Guest guest Posted November 14, 2001 Report Share Posted November 14, 2001 Betty,<br>Give us a break. You are not that old.<br>WHY are you asking a bunch of complete strangers if you should put your les behind your head? For starters, get a good, qualified instructor and ASK THEM. If your body can do it, your body can do it.<br><br>"Healthy and Realistic" ?<br><br>Stop asking strangers what your body is capable of. If you want to do a pose, then you will do it. If you don't want to do a pose, you don't have to.<br><br>PURE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 14, 2001 Report Share Posted November 14, 2001 drop the attitude, "pure."<br>betty, i'm only slightly younger than you and have asked myself the same question, but i've found that slow, steady progress through achy hips can be made with regular practice. i practice regularly next to a 70-year-old woman whose supta kurmasana is just dandy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 14, 2001 Report Share Posted November 14, 2001 thanks eden, and yes drop the attitude 'pure,' As I said I was merely thinking outloud.. Jeeze what is it about this board that brings out the 'holier than thou' attitude? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 14, 2001 Report Share Posted November 14, 2001 If you do ever get supta kurmasana....please let us know so you can inspire others!!!!!!! I have gotten this pose only occasionally with aid and hope to soon be able to do it by myself......hope........hope.......hope. But i must remind myself that is not what my practice is about........I sometimes wonder if I'll be doing ashatanga in a nursing home? Guruji stopped.......Sometimes there seems to be a yoga babe culture that must be worked through for say a woman who is in another stage/age of life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 15, 2001 Report Share Posted November 15, 2001 Hi bettyinabottle-<br>go for it all - so many people don't discover the practice until their 40s. just work slowly, and not so much for the final posture. it's funny how that when you stop thinking about the "final place" you want to reach, it suddenly arrives. and then you figure out all the other stuff you still have left....<br>good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 15, 2001 Report Share Posted November 15, 2001 "These people are not able to 'do' these amazing asanas because they set out to do them"<br><br>How do you know this? Maybe they were total yoga-lympics psychopaths, wildly throwing themselves at asanas day in and day out, injuring themselves regulary, practicing through injuries, and starving themselves dangerously. And after all, isn't that what its all about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 16, 2001 Report Share Posted November 16, 2001 Hedblown...you r a star. LOL. five bingo's to you. Namaste x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 1, 2001 Report Share Posted December 1, 2001 I started from absolute scratch when I was 50, just 3 months after a full hop replacement. I'm now 52 and doing a practice 6 days a week.<br>Yes, it's tough when you are older, everything takes three times as long. And things that the younger ones can do are impossible - to start with. But as with all yoga and all practitioners, it's the 5'P's that work: perseverance and persistance, and practice, practice, practice.<br><br>I wish I could persuade more of my contemporaries to start. So many use their age as an excuse.<br><br>BTW Betty, if you want to have an off-conference discussion about the particular problems of ashtanga for elders, please email me: annie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 1, 2001 Report Share Posted December 1, 2001 Annie<br><br>I'm assuming that you mean ' a full hip replacement'. This is very interesting as well as encouraging as I have had students who have had hip replacements and not continued their yoga practice for fear of damaging the artificial joint and because their mobility was much less than before. Now I know what to tell them.<br><br>Thanks<br><br>j4a<br><br>P.S. There may be some use for this club after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 1, 2001 Report Share Posted December 1, 2001 Yes :-) I meant full HIP replacement!<br><br>I am very happy to discuss my experiences out of conference if any of your students is interested (annie). <br>Basically, I ignored the hospital physio's advice. She was horrified that I was considering starting yoga. But it has been wonderful - strengthening the operated side, restoring pathways, re-balancing me after years of being lop-sided. <br>Mind you, it has not been without some pain (sometimes intense and persistent) as the joints re-align, and there are some asanas and movements which I will not do for fear of dislocation. <br>But there is no risk of 'damage to the new joint'. On the contrary, the damage to the body caused by this major operation is healed more quickly through regular yoga, IME.<br><br>Sometimes it has been hard to differentiate between the challenge of starting Ashtanga post-op and post-50 ! But it still comes down to the same old maxim: persistence, perseverence and practice, practice, practice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 5, 2001 Report Share Posted December 5, 2001 Hi Annie,<br><br>I would be interested in a discussion on aging within this forum if you and others are too. I think a lot of us are thinking about the role yoga should play in our lives as we age. I just turned 35, and wonder whether I will have the stamina to continue into my 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s at a pace that seems to be required of Ashtanga students, in particular because of the emphasis on the sequence of the various series. I am toying with departing from the sequence in some spots, and adopting certain modifications as my body changes, but admit that I have some attachment to the idea of completing the series without modifications. I would love to hear how others have addressed these issues in their own practices over time. Yoga Journal did an article on aging this month, but I didn't particularly find the discussion regarding my age group applicable, since they interviewed a woman who was preparing for childbirth. Having done all that, I am really more focused on building a full practice safely, in the limited time that I have when I am fortunate enough to have childcare (which raises a completely different topic that is also of interest to me, i.e., how does one practice 6 days a week for an hour and a half when you work full-time and have a toddler?) Are there others who would benefit from such a discussion?<br><br>P.S. Regarding my name - I am not related to Patty Hearst, although if I were, it wouldn't be so bad, since I would probably be very wealthy. <br>Although I have seen a lifetime of chiding, I kind of like my name; it's easy for people to remember!<br><br>Namaste,<br><br>Patti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 5, 2001 Report Share Posted December 5, 2001 Hello. I've recently joined your club and I've had a layoff from yoga since 1987. At that point, I was where you are now. I did not take my layoff because I had a choice. Both of my parents were on their final journeys. My mother had alzheimer's and my father dementia. I cared for them alone and without any help. The price I paid was the stopping of all physical activity, including the yoga and running. When my parents finally departed, I had gone from excellent fitness, 158 lbs, and a 5k/day runner to 380 lbs, hypertensive, and diabetic. I have managed since that time to struggle against depression, medications and gaining aging. It is the hardest battle of my life; harder, than caring for aging and dying parents. The road back is filled with hearbreaks, setbacks, etc., through it all I have never given up getting back to my starting point. Picture this, at 35 you are on a descending slope and if I understand your intro you want let up or even abandon what you are doing now. Don't. Everything gets harder from this point on. Excuses become easier and your descent on the slope may become faster. Do not envision doing nothing and having no consequence. Envision, if I stop, I slide. If I do not maintain, I slide downward. If I modify my routine and slow down, I will slide regardless, simply by definition of where I am at the moment. Therefore, I still slide. How far? How fast? It depends on the extent of your modifications. Try to rework your schedule around your health priorities. My name? I took that name from a high school nickname I got when I ran track. I hated it. But I trained harder and ran harder because of it. Namaste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 5, 2001 Report Share Posted December 5, 2001 One thing I think is for sure, if our point of view is on decline, loss, what-i-don't-have and so forth, there is no point to this yoga. We're just on a futile negative exercise of frustration and perfectionism. It's so much better, so essential, to look at this practice as a precious gift for TODAY. If we extend positive energy we immediately get positive energy back! If we give energy, prana, ki to others, to our practice, to God or the Universe it is instantly reciprocated. We feel it, others feel it and respond, and the Universe itself responds. Sounds too spacy? Try it, it's very real.<br><br><br>Anyone can come back from depression, being out of shape, being overweight, being stiff, injuries. I've done it. Back from chronic abuse of alchohol (long time ago, but still), food (i was quite overweight when I started at 38), tobacco (smoked 2 packs a day), injuries (too many to name). The key is having others to practice with and showing up at the shala as much as possible. Time invested per day is only 1/10th, which really isn't much. Set goals and write them down on paper, give them up to the Universe, and you will meet them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 5, 2001 Report Share Posted December 5, 2001 yoga nidra congratulations! you are an inspiration... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 6, 2001 Report Share Posted December 6, 2001 I am surprised that you are concerned about stamina at aged 35 - you are a young thing! Some days, I find I have good stamina, sometimes it seems to have seeped away somehow - the spirit is often willing but the body ain't!<br><br>I already do an amended practice - normal primary until Navasana, then a series of other asanas, some borrowed from later in Primary, some from Secondary (gasp, shock, horror!)<br>Then I go into a finishing sequence, but I'm still trying to master the headstand - I never could do it, even as a kid.<br>My practice takes about 1 hour 40.<br><br>Yes, I think there is a place for an amended primary series, but I wouldn't dream of expecting it to become 'official'. I just use common sense and do those poses which I like and I know do me good, between Navasana and the finishing sequence. <br><br>I supose that's not very purist of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 6, 2001 Report Share Posted December 6, 2001 I have to agree with Annie in terms of worrying about aging at 35. If you are already worried, you may have many many years of it ahead of you. I hate that our culture has influenced 35-year-olds to stew over the decline of the body and of achievement and so on. There are gains that come with aging--life is always good and bad, yin and yang. My yoga teacher is 20 years older than myself and is well beyond me in terms of physical practice. But I see people of all ages growing around me in terms of the actual poses and in terms of meditation in the asanas. And remember, at 75, 35 will seem really young. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 6, 2001 Report Share Posted December 6, 2001 It is curious anyway, this discussion about ageing on a board concerned with yoga. I always thought that in yoga it really doesn't matter how old you are, since it's all about self-realisation; it is NOT some sort of competition in physical prowess. Or is anyone here interested in taking part in the Olympic Games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 8, 2001 Report Share Posted December 8, 2001 Funny you should mention the Olympics. <br>Has anyone else heard of the Yoga Olympics, last held in South America somewhere, I think.<br><br>As I understand it, many categories including Sports Yoga and many judging criteria. <br><br>Anyone know anything about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 8, 2001 Report Share Posted December 8, 2001 <"Yes, I think there is a place for an amended primary series, but I wouldn't dream of expecting it to become 'official'. I just use common sense and do those poses which I like and I know do me good, between Navasana and the finishing sequence. -A. Gurton"><br><br>Dear Ms Gurton,<br>It sounds like you have had to deal with some serious problems - a hip replacement by the age of 50 and believing you are an "elder" when in fact, 52 is NOT old by a long shot. It seems you had the courage, however, to finally come to your senses and realize that many western medical practicioners are better at treating symptoms that treating the actual disease. In fact, that has been the focus of western medical pratice until only very recently. That took courage and faith.<br><br>However, the same pioneering attitude does not hold true in your yoga practice without deleterious effects. Yoga - especially ashtanga yoga - can only heal if the student trusts the practice and studies the correct method. There are very good reasons why the poses are sequenced as they are. Skipping around might seem satisfying to you now, but I promise that in the long term, it will only be harmful. You should be congratulated for having had the courage to follow your instincts, but there really is no place for an "amended" primary series in ashtanga yoga. If you follow the correct method, there is nothing in the intermediate series that will do you any good if you have not mastered the primary series. If you are doing an "amended" primary series, you are not doing ashtanga yoga which is fine, just don't fool yourself into thinking that you are doing anything remotely realated to what is being taught in Mysore.<br><br>Also, it is not called "secondary series." It is called "intermediate, or second series." I might take the position that if you don't know this, you shouldn't be doing it because you probably aren't ready.<br><br>Here is something Missy Pinky wrote a little while ago:<br><br><"One who waxes poetic on yoga, while his or her practice fluctuates according to personal whims and vaguaries, is not yet on the path. To those folks missy says "face up, admit it - I am standing alongside the path, but I just don't have the courage, the discipline, the desire - yet..." Or go ahead, be a great pretender, but you are only fooling yourself."><br><br>FBL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 8, 2001 Report Share Posted December 8, 2001 Hi Everyone, <br><br>I wonder how Guruji's practice has changed over time. He seems to me to be a living example of a path to follow as we age. Given his emphasis in Yoga Mala on performing the asanas in the correct sequence, I suppose it is possible that his approach has been to drop asanas from the end of the practice as he ages. I thought it was interesting that in Yoga Mala he wrote: "For the middle aged, it is best to do all the asanas. The more they are practised, the stronger the body becomes, and obstacles such as disease cease to be a problem. ... For the very old, however, who find the practice of Sarvangasana, Halasana, Uttanapadasana, Shirshasana, and Padmasana too difficult, it is enough to practice mahabandha daily, as well as rechaka kumbhaka pranayama, puraka kumbhaka pranayama, samavritti vishamavritti pranayama, and sithali pranayama." See pp. 39-40. So, if I understand him, he seems to advocate continued practice of those asanas that are particularly beneficial, with an increased emphasis on pranayama as we age. Any thoughts?<br><br>Namaste,<br><br>Patti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2001 Report Share Posted December 10, 2001 >>I wonder how Guruji's practice has changed over time. He seems to me to be a living example of a path to follow as we age.<<<br><br>Oh well, Guruji does not practise the asanas anymore - whereas I wish that I shall be able to practice astanga yoga until my very last breath. But then, I'm young still, so I can't figure out yet what it takes to have a regular asana practice past the age of 80. <br><br>Here is what Sting once said in an interview regarding the issue of yoga and ageing:<br><br>"You know, the intention, the long term goal, is to become completely fluid, completely liquid and sinuous. As I get older I'd like to be that. I'd like to have explored the entire range of my body's abilities. It's not that I am afraid of getting old. I just want to get old in a certain way.<br>I want to get old gracefully. I want to have good posture, I want to be healthy and I want to be an example to my children. I'm working on it."-- <a href=http://www.whitelotus.org/library2/interviews/sting/ target=new>http://www.whitelotus.org/library2/interviews/sting/</a> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2001 Report Share Posted December 10, 2001 Wonderful thoughts, shining skull. I'm just going to play yoga cop on one bit, though:<br><br>"Oh well, Guruji does not practise the asanas anymore - whereas I wish that I shall be able to practice astanga yoga until my very last breath.."<br><br>Lets not forget that astanga is an eight limbed path, of which asana is but one..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2001 Report Share Posted December 10, 2001 After a particularily feeble attempt at a second series pose years ago, I had this exchange with Eddie Stern:<br><br>DMcG: Man, I wish had started doing this when I was 20.<br><br>Eddie: Me too.<br><br>DMcG: When did you start Astanga?<br><br>Eddie: When I was 21.<br><br>Cheers,<br>DMcG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 13, 2001 Report Share Posted December 13, 2001 TRU DAT BRO!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 16, 2001 Report Share Posted December 16, 2001 Thanks for your comments - they are interesting. First, though, please call me Annie! *Ms Gurton* makes me look over my shoulder for someone else!<br>Second, of course you are right about 'secondary' being the wrong term: I knew that, but I type fast and online and risk making silly mistakes like that. Apologies.<br>Third, I don't feel that I have demonstrated courage at all: I've just followed the path that I felt was right, and that's fairly easy, even if it is against prevailing advice and orthodox medical opinion ! IMHO, it takes enormous courage to stand in front of an audience and sing - not start yoga at 50 and after a hip replacement!<br><br>However, I have to take issue with your view that Ashtanga must strictly follow the prescribed order of asanas. First, Guruji himself keeps adapting and amending the series, and second, if it works for me, why is it so wrong? You say that by inserting my own asanas after Navasana and before the finishing sequence, I am demonstrating that I am not ready to move forward in my practice, but my point is that anyone over 45 will have more trouble with muscle and joint elesticity than a under-25-year old. Someone like me with a deep scar in a crucial joint will never be able to do certain things again (which is really infuriating, because I sure would have been able to a few years ago!) <br>If I follow your advice, my practice will never develop or advance, because I am blocked by certain asanas that I'll never master for physical reasons. <br>See what I mean?<br>Surely it is better to move forward as and where I can, slowly, slowly, than stop at the point where I am restricted?<br><br>BTW, all my teachers (and they are some very senior Ashtanga names) have encouraged me to build strength and flexibility by working on asanas which are not strictly part of Primary. As and when I can, I revert to the Series.<br><br>Perhaps purism can be taken too far and there should always be room for pragmatism.<br><br>With best regards, Namaskaar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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