Favourite and least favourite poses?

[Yogasuz]

My yoga teacher said that it's usually the poses that we dislike that are the ones we need the most

My favourite poses are -
Love sun salutations
Love warrier sequences
Dancers pose
Goddess/butterfly
I used to dislike Dolphin and fish poses but have enjoyed seeing my progress with them and the challenge as continue to push and breath through them

My least favourite are -
Anything involving hamstrings, mine are so tight I really struggle with them
Really want to do shoulder stand but haven't got the control to get up there and our teacher tells us off if we look like we're throwing ourselves around to get up there!
Camel pose - although am working on it!
Boat pose - my core shakes like anything straight away!
Eagle pose - can do the lower body but can't do the arms at all, are my arms just too short?!

I'm the same still. It's as if I've got little t rex arms and I end up doing a big stomp and then I grab my ankle and plonk it down the rest of the way.

"as if I've got little t rex arms"

This is exactly how I feel while attempting the full wheel

This is why we should start t-Rex yoga. We could take the yoga world by storm.

There's a balance tho between Trying to improve and striving, grasping etc isn't there? That is really what I love about yoga- it's completely massive and you will never be done!

@ Still

I think we need a "T-Rex Yoga" thread on this topic for beginners

T-Rex yoga
That's why I struggle with the arms in eagle pose, I just can't get them twisted and holding so I just do hands-to-prayer instead.
For sun sal's I do the same as above, put foot down as far as can, then use hand to bring to further forward, doesn't feel graceful but helps get in right position!

I have the same issue with Eagle, trying to make my hands meet, but don't have it in other poses

Apparently there is a movement already!

Like

Pigeon - does wonders if you get sciatica like I do from time to time. It's one of those nice stretchy pains that don't hurt they just make you go ahhhhh that's nice!

Don't like
Kneeling postures, so my teacher always gives me an adaptation

For those who don't enjoy hamstring stretches, my teacher tells us that doing the full forward bend is pretty bad for backs and doesn't touch hamstrings nearly as well as doing a half forward bend, where you come halfway up straight legs, straight back. Keep abs engaged It stretches hamstrings more safely, and more kind to lower back discs.

yogasuz

Cote and Stillearning

I also struggle to get my leg through to between my hands when stepping forward. I thought it was a boobs (and tummy) in the way issue. I also wonder if its about taking more weight into the arms at that point, not jut length?

and baby barrister!

I love things involving balance or strength. But I hate twists particularly with binds. As I can't bind or even anywhere near. My shoulders sit forward on my torso and I have muscle in my upper back (martial arts all through my 20s) and short arms so I cannot reach round behind myself. Without the bind or reach its very hard to actually get anything useful from the twists as there's no "pull".

I only recently managed to bring my foot forward to my hands - I lift the keg back then bring the knee towards my nose while moving forward to align my shoulders over my hands, further forward than you expdct. It's then far easier to get the foot in place.

I started doing yoga about a year ago because of the problem you describe from martial arts and weight training museumum, I figured yoga better value per session than osteopathy . Martial arts are great for lower body flexibility but awful for shoulders and chest! I couldn't twist at all when I started but can manage a bind now so something is working. I wonder if tight shoulders/back are my problem with Eagle and dolphin?

I just remembered what else I hate-toe stand-AGONY! Too many years in high heels in my twenties I suspect - can't manage a proper squat either, my heels will not come down.

I really like reclining hero, but i think i may be on my own there!

I also, like Mary, struggle with having a bit too much frontage (not just the boobs unfortunately). Paschimottanasana is a pain as my bits have nowhere to go - the half version is fine as i can just wodge everything to one side. Locust is a struggle as well as i just cant get my shoulders close enough together as there are things in the way :).

Something else i just cannot do is where in some sequences you kind of roll from your back straight to standing? I think it is an issue of too much padding again, but i just roll about stranded on the floor like a weeble. Thankfully it's not something that we do in my current class.

velvet you paint such a pretty picture!

I think the trick of lifting you leg up and then through while moving forward is how other people in my class manage to bring their foot forward. My teacher is big on osteo stuff and the spine. She does not like us doing strict and rigid forms as shown in books as she is convinced most of it is bad for you and an interpretation of yoga poses that we should not be striving for!

Hang on to your yoga mats here comes the om-shanti-antics extract from 'How yoga works' by Geshe Michael Roach. This is a book about yoga but in the form of a story where a yoga student turns teacher as she in prison in a small town in India and she is tasked with teaching yoga to the police captain to win her freedom. The captain has been practicing but missing out the poses he does not like. She tells him:

"As you get further, and deep inside you energy begins to flow better, then things tend toward unity, and less toward difference"

"Don't give in to preferences; don't create more differences in your life. It's the differences that harass us all day long, that make our days unhappy. I like this, I don't like that. I like her, I don't like him. I don't want to do this thing I have to do, I'd rather do that other thing I want to do."

I like this book - if you can take it as it comes. But I also like chatting about yoga poses

But on the note of avoiding what I really dont want to do, I really must get on with some work.

Mary - re "I also struggle to get my leg through to between my hands when stepping forward. I thought it was a boobs (and tummy) in the way issue."

Not in my case because I can step forward between my hands just fine with my right foot but not the left. I wonder which muscle I need to strengthen on the left side to get that foot up and ahead far enough.

"I lift the keg back then bring the knee towards my nose..."

Keg? I can't quite picture it. Leg?

I can bring the knee to my nose on the right side but not the left. Any ideas why that would be? A spinal misalignment of some sort or do I just need to strengthen a muscle somewhere?

Ok, so I have just tried stepping foot forward whilst moving shoulders forward - REVELATORY.

That works, except my foot still goes to the outside rather than inside of my foot. It might be just be that my hips are wider than shoulders. But thank you for that museumum. Doing that I noticed i felt it in the inner shoulders, Cote, if that is any indication of the muscles it is working?

This is brilliant.

Any tips on making a jump back to plank more controlled/elegant/less fearful?

Love that quote still

museumum have you tried some yin stuff for shoulders, puppy dog or threading the needle, even some reclined twists, in long, relaxed, holds? That has worked wonders for my shoulder flexibility.

There was a DK book in the works that showed anatomical figure drawings in yoga poses- so you could see which muscles were working. but at that time i was happier to try to feel it rather than look at a book - might be useful tho and pretty too! Now, work!!

still - I'd love to know the name of that book. Who is DK?