the White Oak Falls. A serious hike of about 1.5 hours. NO YOGA, dang it! The 40 days were going so well! Monday. NO YOGA. RL needed me to leave work early, so I left the house WAAAY early. No time. Exercise consisted of a brisk walk around downtown Fairfax - about 20 minutes. Tuesday. NO YOGA. Felt ill, like I was going to throw up. Went back to bed. No exercise of any kind yesterday.

FINALLY!

Today, the Spiral Meditation and Foundation Vinyasa from Fluid Power (Shiva Rea). Then did about 10 minutes of handstand work. Kicked all the way up three or four times, but couldn't hold it. Then some self-guided back bending, supine postures, and forward bending/hip opening, concluding with Boat and Sivasana with meditation. Not a perfect sequence, but not bad. Sadly, with all the RL going on, had squirrel-brain throughout the yoga, that didn't even really stop as I was breathing through the chakras in Sivasana. Oh, well. Hopefully, the RL drama will end by sometime tomorrow, and I can regain some equanimity.

Comments

[just_ann_now]

*sends positive energy for the RL stuff* Real Life can be such a bother sometimes.

[muck_a_luck]

Thank you! I made an important phone call at 6:45 am. Either it will result in a major positive life change, or it will result in an end to a bunch of stress and unnecessary aggravation. We'll see!

[rydra_wong]

You are so rocking the handstand work. If you can kick up, it's only a matter of time before you stay there.

What's the problem at the moment? Are your feet bouncing back off the wall?

[muck_a_luck]

I kick up, the heel of the lead foot hits the wall, the push-leg doesn't quite make it, and I chicken out and come right back down.

On the plus side, since waaay back at the beginning of the month when I kicked up the first time that day at the office, I hadn't really tried to kick up again. So today, the first day really giving that a shot, I was able to do it several times. I think I will not get a full handtand accomplished this month because of my big exercise layoff at the beginning, but I will make it my goal for next month.

After my failure to make it stick, I flipped around, and did some other work on the wall, including Half Handstand - you know, the right angle one? - and also some practice on standing splits where I then lift the base foot off the ground and just stand on my hands with the one supporting leg way up the wall. I just need to invest the time in the wall work, so I can flip it around and capitalize on my ability to kick up.

Also, a colleage at work has been reading Rodney Yee's book. He has you practice handstand in a door frame, with your back against one side, and your feet walking up the other side. I SO want to try that, too! That would skip the kicking up part, and let me ease into both feet up, but also with the wall at my back.

I think I just need to gain the confidence for standing on my hands and maybe develop some muscle memory in my core about what it feels like to be inverted like that.

Thoughts?

[rydra_wong]

I kick up, the heel of the lead foot hits the wall, the push-leg doesn't quite make it, and I chicken out and come right back down.

You're soooooo close! Honestly, I suspect that if you just keep working on kicking up (not more than a few times in a row, but doing it most days), it'll click in a few days anyway.

For me, it was mostly a psychological thing at this point, of being willing to go for it with that little bit of extra oomph, as if you're trying to kick right over, and then trusting that the wall will be there to catch you and stabilize you.

(Plus my Magic Sofa Cushion. *g*)

One thing I found quite useful was doing half handstand and taking one leg up to vertical, with the other leg still on the wall. There's definitely a moment when you can feel the weight of the vertical leg come into balance over you, and that gives you a taster of having your arms supporting your weight above you.