Standing asana, January 2023
In Ashtanga yoga you start with the sun salutations. This is immediately followed by the standing postures. Most standing postures are challenging as they often stretch and require balance at the same time. In order to balance well, you need to tense your muscles. Tense muscles stabilize the asana. The muscles are not tensed to their maximum strength. 70% is enough.
Tensing the muscles is necessary in standing poses. You will not fall out of the pose if you do not tense your muscles when you are in a seated position. But it still makes sense to tense the muscles to enable stretching. The body protects itself from overstretching when the muscles are tense. In the meantime, the term PDF stretching is used everywhere when the muscles are initially tensed when stretching.
I believe that I intuitively did this correctly.
Unfortunately, I am currently injured in my left hip. However, I am able to practise around the injury.
The most important thing for 2024 is to practise every day (6 days a week) and not take so many breaks. Regular practice protects you from injury. Every break brings frustration because the body quickly becomes inflexible and weak again. The older you get, the faster your body adapts to a 'lazy' lifestyle. Exercise is the be-all and end-all.
Even the best experience that it is sometimes difficult to practise. That's when it's important. That's the discipline you learn. You can't always give it your all.
Today I decided to take some pictures. My exercise was much less intense, but I practiced.
With this in mind, let's practise. Every exercise counts, even the short and lame ones.