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New User
Posts: 4
| Hi,
I've been practicing Ashtanga for the past 6 months, and am getting on my mat 3 times a week for an hour before getting to work.
What I find strange is that instead of giving me a new energy, I tend to feel tired after the practice, and exhausted at the end of the week (I also swim an hour a week)...
I've been wondering what I'm doing wrong... could my ujjayi breath not be done correctly? should I do less than an hour each time?
I feel like this difficulty is already teaching me something much more subtle (not being too hard on myself?), but am afraid of slowly being disgusted by the practice if I don't find enough relief in it...
does anyone have tips or advice?
thanks! |
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Location: London, England | Hi Carlota,
Sorry to hear your practice isn't working for you. Now, if someone was practicing for two hours a day, six days a week, I wouldn't be surprised if they felt a little over-trained sometimes . That you are doing that in 3 hours of practice a week is a little perplexing.
You might be right about the breathing-it's definitely to be considered-ujjayi breathing is obviously a modified form of breathing, and if it is modified incorrectly, can lead to a host of problems, mentally and physically.
In 1 hour, as far as astanga is concerned, you should have completed all the sun salutes, standing postures and probably done a few sitting postures-at what point do you get to in that time? Just gives me a clue about how much time you are spending in the postures or how fast you are breathing. If you spend 6 breaths in triangle pose, how much time has elapsed? For me it's about 50 seconds (just checked  ). Maybe we can get some clues from that-don't aim for 50 seconds, you will modify your breath incorrectly-I would also expect different postures to place different obstacles to optimal breathing in different people, might be good to optimize breathing in every part of your practice.
Nick |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| Just go easy and slow and feel where/when you are working unnecessarily too hard. Then you will find greater benefits too. |
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Veteran
Posts: 168
| Hello Carlota, You haven't told us a lot about yourself (age?) and your pre -yoga lifestyle, however, there is no written law that you must practice in the morning. You might try changing your practice to the evening. There is no written law that it must be Ashtanga Yoga. You could try a style that offers a selection of sequencing.
I am not a morning person so I primarily practice yoga in the evening. I have one morning class and one afternoon class but my home practices are in the evening. It's good then to feel tired. I feel tired and wonderfully relaxed, ready to sleep.
As Vibes has said take it easy. You are just beginning a very vigorous practice. It may be tiring for a lot of people at the beginning until the body and the mind adapt.
Some people recommend that one should learn a simpler pranayama technique at the beginning and learn to synchronise breathing with the poses, then develop ujjayi pranayama.
Do keep at it , make some adjustments and develop patience--that's the hardest part  . |
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Member
Posts: 26
| Carlotta,
Are you engaging bandhas during practice? I find that mula bandha and uddianda bandha help to draw my energy inward, holding the heat inward as well. This helps me to expend less energy holding asanas. Hard to explain but you will learn exactly what I mean during practice as you develop stronger bandha retention.
Also, are you doing a full vinyasa between each asana? Are you performing chakrasanas? Perhaps as a beginner, you should only do half vinyasas between seated postures and cut down vinyasas between standing postures.
Just my two cents. Hope I helped!
Carrie |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | I agree with the comment above about not practicing in the morning - I hate morning yoga! 5, 6, 7 pm is best.
But as to how much tiredness you feel, it's all a function of how you work while practicing and of course how accustomed you are to the movements of that practice.... arm strength, core strength, how long you hold asanas, and how fast you are moving...etc. I agree with everyone who told you to listen to your body, and to be aware of whether you are pushing so much that you are stressing yourself out...
...bg |
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| Rex,
Since you are always so exact about word usage, I have to make note of your use of the number 5000 as the age of yoga. People say that yoga is 5000 years old because there is a seal from Harappa that pictures a man sitting cross legged on a low platform. This is the "evidence" that yoga is 5000 years old. The problem here is that there are similar depictions of people sitting like this from the same time period from northern Italy, France and from Scythia. This is the way that tribal chieftains sat when receiving guests for thousands of years. Yes, it could possibly be depicting a man in yogic contemplation, but that is only a wild guess without any collaborating evidence. It is also important to note that nobody has found any other depictions of this sort, dated from several thousand years after the date of this seal. Yoga is probably of "Hindu" origin (as it is first mentioned in the Vedas) and the seal from Harappa is 1,500 older than the Aryan (Vedic) invasion of India at which time the Harappan culture had all but died out. So as not to belabor the point any more, there is no conclusive evidence that yoga is any older than 2,500 + years old. This, of course, does not add to or detract from the art of yoga as it is practiced today, which is really an early 20th century invention anyway. Unless you believe the doctrine that the older something is, the more valid and the more true it is, the age of yoga does not matter. The presumptive authority of tradition has been (and is) disproved with ever greater frequency since the Enlightenment.
Jim
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| Hi Rexall, It seems the yoga asana classes you took was way too difficult for your mind/body. If I am not mistaken you were taking astanga yoga which is vigorous and demanding, you are wise to discontinue practice that did not work for you. There are high dropout rate in yoga, I would guess at least 80% gave up after some period of practice, it is those who persisted in effort despite obstacle appeared during practice who eventually gain much benefits and satisfactions. It is very important to observe, investigate and resolve obstacle, (pain & fatigue are obsticle). Through consistent practice & study we resolve obstacle, growing in wisdom and became rooted in yoga. Having said so, it is really ok to drop yoga asana practice and move on to other more fulfilling activities! Wishing you well & cheers! p/s: my old userid antaraayaah is no longer valid. |
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New User
Posts: 1
| Just go easy and slow and feel where/when you are working unnecessarily too hard. Then you will find greater benefits too. |
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New User
Posts: 4
| Oh my gosh, thank you all for your answers, I hadn't seen your posts in all that time! Strangely enough, I did quit my practice for a while after having injured my shoulder because of insisting on Chaturanga... So from February to July, I just quit completely... and came back to it, having understood that ahimsa should really be part of the way I approach my practice (tough one for me, always pushing my limits...). So here I am, back on my ma |
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New User
Posts: 4
| back on my mat, but this time 6 times a week... but still exhausted, even though I am only doing 40-45mn for now. I am 34, quite dynamic, use to jog an hour 3 times a week and would not feel such fatigue! I am very disappointed not to be able to really appreciate the practice yet, because I dedicate so much to it! I am considering finding another type of yoga, but really liked ashtanga because once you know the sequence, you practice home easily!
I really can't understand why Ashtanga is beating me out this way... thanks for all of your answers!!! |
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Member
Posts: 34
Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand | Sun 7 Aug 2011, 5:17 pm
Hi Carlota,
You might have a look at Yinyoga; Bernie Clark => http://www.yinyoga.com , or Paul Grilley => http://www.paulgrilley.com . Yinyoga is very different from active (yang) forms of yoga, especially Ashtanga and other intense vinyasa types. The asana in yinyoga may or may not suit you, and it is not intended to replace strong, yang practices. However, because yinyoga emphasizes acceptance and yielding and gives you lots of time to think during each asana, it may help you learn something about the competitiveness, intensity and tension you are bringing to your Ashtanga practice. Ironically, those are exactly the qualities people bring to yoga hoping for relief from! If you can learn to approach your yoga practice with less tension, you may learn to approach your life with less tension, which will in turn help you to approach your yoga with less tension . . .
Aloha,
Rex
Khon Kaen, Thailand |
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Veteran
Posts: 113
Location: Uppsala, Sweden | I would say that to some extent it is in the nature of this practice. Just doing the sun salutations with correct breathing, bandha, drishti, alignment is always very hard, and it (asana) is also supposed to be a balance between sthira (steady/firm) and sukham (comfortable/easy), between effort/sweat and relaxation. But it is also a matter of practicing often and for a long, long time, with devotion.
Learning to “control your anus” (mula bandha) and when to really engage both mula and uddiyana bandha, more or less, and sometimes as much as you can, actually makes the practice a lot easier. And correct alignment is very important for e.g. shoulders, knees, hips...
“From austerity (tapas), on account of the removal of impurities, the perfection of the senses and body manifests.” (Patanjali, II:43)
If you find your practice to be very exhausting, I would recommend a shorter practice more often, with more focus on the basics (breathing, bandha, drishti...), and with a longer shavasana (maybe 20 minutes, rather than 5). Also give a thought to how you eat and sleep.
And one way of practicing could be Ashtanga in the morning, Yin Yoga in the evening. Try to follow the method, but also make it your own personal practice. Don't worry about the next asana you may want to learn. It will still be there when you are ready for it. |
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New User
Posts: 4
| thank you so much for all of your answers!
I did try YinYoga and loved it, so relaxing!
I'll definitely check out the websites you mention!
Regarding the bandhas, you are 100% right! I'm filled with questions about them! How much should I hold them? permenantly? or only, for Mula Bandha, when I exhale deeply as I read somewhere? I know it's not only a contraction of the cervix, but much more subtle than that, but I really don't know how to use it, and find that I tend to "lose" it from time to time! some positions i can feel the bandhas more than others, like downward dog, but on others, like Chaturanga, I tend to not feel it properly....
I just ordered "mula bandah, the master key", and hope it will help me out to define all that more precisely...
As for food and sleep, you are ALSO very right... I'm not sure I ate enough recently, and increased my proteins at breakfast, giving me energy for right after my practice.
Thank you so much for your precious suggestions, I'll try to modify accordingly, and keep you posted on the evolution!
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Member
Posts: 17
| Don't worry just relax ! I think you need a change a little bit you are fad up of it... |
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tired after practice
