Join me for my 4-day yoga retreat in Sri Lanka this Sept 29th - Oct 2nd 2016!
This retreat is for people who want to explore movement and yoga with fun and friends.
I will be teaching ways to use your internal power and energy to move gracefully and with ease, to move away from pain and towards free movement.
You will learn the importance of using active movements and how the key to better stability, mobility, and freedom is to learn how to firm parts that need to be firm and, significantly, relax what needs to be relaxed.
In this retreat I hope to help you move closer to understanding and experiencing how this movement of energy will help every cell in your body to sing!
I have a lot of experience working with people with various injuries and I encourage you to contact me beforehand if you do have some sort of condition so that we can figure out if the retreat is appropriate for you at this time and how I might be able to help you.
Because I am interested in you learning how to be your own best teacher, I will be offering sessions between the classes for questions and answers and for us to think deeply about particular issues or postures, so come along with some of your own ideas and questions and I can help make the retreat more personal for you.
Check-in Thursday 29th Sept 1 pm- Depart Sunday 2nd Oct after breakfast by Noon
Classes: Six 2 hour classes. First yoga class starts on Thursday afternoon at 4.30pm. From then we will have 2 classes on Friday, 2 on Saturday, and 1 on Sunday.
Aside from the usual yoga there is the opportunity to relax by the pool or at the beach, surf, get a massage, or just hang out.
Because there are limited rooms I am encouraging people to please consider sharing so that as many people can participate as possible. Rooms need to be confirmed with full payment received by 29th August 2016.
The rate includes:
•All yoga classes
•Full board (tea/fruit before yoga; buffet style breakfast served at table; a la carte lunch (there is a menu to choose an item from), buffet style dinner)
•Accommodation
You need to pay for any extra drinks or snacks you might have if the mega breakfast and dinner and light lunch still leaves you hungry!
Normal timetable is as follows
6.30am tea/fruit (if desired)
7.00-9.00am yoga
9.00 breakfast
RELAX (have massage, swim, surf, read, have lunch around 1 or 2ish depending on how full you are after brekkie)
4.30-6.30pm yoga
7pm dinner
The prices quoted below are based on 3 nightsper person. You need to find a person to share with if you opt for double or triple and Tilak can put you in touch with other people who may also want to share.
Payment
Full payment is required by 29th August.You can make your booking directly with Tilak (tilak@antsglobal.lk +94-773-912-100) and pay Tilak directly or he can provide a Sri Lankan or Australian bank account details for you to transfer to if that is easier.
Retreat Rates are as follows:
Sri Lankan citizens or with those with a Sri Lanka Resident visa:
Single 3 nights Rs. 55,000/-
Double (share) 3 nights Rs. 43,000/- per person
Triple (share) 3 nights Rs. 40,000/- per person
Non-Sri Lankan citizens without a Sri Lanka Resident visa
In this post I show videos and step by step instructions on how to help unsquash the front of hips and lengthen lower back. They are great tips for people who spend a lot of time sitting, which is most of us in general.
Key Instructions
I have a limited repertoire of what I consider some basic instructions.
No matter what sequence I teach these instructions repeat themselves over and over.
They repeat themselves over and over in single class.
Sometimes I wonder why people keep coming back since I do say the same thing over and over again!
I like to think that it is perhaps my wit and good humour that brings people back.
But I am pretty sure it is because while these instructions sound simple, they are actually tricky to apply, to apply consistently, and to apply in different orientations to gravity.
One of those instructions is "sitting bones down, top of pelvis back, lengthen lower back."
For people who have tight lower backs, and even people who do not, this instruction feels amazing on the lower back.
However, I could also say, "sitting bones down, top of pelvis back, unsquash front of hips."
You see, depending where you focus, or perhaps where you feel more tightness, the same instruction can help in two places.
Most people live a lot of their lives squashing the front of hips. Well, those that sit for most of the day do.
So this instruction is a great way to help unsquash.
It is particularly useful to apply in forward bending postures.
I keep the front of groin open (unsquashed) when I practice forward bending postures.
It is the opposite of what many people practice--either deliberately or incidentally.
It means you work on spinal forward bending then hip flexion rather than just hip flexion, which often happens.
Some Thoughts Before You Watch And Practice
For me yoga is a spinal movement practice. In order to maintain the health of your spine you need to learn how to move it, and move it safely. Unsquashing is key. Being able to create firmness in they tummy in a way you can still feel the movement of the breath there while mobilising the spine are also key.
In the videos I chose a modified chandra namaskar to show the differences between squashing and unsquashing. One video shows me showing what squashing looks like versus unsquashing. The other video just shows a smooth unsquashing practice.
I have also taken still shots so you can compare the two side by side.
Perhaps watch unsquashing versus squashing first. Then look at the still shots. Then watch the unsquashing so you are left with a clear impression of unsquashing.
When watching these videos please consider that I mainly post things for my own students who come to me and whom I can watch carefully. Practicing from videos is a not the best, especially if you have pre-existing issues.
Also note that in the videos below I create firmness in my tummy in a way I can still breathe into it. I have written about this a lot before so please refer to those posts. Whenever I bend forward from the spine I create firmness first. I am trying to have core stability with mobility. Much of what I show will not work if you suck your tummy in tightly (using muscles of forced exhalation) because this will stiffen the spine.
Squashing Versus Unsquashing: The Video
This video shows me trying to highlight squashing versus unsquashing in the same poses.
Squashing Versus Unsquashing: The Still Shots
Below I show the shot of being squashed on the left and unsquashed on the right.
In the squashed shots I performed the actions of moving the top of my pelvis towards the front of thigh and pushing my sit bones up into the air.
In the unsquashed shots I performed the actions of moving my sitting bones down and top of pelvis back.
You can see I put my hand to the place that I am concentrating on. One finger is at top of front of pelvis and the other on the thigh bone.
In most shots you can see the 'air' in the unsquashed variation. You can also see that my lower back lengthens or is less 'archy'.
In all forward bends I try to firm my tummy in a way I can still breathe. I also feel that I am pushing both hips forward without actually moving them.
Unsquashing: The Movie
Here I show the whole sequence with just the unsquashing version.
The End
That's it from me today.
Happy and safe practicing. This is the type of thing I teach in classes, workshops, and my retreats in Canberra, Sri Lanka, and Bali. If you are around I would love to teach you.
Oksana and I met in India. She was the first person I met off the plane and we shared lots of tea, coffee, laughs, and good old chit chats in the month we spent together there.
Oksana helped me through some sort of tummy virus that wiped through our retreat (she missed it though!), always had a bit of health wisdom that made perfect sense, and was just a joy to be around.
She invited me to come to teach at Art of Life retreats and here I wanted to let you get to know her a little better as well so I asked her a few questions. What an amazing lady and I can't wait for you all to share in her joy and knowledge!
You
live in Ubud.How have you come to be in
Bali?
I have always been looking for a place to
be living half the year.I thought I had
found that in Vietnam.But in 2008 I
came to Bali though and as soon as I came here I knew this was the place.It took me 2 years to come back.But as soon as I came to Ubud I just
knew.This is where I wanted to be.This is where my heart wanted me to be.I just found everything I needed here.Everything I had been looking for.The size of the papaya.Like mini-torpedoes!Compared to Australia where you get like a
mini thing for $10.
Tell
me about the food you eat and why you eat it?
I eat a lot of fruit because I am attracted
to the colour and sweetness of it.
I really have got to this level where I
automatically choose to eat for nutrition.It is intellect that drives my decision because after learning so much
about nutrition and experiencing what different foods do to me, and knowing how
I feel most optimal.
I do check in how I feel, like salty or
sweet.But I wouldn’t go for something
like a bowl of pasta unless I was going through some emotional upheaval as
pasta effects me almost like some sort of drug that wipes me out.
What I mean is that I choose food for
highest vitamin and mineral content.That means it is generally something living and more vibrant food.But that is because I know a lot about
food.
And what enables me to jump out of bed
feeling really happy is not having a lot of dense residue in my body.
Vibrant food makes you more vibrant.Fried chips are not vibrant.They are not going to give you much vibrancy.
You
are growing your own garden?
Yes! It is my third attempt.My next door neighbor drained a rice paddy
for me and said you want to grow veggies so go for it.
First he planted sweet potato on it as you
need to after it has been growing rice.That is long, about 6 months, so we had to wait 6 months for that.
Then we had to get out there and I had some
friends and it was really hard work and we tried to dig and sew seeds. But nothing grew.We tried again and the same thing
happened.
I tried again but this time I got a
Javanese organic gardener who I buy my produce from and I said ‘I need your
help!Is it my land or what?’
He came and looked and said I needed to
build shorter and higher beds because of the soil.So we did it and we got some seeds in and it
is now just pumping!10 tomatoes a day
and greens coming out and an abundance of produce.I am looking forward to pickling, Russians are
fond of that, and you know, my family is originally from Russia.
The only thing is I have a friend who is a
farmer in the mountains who I helped a few years ago during the rainy season to
build some greenhouses for his seedlings.I had given him the money for that and now, in exchange, he supplies me
with veggies every week and he still does that.Anyway now I have too many greens—he is still supplying me and I have my
garden veggies as well and it was undersupply before and now oversupply!
What
makes you happy?
Is that I feel like I am really living my
life.It might sound corny but I feel
like I am really designing my life—I don’t know if that is a good word.But before I used to feel like I was living a
life that was not congruent with myself.
What makes me happy is that I am
constructing my life.There is a lot of
play involved.A lot of seriousness as well,
I do serious things, but it is all done with colour and vibrancy and
communication.
I work with conscious people where there
are not strict boundaries and that is part of it too.
It makes me happy eating organic food.Having abundance of that, of everything.I don’t know.But those are some of the things that contribute to it.I don’t know if I have really started on
answering that question, it is just so big!
You can find out more about Oksana at: www.artofliferetreats.com
In this post I show active movements to come into eka pada koundinyasa I via parivrtta parsvakonasana. We are practicing this in my classes at the moment. I have included a few videos and step-by-step instructions.
I do not recommend you practice this without the guidance of an experienced teacher. Also, unless they are experienced in using active spinal movements they may not be able to give appropriate and safe guidance on safe spinal movement so just check. This is mainly for students who practice with me and need some extra guidance. I will give advice on safety in the posture. As always, you need to be careful with knees, wrists, shoulders, and spine. Moving slowly, moving actively, tensing less, and stretching less will always help.
Active Movements
As a teacher I try to demonstrate
active movement and show where movement may be coming from so that you generate strength and ease of movement.
Sometimes this is tricky because what you
see may not be where the movement arises.
Also, sometimes a more passive posture may
end up looking much the same as the active posture.
The pictures below highlight this.
Active spinal movements get me here
In the picture above I used active spinal
movements to come into the pose.
In the picture below I came in by ‘falling’ with
gravity and mainly by flexing my hips.
Passive hip flexion got me here
While they look much the same, the feeling
in my torso especially is completely different. If you look carefully at the angle or amount of blue space between my front thigh and torso you can see there is more space in the active pose as I did not close off the hip angle.
In the first pose I feel lifted, light and
lengthened.In the second I feel more
sinking—especially into the hips--and general heaviness.
You can see the difference in entry
maneuvers in the video below.
I don’t want to suggest one is right or
wrong.I can do them both.
I choose to do the first version in my
practice and teaching to help you develop strength and mobility in the
torso.
Aside from helping my spine feel good,
moving actively and having activated muscles around my tummy in particular,
helps me come into the arm balance variation that follows this posture in our
current sequence.
Here I have to say, I got a six-pack without
ever doing a crunch or by adding a ‘core yoga’ section into my classes or
self-practice.
I simply do active movements throughout my
entire class and am pretty much doing a ‘sit-up’, aka active spinal forward
flexion, in every forward bend I do.
Back to the postures at hand!There are two.A standing posture, then an arm balance.
Perhaps watch the video first to get a
sense of the flow and process.Then take
a look at the step-by-step freeze frames and instructions.
Demonstration of using active movements to the postures
Spinally speaking, the standing posture is
basically a twisting, side bending, forward bending backbend.
That is, once I am in the lunge and
lengthen lower back (sitting bones down, top of pelvis back), I do a twist, a
side bend, a forward bend, then a little back bend in my upper back.A little hip flexion creeps in but after the
spinal forward flexion.
Step
1: Get into a lunge
In this lunge I have my back heel up. That is because I am going to make this
posture dynamic and move into the arm balance.
Traditionally heel is down.
Many people find having heel up difficult
to balance. You need to be using your
feet and legs actively to assist with the balance. I grip with my toes lightly.
Also, if you allow your hips to be sinking
it is often a sign you are not using your legs actively enough and will make it
harder to balance. I keep my hips a
little higher and legs active here.
Nothing wrong with going lower but just in an active and not sinking way.
Step
2: Lengthen lower back
Here I have taken sitting bones down, top
of pelvis back in order to lengthen my lower back.
To me, this is different and more subtle
than ‘tucking under’.Remember, rather
than fret about action, go for feeling.The feeling here is to have space in your lower back and not squashing.
In this picture I have also lengthened my
entire spine. I have taken my lower ribs back and up lightly.You cannot see my neck but I have head down,
neck back slightly to lengthen back of neck.
I have begun to push my armpits forward and
lightly down, elbows lightly up.
Step
3: Active spinal twist
I try to move from base of spine
upwards. That means, turning from navel,
area then lower ribs, then chest, then shoulders.
Look at the front foot. See how much it is still working.
Spine still long, not arching.
Step
4: Active spinal side bending
Here I initiate side bending by bringing
back hip forward and up towards the rib.At the same time I am reaching opposite arm up and forward from my
waist/pelvis and trying to move that side hip back slightly so the whole side
body lengthens.
The side of my body that closest in this
picture is firming.This side bending
firmness will help me in the arm balance.
You can see I start to have more weight on
my front foot—the back heel is raising as well in preparation for the arm
balance to soon come.
At this stage I am in a back lengthening,
twisting, side bending posture.
Step
5: Spinal forward flexion
Now I have begun a spinal forward flexion
process.
See the space you can see between the top
of my thigh and torso and how the angle is still relatively open.
I am now in a spine lengthening, twisting,
side bending, forward bend.
Step
6: A bit of hip flexion
There is no need to go deeper.Unless you are coming to the arm balance,
that is!
To get to the ground I need some hip
flexion.I initiate hip flexion here,
after I have done my active twisting, side bending, forward bend.Importantly, I maintain these actions as I lower.
In my own practice I often choose to stay
at this point here.It feels really
good.
I can do the arm balance easily but for me
it seems unnecessary compared to how nice it feels to stay actively in this
posture for some time.
At this point a t lot of yoga teachers in
classes I have attended will come up and try and get me to put my back heel on
the ground, to try and put my hand on the ground, to try and take my legs
further apart.
There is nothing wrong with that.But this feels so much better.Perhaps it is not pretty but once you start
to appreciate active movements and see what is going on in the posture you see
this as something lovely and delicious feeling.
I am not leaning or using the bottom arm on
my knee at all.If you were to use it
then do so in an intelligent and active way.That would mean using the arm to press lightly into the thigh and
pressing the thigh back into the arm.I
am definitely not using my arm to ‘wrench’ or twist my spine here.I am also not sinking into it.
Step
7: More hip flexion and knee bending to get hands to ground
The only way to get to the ground is to get
some more hip flexion in there, front knee bends more as well.
A lot more in fact.You can see it has started to come in front
of my toes.I need to be firm behind my
knee to maintain the integrity of my knee here.My ankles are moderately flexible in a squat so my heel can stay down.If you need it is perfectly fine to lift that
heel.In fact, it might help you to keep
firm behind the knee.
You can see hands are coming in front of
the foot and off to the side.
I am maintaining all of the actions from
previous steps.That means my front knee
is actually only lightly touching my arm.
Notice how at no stage did I start pushing
my arm into the knee to get me into this twist.They are touching lightly here.I
do not want that front knee to get heavy.It will become heavy if you are not using your torso actively and you
will feel like you are sinking in this posture instead of lifting.
This picture sort of shows you how my whole
back body is lengthened, not flattened.You can see I am moving my chest into my upper
back and moving my shoulder blades around the sides of my chest.
Notice I am transferring weight
forward.You can see this as I am coming
more onto the tops of my toes on the back foot.
Step
8: Enhance side bending
Leaning forward with more weight on my
hands and pushing the floor away.I
don’t want weight on my feet in an arm balance.I need to support it by pushing into the floor with arms to get lift.
I am gripping with finger tips as thought
grabbing at the ground (not flattening fingers).
I am maintaining all the core actions.
This allows me to enhace side bending by
bringing the back knee into my shoulder.I can only do this without feeling heavy or sinking if I have kept all
of the actions in the torso.
You can see weight is more and more over
the hands and my front heel has started to lift.I need lightness in this foot to come
up.
I squeeze my wrists together and keep
feeling as though my elbows are trying to come together.
Step
9: Lean forward, smile, stay firm but calm, and lift
Compare this picture with the previous one
and you see my shoulders have come further forward over the finger tips.I have to lean forward without dropping into
my shoulders to come into this position.
Actually, let me correct myself.I don’t have to.You can drop and do this but it will probably
feel awful on your wrists and shoulders!
If you can sneak a look at my tummy here
you can see is it active!
Step
10: Legs out!
I continue leaning forward.See how far my shoulders have come in front
of wrists.I suppose if you were
stronger you would not need to lean as far forward but I am not that strong. I am trying not to lower my chest but to stay
lifted.
Maintaining all previous actions, I just
straighten my legs.
The top thigh is rolling in and bottom
thigh is rolling out.
I am happy and calm and firm and strong and
feeling good.If you walked past me I
could say hello and tell you how good I was feeling and have a little chat
without getting breathless.
In
Sum
Remember that this arm balance is just a
bit of show ponying really.It looks
impressive but it won’t make you happier or healthier!
Staying in the standing version might help
you more than the arm balance.
I also don’t recommend trying this without
your teacher.
This is the way I teach posture. I encourage you to think about how it feels at every stage. Go for length and freedom, not squashing. Use active movements. Layer the movements and keep the actions you cultivated in the lead up on the follow through.
This is how we will help you move towards greater strength and movement in our Bali retreat and in my classes and workshops in Canberra and Sri Lanka. Look forward to seeing you.
