Category: Free Inquiry

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When it all comes crashing down..

On Tuesday morning my yoga studio announced that it has officially been mandated to close until further notice. I am at an utter loss. My yoga practice and the community of people that I interact with at the studio have been my rock throughout the last few months – the one thing that has kept me grounded amidst all of the chaos…

Although they are live streaming classes online, it’s just not the same. I find it extremely hard to self motivate at home. There are far too many distractions.

I will try my best to be disciplined enough to continue to practice by myself. Let you know how the next week goes….

🙁

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Battening down the hatches in November

This is a video I took showing my vertical form entering/exiting a handstand while practicing at my yoga studio on Thursday afternoon. I am feeling much more in control going in and out of the posture and my body is now feeling in pretty good form,  just need to keep practicing! I’ve been noticing that I have on and off days. Also I generally stay up longer after an hour of yoga practice, I think because my muscles are fully warmed up and primed. Morning tends to be easier than night, it is increasingly difficult when I am sluggish at the end of the day, particularly after dinner. Another thing to note: my balance is considerably affected if I am not wearing my prescription contacts. I guess my inner ear relies on visual cues to micro balance..

While I was floatin’ around researching on the web this morning, I came across this handstand poem that amused me. Thought this seemed like an appropriate forum to share. 🙂

The Handstand

I still do them sometimes,
because I can,
or maybe I just like
staring at the world
upside down.And to others,
I probably seem
as though I’m in perfect balance,
motionless…

but in reality
those relaxed moments are fleeting,
and what appears as balance,
as stasis, is really
the continual overcoming of
vibrations, twitches and wobbles,
with small adjustments
to keep myself from falling.

We do the same
while standing,
waiting for the train,
or while hanging on
to whatever purpose
gets us across the tightrope
of each day.

If you seek perfect balance,
look away from the living,
to the void,
the merely conceptual.

Life is a surfer teetering
on a breaker’s crest,
a wriggling, writhing thing
poorly contained
by neat little linguistic cages,

and balance an illusion,
a magic trick,
like hiding wrinkles with makeup,
or misery behind a smile,
or living an ordinary life
until you die,

always with a persistent feeling
of not quite.

– Brian Rihlmann
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With a little help from my friends

Last weekend I solicited my friend for some guidance. He trains in calisthenics and is a handstand master. He had a slightly different method for entering and exiting the pose. He uses the ‘egg’ formation to slowly press up rather than using momentum to kick up. This requires a ton of core strength to be able to do with control. He also said that he found it easier to take his palms slightly further than shoulder width apart and to rotate his hand out 45 degrees.

He gave me a good pep talk and then showed off by doing a handstand pushup 😉 Something for me to set my sights on once I get the handstand down. HA!

Nice to know there is always something further to aspire to.

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Perseverance

In yoga class this week I stayed up for a record breaking time! 3.5 seconds!!!! My personal best so far 🙂 Super encouraging to see my efforts beginning to pay off. I’m starting to get get a better feel for my balance point.

Here are a few more resources that have been useful to my overall form and technique:

Helpful article on three different ways to enter a handstand

https://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Handstand

Youtube video posted by a gymnastic coach with tips and tricks

 

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Tuning in to Turn OUT!

This week I have been feeling extremely fatigued. I think school burn out mixed with lack of sleep is starting to take a toll. I also have this nagging tiredness that is most likely pointing to my losing battle with anemia. I made an appointment with my Doctor to get my blood taken and check my ferritin and hemoglobin levels. As I am fairly familiar with the tell tale signs of my iron plummeting I went out and picked up a bottle of Floradix. It’s my favourite liquid iron supplement and is fairly benign on my digestion. The only hitch is that I can’t take it within 30 minutes of ingesting caffeine, which one might think is an easy enough task, but, the full body fatigue tends to leave me reaching for coffee at all hours of the day.. it’s a vicious cycle :/

I’ve also decided I need to add more protein to my meals to keep me going throughout the day and support muscle growth. I found this vegan pea protein that seems promising albeit tastes like cardboard on its own. Undetectable in a smoothie though.

Additionally I’ve begun including a heaping scoop of hemp heart to my morning routine. Need those extra omega fats to fuel my brain function!

Finally I’ve decided to order a greens powder to round out my vitamin/mineral intake and to aid in the absorption of my iron (iron requires vit C as well as b12 to properly absorb)

Hoping this change in diet will have me feeling back in tip top shape again soon. Needless to say I have momentarily scaled back my training as it’s all I can do to shlep around the four corners of my apartment.

To be continued…

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Turning to the pros

While I am definitely starting to feel myself getting stronger overall, I still can’t seem to stay up for longer than about 2 seconds! Time to turn to the professionals…

This week I took my questions to the experts. I went to MA yoga studio downtown in Dragon Ally and interviewed three of their top instructors.  These were my take home messages:

  • Ground FIRMLY into your hands and use your fingers to grip the floor
  • Ensure that your gaze and point of focus stays in between your hands – this will help with balance
  • Externally rotate shoulders. Push up and out of scapula
  • Engage EVERYTHING – core, glutes, legs..
  • Flex feet as if you were standing on the ceiling
  • Use a wall to get comfortable with the feeling of being upside down
  • Practice every day and don’t get discouraged!

Looking forward to taking all of their advice to heart and applying these tips over the coming months.

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Little by Little

Wrist Warm Up

A long with a proper warm up routine I have begun to regularly include a daily strength training circuit designed to help me build the neccessary muscles for a sustained handstand. This includes three 30 second reps of each of the following:

Forearm Planks

Supermans

Hollow body holds

Supplemental Practice

This week I reinforced my regime with daily yoga classes:

Monday – 9:30-10:45am  Hatha

Tuesday – 12:00-1:00pm Vinyasa

Wednesday – 5:30-6:45pm Slow flow

Thursday – 5:30-6:45pm Vinyasa flow

Friday – 7:15-8:15am Vinyasa

Saturday – 9:00-10:15am Vinyasa

Sunday – REST

Am certainly feeling all of the increased weight bearing on my left wrist. My ganglia has been flaring up again and impeding my ability to train as much as I would like. Frustrating to not be able to go as deep in many postures but I am adapting and using modifications to alleviate the pain. I know it is important to listen to ones body and not push it too far. A sustained injury will only impede my progress. For the meantime, I am taking care to rest completely on Sunday as well as ice my wrist after practice.

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Foundations

This week I dug deep into my library and pulled out some informative yoga references. I really appreciate the skeletal images provided in “The Key Muscles” textbook. It highlights a great visual representation of the joint stacking required to enter and hold this pose.

 

Preparatory Poses:

  • Downward Facing Dog
  • Mountain Pose
  • Plank
  • Feathered Peacock
  • Reclining Hero
  • Eagle
  • Cow Face Pose

Wrist Warm Up Video

IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS STRETCH AND WARM UP APPROPRIATELY !

Today I activated my Trello board. I’m really excited to have access to an online tool that can help me make lists and keep track of my goals. I’ve always been an avid list maker and Trello really takes it to the next level. I like how user friendly the interface is, and how the ease of moving tasks from in progress to done. The visual layout helps me to take mental note of what still needs to be completed.

Oh yeah, and did I mention I learned how to screen shot on a mac!? It’s been such a game changer! I can use CONTROL/COMMAND/3 for a straight screenshot, or CONTROL/COMMAND/4 if I want to select a particular portion of my screen.

 

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Free Inquiry Project

As a dedicated yoga student and trained yoga teacher, I make sure to set aside time each day for a mindful, movement based practice. While I have certainly progressed in many asanas, one posture in particular has always alluded me –Adho Mukha Vrksasana – also known as the handstand.

My goal for our Free Inquiry project, is to devote my energy and efforts into learning the theory behind the pose, mastering the preparatory postures and building the core strength required to enter and maintain a handstand for 5 seconds.

I believe the first step in this pursuit is changing my internal dialogue from: “This is impossible”, too “I CAN handstand!” That being said, I will attempt to approach this challenge with patience and a sense of humour, knowing the process could potentially take years..

In the next few days I plan to start gathering useful resources. This may include:

  • Yoga textbooks
  • Consulting with advanced practitioners
  • Watching instructional youtube videos
  • Reading about the success and failures of others
  • Creating a daily workout plan to build core strength
  • Becoming knowledgable about the risks and contraindications of this advanced pose

 

Questions:

  • Why can I kick up into a handstand but am unable to stay?
  • What muscle groups are involved in balance and stability?
  • How long will it take me to hold the pose for 3 seconds or longer?
  • Can my wrists withstand this level of daily strain?
  • Will I be able to achieve this goal without injuring myself?