Jumping Back: BEFORE video

It's better than I thought.  Lately my feet haven't been clearing in the beginning, and even when they do I pause and touch down with my feet before jumping all the way back.

My updog looks so stiff!  I wasn't warmed up here, but still.

I spent 10 minutes today on the following exercises:

• Navasana and some variations (one leg at a time, bent legs)
• crossing my feet in front of me and lifting straight up
• crossing my feet in front, lifting up and then through my arms and under my torso
• kneeling and lifting up and holding (with and without ankles crossed)
• kneeling and lifting up and trying some pushups (with and without ankles crossed)

Even 30 seconds on any one of these was super tough.  I kept cycling through them until the time was up.  Feels like such hard work -- it's got to help!

Jumping Back: Announcing a Seven Week Long Experiment

I have been working on the ashtanga yoga jump-back for more years than I want to recall, but perhaps it's fair to start the clock after giving birth since I had to start back at square one at that point.  So let's call it 2 years.

In this time I've only been practicing second series -- even before I ought to have "split", due to time constraints -- so I don't get to practice a lot of jump-backs and I only do Navasana on Fridays.

Yesterday I overheard my teacher working with another student on jumping-back and suggesting (or rather, commanding!) that she put in some extra time each day until he returns mid-December doing Navasana and some other exercises.  I though I would do the same.  So here's my plan:  I will spend the first 10 minutes of Lee's nap each day working on some jump-back exercises.   I'll set a timer and work persistently for the whole 10 minutes.   I'm hoping that making this public announcement here will ensure that I actually do it.

This will be a seven week long experiment.  I'm looking forward to finding out if there will be any results in this time.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to surprise DG with a nice jump-back when he returns? But if I improve any little bit I will be thrilled.

I'll post a "before" video of the current state of my jump-back in a day or so.  If I have the time I'll post weekly videos, but certainly I'll make an "after" video when the seven weeks are up.   More info on the exercises I'll be working on in the next post too.

I don't know how much lack of strength is a problem for me in jumping-back, but I suspect it plays a big role.  I'm pretty sure there is also some lack of confidence barrier too though, and just a misunderstanding of the physics of it somehow.

The First Post

Hello there! I am a full-time mama to this pumpkin.  I practice ashtanga yoga here.