I had the privilege of visiting Croatia again recently, to see a dear friend from way back when I lived and worked in Bangladesh.
Her talents and generosity seem boundless and, along with her partner, they produced this lovely video for me.
This is a ten minute sequence filmed by a lake amongst the olive groves that abound in Dalmatia. The overall effect reminds me of practicing yoga in a Renaissance painting.
My friend, Mejrema, composed the music herself and it is from an album she produced while working with people with autism as part of an art in therapy project. It fit perfectly with the mood. It also fit perfectly with me since my full-time work is with people with autism.
I did not plan this sequence. We saw a beautiful scene. We set up a camera. I stood for a moment, took a few calm breaths, and practiced what came to me in the moment.
The sequence consists of some strong standing balances, but if you were practicing it you could modify it so you either kept your toe on the ground or you hugged your leg to your body, rather than straightening it as I do.
There are also some standing twists and side bends. Again, you could modify these to your capacity.
When I reviewed the footage I loved how my knobbly arms and legs seemed to blend with the branches of the olives.
The olive is sacred to the people of this area. I love how their silvery leaves sparkle in the breeze.
I smile when I see this video. I hope you will too.
We introduced these tummy lying backbends in class recently. There are a whole lot of things you can do with your arms in them.
This post is just for watching and not really for practicing until you come to class and I can talk to you and we can consider what is going on with your knees, spine, and shoulders and figure out what might be safe and comfortable for you.
Always remember you do not need to take your foot at all. If you have troubles with your knees, spine, or shoulders you should talk to your teacher before you even consider it. You can just bend the knee and reach towards your foot without actually taking it, as shown below. For some people this will be enough.
Some other things to consider in the variations I show in the video is the shoulder is rolling out when you take it back. It rolls in again in some variations and stays there or rolls back out again while possibly doing a variety of other things around the shoulder, shoulder blade and elbow joint complexes.
The point is, there is a lot going on around the shoulder joints and you really need to take extreme care before embarking on any of these variations.
For that reason I am just showing them here so you can maybe take a look in slow motion and have a visual memory of the movement patterns for when you come to class and we can discuss more in person.
The three shoulder variations I show in the video are shown below. In all of these positions I am basically doing the same thing with my leg, which is to press my shin or foot away and then up.
In these variations the hand can have a pulling action but I counter it with the pulling action of the shin and foot so that it is not just an arm pulling and tugging at the leg.
I am mindful of how the knee is feeling and I don't feel squashing in the knee joint.
I am mindful of how the shoulder is feeling and I don't feel over-stretching at the shoulder joint.
I am mindful of how my spine is feeling so I take action to ensure I am not bending through one part of my spine only. In fact, I keep my pubic bone and lower ribs on the table, do a sit up in my tummy, and try to lengthen and wriggle my spine forward and up so that there is never squishing in my lower back and this pose ends up feeling great in my spine for all variations.
I make sure I can breathe naturally (although the breath tends to quicken here). I relax and soften my face.
These variations are tough. They are not for everyone. But remember the first option is also a good one (where you do not hold your foot) so you stay there as necessary.
Just for fun I also made this video of natarajasana on a table, which shows the same arm variations. It is more tricky because you have to balance as well.
Learning on the table beforehand helps you sort out the feeling in your spine.
We might try a few of these at my retreat in April but will definitely be working on them in class when I come back.
Canberra students, keep an eye on my timetable for April as I am away for a few weeks but here for a few classes! Hope to see you somewhere soon.
Working
Towards Hanumanasana/Splits (James Brown Version—Gotta Go Up To Go Down)
Hanumanasana (henceforth to be called the
splits in this post) is a pose to work towards with caution.
It looks so impressive most people’s egos
get the better of them.
Or, perhaps it was just my ego?As I tell my students, when I first started
yoga I injured myself with over-zealous practice of the posture.
Actually, the practice was not
over-zealous.This was a case of pure
ego.I actually practiced mindfully and
diligently.The day I made it into the
pose after many months of practice I was so pleased with myself that later on
(several hours after my practice and we could almost call it the next day) I
met a friend and said ‘Look, I can do the splits!’
I proceeded to do the splits right there
and then, with no preparation.
Well, let’s say I managed the position but
did something to my butt that had me limping for a month!
These days I can do the pose almost first
thing in the morning as I have been practicing for many years. However, most people will need quite a bit of
preparation.
Hopefully my previous posts should have
lead you towards an understanding that the splits should not feel like too much
stretching.
It is not about splitting apart.
Using active movements means the pose is
actually about coming together again.
If you are working towards this posture I
recommend you work with an experienced yoga teacher to guide you.Do not confuse flexible with experienced and
also, I think it is better to make sure your teacher can do any pose they are
trying to instruct you in.
In the photos below I have shown one
progression.Watch the video above to see the movement in action. The video at the end of the post shows advanced variations of the posture
(intended for demonstration not for practice).
You remain at whatever stage you feel
comfortable in (feel like lengthening and relaxing, not stretching and
tugging).
There are two key things I am doing in each
stage.The first thing also has a
little subplot.
First, my front thigh is rolling out and my
back thigh is rolling in.
This means the thigh bone of the front leg
feels as though the side butt (near the crease) is firming slightly.What you see is that the knee might roll away
from the centre line of your body.
The back thigh is rolling in, which means
you might feel the inner thigh firming a little.If you could turn around and see your knee is
trying to move so it is more towards the centre line of your body.
The subplot here is that I am also trying
to move the side of front hip back and draw side of back hip forward.
If you are not mindful the opposite tends
to happen.That is, when you roll the
front thigh out it can often bring the side of front hip forward and when
rolling the back thigh in it can often send the side of back hip backward. So
you need to watch out for this.
The second key thing I am doing is to try
to suck my legs or feet together.
Yes.I am not actually trying to split them apart.
Sucking them together could be likened to
someone at foot trying to push your legs back together (what I am doing).
Whereas most beginners just try to let
their legs come apart, almost as though there is a person at either foot
pulling them in a tug-o-war.Actually,
they do not even do that so much as let the weight of their entire pelvis and
torso just hang and sag in the middle.
Ouch!It is obvious when put that way that it would not be a pleasant feeling.
Sucking it up is key.
This is where I put in the James Brown
analogy in class.He was a guy who sort
of did a type of a split while on-stage singing but leapt straight back up
again.It looked really cool as a dance
move.
In our yoga practice of this pose we need
to be thinking of trying to draw our feet back together again (while they move
apart).
This makes the posture active rather than
passive.
It will help make you stronger and more
mobile.
Step 1
A standing lunge. Stay here. I am trying to pull my feet together. No need to go further unless comfortable.
Step 2
Kneeling lunge. Be soft on the back knee by being active in the legs and feet. I am drawing front heel back and back knee forward. You can stay here. No need to go further.
Step 3
I start to move the front foot further away. I go slowly so I don't elicit a stretch reflex. You can see the back knee slightly raised. I try and draw my feet together as though trying to stand up. I am not sinking into my shoulders or hands at all.
Step 4
That front foot just keeps moving slowly forward.
Step 5
I have come all the way forward. I have moved my torso back while trying not to arch my lower back (tummy firm but calm). I am reaching forward and up through my armpits to lengthen my spine.
Of course, there is really no reason you
need to do this pose.It is fairly
extreme.
One of the benefits (which is not going to
make you a happier or healthier person by any means) is that if you are coming
into some other inverted postures like pincha mayurasana you can tap into the
pose with greater ease.
Below is a video of me coming into active hanumanasana with a variation.
Some additional points you might notice
from the videos:
I am not sinking into my hands or shoulders
at any point. I am trying to cultivate
lift and length and freedom in the spine through the actions of my legs. This is clearly shown in my fuller versions
of the posture where I take my hands off the ground, arms overhead, and reach
for the sky.
I am using my back foot strongly. You can do a
top of foot down version if you like.
I just prefer this one.
Most people think of this posture as
something to do with hamstrings. As soon
as you practice you should get an appreciation that the front of the thigh of
the back leg needs to be lengthened. If
it is not you can squash your lower back.
You can see that in my versions I begin to
move the whole spine back over the pelvis, trying to lengthen my spine while
coming into an upright position. This is
actually a pretty tough back bend and you need to monitor that the spine is not
squashing. I am firm in my tummy in a
way that I can still breathe into it, which helps.
I am reminding myself periodically to relax my face, my tongue, my lips.
I am breathing naturally.
I am enjoying the sun on my face, the
chirps of the birds, the call of loud children in the background playing with
their dog. I am feeling radiantly
alive! Firm but calm. Delighted with where I am and what I am
doing, whatever that is. I am connected to my body but not so inward
looking that I cannot sense others and I smile and nod as they pass by.
This is the type of thing we workshop in classes, and in our retreats in Bali and Sri Lanka. Hope to see you there. (www.artofliferetreats.com).
That was a comment from a passerby who
chatted to us as we practiced our outdoor class last week.
It certainly felt very real to us as we all
attempted to hold our active natarajasana!
Below is a photo of me in active natarajasana. Look, no hands!
Active natarajasana
If the passerby had have walked past a few moments later when I was in full natarajasana (picture at top of page) then no doubt she might not have even asked whether we were doing 'real yoga'.
The thing is, the top pose looks really impressive, but the active, less impressive looking one, is, in many ways, harder.
In this post I talk about how to progress to full natarjasana. A video of me coming into the posture is at the end of the post.
What
is Active Natarajasana?
Active natarajasana is where you try to
initiate the pose without using your hands.
It is relatively easy to pull your foot to
your bottom using your hand.
It is much, much, much harder to try and
draw your foot close to your bottom without using your hands and then try to
push your shin back and foot up (still without hands).
It is challenging for a number of reasons.
For a start you are trying to balance on
one leg as you do something tricky.
Then, while many people may have tight
hamstrings, not many have strong hamstrings (note you can be tight and weak).
Bringing your heel to your bottom without
hands activates hamstring muscles.
Try it yourself and see how much you can
bend your knee.
If you are like many people it wont be very
far.
In fact, you might be lucky to get it past
90 degrees.
Then, if you do manage, you might find that
you start to get a cramp either in your calf or foot or hamstring or any
combination of these and you somehow need to figure out how to come into the
pose without this happening!
Here I had a special note, it helps if you
do not point your toes and foot and if you move slowly.
Why
would I do active natarajasana?
Active natarajasana does not look that
impressive—until you try it for yourself!
I suppose that is one reason why the
passerby thought we were not doing real yoga.
But active natarajasana will help your
practice a lot.
Coming into poses actively helps you build
strength and reduces the chances of overstretching.And I generally find that hamstrings are
always in danger of being over-stretched by yoga students.
In this pose using the hip extensor and
knee flexor muscles to draw the body into the posture will help opposing
muscles (the ones that will be lengthened—the hip flexors) to relax.
This helps you come more deeply into the
pose without feeling like you are stretching since the muscle is more relaxed.
That means you improve mobility.
You can also learn to relax chronically
over-tense muscles.
Hip flexors are some of those muscles that
tend to be chronically short and tight given most people sit with them in that
position all day.
For some people this can, in turn, help
relieve low back tension.
If you find you cannot lift the leg at all, then you can get good work with just toe tip on the ground, as shown below.
What
next?
We don’t stay in active natarajasana,
although some of us choose to.That is
where we might be at.
If we want to move deeper, we then go to an
active-assisted version of the pose.
What
is active-assisted natarajasana?
The active assisted version is where you do
take hold of the ankle.
It is the way that you take hold of it and
what you do next that is important.
When you hold the ankle you cultivate a
push-pull action.
That is, you try to push the ankle/shin
into the hand as you pull with the hand (as though to bend the elbow).
When you do this you should find that some
of the muscles that have been lengthened now start to activate.
They are activating in a lengthened
state.
This posture is not about pulling your leg
up with your hand.
After I push my shin into my hand I then
push my foot up.
I will be able to take my leg higher in this
way.But the key point is that it is
still active.
At the same time there are other elements
to the posture.
I am trying to unsquash my lower back
through two main actions.
First, pushing sitting bones to heels and
top of pelvis back., which lengthens lower back.
Second, by using the free hand to push the
armpit forward and up, which has a whole spine tractioning effect.
Why
do active assisted natarajasana?
Start by remembering, you don’t have to do
it.
If you are in the posture you will find
that the muscles that are being lengthened are now also being activated, which
creates a relaxation effect when you come out of the posture.
That means you will have released even more
tension in those muscles.
However, you are also teaching your body to
be both strong and flexible.
Is
this for everyone?
Well, you should let your comfort be the
judge of that.
For people with chronic tightness in their
hip flexors such that they tend to get aggravated with activation I tell them
to stay with just the active version and avoid the active-assistive version.
That means they get the relaxation effect in
their chronically tight muscles by activating the muscles on the opposite side
of the joint.
As a teacher (remember you are the teacher
of your own self as well even if you do not teach other people) you don’t take
a one-size fits all approach to people’s bodies.
For people with chronic tightness in their
hip flexors that get aggravated by activation, I also modify postures that tend
to oblige hip flexors to be active.
While it might now sound like I am
back-tracking on active movement, it is actually that I am using a whole of
body approach to balance the activation that is required to move towards
freedom.
Here it starts to get very technical and
where you want to make sure you talk to a skilled yoga teacher before just
reading something on a blog!
Below I have taken a video of me going through the steps to come into the full natarajasana. It takes a lot of shoulder mobility. It is definitely not for everyone. Most people I know cannot get enough shoulder rotation to do this and you must move slowly. I do not encourage people to try without a teacher's guidance and it is only shown for demonstration purposes. You can see that I let my hand go at key points and try to hold my leg in position without the hand for a small moment.
Have fun with your active
natarajasana.You tell me whether you
think that is ‘real yoga’ or not!!
I teach active movements in classes and workshops and this is definitely something we will workshop on our retreat in Bali. Spaces are filling up fast so sign up soon.
