Not a Yogi to be Proud Of

I’ve struggled to find time for regular yoga lately, so I was really pleased to make it to class the other day, and more so and how good I felt.

Pigeon is one of my favorite poses. My hips can definitely use opening, and that pose makes it really easy to let gravity do the work. I was feeling great because I got lower into the position than I ever have before. I had my chest resting on my front foot just like in the picture to the left- or so I thought.

Turns out I was cheating. Apparently it only counts if both hips are flat on the ground. Mine wasn’t, and a brief moment of being pleased with myself came to a sudden end. <sigh>

Rudi Altig as a Model for a Yoga-Cycling Practice

As someone whose interests combine cycling and yoga in near-equal measure, I am naturally interested in people with similar inclinations. One such guy in my backyard is Dario Fredrick. One of these days I will sign up for a coaching program with him.

The other name that comes up all the time is Rudi Altig. Rudi was a professional cyclist in the 1950s and ’60s and reportedly Germany’s only standout cyclist during the period. Stories about him often mention that he practiced yoga. An Intimate Portrait of the Tour de France has a great photo of him in the scorpion pose that I wish I could link to.

Altig’s nickname was the “Mannheim Colossus” and looking at his physique makes me think that he would never make it into the peleton today. He had a giant barrel of a torso and looked immensely powerful, but perhaps too heavy by today’s standard for anything but track racing.

The Cyclingnews profile linked above also refers to him walking on his hands out of a restaurant and doing other “yoga tricks”. I wish I could find some more information about him, because the overall impression I get seems to be that he had a very strong upper body and greater flexibility than the average cyclist, but nothing definitive about his yoga practice.

One of my teachers likes to say that the real measure of a yogi is not the extent of one’s flexibility or depth of asanas, but the quality of one’s breath. Anyone can develop flexibility given time and practice, but proper breathing doesn’t happen without focus and internal calmness.

That said, I am curious as to how advanced an asana practice can get in combination with cycling. Cycling definitely leads to tighter hips and open hips are pretty much the keystone of an advanced asana, so I’d love find some pictures of Altig in hip-opening postures like Warrior 1, full lotus or even monkey pose. Maybe Dario has some information. I’ll have to ask him when I sign up for his coaching.

What is that Weird Feeling Along my Spine?

Most of the time finding my “edge” in yoga asanas involves that familiar sensation of muscles being stretched to their limits (in a good way).

In halasana, though- plow pose- I get acompletely different feeling. Instead of a stetching, I feel warmth along my upper spine.

What causes this?

Finding the Ride Balance in Yoga

I have practiced yoga for a long time, but never managed to get much of a routine going. Lately i have been doing better, though. I have been going 2x/week regularly and striving for 3x whenever possible. Given the other demands on my time this seems like plenty.
I have definitely felt better as I have been able to practice more often. I hate feeling like I am standing in place- not making any progress.
So the question is: how much yoga is enough to make steady forward progress? Granted more is generally better, but is there a point at which gains start to become cumulative?