“Water. Ashtangis need more than other people. We’re detoxing. Drink a ton. But not during practice. It’ll compromise your focus, cut the internal heat that fuels practice, and slosh around“.
I’ve read good things recently about drinking a 16oz glass of water as soon as you get up in the morning, I’ve started doing that but perhaps I should aim for two glasses an hour or so before practice. And half hour an hour after practice start re hydrating as much as possible.
But what about the big taboo of drinking during practice. I have a tendency towards forming stones, should I perhaps modify the approach to practice here.
I could take a mouthful, just a mouthful after the standing sequence and a mini savasana but with a good focus on the breath and bandhas to not allow myself to cool too much, another mouthful and mini savasana after navasana say and again after badha konasana, another perhaps after Urdhva Dhanurasana (there used to be a mini savasana there anyway once upon a time) and finally a last mouthful at the end of the practice before taking rest.
Half an hour after practice I could start re hydrating as usual.
But doesn’t this beg the question, why practice Ashtanga at all. Shouldn’t I as a Kidney stone former, switch back to a lighter Vinyasa Krama practice, perhaps Ashtanga just isn’t for me?
This surely suggests a fixed idea of what Ashtanga is, haven’t we moved past the idea of Ashtanga as fixed and unchanging, unmodified asana practice.
In a Vinyasa Krama practice I still have to choose a number of subroutines to build up my practice. I do that but choose to keep that choice of asana relatively fixed, the Ashtanga sequence(s), I believe there are benefits to this. Vinyasa krama also includes, drishti (although the gaze tend usually to be down), ujjayi, bandhas. The breath though is long and slow in Vinyasa Krama but that is also how it was recommended by Krishnamacharya in his Mysore days and by Jois in Yoga Mala. Practicing slowly is still Ashtanga. Ramaswami recommends a mini savasana if we lose control of the breath or the heart begins to race but this too is in keeping with Ashtanga, the breath and heart beat should remain regular throughout our Ashtanga practice. I think it follows that if we become TOO hot, begin to sweat too much then we should perhaps consider a mini savasana also, just as we might with the breath or hearbeat or perhaps practice less asana altogether or modify some of those we have. Perhaps in the hot summer months we should practice half a series, spend longer on the finishing sequence on pranayama on chanting perhaps.
And besides I suspect, have a theory, that it’s my Ashtanga Vinyasa practice that dislodged the stone from the wall of the kidney and encouraged it to move along it’s merry way BEFORE it became too large and need surgical removal or an invasive procedure. Yoga asana practice, those tight marichi binds and supta kurmasana, the heel digging into the kidneys in yoga mudra, these are all ways Ramaswami, would I think argue, that the yogis found to massage the internal organs. I will be asking the specialist about this when I have my scan Wednesday.
So here’s a few ideas, the beginning of a strategy. Many of these suggestions are already a part of my practice, these days I try conserving energy, I use Sharaths’ delicate jump through for example, my ujjayi is subtle as are my use of bandhas….
1. Drink a glass perhaps even two of water half an hour to an hour before practice
2. A cooler practice room
3. A more subtle Ujjayi
4. A more subtle engagement of bandhas
5. A slower approach to the practice in general, long slow inhalation and exhalations
6. Aim to conserve energy throughout, a more subtle jump back and through or perhaps not between each side of an asana
7. Take mini savasanas
8. Consider a shorter practice in the hot summer months, more time spent on the finishing sequence.
9. Half hour after practice begin to rehydrate ( weigh yourself before and after practice to work out how much you have lost in sweat).
An for kidney stone formers only perhaps
10. Drink water during practice* – if your still concerned about sweating too much
a. Take a mouthful of water, just a mouthful after the standing sequence followed by a mini savasana but with a good focus on the breath and bandhas to not allow myself to cool too much,
b. another mouthful and mini savasana after navasana
c. another after badha konasana,
d. another perhaps after Urdhva Dhanurasana (there used to be a mini savasana there anyway once upon a time)
e. another mouthful at the end of the practice before taking rest.
*rather than just grabbing your bottle of water and losing focus, come to formal dadasana, take your mouthful of water, lay back in savasana for five to ten breaths, chakrasana back into where you left off.