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Ashtanga yoga
mmo
Veteran
It has been a while since I visited here last time. How are you all doing? For the past few months, I have been doing ashtanga yoga as my another quiet time practice. Does anyone here have any experience? How is it for you? 
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I'm doing good. Hangin' in there. The past few months for me has been same old stuff. Working.... being a taxi for the kids....tending to the house....and keeping steady on the Dharma work. Every day grind....and being grateful for it all.
No...haven't tried that particular yoga.
Been doing yoga every day for a few years now (well, almost every day, I miss occasionally, lol). I find Ashtanga fascinating, but that they stick to the same poses repeatedly I run into issues. Even within yoga, always being repetitive causes stresses on the body. I think it's important to balance vinyasa style yoga with yin and restorative yoga. I generally do 4-5 active practices, and 2-3 restore/mobility/yin practices each week.
@karasti ,
I had noisy knees after about 3 weeks of daily practice. It is pretty strange, I can hear it when I walk in the stairs. I takes a few day breaks and goes away as well.
If it's a crackly Rice Krispie sound, it is a result of cartilage behind your knee cap being loose and rubbing on the groove that it rides in on your femur. Most often it is a result of the kneecap not tracking correctly and balancing the muscles in the quad will pull it back over. Make sure when you are doing warrior poses that your foot isn't putting pressure on the outside of the foot, make sure it is balanced on the 4 equal points of the foot. Otherwise it strengthens your outer quad and when the inner quad is overpowered, the kneecap slips to the outside of the knee, making it rub on the outside of that groove.
@mmo. If you were to practice all eight limbs of Ashtanga-Yoga you would have little time for much else.
Thanks @karasti , since I started going to a class, it seems to disappear.
@grackle, I have not thought about too far yet. I am only into it for about 4 months, still at half primary series.
All of yoga is actually 8 limbs, not just Ashtanga. Unfortunately, in the western world we leave off all the difficult stuff and focus only on the part that we think might make our bodies look better
Wow....this is all very interesting.
I have no athletic experience. At all. Did either of you start yoga as an average couch potato?
Edit: there is a yoga studio in my town. I have been considering signing up for a class
@eggsavior, it is very good all body mindful and physical practice. I am neither a couch potato or athletic. I do have some natural flexibility background and into hiking. I followed this one when I started few months ago. mainly following the lady, as she shows beginner friendly poses.
My first teacher was a western woman who had gone to India to teach school. While there she got connected with the Divine Life Society in Reishikesh, Uttar Pradesh. When she returned to the US she began teaching. The remarkable prescence of this woman caused all her students to become silent the very moment she would enter the classroom. She was no spring chicken but to watch move through the asanas with fluid grace was remarkable.
... yoga is I believe an early form of well being. At the moment I am contemplating a more active stance on body awareness. This is because I am still attached to a body ...
Pre-yoga, chan style ... I blame the Taoist infuence with their Qi-Ong
http://chancenter.org/cmc/chan-practice/moving-meditation/
Yoga and Buddhism comparison, long but compatibility explored
https://vedanet.com/2012/06/13/yoga-and-buddhism-similarities-and-differences/
Unique yogas - DVD home training available. I was trained in a derivative of this. Very different, very healing, very comprehensive ... Ay caramba!
Here is an advanced hand rasing asana. Note advanced head position.
Live, long and perspire
Vulcan Yoga
In an ideal world, I would love to have enough time for Bikram but without the heated room.
My body has never felt as restored as when holding the asanas for long breaths and repeating them twice.
But I have created my own routine integrating hatha yoga, in the yin timing and with some kundalini yoga thrown in.
Very personal, but pretty demanding
@lobster, comparing Buddhism and yoga is really interesting but I will need to re read a couple of times more.
I have tried Bikram, feel almost fainted. Later on I heard that it may not be suitable for hypo-tension. Ashtanga has such a good mix of postures which focuses on different body parts. Another interesting read here. http://www.claudiayoga.com/2011/04/32-suggestions-how-to-start-an-ashtanga-yoga-practice/
@DhammaDragon , I have learned somewhere that ashtanga is a form of Hatha. but with Hatha yoga, practitioners need to stay in poses longer. As I am just starting, i am not sure which poses are suitable for me. I just go along with pre-arranged tradition. Because it is set routine, I actually remember the sequence up to the pose where I can do so far.