There are about a million things I should be doing in the flat right now, like my ironing, vacuuming, washing up.... but I haven't found time to write in my blog all week so these things will have to wait for a few more (minutes/hours/days, depending on how motivated I feel once I have finished typing!).
So, on Saturday and Sunday I went to the Yin yoga workshops with Paul Grilley. I thought they were excellent, I don't usually do anything which is 'yin', but I will try to do a little more. As usual, there was some piss taking relating to Ashtangis - but that's OK - lol!
The course was pitched at an advanced practitioner/teacher level, which was really good. We started off with an hour and a half of practice, then did an hour and a half theory before lunch, more theory after lunch, then another practice for the last couple of hours of the day. We covered lots of different aspects of yoga, more than just the anatomy.
Paul discussed how personalities fit into yoga - describing the scale as starting with Panda bears, for whom everything hurts, and at the other end of the scale you have the Black Knights, those who will practice daily through any pain 'its just a flesh wound, after all!'. He also talked about dealing with teaching these characters. My friend, who came along too is now calling me a black knight!
The most fascinating part of the weekend for me was the anatomy stuff - this was why I had attended, after all. He showed us slides of the human anatomy so that we could see how much peoples skeletons differ, and how, depending on your skeletal makeup, everyone has a different practice. If you have little space between your vertebrae, no amount of opening your heart chakra will improve your back bend. If you have forward protruding hip sockets, upavista konasana will be more difficult. He started to go into how to assess your students for where their skeletal limitations lie, but unfortunately he was going into this in much more detail this week - and I have to work :-(
As a result of this workshop I am certainly going to stop beating myself up over some matters of alignment - I don't think my hip sockets will ever allow me to open up my legs entirely in Utthita Parsvasahita, and my shoulders will never open up properly in a back bend. There is a video clip excerpt from his DVD Anatomy For yoga on the Pranayama website which demonstrates how shoulder mobility affects back bends - I have those same shoulders as the guy in the video!
Yoga wise, I didn't practice on Monday as I will ill - first day off work in YEARS. Practiced again yesterday but it was a much more yin class, which was good for me as I was still feeling a little run down. Today I have done primary, it went fine. I have been practicing doing the jump backs from the seated asana - I will get it eventually! My Prasarita Padottanasana A seems to have suffered from doing less yoga over the past couple of weeks, but it will come back. Bound Mari D both sides, so haven't lost that twist!
Other than that, I am pleased to say that my bed is getting more comfortable - or should I say, I am getting used to it. It's nice to be getting some proper sleep again! The sofa is great too - a nice size for guests too, two people can recline comfortably - It was a good buy.
So, on Saturday and Sunday I went to the Yin yoga workshops with Paul Grilley. I thought they were excellent, I don't usually do anything which is 'yin', but I will try to do a little more. As usual, there was some piss taking relating to Ashtangis - but that's OK - lol!
The course was pitched at an advanced practitioner/teacher level, which was really good. We started off with an hour and a half of practice, then did an hour and a half theory before lunch, more theory after lunch, then another practice for the last couple of hours of the day. We covered lots of different aspects of yoga, more than just the anatomy.
Paul discussed how personalities fit into yoga - describing the scale as starting with Panda bears, for whom everything hurts, and at the other end of the scale you have the Black Knights, those who will practice daily through any pain 'its just a flesh wound, after all!'. He also talked about dealing with teaching these characters. My friend, who came along too is now calling me a black knight!
The most fascinating part of the weekend for me was the anatomy stuff - this was why I had attended, after all. He showed us slides of the human anatomy so that we could see how much peoples skeletons differ, and how, depending on your skeletal makeup, everyone has a different practice. If you have little space between your vertebrae, no amount of opening your heart chakra will improve your back bend. If you have forward protruding hip sockets, upavista konasana will be more difficult. He started to go into how to assess your students for where their skeletal limitations lie, but unfortunately he was going into this in much more detail this week - and I have to work :-(
As a result of this workshop I am certainly going to stop beating myself up over some matters of alignment - I don't think my hip sockets will ever allow me to open up my legs entirely in Utthita Parsvasahita, and my shoulders will never open up properly in a back bend. There is a video clip excerpt from his DVD Anatomy For yoga on the Pranayama website which demonstrates how shoulder mobility affects back bends - I have those same shoulders as the guy in the video!
Yoga wise, I didn't practice on Monday as I will ill - first day off work in YEARS. Practiced again yesterday but it was a much more yin class, which was good for me as I was still feeling a little run down. Today I have done primary, it went fine. I have been practicing doing the jump backs from the seated asana - I will get it eventually! My Prasarita Padottanasana A seems to have suffered from doing less yoga over the past couple of weeks, but it will come back. Bound Mari D both sides, so haven't lost that twist!
Other than that, I am pleased to say that my bed is getting more comfortable - or should I say, I am getting used to it. It's nice to be getting some proper sleep again! The sofa is great too - a nice size for guests too, two people can recline comfortably - It was a good buy.
Finally - I have eaten too much chocolate this week. My colleague has custody of the Maya Gold and I get square by square rations throughout the day.....
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