I had the privilege of being in a lovely garden in the hill country in Sri Lanka. Thanks to all of the people who looked after us there at Kelburne Cottages, Haputale.
It is a 6 hour trip by car along winding roads and it feels nice to move your spine in different ways when you have been sitting for so long.
I felt like doing some sidebends in particular.
Spinal side bending is when the spine actually lengthens on one side relative to the other rather than just tipping your body sideways with both sides equal length.
I emphasised the side bending of the spine with some shoulder/arm movements and it is those that are deconstructed a little more in this video.
I lift the shoulder, then the elbow, then I roll the upper arm out (that is where you see the elbow start to point down), then I reach out my forearm and fingers from there.
In the video I move my head last. I move it in a way that keeps the sides of the neck feeling long. Only move your head and neck in ways that feel comfortable. For many people that might mean you stay looking down.
I had this lovely grass to practice on with birds singing and a beautiful garden behind me. In the video that looks amazing. Yet when I practice my focus is inward and directed more towards noticing how it feels to move.
This practice is repetitive and the movements start to flow nicely and I could have stayed repeating them for much longer. The video lasts for 8 minutes and I finished more because I was conscious of how long it would take to upload the video rather than because I was ready to finish.
When you practice you could go for longer or shorter. You could try the upper body and arm movements from sitting if you are too tired to stand. You could even lie down and imagine yourself doing them.
Do not do anything that hurts. It is always better to find an actual person and learn from them. Happy and safe practicing.
Much metta,
Samantha
PS Canberra yogis, we are back for our outdoor practice from Sunday 6 May 2018.
It has been a long time between postings. We have still been out there practicing our yoga together and here is something we are thinking about in our current sequence.
The video below shows our practice of trikonasana in three variations.
Fundamentally the major actions are the same in all three variations. It is just that as I progress to 'closer to the ground' options I make sure I bring my back leg pelvis around.
Bringing the back leg pelvis around means I am progressively bringing the pelvis more towards the front leg.
Hand on back leg pelvis to show I have turned it more
If you practice this way you will feel how bringing your pelvis around helps to 'free up' the front hip joint and you can move your torso more freely.
In each of the variations I am doing many key things, ones I will mention here are:
I start this one from gadjastan (elephant stance). This puts my hips in external rotation (they are rolling out).
I turn the 'front leg' foot out some more to match the rolling out of the front thigh.
I turn the whole back thigh in, allowing my pelvis to come with me as it needs so that I don't feel strain on my inner thighs and so my front thigh is not struggling to roll out.
I 'stretch the ground' with my feet.
I lift up and out over my front leg with my torso in a way that my spine is not drooping to the floor and my side waists stay long.
I let me bottom hand go down wherever it goes to without drooping the spine to the floor.
I keep my pelvis where it is and turn my navel, ribs, and chest towards the sky.
I reach up with my top hand if that feels comfortable.
I put my head and neck in a comfortable position.
I do a gentle backbend along my spine.
As I progress from one posture to the next my legs stay in place but I start to allow my pelvis to turn even more, which allows me to place my bottom hand further down my leg as it pleases.
Hand on sternum to show I am thinking about lengthening the spine
In the final variation I do a 'wrap'. Most people will not be able to do this wrap. Often they will try to take their bottom hand underneath the front leg by bringing their whole spine forward and so end up losing the alignment of the spine in this position. If you watch the video you can see that when I wrap and bind I do not go into a forward bend of the spine. In the video I touch my sternum so you can see that I am emphasising lengthening rather than shortening of the front of the body.
Happy and safe practicing. It is better to practice with a teacher present.
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.
In particular review the first video on supine activation (shown again below) that gives you an idea about what your tummy is doing in these postures.
Ok, so now you have reviewed (and practiced and understood) the importance of tummy activation we can have a think about some other thoughts on helping hamstrings, hips, and spine.
In these sequences I highlight the idea of bringing chest to knees. This is an active movement that we do by initially using tummy activation first and then using hip flexion.
With these postures I am using an active tummy movement then trying to lengthen my spine along the front of the thigh. A more apt description would be that I am not so much trying to bring chest to thigh but trying to bring belly button to thigh and then take my belly button to the knee along the front of the thigh.
If you are thinking of bringing chest to thigh this can create a tendency to droop or drop the chest when I actually want spinal length. In this practice if your spine will not lengthen then you are too deep in the posture.
This might require a radical rethink of your postures and movement.
While it may not immediately seem apparent, these are all fairly intense forward bends. There is a danger of over stretching. Do not attempt intense forward bends without supervision or a good understanding of your own lower spine. Best to practice with a teacher. As with all postures, you must be careful and go slowly.
Video
The video shows how I have lengthened my spine along the front of my thigh in the various incarnations of this posture. You should only straighten your leg if you can keep your spine long and do not feel strain. This will be beyond the capacity of most people.
STANDING UPRIGHT VARIATIONS Step 1: Toe and hips forward
Lengthen lower back (sitting bones to heels, top of pelvis back.
Toe forward, hips forward. This should help create postural firmness in your tummy.
Step 2: Knee raise
Lift knee forward and up. Make sure you keep hips forward.
Step 3: Spinal forward flexion
I bend forward from my spine to activate tummy muscles more (like I am doing a sit up in my tummy). I am trying to bring my chest towards the thigh without drooping the chest (keep it long).
Step 4: Push and press
Hold shin. With bent elbows pull with your hands but press with your shin.
There will be a tendency for the tummy to switch off here as the arms take over. But keep it on!
I try to wriggle my belly button up along the thigh. This is lengthening the spine and you will see that my back body is long throughout.
Step 5: Lean back
I lean back to come towards an upright position. Some people will not be able to keep their chest and thigh together and come fully upright. So, stay forward and that is where you remain for the rest of the postures (do not go on).
Step 6: Open knee angle
Keeping all previous activations, take an arm behind the thigh to keep chest and thigh connected.
Slowly start to open the knee angle. Do this actively. I am not pulling it open with my hands here. I use my hand on my heel so I can push my heel into my hand and pull back with my hand.
You might not be able to open the knee angle and keep chest and thigh together so only open so far that they stay together. This is where you stay.
Step 7: Open
If the leg will continue to open comfortably then you can take both hands and continue to straighten the leg.
In this position my hand is helping to open my leg. I am not strong enough to take my leg up this straight against gravity.
But I make active efforts to straighten the leg with my front thigh muscles, and also keep a pushing action of heel into hand and hand into heel.
Tummy stays firm. Spine stays long.
LUNGING VARIATIONS Step 1: Lunge
I transitioned to this from the previous posture, keeping chest to thighs and belly button working towards knee. I kept an active tummy. Most people will not keep active tummy as this is an easy posture to just collapse into. This means collapsing tummy and collapsing into the hip joints.
It is important to remember how I came into this posture, which is first through active spinal flexion with tummy activation and then hip flexion keeping tummy firm. Finally, I do some spinal extension but trying to wriggle my belly button up towards my knee. You can see tieback of my body is long. In fact, it is pretty straight.
In this position I keep my back leg active.
Step 2: Lengthen
I go to a split here. It is a matter of slowly straightening my legs and keeping everything else the same. that makes it sound easy. But it is not!
UPSIDE DOWN SPLIT Step 1: Short lunge
Tummy firm, I come to a short lunge. Keep standing leg active so I don't collapse into my hip. I keep sitting bones down and top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back and keep front of groin unsquashed.
Step 2: Both knees to chest
Bring the back knee to chest. Both knees are working to chest. Keep front of groins unsquashed.
Step 3: Straight standing leg
Take the raised leg out behind you. I am rolling that thigh in. Pelvis level. Got to be mindful you do not sink into the standing hip and squash the front of groin.
Step 4: Take it up
The raised leg stays rolling in, straight, and I see if I can just take the leg up. Watch that you are not rolling the pelvis out.
SUMMARY
There you go. A few more variations
These are tricky ones because they are very easy to collapse into. It is easy to sink and be passive if you are not mindful.
You might see if you can bring knee close to chest while you are lying on your back and without the hands. That would be a good indicator of whether or not these variations are going to be possible for you.
If the knee will not come to close to the chest while lying on your back you are going to find these postures impossible or difficult or else you will probably be doing the by compensating with some other movement. It might be worth thinking about trying the supine variations for a while longer first.
have fun. Happy and safe practicing!
Much metta,
Samantha
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com
I had several questions about hamstring lengthening this week and this post has three videos to demonstrate some of the ways to help! You won't see any of the usual suspects.
Hamstring stretching or lengthening?
The truth be told, most people ask me how to stretch their hamstrings. It is I who always jumps in and reminds them that I will give them tips on how to relax and lengthen their hamstrings but I won't give tips on stretching them.
The thing is, these people know how to stretch their hamstrings. They have invariably been doing stretches for a long time. The problem is the stretches generally don't help them to feel better movement.
The postures and advice I give are mainly around helping them feel better movement without feeling like they are stretching, such as I am doing in the photo below.
Standing balance with leg raised and straight
In positions like the one shown I am actively trying to keep my leg straight while drawing it towards my chest. It does not feel like stretching at all. It feels like the back of my leg and bottom is lengthened.
When I do postures like this I am cultivating a relaxation response in my hamstrings (known as reciprocal inhibition. Basically, I work the opposite muscle groups to help relax the ones that I am trying to lengthen. Have a look at this post for some cool graphics: http://www.bandhayoga.com/keys_recip.html.
It feels like a lot of work in the standing leg, front of raised leg, and tummy. Most people miss the tummy activation in this posture, which tends to cramp you in the front of groin. Which leads to the point below.
Active positioning for spinal lengthening
In postures like the one shown below I am doing very important spinal lengthening and hamstring lengthening work. It is basically the same position as the standing balance shown above, but just lying down.
Active positioning to improve hamstring lengthening
The key difference (in terms of effort) is that I am obliged to use tummy muscles in a way I am not obliged to in the standing variation.
I am using my active core to send a message to my spinal muslces to relax as well.
Importantly, I am actively bending forward in my spine using tummy museles in a way I can still breathe into the tummy. If I tighten my tummy by tightening everything and shifting to chest moving breathing then I won't get the same relaxation effect.
Many people are limited in their forward bending because their lower backs are really tight as well as their hamstrings (and their hips).
The active movement in the core that you cultivate in this position is important and will help lengthen the spine and it is why I put the lying down sequence first in the videos below.
Try to remember the feeling in your tummy that you generate in this position (of it being firm but in a way you feel you can still breathe there) when you do the postures in the other videos.
Remember, better spinal movement is more important than being able to touch your toes.
As an aside, many observers wonder why I am not holding my foot when I do postures like the one above. And it is, I suspect, because of the focus on the sensation of stretching as opposed to the sensation of lengthening.
Holding the foot, the way most people tend to (which is to just grab the foot and pull the leg) generally means the muscles do not need to work and you lose the potential benefit of a relaxation response. Pulling tends to switch you to a sort of suffering and grimacing associated with tearing yourself apart!
It would also feel like I was not doing much work if I held the foot in that way because the big muscles that were working (including the core core muscles) have switched off.
The truth is most people cannot even grab their foot with their leg straight because their hamstrings (and lower back and hips) are too stiff. And so most people would probably be using a belt or towel or rope.
And then you have to ask yourself if you cannot bring your straight leg close enough to your chest to be able to hold it without a belt then should you really try to straighten your legs in positions like paschimottanasana and all the other seated forward bends? In my classes I encourage people to come into all seated bends with bent knees to lengthen the front and back of spine first and only then to slowly lengthen the legs on the condition the spine does not distort.
Lying video and key actions
The first postures to try are in lying because they oblige tummy activation (in a way you can feel the movement of the breath).
In general:
front thigh (coming close to chest) is rolling out (your knee looks like it is turning away from midline);
press down through the grounded thigh and keep it straight. Reach through the inner thigh;
keep the front knee straight. That is one of the main points--to keep is straight. It does not matter how close to the chest it comes. That will be a good indicator of your available active movement and something for you to contemplate when trying this posture in other relations to gravity;
as you move through the variations keep the whole back of the pelvis and sacrum touching the floor.
you will be doing sit-ups here so this is a good core strengthening sequence. If you feel strain at all in your neck you are doing the sit up incorrectly and you need to learn how to do sit ups without your neck feeling strained.
First position (lying parsvottanasana)
Lying down, draw straight leg towards face. Do a sit up and reach as though you are trying to touch the toes (but don't actually get them).
You need to actively lengthen the side hip area of the raised leg down towards the heel of the leg on the ground. The pelvis and hip tends to hike up on that side and squash the side waist. If you need to, put the web of your thumb in your groin to help actively lengthen that side waist. You should feel this as an action of rolling that thigh out.
Second position (lying trikonasana variation)
To get into position I bend the knee, take the thigh out to the side, ensure my whole back pelvis is still on the floor, and then straighten the leg from there. The pelvis of opposite side will tend to raise up if you try to get to the ground so be mindful of this.
Note, to make it real trikonasana type posture I need to add spinal movement and turn from bottom of spine to top away from the leg out to the side then do a little lengthening movement (not clearly shown in this video).
Again, keep that raised thigh actively rolling out. I am still trying to straighten leg and draw it towards my face but out to the side.
Third position (lying parivrtta trikonasana)
A tricky one and tough to capture on the video.
I bring the raised leg back to midline. I really need to make sure that the hip does not hike up here. Put a thumb in your groin if that is the sort of thing that might happen to you.
Keeping your pelvis on the floor, take that raised leg across your body. It will not go very far.
From there, you are still in a sit up, you can try to do a twist from the bottom to the top of spine, turning towards that leg.
It is not shown here but you could try a little spinal extension (lengthening from the front surface of your spine.
I could have positioned my arms better in this posture but was focusing mainly on spinal movement.
By the end of these postures you should sense your tummy very active! That will have helped lengthen the lower back and help you for the next series of postures in standing!
Standing balance video and key actions
In the standing balance video you see I do take my foot (after I have done the active postures first).
However, when I take my foot I straighten the leg out slowly without distorting my spine. I also press the foot and hand into one another so that the leg is active and not being passively pulled (this triggers another relaxation response).
In general:
raised sitting bone feels like it is scooping underneath you and lengthening in the lower back;
raised thigh is rolling out;
keep standing leg foot pointing straight ahead;
remember your core activation from previous postures and find it here.
Posture one
Watch the leg stays straight. Watch the raised leg hip does not hike up. Keep trying to feel as though you are smoothing your side hip down to the ground.
If comfortable you can try the assisted posture, shown below, by bending the knee, drawing thigh to chest, holding foot and pushing foot out as you draw in with the hand, keeping thigh and chest together slowly start to straighten the leg. If you have trouble in the lying sequence with getting your leg straight and past 90 degrees then you will not be able to do this and best to work with just holding the knee to chest and pressing shin to hands and hands to shin until you can start to slowly straighten the leg without thigh coming out from the chest. Be patient.
Position two
As you did with lying, bend the knee then turn the knee out to the side but still in front of you. As you did with the lying version do not let the pelvis move with you. Keep scooping the bottom under. Then try to straighten the leg. If it will not straighten then put the toe tip on the ground. From there try to straighten the leg and raise it.
You want to keep rolling the thigh out and scooping the bottom under.
This is really much harder than it looks as you will see if you try.
If you feel ok with the active version you can try and draw knee to side-front chest. Keep scooping hip under. From there you could try to keep knee and shoulder close and then slowly start to straighten. If knee comes out from shoulder then you have gone too far. Be patient and wait with knee in shoulder until the leg is almost straight when you can let it move away from shoulder a little.
Position three
The leg comes back to the front here. I need to be particularly careful the hip does not hike up. Then I rotate the spine from bottom to top, maintaining length through both side waists.
Standing postures
You can then try these positions in their more traditional forms; parsvottanasana, trikonasana, parivrtta trikonasana.
I have linked these postures without chaining my foot position at all. The thigh positions remain the same. The pelvis position does change when you move to trikonasana, but the lower back position does not (it remains lengthened). The pelvis position is a subtle change and it is just the top side pelvis that opens lightly to the sky. This opening does not cause a shift in the leg positions.
It is really tricky to do these postures all linked together without changing the foot positions and without falling over. You will need to keep your legs and feet very active.
Watch for your bottom sitting bone trying to stick out. I keep a light feeling of it scooping under to keep the length of the lower back.
The end
Phew, this has been a long post!
We have been working on some variations of this in class. Remember these videos are intended for my students so I can position and correct and answer questions. It is better to learn from a teacher you are physically present with than the internet.
Have fun. Stay safe.
Much metta,
Samantha
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com
In my day job I am an occupational therapist and work with kids with autism. At a school this week they read 'Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus'. That is a really cool book in case you have not read it.
Lots of yogis and everyday 'stretching people' adore what is often called pigeon pose (segue to this post!).
Personally, I have not done it the way most people do it for years. So I could not put a picture of me in it. Instead, I drew the pigeon in it.
Despite my substandard artistic abilities, I think I have managed to capture the basic gist of the way it is performed, including a sort of grimace of pleasurable pain that most people seem to get from it. You can google it and find other people doing it if you are still unsure
As a teacher I basically stopped teaching this pose like this when I moved towards a more 'organic' practice that involved ridding myself of things like yoga mats, props, pillows, cushions etc, etc, etc.
Mainly because so many people needed 'bolstering' to even get into the posture without feeling strain in their knees.
When I started practicing more 'active movements' rather than passive postures I found an alternative that uses the same joint positions but without the weight of the entire body pressing down on the knees.
This more active variation is also 'self-limiting' in the sense that you can really only make it to the next step if you are able to do the step before and there is less change of forcing yourself into the posture, whereas the squawking pigeon (as I have renamed the pose above) is easier to force yourself into.
Below is the active variation.
Did your pigeon face just go like this?
I didn't say it was easy, did I?
But don't worry. I have made a video to help you step by step into this variation.
You do not proceed to the next step until you feel comfortable in the preceding step. You will find even the first step is a great one to do if you hold it for a little while.
Video (eka pada galavasana)
This posture features in our current sequence. The outdoor yogis have made it through a Canberra winter and, as you can see, I am out enjoying the sunshine as I practice.
Step-By-Step
If you practice this (and remember it is intended for my students who come to class so we can talk about things and sense things as it is always best to learn from a physical teacher and not the internet) then there should be no strain. Move slowly and mindfully. Only go to the next step if you feel comfortable.
Hips forward, thigh rolls out Stand comfortably. Take one toe tip forward. I stay on the toe tip so most weight is on the other leg. Hips move forward. It looks like I am leaning back. This will help in a moment when you might try to raise the leg. Keep the standing leg outer hip moving to the centre of your body so you do not sink into it.
Raise knee, thigh rolls out, foot pulls back to shin
With the toe tip barely touching and the hips moving forward you should find it easier to raise the leg. Raise it if you can and then roll the thigh out. If you cannot raise it then keep toe tip down and roll the thigh out and just stay there until you find the balance possible.
Pull your toes and foot back towards your shin. This is really important if you are going to come into the balance later. This is the active standing version of pigeon! Pretty tricky isn't it! From there you could 'rest' by putting your ankle on your lower thigh. You have to play around a bit with a comfortable position.
Hips forward, reach up high
All postures should help us lengthen the spine without squashing. In the next steps you move the hips forward (rather than stick your butt back). Sticking your butt back tends to shorten or squash in the lower back.
From there I reach up high to really wriggle up and lengthen the spine. Feel long and tall.
Come forward
To come forward I get the feeling that I am still trying to move hips forward and lengthen my spine. I also keep the feeling that I am moving the standing leg hip in towards the centre so it is not swinging out to the side. In fact, I sort of feel as though I am drawing both hips together. If you allow your hip to swing out to the side you will lose the 'pigeon' hip opening feeling. I suggest you do not lose this in a 'quest' or attachment to the full variation of the posture. Instead wait patiently until you are ready to go further.
At a certain point my bottom does go back and I fold forward but the feeling is that I am trying to move the hips forward and keep lower back long and front of groin open.
Elbows bend, press down to ground and then together
This action around the shoulder joint and elbows is really important if you are going to balance. I bend the elbows so they point to the ground, then try to press the elbows together while trying to keep them about shoulder width apart. You should feel that your neck got a bit freer and your back body widened without squashing the chest.
Arms press to shins and shins press to arms, hips press forward
You cannot see to well all of the stuff that is going on at this point. I am making the effort of pressing my arms into my shin while at the same time trying to press my shin in my arm. The foot is hooking around the arm. At the same time I feel as though my hips are pressing forward so the whole body is pressing into the arms while the arms press back.
Lower
I lower forwards towards the ground. My heel has to raise to allow me to lower. I keep the connection of shin and arms. If you lose it you need to reestablish it if you get down with the same actions.
Lean forward
This is now just a matter of balancing and shifting your weight while maintaining previous actions. I lean forward. My back heel starts to raise until the foot lifts. Common errors I see people make at this stage are that their foot is too close and heel on the ground, perhaps because they have put their hands on the ground too close to their foot. Either wriggle your foot back or come down so you have to raise the heel off the ground already.
Heel to bottom
Once the foot floats off you can do an active lift, drawing heel to bottom.
Knee up
This bit is tricky. You need to have kept the effort of pushing hips forward and pushing shin forward into arm to be able to liberate that back leg. If you do not do those actions you will feel like you are sinking into the arms rather than lifting out of them.
Straighten leg
Straighten that leg. Keep the thigh rolling in (so it feels like your knee is pointing more towards the centre of your body).
You should feel firm but calm. Your tummy will be firm but in a way you can breathe into it. You should be able to talk to people passing by, smile, and feel like you are doing something but comfortable and not straining!
If you have practiced mindfully you should be a happy flying pigeon!
Enjoy your practice. Be active if you can. It feels less like stretching and tensing and more like lengthening and 'doing something'. You will move better and happier.
Looking forward to sharing this type of thing in my outdoor classes in Canberra and my upcoming retreat in Sri Lanka.
