Ashtangis Are Human Too

One of the reasons I started this site was to make ashtanga more accessible. There is a myth that Ashtangis are somehow super human and that you have to be genetically blessed to practice it. Every video and picture online is usually of people  in Cirque Du Soliel poses moving effortlessly with seemingly no pain.  I am happy with the success of this site and constantly amazed every time someone volunteers to share their practice with the APP community. However, I am not blind to the fact that most of the submissions are still pictures of full variations of poses that people have mastered after years of practice.

I thought the post below, by Laruga Glaser, sharing a recent setback, was brave  and very human. Some of our most popular videos on Facebook are of her moving effortlessly through poses.  To me, this post makes her even more inspirational and lovely.

Excerpt from Laruga’s blog Peace Love Yoga. For the full post,  follow this link.

February was an interesting month coming off our annual two month trip to Mysore, India. I had a few ups and down during our stay in Mysore but as always the daily practice was our rooting force and of course the primary reason for being there. I started to get an itch in my throat our last few days which inevitably turned into full blown flu when I arrived back home. On top of that a sore shoulder that has been off and on over the past 8 months. Practice in Mysore no doubt always holds a certain amount of intensity and this year was no different if not more so. My practice was epic, meaning long. No doubt extremely strength building both physically and mentally. When I arrived home the hammer fell and I was held at a stand still in terms of the momentum of practice acquired in Mysore, so I thought. Let’s just say I was laid out, worse than I had been in years. No practice for nearly a week. Afterward it left my body feeling weak from days of fever and muscle aches.