Weak in the core

Today we had more anatomy with Jesse. In contrast to last time's heavy theory-based lectures, we approached it from a very practical point of view and dissected some poses looking at what muscles were involved. It was interesting, although four hours was slightly pushing it... all we did were the standing poses.

I have this almost love-hate relationship with Jesse - he seems to be a bit of controversial yoga figure here, and he can get quite defensive about it. He's the first one to admit that he's very opinionated, and he puts that across very forcefully. He comes from a very competitive background and has found his place in yoga through numerous injuries - he's also far more alignment orientated that ashtanga usually is.

When I first took his class, I hated it. Hated his style, hated the class... but at the same time learned something. In the teacher training last time I was forced to come back couple of times, and he kind of grew on me... well, at first I started liking his classes. For me alignment is so personal that it's almost not worth talking about (of course you have to), but in ashtanga style yoga movement and breath is so much more important. His classes are a lot to do with alignment, but once I got over the initial shock and gag reaction I started taking in the information, and I've started using it myself in my classes.

Back to the training. As I've come to know Jesse more, I've actually started liking the man too. I don't agree with everything he says - and he's the first person to say that one shouldn't, you should always do your own research. When discussing dandasana, and I mentioned that this pose always hurts my upper back - he took me to the middle and started explaining why. In his words, my middle core is very weak and that's the cause of my problem - and yeah, it's discouraging and hurtful to hear someone be so blunt about something you though you were doing pretty good with. So my dandasana turned into something quite different - I'm now bending my knees quite a lot and pulling my ribs in from my back which causes more work for the lower back muscles (which is the big problem here, according to Jesse). I'm still not 100% sure about his theory, but I respect him enough at this point give it a go.

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