Beginner comments and a question

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Hi everyone,

 

I've just started with Ashtanga this week, and I hope no one minds if

I share a question. As I'm just trying it out for a while, I haven't

joined a class or anything, I'm just working out of Beryl Bender

Birch's book.

 

I've been working with Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning program - if

you're not familiar with it, it's not what it sounds like. Matt is a

former college wrestler (real wrestling, not modern "professional"

wrestling). Basically he started with bodyweight exercises as

performed by Hindu Wrestlers and has expanded it to include lots of

good old fashioned pushups, exercises and postures from various

martial arts and yoga, exercises performed by the old-time strongmen

and wrestlers (guys who worked out before the whole weight-lifting

craze), and he puts great emphasis on proper breathing while doing

the exercises. I find that many of the postures of Ashtanga are

easier for me than for people who come from a weight-lifting

background due to the similarity of many of the postures and CC

exercises - particularly the upward and downward facing dog postures.

 

 

I find it interesting that Yoga espouses many of the same principles

that he has gleaned from breathing exercises of the old-time

strongmen. It seems there's nothing new in the world, and practicing

a regimen as old as yoga proves that. I wonder if many of those

strongmen of yesteryear got their breathing routines from yoga or a

similar practice.

 

And naturally, that similarity is what led me to Ashtanga as a next

logical step. I hope to combine the two - Ashtanga and Combat

Conditioning - without compromising either one. I do Ashtanga in the

morning to get me going, then work on CC in the evening after work.

So far it's working nicely.

 

Anyway, my question: In the second Sun Salutation, does it matter

which leg you send forward first in the two Warrior positions?

 

Thanks, and looking forward to sharing a lot with everyone.

Jamie

 

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James Fellrath

http://fellrath.blogspot.com

"Princes and Lords learn to survive with this art, in earnest and in play. But

if you are fearful, then you should not learn to fence. Because a despondent

heart will always be defeated, regardless of all skill." - Sigmund Ringeck, c.

1400