| So let's see..
If you don't like the answer, you ask the question again and again, with different words, until you get the answer you want?  Kind of like the Nanny TV show, where she went from fortune teller to fortune teller, until she got the one she wanted: That she'd be going on a cruise.
Traditionally and to this day, in Mysore, a beginner started the Ashtanga Primary Series. When they reached a posture they couldn't do, which was normally Chaturanga in the sun salutations or Uttanasana and getting the hands on the floor, they were sent to closing postures and sent home. They came back day after day to repeat this procedure until their bodies opened and they could go a posture further.
Beginners in this country don't have that time luxury, as you've indicated you do not. Plus, if you're doing Ashtanga as its intended, with a teacher, who would pay for a class and leave after 20 mintues? Not many.
Combine videos and yoga beginners and (again) you're looking at an injury waiting to happen. Unlike an aerobics video, where one throws it in and flail one's self around the room followign it, trying to follow a yoga video, while in Trikonasana or Marichiyasana C, for example, in that fashion is dangerous to the neck and spine. One should use a yoga video in a completly different fashion. Most have no clue because the videos don't make it clear.
Since you insist you cannot get to a teacher, and you're determined to get someone to tell you to get a video and practice alone, knock yourself out. You're going to do it anyway, most likely.
At least do yourself the service of using a video properly. Put it in and watch it. Go back to the beginning. Move it through the 1st posture and stop the tape. Move yourself into the posture slowly, hold it for five even breaths. Even if they're gasping, make the gasps even. Move out of the posture slowly. Move the tape forward and repeat.
People are injured going in and out of yoga asana. Can you see how trying to follow it without knowing what was going on is potentially dangerous? Ashtanga is far to quickly moving for a beginner to try to torc themselves around watching a tape. If you insist on getting a tape, spend the money and get Richard Freeman's or David Swensen's. They're the authority on Ashtanga, vs. some of these people who put out tapes for everything in the world. At least do yourself this favor.
Perhaps you can borrow a mirror since you said you sold yours.
Good luck.
Christine |
when would be a good time to start?
