Today after my Ashtanga yoga practice I decided to break out the hand balancing canes that have been sitting in the yoga room untouched for quite some time now. It's one thing to do an arm balance pose or a handstand on the mat, some even find that intimidating, but doing them raised off the floor ups the ante quite a bit in terms of fear factor and potential for injury if you fall off of them wrong.
Well today I got back on them because I was feeling playful after I finished my regular practice and I got some good pictures to share. This first one is a pose I've been doing for years now and it's one I can do easily any day any time...but on the canes it's different.
This is just a basic arm balance (for me) called crane pose or bakasana in Sanskrit which I've been able to do pretty easily for years and it was my first pose on the canes today. Looks just as good up on those things as it does on the mat but damn it's a little bit intimidating!
Then I got to thinking, what else could I do that's not a high risk of injury that I'm pretty comfortable doing on the floor. Oh I know, peacock pose!
This one felt really good and my balance point was solid as a rock. Doing the more basic poses (basic for me) will eventually build my confidence and I'll be able to do more hardcore stuff on them. I didn't realize how much strength is required to do cool stuff on these like I'd imagined I'd be able to do when I first got them. I need to start lifting weights again honestly because I feel I've lost a little bit of strength lately (seriously, it may be hard to believe but I'm my own worst critic sometimes).
So next I decided to throw in a little variation, up the difficulty level and cross my legs in lotus pose while doing peacock on these here canes that my wife got me for Christmas but I haven't used very often. Nailed it!
Then I got to thinking...what if I could do this on just one hand? I've done it on the canes without my legs crossed before (I posted this about six months ago) on one hand, maybe I could do a variation of this in lotus on one hand. This is the version of it with my legs straight. I can still do this one...
Yeah that was my new pose about six months ago. I was so proud of it. But lately I've been lax in my practice and am trying to rebuild the most awesome parts of my practice. So onward to the version in lotus on only one hand!
Well that was a bit much and I kinda dropped out of it so I wouldn't get hurt. Here's me doing it on the floor on the safety of my mat. I only held it for about half a second and this pic was cropped out of a video. I'm gonna work on this one now so I can hold it for a few breaths and maybe in a month or so you'll see me flying high on those canes in this crazy pose.
It's been a long time since I posted any yoga pictures and I'm glad I decided to play around after my rigid Ashtanga practice today. That style of yoga is great and well-rounded in terms of gaining strength and flexibility, but it's fun to deviate and do my own thing sometimes.
It was also really nice to have some fun on a weekday practicing with my wife after work. The work weeks have been hard on me lately and today was actually a pretty good day and this was one of the highlights of it.
I'm glad I could share it with you all and I hope you are inspired by this to go out and pursue whatever it is that you're working towards and improve in whatever you're passionate about! That's a big part of what makes life fun for me--the challenge of things and achieving awesomeness.
Now your just showing off. ; )
Yes I'm inspired by your post. And I can't wait to start surfing again. Hopefully I'll be going to Bali or Hawaii soon for surfing.
Thanks for being part of Steemit community.
That's one thing I've always wanted to try is surfing, I live about 400 miles / 670 km inland from the nearest beach so I don't get the opportunity very often. Hope you get to go on your trip! I have some family in Hawaii and I went there once when I was 8 years old It was incredible.
Thanks for leaving the comment on my post!
Wow those are awesome yoga pose , stunt and of course it requires much energy to pull off ,you sure pulled it off perfectly ...my best pose was your third one hand ...it was awesome
Well done
Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures! Sometimes on days when I'm not feeling strong or motivated I come back to look at pics like this myself to get myself motivated to do my practice.
You definitely are in better shape than I am!
Haha I get that from a lot of people. Most of my coworkers are in their late 20's and I'm in better shape than they are even though I'm 10 years older (Can't believe I'll turn 40 in 18 months). A lot of people also are surprised when I tell them my age.
I look young for my age (I’m 40), too, but the fat certainly doesn’t look younger!
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Wow! Looks like top level yoga exercise. Stand on one hand requires a lot of concentration and strength in the hand!
Good lord you're not kidding (top level exercise! I woke up this morning and my arms are tired like I did a weight lifting workout yesterday! And yes the one arm balance does require a lot of the mind and body. It took me years of training to get to where I can do anything on just one point of balance (on my hand).
Pretty impressive
May I ask: how many times have you kissed the floor learning that trick?
I barely can muscle up in a bar... can't imagine doing all this stuff!
I haven’t falllen off the cane in that pose once thankfully. But when I was learning it I’d start out with my cheek or forehead resting on the floor (I learned and mastered it on my may first) then raise up. So really I haven’t hit my head or face learning this. Once you start learning arm balances you also start learning the safest way to fall out of it. And it becomes muscle memory eventually.
Impressive! I have some handstand canes but haven't really gotten to use them much since I've been travelling but excited to get the back out again! Greetings from another Ashtangi! Much love and excited to connect with other Yogi's on this awesome platform! #Steemit
i really like yoga but cant do all this like u have done.i will defently want to gether knowledge and practice to be just like you.