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| I'd really like to know, what, according to you, is your most difficult yoga pose -- or a pose that you really aspire to achieve?
For me, it would have to be the hanumanasana (the splits), and the handstand scorpion (which i've never even tried) |
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| same for me. |
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| I aspire to beautiful arm balances someday! I'm fairly heavy and lack upper body strength, but it's not just the physical roadblocks - it's a bit of fear too. I once stupidly tried to attempt crow/crane on my own with too thin of a bolster (landing pad) and cracked my head on the floor pretty badly! My neck made a pretty disconcerting noise too! I was all alone in the house thinking "Okay . . . fingers still move . . . toes still move . . . just lie still until you're sure . . ." What an idiot. 
One of my teacher friends liked to say "I never had a yoga injury, but I have lots of EGO injuries!" I think my speeding-crown-to-floor pose counts as one of those!  |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 517
Location: New Jersey | I'd also have to say Warrior 1. I can't quite get to the point where I don't feel awkward or off balance. I feel like when I try to square my hips, my back foot if off, and when I try to fix that, my hips get awkward again! Samantha |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
 
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Well, this is interesting.....my favorite pose has turned into my most difficult pose today...because....my ankle is still healing. My Child's Pose is ruined,  BUT, the wierd part of all is that my Down Dog is pretty dam good with a sprained ankle...in fact, I felt so much relief after my last 3 yoga classes. I could feel the alignment with the ankle actually re-setting my ankle back into place...it was totally awesome.
I do always believe that our most difficult poses are never meant to last..it is ever-changing. |
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| Pose that is almost realistic but currently beyond my grasp: handstand.
Pose that I am close to getting: bakasana (I can do a kakasana, but don't quite have the elevation).
Basic poses that I find hard: Warrior III, Half Moon. But I am making progress.
Pose that I never see myself getting but want: peacock. |
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| Warrior I is definitely a challenge for me, but it feels more "right" when I come into it from Warrior III or Hasta Padangusthasana using the wall. Actually, that's probably a sequence I should be working on, now that I think of it: H.P. with foot on the wall, Parivrtta H.P., return to H.P., Warrior I, Warrior III with fingertips on wall (arms bent most likely), Standing Splits, Uttanasana. Also the reverse sequence: Ardha Uttanasana with hands on the wall, Warrior III, Warrior I. I'd rather work the hip alignment than the balance element, because I know that once I get the legs and pelvis right, the balance will come of its own accord. Certain seated twists are totally out of my realm because of my S/I instability, though mostly only to one side. Biggest culpruit these days is Bharadvajasana I, just don't get it at all. And then of course there's Pincha Mayurasana. Even the prep for it (forearms on the floor in downward dog) is difficult for me due to my right shoulder joint limitation. I do occasionally get up in this pose and have even balanced for a breath or two, but I worry that I'm muscling it up, because my shoulder/lat/armpit area is so achy when I come down. |
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| peacock and running man...I've been in both for a few seconds, but I want control. |
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| What's running man? |
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| Staff pose for me. It is one of the first ones I learned and I have never felt that I have gotten it right. |
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| Tadasana |
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| bakasana (not that I am doing that while I'm pregnant).... and my pipe dream pose is full pigeon.. I just don't think I'm built to do this pose. |
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| right n ow, i'm struggling like all heck with any deep forward bend.
so frustrating! my hamstrings are so tight it's awesome (it was a typo, but i decided to leave it. maybe it is awesome that they're so tight). |
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| I noticed I felt fear in headstand today. I was wondering what that feeling was, and then it hit me, oh yeah, that's fear. |
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| bstqltmkr - 2007-10-16 4:57 PM I noticed I felt fear in headstand today. I was wondering what that feeling was, and then it hit me, oh yeah, that's fear. Isn't it so cool when you step outside of your emotions like that?  Personally, I don't think it's that hard to do, but rather it's the remembering to do so that's that challenging part. Though speaking of fear, I encounter that feeling with every inversion I attempt. And so you'd think with all that experience, I'd remember as well! |
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| OM, I"m trying to find a picture of it. I went to a workshop at a studio where the teacher was heavily into anusara. She taught it to us. I did a google search and found THIS thread! lol I'll keep looking and let you know if I find it. Obviously, it's not very common! I've only seen her teach it, and one other local studio teach it. One of the studio gals also works in my gym, and she tried to teach it to her class. They told me about it and they were like, NO ONE could do it. :lol |
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| Kym, could you try to describe it in the meantime? Also, if it's an Anusara pose, would it be found in the Anusara syllabus poster? |
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| I'll do my best, but honestly, I've only tried it once. It's sort of like peacock where you're upper body is supported by your arms, and sort of like side crow where you're turned sideways, and your legs are extended, again, like peacock, but criss-crossed and open like scissors. You had to do all this stuff to get into it, and I can hardly remember it. I'm going to meet up with those people again this month and ask for help with it. |
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| Eka pada koundinyasana! Yes, we've tried it a couple times in class as well, and I agree, it's really tough. I can get as far as the side crow part, even straightened my legs once, but as soon as I try to take the top (?) leg straight back behind me, I fall. http://www.yogadancer.com/Pattra/Koundinyasana.shtml#Ekapada Ah, now I can sleep again, the mystery is solved! |
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| If that's the asana, unless I'm terribly mistaken - and I often am - it's part of Light on Yoga. Iyengar does it from Kapalasana instead of the more obvious side crow, which is certainly interesting.
This is one of those extremely rare cases where I find the parivrtta variation to be simpler, since it's easier to manage the leg with less support. |
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| OK, so you're making me have to be a bit of a detective to first figure out what kapalasana is... another name for headstand! So yes, after pulling out my copy of LOY, I found that BKS does go into eka pada koundinyasa from sirsasana II, how very interesting. We had entered it from side crow in class, after having done much prep work in twisting, tripod headstand and of course, crow. Though I do remember a previous class where we practiced coming down from sirsasana II into side crow, but that was way beyond me. I'm just happy to be able to come down into regular crow and lift up and balance from there! |
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| That sure looks like the pose. It's hard when different styles of yoga use different names. I have a hard time with the upper body strength required for that. One day!
BTW, great detective work! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 475
Location: canada | i would have to say paschimottanasana...hips are too tight,  also hanumasana (then again its probably that for most guys anyway..). |
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| Well, Kym, you should've come to class with me this morning, because we did eka pada koundinyasana yet again, but this time not the revolved version but the "regular" one, which is MUCH harder. Started in a straight-leg lunge (let's say the right leg is forward) and worked the right shoulder under that right thigh. Brought the body weight well forward, arms bending as in chaturanga, chin almost to the floor, and somehow got that right leg forward off the floor and straight out to the right -- right upper thigh sitting on right upper arm like a shelf, totally crazy. Meanwhile, as the weight was going forward, the back leg was supposed to lift straight off the floor. After three tries on each side I finally did stay aloft in the pose for a moment; you're supposed to "fly" back into chaturanga to exit the pose. I'm not quite sure about the flying part -- does collapsing on your belly in hysterics count? |
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| I can do eka pada koundinyasana, but I choose not to because it is dangerous and removes oneself from a meditative state. It only puts all the focus on the body as evidenced by these types of threads. We are not doing gymnastics are we? |
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Your most difficult pose?
