What the Governator Taught Me About Laghuvajrasana

Yes, I'm referring to Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know, that BEEFCAAAAAAAAKE megalomaniac sex-fiend? Yessiree, he taught me something about yoga.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

A couple weeks ago, I went to a screening of "Pumping Iron". It's a cult-classic documentary from the late '70s about the world of bodybuilding. And of course, it stars good old Arnie, pre-Hollywood fame. He was already the 5-time Mr. Universe/ Olympia winner by this time and was defending his 1975 title for the last time before retiring from bodybuilding. A 24-year old Lou Ferrigno, aka The Incredible Hulk, also makes an appearance as the "pipsqueak" upstart who hopes to take the title from old-man-Arnie (or rather, Lou's dad seems more intent on this).


I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this. It is a HILARIOUS documentary that gives a good glimpse into the mindset of what it takes for world domination. At least in the bodybuilding world. And actually, maybe this same narcissistic god-complex is required to make it in Hollywood too. And maybe also in politics, if Arnie's behaviour and later accomplishments in life are anything to go by.

There are some priceless gems spouted out of Arnie that make you go "WTF?!? This guy ACTUALLY became the Governor of California and was seriously considering running for President?!" Case in point, my favourite WTF moment when he was talking about how bodybuilding made him feel:

‎

"It's as satisfying to me as, uh, coming is, you know? As, ah, having sex with a woman and coming. And so can you believe how much I am in heaven? I am like, uh, getting the feeling of coming in a gym, I'm getting the feeling of coming at home, I'm getting the feeling of coming backstage when I pump up, when I pose in front of 5,000 people, I get the same feeling, so I am coming day and night. I mean, it's terrific. Right? So you know, I am in heaven."
- Arnie

... ... ...

I mean, seriously right?!? I was in hysterics with a good LOL. (Especially considering the whole fiasco with his housemaid in the past month)

Anyway, while doubled over in laughter, Arnie also said something else that made me recall what my yoga teacher was telling me about building up my leg strength for Laghuvajrasana. She said that I should go down and come up a few times, going down lower each time, or at least training myself to keep dipping down lower each time before holding there for the final 5 counts. If I don't do this, my body will never get used to how it should be pushing itself lower to the ground.

Arnie basically said the same thing about doing reps in training. He said his competitor would do 10 reps of something, but he would go beyond this, doing an extra few more... coz "the last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens."

OK, so maybe only the first sentence in that quote is applicable. The rest is completely egotistical, unyogic and totally not applying Ahimsa to one's self.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Well, at least I got something out of that, right? Basically - don't be a wuss. To get the hang of Laghu, I should just rinse-and-repeat like my teacher and Arnie say. From a physical point-of-view, at least I know what good I'm doing.

Yeah Arnie, I'm gonna be a champion, just like you! *cough*

-----

Another Rest Day

Saturday rest day. Ahhhhhh... So many plans! But I achieved not much. As it should be. (But dammit, I haven't done my Sanskrit homework yet and it's almost bedtime...)

Had a lovely breakfast with (0v0) or is that (OvO) (skinny eyes or fat eyes for the Owl?), LIAsh and Tova. Oops, no group shot. Give the new arrivals some time to settle in first before sticking a camera in their faces! ;p

Today's breakfast was the first non-Indian meal I've had since arriving. Banana & Cinnamon Vegan Pancakes and a fruit salad. I didn't think to take a picture. I seem to gravitate towards pancakes all the time. From rotis to dosas to actual pancakes.

3 hours after breakfast, I met another friend for lunch (I promise you I'm eating my way through Mysore and gonna be a lard-ass after this month). She's a good friend of Maney, my rickshaw driver, too and invited me over to her flat for a lunch home-cooked by Maney himself!! (all permissions granted to post these faces here!) :p




On my way to lunch, I hopped into a rickshaw that had 3 students in the back. The driver stopped and said "Where you going?", named a price and so away we went. What beautiful kids! (and they didn't ask me for my country coin either, which made me love them more!!)


One more food porn shot for today: Dinner was a Ragi Roti. Only coz Nalpak doesn't have Akki Rotis on Saturdays. This is pretty much the same thing as an Akki Roti, just with a black-coloured flour which looks more appetizing. :)


Funny shots from around Mysore today. I've been meaning to take photos of this coconut poster, and since this dude was shut this morning, I took my chance. I'm not sure I understand how you'll save the farmer?


It's really juvenile, but I get a giggle every time I walk past phone shops with "STD and Local Calls" emblazoned on them.



And finally, even if I had these problems, I'm not sure I'd wanna be caught dead entering or leaving this hospital! BAHAHAHAHA! "Prakash! Take me to the PILES & PROCTOLOGY HOSPITAL. PRONTO!! My Mula Bandha seems to have grown a life of its own!!" BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Sorry, juvenile humour, see what I mean?)


My first week in Mysore is officially... OVER?!? Dammit, that sure passed quickly! I'm beginning to understand why people can stay here for 2 or 3 months at a time. I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms already and I'm not even halfway done. (!!!)

-----

Strange Encounters of the Stranger Kind

A weird thing happened to me today after practice.

As I was sat in the train, waiting for it to leave the station, a guy walks into the carriage and asks "You practice with E, right? Ashtanga yoga?"

*STRANGER DANGER ALERT!*

Mother taught me well... don't talk to strangers and all right? So I was immediately hesitant and a bit suspicious. (The first thing I thought of was "Oh no! Have I said too much on my blog now that stalkers can find me?" Haha, talk about EGO.)

But it was an interesting encounter, and we ended up chatting for the 10-minute ride into town. Apparently he practices at the shala occasionally and has seen me (but er... I've never seen him before) and he complimented me on my practice.

I feel uncomfortable when someone says this, especially a stranger at that. My practice just feels a little private and personal, almost sacred... and I was thinking "HOW DARE YOU WATCH ME PRACTICE?!" (ohhhh... Now I see why Sharath didn't want the rest of us watching the Intermediate workshop).

Anyway... He asked me if I teach yoga and why haven't I been teaching while I've been here, and blahblahblah, and we got to talking about teachers, teaching, how wonderful our teacher is and attachment to your teacher in general... and... how "you are your best teacher" at the end of the day.

Huh.

I just found it interesting, considering what we've been discussing in the last post about the student-teacher dynamic and doing as your teacher says (see the comments here).

Also, what I found interesting is I was dicussing pretty personal observations with a complete stranger. Maybe I'm on Twitter too much and I need to differentiate between the cyber & real worlds. HAHAHA! Or maybe it's true what they say about us Ashtangis being part of a greater tribe - that we feel an instant connection with a kindred spirit (of the Ashtanga kind).

OK, I'm getting into woowoo territory here. I just think that the other guy sitting across from us in the train carriage who was OBVIOUSLY eavesdropping must've thought we were smoking our socks and run off to join the fairies or something. It's funny innit, this thing we do called Ashtanga?

Here's another funny (bizarre) Youtube video of Willem Dafoe doing dropbacks/ walking around in backbends/ standing up in The Reckoning... (Huh?!) It's what Arturo mentioned in yesterday's post (And thanks Liz for the movie name!) I guess he's also a little bit cuckoo and takes his yoga practice to work. HAHAHA. (Oh my, what a deep backbend! ...but I guess if he can catch his ankles in Chakrabandhasana right...) It's at about 25sec into it.

Not So Fast! Yoga CatZ Before I Go!

Interesting comments from yesterday's post about the weird split I got. Read them here and add to it if you know why (is it an oldskool practice? Is it to shorten the practice?)

This is why I need to take a break from my computer. I have 1 hour until I leave for the airport, but I just had to post what I found: A Yoga Cat Calendar.

By the same people who brought out the Yoga Dog Calendar. I saw that one a while ago but found it freaky and not quite cute, hence I didn't bother posting it. This kitty one however, is equally FREAKY... but... a little cute too since I'm more partial to cats if you couldn't already tell.

News article here. Yoga Catz Calendar here (I didn't add the "z" at the end. That's really how they spelled it).



(ICK! This one looks like kitteh porn!)



And LOOK! This kitteh's up to Krounchasana in the Intermediate series too! (This is SUPPOSED to be Krounchasana... right?)


OK OK, I really have to go now. Have a Happy New Year everyone!

Rollin' With My Homie...

Put your hands up in the air! Wave them like you just don't care!

This time, Guruji's my homeboy. Check out the Original Gangsta. WORD.

(Thanks to @ruechel for the heads up!)

Dropback Headbutt

I did it today!

I actually full-on landed on my head, head-butting the floor in dropbacks. In a shala full of people. I think I heard some gasps too.

Bravo!

It's what I've feared all this time, so I'm glad I've got it out the way.

I must've been so pleased with myself that I didn't just do it once either, it happened a couple of times.

Teacher's Assistant came to me at dropbacks today and said "Try some on your own before we do assisted". I was like "Ugh, really? Noooooo." She kinda hovered near me for support (of the cheerleading kind) but I really felt like a kid on the first day of school - clinging on and screaming "Mummy mummy! Don't go!" (Of course this was my internal monologue. On the outside, I was a cool cat).

But then I thought "Screw it. Let's do this". Gotta take those training wheels off at some point, right?

It's that last bit, after your head passes that Limbo-Rock point, y'know, when your torso's kind of "parallel" to the floor. After that point, I feel like I'm dropping into the abyss then everything goes pear-shaped. And my head found the floor before my hands did.

To my (dis)credit, I have done this before - but on my own at home. And I have crash-landed A LOT harder than I did today. So I dunno whether it's coz I was in a room full of other people that I quickly braced myself and ended with a lighter crash, or whether it is a slightly improved dropback coz the crashes were not so hard.

After the first one, I collapsed in a heap and started laughing. On the second go, I dropped on my head, then my arms immediately pulled me back up into a backbend again, and I hauled myself to standing from the backbend. It must've sounded a lot harder than it actually felt, or maybe I have a thick skull, coz this is when the people on either side of me gasped. I felt totally OK though, and my ego wasn't as bruised as I thought it would be in a situation like this.

After practice, I asked my teacher what's happening on that last bit - do I need to engage even more of my legs? (Coz I know have a problem with grounding). And she wisely asked "Well... WHY would you land on your head?"

It took me about a second. "Um... because... my arms aren't there before my head?"

D.U.H. Of course.

So she said "You need to straighten your arms coz your elbows are giving way when you land".

DAMMIT! Yesterday, my elbows were rock-solid concrete and I was afraid I would hyper-extend them while landing and hurt them. Today, they're too jello and I'm hitting my head instead.

I'm beginning to feel like I need to wear a crash helmet AND elbow guards until I get these dropbacks sorted! Grr. I don't mind looking like The Stig from Top Gear. Go on, Lululemon! I'll do product R&D for you!

(Photo credt here)

Sharath in Sydney: Week 1, Day 6

Stop the press! I got my first adjustment today. In fact, I got TWO!!

First was in Upavishta Konasana - second part where you're catching your legs up in the air. My drishti was up to the ceiling, but he walked past, put one finger on the top of my forehead and pushed down, tilting my head back more. I was like "huh? But I WAS looking up!" ...I guess not enough?

Being the yoga dork that I am, I came home and immediately referenced David Swensen's manual. I could've sworn my head was in the same position in the "E" picture (quick Ashtanga dorks, pull out your books now!) ...coz it sure FELT like he was really pushing my head back a lot more than in Swensen's photo. Hmm... will have to bring more awareness to that in the next practice!

And the second adjustment? (more like an assist)... Are you ready for this?


*DRUMROLL*


Sirsasana. Crikey.

(If this is the first post of my conference reports you've been reading, please read the days preceding this and you'll get why this is big news for me).

So after the shoulderstand vinyasa, as we were prepping for headstands, I glanced up and lo and behold... who should be looking my way? Oh, but of course, the eagle-eyed Rangaswamyji! Yes, it definitely was an eye-lock moment we had. Oh crap. I couldn't help but grin back at him though, coz I had this pervading sense of fear and dread that something "bad" was coming my way.

Someone asked in yesterday's comments how long his L-O-N-G counts are in headstands, and I'd estimate about an average of 8 seconds per count. Apparently it's supposed to be 4sec inhale and 4sec exhale per count.

OK... so are you ready for this juicy story?

I'm up, he starts counting, and I hear his voice coming closer my way with each count. All the while I'm trying to focus on the breath and count, but you must understand the voices in my head are starting to get louder by now... I'm thinking about what he said to me yesterday... and I keep trying to stop my thoughts but by the time he says "FOUR" and I know he's right behind me in front of my mat, the voices in my head are yelling now "DOES HE REALLY THINK I CAN HOLD TILL FIFTEEN?!? GO AWAAAY!!! YOU'RE DISTRACTING MEEEE!!!!"

I promise I'm really not a loonybin. Maybe just a little intense, but not crazy.

Then he catches my legs and pulls them back towards him. I had an AHA! moment... I wasn't completely straight. I have the same problem in handstands too with finding that balancing point where everything lines up straight.

It's all over in my head by now. Forget about silencing anything and finding dharana... I had a million and one things going through my head from... OH NO! He's really gonna make me hold till fifteen! What, am I really that un-straight? Shit, don't pull me back THAT far, I'm going to fall! But if I fall it's OK, he's right behind me! OMG, it's only the TENTH count? I've to hold another FIVE? My arms are giving out, I can't hold. Engage the CORE! You're not pulling the belly in enough!

And then I realized that with where he's guiding me to, I'm feeling completely off-balance and it feels like I'm working my left side much harder. I am of course, "straight" but feel the off-balance due to the rotation in my pelvis (I'm not bluffing! I've got a slight scoliosis in my tailbone the Osteopath picked up. You can see the X-Rays here) ...then of course this sets me off on a whole different chain of thoughts (Oh! No wonder I've got issues with this pose. Not that it should be an excuse or anything... etc.)

...that's just a tiny snippet only of what was flying through my head. A couple of times he tried to let go of my legs, but I couldn't find that point of balance to hold myself up on my own - yeah, with those thoughts racing through my brain I'm not surprised I couldn't actually find the pose!

It reminded me of the first time I ever did backbends or pigeon - y'know, when you open up areas that are tight, releasing all this "stuff" and random thoughts... or when you go through a Yin class and sit in one pose for 5 minutes, and it brings up all these "AARRGHHHHH!" thoughts in your head? That was my Sirsasana today.

Especially when he came up to "FIFTEEN". Mentally, I switched off and was like "RELIEF!!" ...but then he didn't let go and made me go into legs-at-90-degrees! Voices in my head said "HERE FOR ANOTHER 10 COUNTS?! IMPOSSIBLE!"

I'm embarassed to say this now, but he was holding firm ensuring I'd stay there the whole way... but I had a Little Britain "Computer says No" moment and literally had to kick him in order to get his hands off my legs so that I could come down.

What can I say, I had an internal meltdown (plus my arms really couldn't hold up anymore). But I felt much better after resting in Child's for a couple of counts... and felt I kind of redeemed myself by going back up again to legs at 90 degrees for all of his last 5 counts.

SIGHHHHHHHHH.

I went and thanked him after class today and he was all smiles. I was truly grateful.

I am excited I got an assist, but I'm also deflated that I couldn't hold throughout the 10 counts of 90 degrees. It is what it is, and tomorrow will be another practice... wait hang on! Tomorrow's MOON DAY! Hahaha.

Time for retail therapy. Today, I bought another Tshirt coz I love the different fonts. So here's my "99% practice, 1% theory" tee, and "Eat more Chapatis" tee. :)
(and yes, it's branded y'all... see the "Eight Limbs by KPJ" logo. Don't mess!)

Sharath in Sydney: Week 1,Day 2

This is what a geek I am. I've discovered another use for my Blackberry. Since I've got about a 10 - 15min walk from the workshop to the train station, on my post-practice walk there I whipped it out and started typing down little notes from this morning on the Memo Pad app. Hey, it's important! By the time I get back, shower, change, get back on the train to head to work etc. I'd probably have forgotten half the things that I found interesting during the practice! (so this is what I'm referring to now as I type this post. Heh.)

The numbered points worked for me yesterday (and prevents me from going too far off-tangent, for your benefit too)... so here goes my observations on Day 2:

1. Opening & Closing Chants
The opening chant as recited by Sharath sounds weeeeeeeird. It sounds completely monotone and without the usual "melody" I'm used to chanting it in. Is there supposed to be a tune with this, have I just been singing it all wrong (y'know, the "Western" interpretation of the chant). As opposed to Guruji's version here (scroll to the bottom of page)

Yesterday was the first day I ever recited the Closing chant (7 years after discovering Ashtanga!) It was kinda cool. I'm gonna research this a little bit more today for its meaning. The only part in it that I recognized was one of my favourite phrases, "Lokum Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu" (May all beings everywhere be happy and free). This seems to be more recited out loud (like reading from a book) rather than chanting or singing.

2. More Sharath humour!
- UHP: people getting off-balance especially when it came to the second sideways variation (utthita parsvasahita?) and he says "No dancing!"
- Backbends: after extremely long counts in Urdhva Dhanurasana and everyone came down after the last one with a big SIGH (of relief), he says "No crying!"
- Uthpluthi: he says "Stay up. Don't come down. $25 fine if you come down".

This isn't really part of his humour, but I found it really cute that he doesn't use the word "Ujjayi". His reminder is simply "breathe with sound". I was trying to figure out what he meant by "free breathing" (closing in baddha padmasana), but then he repeated with "free breathing with sound".

(since it's another long-ish post, I'm breaking it up with a nice picture of baddha padmasana). :)

3. Counting
Today's counts seemed more manageable than yesterday's. Have I already gotten used to it, or was he just a little bit faster? Chatted with someone who'd been in the Bali workshop last week and she says the counts there were definitely a lot longer than the counts in Sydney (she reckons maybe it's because people were on holiday in Bali as opposed to how everyone needs to rush off to work after here). As an example, we're supposed to go from 6am - 8am (the timings they more or less stuck to in Bali), but the past couple of days here, we've finished at 7.45am.

Oh, also, we've been doing 5 Surya A's and only 3 Surya B's. Both today and yesterday. I thought it was coz we had a bit of a later start yesterday being the first day and all so didn't think anything of it, but it happened again today.

Found myself struggling to concentrate on the breath in Mari B - D. Or rather, struggling to regulate my breath to his count (I was starting to veer into 2 or 3 of my breaths per one of his counts. FOCUS!)

4. No adjustments again today!
...but he adjusted people on BOTH sides of me! (should I be grumpy about this or relieved? LOL!) Gimme a bind in Supta K, dammit! :p

But I also realized today how used I've gotten to having assistance in getting bound into Supta K (without doing much work myself even though it feels like you're working damn hard. Which I suppose you are, but in a different way). It's quite a different way of working your body when you're trying to bind the pose yourself (and failing miserably). Ha.

5. Body aches
Started yesterday evening with a bit of burning thighs and triceps, and really felt it when I woke up this morning... and after the practice, walking up the slight incline all the way to the train station really got me a bit winded. Really felt those thighs in backbends today too.

Headstand - I have this really weird thing that happens when I get to about 20 of my regular breaths (that's about, oh say 5 of Sharath's counts?)... my right foot starts cramping and I have to come down and flex it out (oh who am I kidding, the rest of my arms can't hold myself up by then anyway). Am I trying too hard here or what? Gonna try and see if I can build up strength over the next few days to hold for longer since he's a good metronome and I can gauge by his counts how strong I'm getting. Or not. Haha.

6. The Inhale-Exhale timings from seated asanas
See comments from yesterday's post. This is what I've been obsessing about from yesterday's practice. So I was straining really hard to work out what the heck he's saying when we come out of seated postures, moving into vinyasa. It's Inhale-look up. Something-Exhale. Dwadasha-Inhale etc... (my next mission is to learn sanskrit numbers!) But it's definitely "Dwadasha-Inhale". And I found out today Dwadasha means TWELVE. (Thank you Google)

So folks, I reckon what got me crossed-eyed yesterday thinking he was instructing the "lift up" on the exhale (when it should be on the inhale), was coz I thought he said "Exhale: dwadasha"... and not knowing what dwadasha meant I thought it was "lift up". As in... "Exhale - lift up". Lost in translation y'all!

He usually does the count, followed by the instruction. Y'know... Ekam (One): Inhale. Dwe (Two): Exhale. Trini (Three): Inhale. Chatvari (Four): Jumpback etc. First it's learning the numbers, and by the end of these 2 weeks I'll be getting my diploma in Sanskrit linguistics, you watch.

By the way... for my tweeps who keep asking if there are boys in #skimpyyogashorts at the workshop... I DON'T KNOW! Pratyahara y'all, withdrawing my senses and all; not focussed on things around me. HAHA. But I went earlier today and set up my mat towards the front/middle of the hall and got a better view of the goings-on ahead of me. When it was time to start, Sharath stripped off his trackpants to reveal mid-thigh cycling shorts and somehow I thought of my twittershala. Nothing tittelating (or is that "twittelating") at all, not like this guy.


That pretty much wraps up today's report. Have a happy Wednesday!

Comic Relief

(Picture credit here)

Hahaha... Well, I'm keeping in theme of the past couple weeks around here!

Here's another random one. This blog has been around for a while, but I've only just discovered it and I'm in stitches. Be warned: yoga dorks only (but still funny even if you're not a yogi. I think.)

It's what happens when plastic action figures are made to do yoga (yes, someone obviously has a lot of time on their hands...) Only on Yoga Beans.

They're a collection of short stories, based on each pose in the Ashtanga sequence. Here's a snippet of what you'll see...






And here's the money shot, where they reference David Swensen's practice manual!

Duke: "Now, here we see Mr. Swenson in the finished pose. That's some goddamn warrior spear energy right there, I tell you what."

Snake Eyes: "Mmmph!"

Duke: "See how that back foot is grounded? See the way the twist starts at the base of his spine and rotates his torso right around? He's got his gut tucked in tight and that top arm is long and straight and strong as the stem of a flower."

Heavy Duty: "Duke, you're a poet."

Visit Yoga Beans for more.