Beautiful handstand video, courtesy of Kino; Why is Tittibhasana B so difficult?

13:01 | Labels: handstand, kino, practice, second series, yoga videos

First, a little video eye-candy. I'm not particularly big on posting yoga videos, especially videos of people doing handstands. I know lots of people out there are fascinated with handstands, but honestly, I've never really understood this fascination. Don't really know why; I guess I just don't get what's so magical about being able to lift your feet all the way above your head without support; I mean, aren't there enough things to work on within the practice already? Besides, I often have this suspicion that people who make handstand videos are really just looking for an excuse to, well, show off their asana prowess in a gratuitous kind of way (btw, is there such a thing as non-gratuitous showing off? Hmm...).

Or maybe I just have a bad case of sour grapes. But in any case, there are handstand videos, and then there are handstand videos. The following handstand video that Kino recently made in Bali is so well-shot (the peaceful surroundings, the sound of water flowing from the stone buddhas, etc.) that even I have to suspend my usual non-fascination with handstand videos. It's definitely in a class of its own. Check it out:

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Now on to more serious asana business. A few days ago, I added more second series postures (Tittibhasana A, B, C, and Pincha Mayurasana) to my practice. Pincha was fine: Glad to know I can still balance on my forearms after all these months of not doing this posture.

The Tittibhasanas are another story. Titti C is nice; there's that nice burning sensation in my thighs that tells me that I am seriously working my quads in that posture in a way that has never been done before :-)

But Titti B is especially puzzling. I can get into Supta Kurmasana from Dwipada Sirsasana, and am able to put my leg/s behind my head. But when it comes to Titti B, I can only just barely grab my fingers after considerable effort. I don't think I am particularly fat, by any standard. So how come Titti B is so difficult?

Any thoughts/tips on Titti B?