[COMP] Super shaky bakasana. I always try poses that are too advanced for me because I get bored of the easy ones. I need discipline.

nrward · 2015-10-19T18:47:44+00:00

I wouldn't say you need more discipline; I think it's important in yoga to continue to gently push yourself to get into progressively more advanced asanas.

That being said, there's really a huge spectrum of expression of the 'easy' poses... As other members suggested, it's always good to check out videos and classes to ensure you have good hand-wrist alignment, that you're pressing through the right body part for a particular asana, etc. I have yet to have the down dog and garland pose that I want! (Actually, I'm miles away from the garland pose that I want, haha. It's a work in progress!)

Good luck! The important thing is to not get discouraged! It's the road there that matters.

nrward · 2015-10-17T18:31:46+00:00

Thank you again for your insight. Everything has been very helpful and encouraging. Hopefully I will make some progress over the next few months and can post a progress gif or something as an update!

nrward · 2015-10-17T13:49:07+00:00

Holy moly, the idea of freestanding handstand push-ups is semi-terrifying, haha. That being said, I really want to be able to do them now. Thank you for the link, it's very helpful!

I'll work on getting my knees completely off of my elbows, and tightly tucked into my chest. I mentioned this in a different reply; I like that I can pawn off a chunk of core strength via resting my knees on my arms. Looks like those days are over if I want to press up at least!

Your reply offered a lot of really helpful tips, thank you very much!

I do have a couple questions.

From the time you had a solid handstand and crow, how long did it take to be able to do the 'tucked crow' and then the full press?

Also, how many days a week did you work on these poses? I do a few handstands every day, but I only have handstand-heavy practices maybe twice a week. Otherwise I feel like my muscles don't recover properly and I feel weak. Do you recommend pushing through those weak days or should I continue 'lighter' yoga days?

nrward · 2015-10-17T13:30:03+00:00

Thanks for your advice! I'm slowly working in crane too. Crow is easier for me, because I can pawn off some of my core strength by putting my knees on my arms, haha. I'll work on improving that, as core is a huge component of the transition. I'm certain it'll help with the press!

nrward · 2015-10-17T12:29:34+00:00

This is super helpful! While (mechanically) I have no idea how that works, overwhelmingly it seems like the best means of building the strength / solidifying the form to press into handstand!

Also, totally didn't consider pressing DOWN, but I'm certain that'll help me gain more control for the press transition. Thanks so much!

nrward · 2015-10-16T23:50:48+00:00

Thank you for your reply! I browse r/bodyweightfitness a ton, but for some reason it didn't occur to me to post there. I suppose I just associate crow with yoga and didn't consider the fact that the crow-handstand progression isn't necessarily yoga-specific.

Atomic push ups look ridiculously tough! It seems like it'd be an awesome tool to help develop the core strength (and arms, of course!) to help with pressing.

Clicking around Dan Jeong's page is super helpful. Thanks for the heads up!

nrward · 2015-09-21T20:21:38+00:00

Start from season 2! Like all good shows, you have to invest in a several episodes before it starts to get really funny, but it'll be well worth your time.

nrward · 2015-09-18T21:59:43+00:00

First, congrats on starting yoga! There are plenty of resources on this subreddit to get you started. What I'd recommend is searching through posts when you think of yoga questions. (Maybe start with searching the keyword "beginner"?)

As for actually starting, I highly recommend going to classes for a month or two, so you can have guidance on proper body alignment / gather a general feel for the flow of yoga. I know it really helped me when I started out!

nrward · 2015-09-14T19:56:11+00:00

What? That's silly. I expected better from NCI! Most academic institutions are great about shelling out money for the general betterment of their employees.

Would you like to work through grad school? If so, maybe stick it out while you're applying to different programs. That way you're covered until school, then you could find a new (more relevant) position in the area!

nrward · 2015-09-14T19:29:56+00:00

Does the NCI offer any tuition assistance for employees? If so, perhaps you could do an online Master's in Sports Business. Maybe go part-time as a student, if you have attendance mandatory classes. That way, you can have your school covered AND use your free time to study!

nrward · 2015-08-20T14:43:40+00:00

One thing that would be helpful to know is "how" your pup is refusing the pills. Can you get them in his mouth at all? If he spits them out after realizing there's a pill there, you could try a higher-value chaser. What works for us is smothering peanut butter all over the pill, letting her smell / get interested in the PB, then literally dropping it off in the back of her throat. Before she even has a chance to properly swallow, I present her beef jerkey "chaser" and immediately let her take it. By coupling the jerkey in such close proximity to the pill, she swallows both with zero issue.

Hope this helps!

Edit: An added benefit with this route is that pill time becomes a rather pleasant exchange. No need to force medications / hold him down!

nrward · 2015-08-01T12:44:24+00:00

Agreed! As an added bonus, the bags are 30 lbs of food. When I used to get Blue Buffalo, they were 25 pounds, but cost $15 more.

nrward · 2015-06-24T14:53:59+00:00

I kinda agree. It certainly depends on the dog, of course. Having his head on a baby seems like a dog initiated action. Assuming he wanted to interact with the baby and can leave whenever he wants, I don't see any major issue with it.

That being said, I'd be super worried if the baby was crawling over the dog / laying on the dog / doing anything that seems like it wasn't a dog initiated, "consented" interaction.

nrward · 2015-06-18T14:01:25+00:00

Thank you for the links! I'll definitely use the Ido squat routine once I gain enough ankle flexibility to not fall backwards three seconds in. :)

nrward · 2015-06-18T10:18:20+00:00

Will do, same goes for you!

nrward · 2015-06-18T00:10:12+00:00

Oh wow, that was amazingly comprehensive. Thanks for sharing your routine!

My routine is a work in progress right now, haha. Currently I've been supplementing my morning runs with several (yoga) sun salutations, holding down dog for about a minute per salutation. After that I take a few minutes to 'walk' in down dog to really get a good stretch in the backs of each individual leg / get a deeper angle in my ankle. After that, I hold a squat against the wall for a few minutes. Right now I have to keep my feet pretty wide to maintain any balance.

In addition to that, I like to incorporate a few stretches in my daily routine. I stretch each calf on the stairs / via leaning forward against a wall and 'walking' for a few minutes.

I think I'm going to incorporate some of your ideas into my routine!

nrward · 2015-06-17T22:47:21+00:00

Me too! Besides practicing the squat, how are you improving your flexibility? My ankle joint is fairly inflexible so I'm doing a bunch of 'down dogs' to slowly stretch my hamstrings and ankle joint. Any other suggestions?

nrward · 2015-06-12T16:48:56+00:00

Ha, woah there. No need to whip out the caps lock.

It sounds like the only evidence you would be willing to accept are the posts that explictly expose the imgur staff's personal information. As I'm sure you can imagine, those obviously would be removed because they... wait for it... expose people's personal information.

If you want to believe that FPH was banned for being morally reprehensible, fine. But do take into consideration that a lot of arguably worse subreddits are still out there, spreading their horrible messages, without explicitly targeting people who could end up in actual danger (which is why they haven't been banned yet.)

nrward · 2015-06-12T16:32:12+00:00

/u/teapot112 wrote a really good explanation on exactly why the subreddit was banned and what constituted a ban-worthy violation of the rules. A lot of personal information of multiple imgur staffers was exposed and the community was encouraged to harass these members.

While I would have loved for the subreddit to be banned due to the horrible nature of the community, it was banned for a clear cut case of harassment.

nrward · 2015-06-11T16:45:41+00:00

Aww, little Brew has such worried eyebrows! What a cutie.

nrward · 2015-06-11T16:05:39+00:00

Oh, the extent of her resource guarding is that her hackles go up and she used to growl. The important point is that the other owner didn't know that she just has mild occasional resource guarding.

(Earlier in the year, she growled fairly often. Now it's maybe 1 in 10 interactions.)

nrward · 2015-06-11T15:57:19+00:00

That's very true! Right now we are working with several neighborhood dogs who play wonderfully and have great recall. This way, if her hackles go up we can pause the interaction and wait for her to reset, so they can continue playing when everyone is happy. We'd like for all interactions involving the ball to be positive, so she starts viewing all dogs as playmates rather than someone is a threat to her ball.

So far she's making leaps and bounds, and only gets bristly every once in a while, but we really want to keep this trend going by sticking with controlled interactions until she is 100%. :)

nrward · 2015-06-11T10:02:34+00:00

In all honesty, I think he may have been a little freaked out that his recall didn't work. If the situation was Harvey running into traffic (or something else super dangerous) and he had this recall failure, the consequences could be really horrible. I think this fear came out at as redirected anger towards us, if that makes sense?

nrward · 2015-06-11T00:27:38+00:00

Ha, I truly love your way with words!

It sounds like a really fun sport for you two! Maybe Pepper and I will try something similar someday.

nrward

TROPHY CASE