Biting into Second Series (Or Second Series biting into me ;)

Hi guys,
Lovely weather today in Warsaw. Sunny and warm, when I got up at 6 am I was really wowed how nice the weather was already. :) two months ago when I got up at that time, or at 6:45 bus, it was already dark.

Lately, I've been enjoying some new challenges re:Second Series, and wanted to share my experience so far, although very little experience ;)
For the time being, I'm doing first 3 postures, started to learn about 3 weeks ago.
First I have to say that I forgot how it is to learn a new posture and that it is not only new posture but also new vinyasa. I remember when I was learning Primary Series, my stamina would feel challenged to the point that I couldn't catch breath after the practice. It gradually got better as I got used to more postures. I just remember that adding Setu Bandhasana. After that for  about two weeks after the practice I was completely wiped out.  And then my body got used to. But then, another teacher came in and I started to learn some of other vinyasas like the one after Bujapidasana or Supta Kurmasana.
Because one has to remember when you learn new posture it's also a vinyasa, which is usually as hard as the posture itself or sometimes even more difficult.

So the first three postures I would say, look deceptively easy.  Ok let's say the first two look deceptively easy, cause the third one did not appear easy to me at all ;)
Let's do it one by one (also with vinyasas).

Pasasana
This posture is a combination of twist and balance, and pretty  difficult bind.
I usually have to be carefull to not compromise the bind for the twist. I bind both sides although the second side seems more difficult, and try to not forget the twist. And when I remember the twist I then have to figure out the balance part and just be careful to stand on two feet. And look back. :) a lot of things to think about :)

Then vinyasa is jump back to chaturanga but first you gotta go on your hands and tuck the knees to the chest. Not so easy :)

Krounchasana
So the first challenge here is jump into the posture. I can't do it yet, especially on the other side. But I keep on trying.
Then another challenge is to bring up the leg straight without rounding the back to much. Here is a nice video of Kino about it:

Then there is a vinyasa, but you have to jump back directly from the posture, without crossing the legs. First days I tried, I rolled my mat with the front leg ;) 

Then I also managed to hit myself couple of times with the leg, I still don't know how did I do that but I sort of knocked myself out once ;)

Then I figured that maybe I can bend the front leg and turned it out a little. I'm not sure if it's not cheating a little ;) but that way I can jump back, it's not very smooth obviously, but maybe in a couple of years or so.... :)

Shalabhasana A and B

The latest addition is Shalabhasana. You enter the posture from chaturanga. 

It's really the hardest one though, because it is a backbend and I'm usually a scared of backbends. ;)  I don't have much to say about it yet, because I learned it just today, so more information will surely come, when I start to figure things out a little more :) 

So right now I'm hitting close to 2 hours of practice time. I need about 1 hour and 50 minutes to do everything. Good thing is that I don't have to rush anywhere in the morning, can have some time to rest afterwards. Anyhow, I do enjoy new challenge :)

That's it for today I guess :)

Till next time!

Joanna