rigor of practice

[Guest guest]

couple of questions here.<br>1. when we watched

the workshop advanced class, so many of the people

with advanced practices seemed to be able to do the

forward bending postures in the 1st series with little or

no effort--they would lay down onto their thighs. do

those of you at that level have to exert to get down in

those postures? if not, how do you develop the

heat?<br>2. what's with people who don't sweat. i leave

practice and i'm wringing wet, as is my towel. some people

seem to have hardly sweated at all. i don't understand

how that is possible. granted, with human variation,

some will sweat more copiously than others, but the

practice seems rigorous enough that there ought to be at

least some sweat marks on the clothes or some damp

hair. how do they do it with no sweat?

[Guest guest]

1. (Effort) Those of us who appear to just be

lying down on our thighs are still doing plenty of

work: it's just not as externally visible. For one

thing we are contracting our quadriceps in order to

allow the hamstrings to release (so in fact we don't

feel much stretch, if any). Contraction of the

opposing muscle always builds up some heat. We are also

holding the bandhas pretty strongly (the further you go

along the less likely you are to "lose" them while

entering a posture), and bandhas build big heat. So does

ujjayi breathing, I think.<br><br>But it's not like we

are at some sort of plateau. I would wager that most

folks you saw lying flat on their legs were still tryng

to lengthen the spine on each inhale, working the

head a little further down along their shin. I guess

we all feel like there is something to work

towards.<br><br>2. Sweat. Dunno as much on this point: in a stuffy

room I sweat like a pig.<br><br><br>Peace<br>Homer

[Guest guest]

glad you brought these things up.<br><br><br>I

haven't been sweating as much as I'd like to, or as much

as I used to lately. There are two reasons for

this:<br><br>1. the weather is getting cooler but not cool enough

for the heater. I leave the windows closed, my

husband complains of suffocation, and it seems stifling

in the apartment, but still--no leakage. Only a

slight dampness.<br><br>2. I work hard. I'm not sloppy,

for the most part, always do vinyasas each side and

sometimes come to standing. Effort is not the issue; but I

have noticed that lately the foward bending and much

of the primary series is less taxing on me. So I do

exert less and therefore sweat less. I am not an

advanced student, but the few times I've worked with

second series--the dam breaks and I leave what I call

the "shroud of sunshine," a sweaty outline of my body

left on the mat. This is why I crave second series

instruction now.<br><br>But are you sure the people in your

class don't have a wee bit of sweat that you'd have to

get real close-up to notice?<br><br>This aside, there

are definitely individual differences. my husband can

sweat smelly puddles and drench his clothes when I

don't even feel warm. And some people don't even sweat

in the tropics. There are herbs like cinammon and a

Chinese herbal concoction called SHOU WU CHIH, which

warms the body--I should start drinking more of it this

time of year. I'd love to hear more on this topic.

[Guest guest]

homer is right--there is always something to work towards, always.