Sit Up!

Sitting with good posture with ease is one of the toughest things to do throughout life.

A client with a painful neck and overly tight shoulders had been told to stand up straight while growing up. Rebelling her mom, she says to me, "She never told me to sit up straight, so I still slouch when I sit!"

There are other ways to rebel
... like having damned good posture.

photo: Stretch 'n' Talk

Crisis - Cry This

"Treat this crisis as practice for the next crisis."

- trainer Gil to Andre Agassi

from Agassi's beautiful book OPEN

Do the tiny things you need to do

The Other Side of Tired

Gil likes to yell at me when I’m working out, but it’s nothing like my father’s yelling. Gil yells love. If I’m trying to set a new personal best, if I’m preparing to lift more than I've ever lifted, he stands in the background and yells, Come on, Andre! Let’s go! Big Thunder! His yelling makes my heart club against my ribs. Then, for an added dash of inspiration, he’ll sometimes tell me to step aside, and he’ll lift his personal best – 550 pounds. It’s an awesome sight to see a man put that much iron about his chest, and it always makes me think that anything is possible. How beautiful to dream. But dreams, I tell Gil, in one of our quiet moments, are so damned tiring. He laughs. I can’t promise you that you won’t be tired, he says. But please know this. There’s a lot of good waiting for you on the other side of tired. Get yourself tired, Andre. That’s where you’re going to know yourself. On the other side of tired. -Andre Agassi with J.R. Moehringer

Andre Agassi's book OPEN

 

 photo: WorldVibe: lastor

Aesthetic Athleticism

I love athleticism
of any species
and aesthetic.

Here, with heart, Stacy Westfall and Whizards Baby Doll aka"Roxy"

Championship Ride Bareback & Bridleless

This video was taken at the 2006 All American Quarter Horse Congress during the Freestyle Reining. Stacy Westfall rode and competed on Whizards Baby Doll a.k.a. Roxy (owned by Greg Gessner) bareback and bridleless. They won with the highest score, 239.

Contradictory Teaching & Active-Passive

My teaching is contradictory.

I teach a language that is kinesthetic, not merely intellectual
... though I can give you the reasons why as well as how.

I teach to your body while your mind fights.

I teach to your mind while your body fights.

I also teach to your heart, gut, imagination, gumption,intuition or "inner voice".

You will learn to work actively and passively at the same time.

You will learn to make your own self corrections in movement & repose habits.

You learn to slow down before you going fast ... perhaps faster than you did before.
You re-learn smoothness, gentleness and fierceness.

Perhaps a more accurate, more powerful tennis stroke, perhaps better muscle firing uphill on the bike, perhaps a better way to get out of sleep so as not to re-injure from previous injury or surgery. Your swim stroke, volleyball stroke, golf swing and batting swing. Your dancing, sexing, walking or desk sitting, your picking up groceries or a child.

I help you move through Daily Life with greater ease, energy, confidence and ... humor!

I teach you to do your own 50,000 mile check ups and tune ups for a lifetime enjoyment of your body.

We work with left/right brain integration.

We work with calming the nervous system's firings to align them.

We work to play.

photos: Miguel Munoz
pictured: Cara Barker, actress, LMT, mom
with instructor Lura Astor
2000 Pasadena, CA

Musicians' Exercises

Musicians, I have exercises for you!
For: posture, stamina, feet, back/neck/hand freedom and more!

enjoy

Breath

Check it out

here









Sierra Madre Rainbow: lastor

Hey Beachcombers!

There's a lot of tar
on our beaches

Olive oil
removes tar
from skin, sandals,
dog paws
gently rub with a cloth

Salut! to the Sun - Happy Solar Eclipse

When you practice
Salute to the Sun
remember the sun rises
the sun sets
the moon rises
the moon sets
the earth spins
our practice changes

solar and soular
Have Fun!




The Sun Bores but is not Boring: lastor

Practice - outside of Carnegie Hall

Practice is never what I think it is going to be.

Practice is never what it was.

Practice is
and,

until you understand that a practice is something you can play with for life ...
you practice practicing.

Begin
breath
For some it is hitting the mat, tying shoelaces or a fly, sewing on ballet ribbons, waxing the surf board, fingering the keyboard, tuning the instrument, entering a room, putting on the music, escaping to the outside, going through scales, flexing the hands.

Middle Game
My specialty is figuring out ways for you to take what you learn physically into daily life, to support you through the dailiness and the perfect imperfections, detours and interruptions.

Whether it is baseball practice, horse training, swimming, yoga, practicing scales for an instrument or choreography for a dance sequence, soccer, running, biking, polo, sailing, setting the table for a meal, preparing for sleep, painting a wall, the idea is to make it yours.

The practice is for you.
It isn't for your teacher.

You may fight your body and psyche, run battles in your head and traffic, get angry at your teachers, but it's your practice, it's your fight. That's why the Warrior Pose, Horse Stance, the Bridge, Univeral Pose and thousands of other postures and moves were created
.. to wear down our monkey brain scattery thinking thinking thinking,
ego and projections, and
... to get strong ... to find the ease
... to discover your focus and how focus changes and is fed ...
... to play with the repetition, and ... play.

Play at life and with life breath.

End Game
It's your practice.

photo: Sitting 'n' Yakking 'n' Practicing a Stretch: taken by Joy Hylton

Dynamic Flexibility - Class Description

With a deep concern for helping people move through daily life with more energy, less pain, greater ease, and better focus, I developed classes using techniques that release excess tension while strengthening postures that hold a body in balance.

This work corrects pain-causing habits, such as slouching and pain-adaptation, aids recovery from injury, and sharpens recreational and work performance.

I've worked throughout the country in schools, universities, fitness centers, theaters and corporations, instructing students from ages 3 to 93.

My years as a licensed massage therapist aided my kinaesthetic understanding of anatomy.

Bringing over 30 years experience with Tai Chi Chuan, yoga, sports performance, dance, body rehabilitation and body re-education to this health and teaching work.


Water & Dancing People: lastor

Dynamic Flexibility classes beginning

Solvang, Santa Ynez, California Classes/Workshops Double click the photo to see the photo album

New Stretch Class

Any past students visiting
the Central Valley Wine Area
come join in as my guest

Improve posture
Better balance
Accelerate recovery from injury
Sharpen sports performance
Improve range of motion
Improve stride, stroke, swing
Release excess tension
Improve flexibility
Add internal strength to external muscle
Have fun!

Cobra - Variation on a Theme

A Leopard Seal makes the yogic Cobra Pose look easy ... it can be fun!

I'll take you through numerous variations.
Try this variation with your arms at your side.

Keep Your Spine Flexible!

photo: Hydrurga Leptonyx

Filmic Choreography

Notice the falling out of the Tree Pose?
I can help you with your Tree Pose ;)

For Fun, put on your track suit and Go!
the ducks will follow:

Tai Chi Chuan - Over the Years

My students in a Workshop 1985 Las Vegas, Nevada

September 1981 Las Vegas Review Journal














Pasadena, California 2000















Tai Chi Alumni Reunion
San Francisco, California
1983-ish
Among the smell of eucalyptus
Hubert Lui 3rd from left
author 4th from left

Many of us had started together in Chicago, Illinois in the mid-1970's






Pull down, San Francisco mid-1980s










Pull down, Pasadena City Hall 2000








Tai Chi Chuan, Las Vegas, NV mid-1980s
My students attending Guest Workshop
with H.H. Lui


























Bringing Tai Chi
to
Las Vegas, Nevada
Lura Astor
Albert Phillips
Master Hubert Lui




















Some of my students 1980s

























Hubert in his gorgeous Snake Creeps Down
Las Vegas and San Francisco

So Many Winds You Stop Counting

Before miniature mp3 players or i-pods, I interviewed a young woman who raced by bike across the United States. As a performer with a life interest in sports performance, mental and physical toughness, the training effect, oxygenating the bloodflow, and more ... something Baum said echoes in my memory.

I had asked her about second and third winds. The training of a performer demands that many things come together at the exact same time - during the performance - while pushing limitations during training and rehearsals. With training, you can time how you pass through the "gates of winds", the opening of the lungs, passing through the burn and fatigue into the elevated focus afforded by a "second wind", a "third wind". The body and mental focus lighten and elevate with increased blood-flow.

Baum's response, regarding her training and racing was that (paraphrased):

You get so many winds you stop counting.

That was something to think about during training!

The following is used with permission
Roanoke Times & World-News

CROSS-COUNTRY RACER
CHRISTINA BAUM PREPARES TO SEE THE COUNTRY BY BIKE

Date: Sunday, July 4, 1993
Section: CURRENT Edition: NEW RIVER VALLEY Page: NRV-3
Byline: LURA ASTOR Special to the Roanoke Times & World-News
Contact me if you have the original photos!

FLOYD, Virginia - Christina Baum will be one of 30 cyclists tearing across the country in the Race Across America next month.

Twelve bikers began the qualifying in Amarillo, Texas, but only three women and four men finished. Baum placed fourth overall and second among the women in the 583-mile race.
The big race from Irvine, California, to Savannah, Georgia, starts July 28.

Because there usually is a 24-hour difference between men's and women's finishing times, starting times will be staggered, with the women beginning a day before the men. Race officials want everyone to finish about the same time for the weekend crowd in Savannah on August 7 and 8.

"It's kind of disappointing if you've raced all the way across the country and then no one's there to see you finish," Baum, 26, said with a laugh.

Baum is a full-time graduate student at Virginia Tech, finishing her master's in human nutrition with an emphasis on exercise physiology. She also works full time as a research assistant.

Contestants will be on their bikes for eight to 10 days, sleeping perhaps only 1 1/2 hours each 24 hours. The bicyclists and their crews will travel through deserts as hot as 101 degrees at 1 a.m., cross the Rocky Mountains, and pass through summer storms, blinding rains, brutal winds and dust storms.

They'll fight cramps, hunger, nosebleeds from the dryness, tricks of the mind and exhaustion. But the main fight will be against time. This is the world's longest time trial. Nearing the finish line in Savannah, a handful of miles can make the difference between a winner and a near-winner. A racer can't look at the course as an overwhelming 3,000 miles, Baum said. Some take it state by state.

Others take it time station by time station. Riders will check in at about 50 time stations where their times will be recorded and called in to the Irvine headquarters. This information is used by the crews to keep track of how their riders are doing in relation to others.
The support crew consists of six or seven people in two vans who take care of every detail so all the rider should have to worry about is riding.

A crew is selected and trained by the rider and allowed free rein in making judgment calls. Baum hopes to have a bicycle mechanic, a massage therapist, a nutrition expert and three others who will be the "lifeblood of the support crew . . . they'll do anything."

Everyone is a cheerleader and the crew chief is the coordinator, overseeing the rider and crew, making sure the crew eats and sleeps so they can perform well, especially while driving.

Baum's daily training goes through phases, depending on what kind of race she is preparing for. She mimics race conditions as often as possible, keeping extensive records of her sleeping, training and diet. Baum usually wakes up at 4 a.m. to ride to Tech from her home in Floyd. She chooses a 25- or 40-mile route and drinks a liquid breakfast while riding, just as in a race.

Baum, a triathlete, likes the advantages of cross training. During her lunch hour, she runs or swims to exercise leg muscles and keep her arms strong. Baum believes she has an advantage because many consider this region of the country one of the best places to train, with steeper grades than even the Rockies. Many racers say this is the hardest part of the country to bike. Baum swims for an hour three days a week, runs four or five days a week and bikes six days a week.

She purposely takes off from cycling one, and occasionally two, days to recover from intensive training. During the winter, she rides inside on a bike on rollers. To reduce the boredom, she watches videos and listens to lecture tapes. It takes eight hours of indoor riding to ride 200 miles.

During the past five years Baum has found she is highly competitive. "If I win, great. If I come in second, I feel good. If I come in third, I have to train more," she said.

"I hold great respect for the competition. I know what I've gone through to get here."
While training, schooling and working, Baum also is learning the ropes of sponsorship. She has sponsors who provide products such as Airoshield helmet visors and Tinley shorts, but other expenses, such as crew and van, are costly. A custom bike alone runs $2,000 and up.

"Why am I doing this? I ask myself that all the time. Why am I not content with doing 100 miles - a `century?' For awhile I was content with that. Then I heard of people doing double centuries, 200 miles. If they can do this, why can't I?" -end-


 Today, in Solvang, California, photos left and below, I followed red riders with my camera. Riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles, the annual bicyclists' ride earns money for Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Research. A flamboyant bunch with a long journey both in miles and in research.

















































photos: Lura Astor

Stretch Class Description

With a deep concern for helping people move through daily life with more energy, less pain, greater ease, and better focus, I developed a Stretch class using techniques that release excess tension while strengthening postures that hold a body in balance.

This work corrects pain-causing habits, such as slouching and pain-adaptation, aids recovery from injury, and sharpens recreational and work performance.

I've worked throughout the country in schools, universities, fitness centers, theaters and corporations, instructing students from ages 3 to 93.

My years as a licensed massage therapist aided my kinaesthetic understanding of anatomy.

Bringing over 30 years experience with Tai Chi Chuan, yoga, sports performance, dance, body rehabilitation and body re-education to this health and teaching work.

















Dancing/Drum Hands: lastor

Stretch to Feel Better

improve posture - slouch less
better balance
strengthen
relax
rehabilitate
improve range of motion
get rid of "kinks"
make your spine more flexible
add internal strength to external muscle
improve your sports/yoga


Instructor: Lura Astor
over 30 years teaching experience, ages 3-93
photos by: Miguel Munoz
2001 with actor/massage therapist/teacher Cara Barker

My goal is for you to enjoy a healthier lifestyle with more energy, courage, relaxation, less aching, less pain.
I work with your pace and capabilities. Together, we chart goals, landmark your progress, celebrate the achievements.
- Lura Astor

Group Energy of Classes

I believe in the benefits of going to class.
There is a group energy created that is different from practicing by yourself.

I tell my students, even if you don't feel like it, show up. Even if you fall asleep, show up.
There exists a group personality. We miss you when you don't show up to add to the class constellation!

There’s mutual inspiration in a classroom.

Learn from classmates' work and corrections.

Get the Most Out of Your Training

• Refrain from eating a big meal immediately before class, however, do not come to class hungry.
• Once committed to a class, show up - even when you "don't feel like it".
• Work with your energy level, low, medium, or high. Energy levels vary.
  
• Allow distractions to slip away as you take time to work on your "tune-up."
• Dress comfortably. Clothes that bind include waist bands that are too tight, zippers, buttons, heavy seams. Wear clothes that allow freedom of movement.
• Be prepared to "under-do" to avoid injury or unnecessary pain. Most of us tend to over-do, especially when learning something new and when we are eager to "get good fast".
• There is a learning curve for everything new.
• A quick way to progress - Insert one or two stretches into your everyday activities.
• Keep it simple. Repetition helps.
  
• During class, tag 1-3 movements to practice during the time before your next class. You'll feel less overwhelmed when you go to remember, and will see results.
• Multi-task for health! Foot exercises while brushing your teeth, etc.
• Use a notebook: jot down questions, changes in your body, changes in goals.
• I’m a believer in group energy. There’s mutual inspiration in a classroom. Learn from classmates' work and corrections.
• Ask classmates to be an Exercise Buddy. Schedule regular meetings, or plan to meet on an as-can basis. If you don't work well together, find others to work with.
• During training you are not quite out of old habits, not quite in the new. Gaining flexibility, strengthening and relaxing your body, toning, and maintaining flexibility takes time, patience, gentleness, mental resiliency and playfulness.
• Enjoy your practice! Keep a sense of humor !
• The more you practice, the more you enjoy the benefits.
• Make games out of practice: reach for the top of doors, take mini-breaks when sitting at a desk, massage your feet while watching TV, elevate your legs while reading, work your toes and flex your calves while brushing your teeth, lunges while vacuuming.
• Use the mind to command relaxation: Shoulders, relax. Neck, let go. Eyes relax. Breathe.
• In hot weather drink additional water. After class, cool off from the heat with some water on the back of your neck and pulse areas, also, directly on top of your head.
• In cold weather, it is a good idea to layer clothing. When leaving class into the cold, cover your head with a hood, towel or scarf
• Remember to have fun!
  

Karoun Tootikian

I had the opportunity to work with Karoun Tootikian on historical reconstructions for performances of Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller choreography. (1982-83)

Here we are pictured as she showed me some tricky moves from Indian dance.

Karoun was extremely generous.
She worked with Ruth St. Denis from 1945-1965, heading the faculty and Oriental Department of Miss Ruth's Los Angeles school. She presented classes in St. Denis' dance techniques and various forms of Oriental dance. She performed with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn at Jacob's Pillow.

Sandy Broyard, who introduced me to modern dance while at Ballet Etudes Repertory Company (teaching us Shaker dances to Iron Butterfly's Innagaddadavida), took me to Jacob's Pillow, an airy, converted barn, theater, when I was young. here

What is most memorable from that occasion was that in the midst of trying to comprehend the historical importance of location, the DeniShawn legacy, and the performance, was that Sandy went into an absolutely uncontrollable fit of shaking giggles, which were contagious. It took awhile before she could gasp, "Bats" and pointed to them amidst the rafters and choreography.

Tootikian's dance studies included Adolph Bolm, Michio Ito, La Meri and Benjamin Zimoch and, she was a member of Lester Horton's first dance company. (While I was performing with Group Motion Multi-Media Dance Theater, a few members taught us Horton's signature falls and slides.)

Among other guest artists visiting the St. Denis School, while Karoun was there, were Charles Weidman, Mary Wigman, Harold Kreutzberg, Leon DestinŽ and Uday Skhankar.

Robert Hawkinson, Miss Ruth's pianist and musical arranger, was Tootikian's husband. I performed to his recordings of Chopin for the Isadora Duncan piece.

Karoun Tootikian died April 3,2000 at age 91.


photos: Ken Hamilton

Rhapsody for the Lake

Daly Plaza Outdoor Performance 1978

... part of the Chicago Artists in Residence
performing throughout the city in institutions, schools, hospitals, outdoor venues, and creating the re-birth of Navy Pier into a cultural center for the city.

Chicago 1978
Marilyn Miglin introduces her first fragrance Pheromone
click

Photo of Lura Astor: courtesy of the Chicago Tribune 1978