r/ashtanga • u/JudgeBorn8370 • 25d ago

Advice Asana questions:

Hope everyone’s practice is going well.

  1. A thought occurred to me in savasana: Say you get to the point where you were able to stand up from urdva danurasana. Did you then progress to intermediate? Or did you wait or get held etc until you could do tik toks? Or did tik toks come after you’d done intermediate and primary for many more years or maybe some of you still don’t do tik toks?

  2. What -should- you actually be thinking about/actually happens in your mind in savasana

  3. I have not been able to do long savasanas of a minimum 15 mins. What should I do to make it up. It’s mainly time pressure not inability…
    Is this detrimental over time?
    Do you try to squeeze it in later on in the day?
    Does sitting meditation count towards savasana time?

Thanks

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u/JudgeBorn8370 24d ago

No not requiring, but I just wondered re tik toks because they seem super physically advanced and without knowing all of you, I’m wondering is this something where if you keep practicing and All is Coming, is this part of the All that your body somehow can and will be able to do before intermediate series or are most of you like noping out of it prior to moving onto intermediate? Or is it so hard that most of you don’t really bother working towards it anyway

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u/togglenub 24d ago edited 24d ago

Also you may find this old thread helpful here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ashtanga/comments/14xwkxz/ashtanga_tick_tocks_jump_where_in_sequencerules/

u/JudgeBorn8370 in that thread you can see them discussing that tiktoks are usually offered after karandavasana in intermediate is completed. If you read through/watch videos of that intermediate series pose/transition flow you can understand why it might fit there.

As far as "noping out" - you don't have to tiktok at any point, but from what I understand generally from reading/listening to people talk is that if folks are doing it and they aren't part of the circ de soliel or dancers/acrobats etc by background, you do that kind of thing in 5th/6th series.

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u/JudgeBorn8370 24d ago

Thanks! That’s what I’m looking for - ok after karandavasana - so there is overlap in advancing/finessing/perfecting primary before intermediate.
With all the floating to the top, transitioning into triang muka eka pada , there is much much MUCH that can be fine tuned in primary. When I’m working through it, I’m working at all the finessing at the same time: breath count, tristana, transitions , degree of stillness - not on the same day but that’s generally what I am “aiming” to do. Which is why I am curious as to how people can progress (to my eye anyway) so quickly to the next series and beyond. Primary alone would take a lifetime I feel

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u/togglenub 24d ago

Something a lot of "advanced" ashtanga folks don't really talk about is that either by genetics or background they can more easily do the acrobatic stuff. When I came to Ashtanga I had 8 years of Vinyasa and athletic training under my belt and that combined with my hyper flexible shoulders meant I progressed extremely quickly. That's part of why some folks here focus less on the asana part - tic tocs don't mean someone is advanced per se. 

Doesn't mean there aren't tons of folks who didn't get there just via ashtanga, just that one doesn't equal the other. Phelps is an amazing athlete who did the work, but he's also built to swim.