I practice at home these days. This allows me to listen to my body. It allows me to add asanas to prepare the difficult ones like back bending. I also feel free to omit asanas if they doesn't feel good.
In sum the back pain is less painful than a few weeks ago. I can do much more asanas than a few weeks ago. For example today it was possible to get into headstand with straight legs. Surya namaskara B was possible. Three times I did urdhva dhanurasana.
Nevertheless these back pain issues last now more than 7 months. This drives me crazy from time to time. Eat that frog, I think then. There is no alternative to home practices. Mysore classes focus on beginners. Beginners need rules. But the teaching must become more flexible when students practice a decade or longer. This is not the case. This rigidness of Ashtanga yoga classes causes injuries. I know I'm not the only one who experienced this. As much as I miss being part of Mysore classes I also know that the risk to get injured is too high when practicing in classes every day. Especially at my age (57y) a variety of asanas is supportive. Instead I practiced every day the same asanas only because one asana (kapotasana), the last one didn't look perfectly. After 2 hours of yoga practice I could finally exercise it. Exhausted I was by then. For 5 breaths I exercised this asana, this was it. Did I expect miracles? No I didn't. I followed the Ashtanga rules without reflecting. Two and a half years the same show every day, till I got injured. Why didn't I stop this earlier. I felt incontent. I knew I wanted to omit primary and focus on second series.
The only didactics in yoga classes is to stop yogis when an asana doesn't look perfectly. It follows an adjustment for 5 breaths. Voilà. This is not enough. This is simple, but too simple.
When practicing at home I have no commuting. I can shower after the practice. Sometimes I'm up till midnight. Then I practice a bit later. I get up after 7 or 8 hours of sleep. My life is flexible, I adjust it to my daily wishes and schedules. Not that I want to make a principle out of it. The goal is to get back to an early morning practice. But one can also maintain a daily or almost daily practice when living a bit more flexible without a strict schedule.
Time to move. To sit longer than 30 minutes is not good for my back.
Home practices
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5
Oleh
Khali Bhutta
