Bakasana Silent FIlm

Here I demonstrate basics of moving into bakasana from standing.  In upcoming workshops I will be going through the key actions.  Keep the actions from preceding movements as you move to the next.  I recommend you can comfortably lean onto your straight arms and dance on your tip toes before trying to take the legs off.  Practice safely and mindfully, and remember it is always better to find a teacher of your own.  Do not do anything that causes strain or stress.



Much metta,

Samantha

A Fun Arm Balance: Eka Pada Galavasana

Here I mime some of the key actions of this fun arm balance.  We will work on this more in my upcoming workshop!



Much metta,

Samantha

Silent Classes

This image is from https://www.threadless.com/designs/the-sound-of-silence.  You can buy a t-shirt from them with the print!

This week I woke up with a dolphin squeak of a voice that rapidly turned into some sort of monster parody, which eventually forced my sister to ask me to stop speaking in front of her children for fear of giving them nightmares.

It seems to be laryngitis.  That is something I have never had before.

A few interesting things happen when you cannot speak.  Well, they happened to me and I found them interesting.

First, I realised that I could forget I had lost my voice because I was still chattering away inside my head.  It was very noisy in there.

Second, sometimes if you don't speak, people will just ignore you.  That's particularly frustrating when you feel like you have a lot of interesting things to say.

Third, sort of an extension of the second, I realised how language helps us feel connected to other people.  There were several incidents I found terribly amusing but found I couldn't share them as they were too hard to mime and I did not have a pen and paper.  Because I couldn't share them, they somehow didn't seem as funny.

Fourth, I also realised that you don't need to speak to share things.  It just makes it easier.  Charlie (the dog) and I have 'meaningful' (to me) cuddles and we don't say a word.  Lots of kids I worked with in Sri Lanka could not speak at all due to disability but we played and had lots of fun together.

Fifth, I realised that I am a very good yoga mime and sometimes people in classes do better when I just show and don't tell.

Here I will just insert an amusing anecdote on the subject of miming.  It has a loose relationship to yoga.

A friend organised a yoga retreat for me at a hotel in Sri Lanka.  She was German and ran a business for a particular subset of rotund German tourists who seemed to spend a lot of time swanning around in small, tight swimwear no matter the venue, and who relied on her to sort out even minor issues in their travel itinerary.

"My God, these people!" she exclaimed after a particularly challenging day of incessant visits from her speedo wearing countrymen.

"You think they cannot get dressed a little decently in the lobby?  No, instead, I have to sit at the desk with some man's crotch at eye-level and sort out their toilet paper for them!"

"Really!" she went on, not yet finished.  "Surely it is not that difficult to communicate you need more toilet paper.  You don't need language to do that!"

And right there she jumped up and began to mime wiping her backside, taking her had to an imaginary wall with an imaginary toilet roll holder and pointing at her hand and raising her eyebrows to show the surprise that there was no toilet paper.  It was very funny at the time.

But all this brings me to the matter of showing rather than telling and leading a yoga class in silence.

As though to pre-empt my laryngitis last week I, when I still had a voice, I got to a particularly tricky pose in the sequence (eka pada koundinyasa I).

"I am not going to give you verbal instructions here," I announced.  "Just watch me.  I will show you what to do."

And so I broke the pose down into component parts slowly, pausing at each stage, pointing and tapping the body part I was using or moving for emphasis.

And people did beautifully!

I do believe our body has its own intelligence and for a lot of people our thoughts get in the way of us just doing.

When it comes to backbends I often pause and just get people to watch what I am doing without too much explanation.

This is because I believe your cells 'see' things.  By this I mean that when your body sees another body moving beautifully and freely I believe our bodies just want to find that movement within itself.  If we allow it to move as it feels then we can often surprise ourselves and come into poses effortlessly.  This is something I learned from watching my great teacher, Paddy McGrath.

Having said this, instructions are important and there is a place for them, especially when you are new or if there is some 'inner' work going on (and there always is but often this inner work will come naturally if we let it).

However, I think we sometimes place too much emphasis on them.  We can over-instruct, over-think, over-analyse.

Over-doing anything will block the flow of energy through the body.   The primary purpose of my classes, as I say at the beginning, is to move energy through the body.  Over-stretching, over-tensing, over-breathing, and over-thinking can interrupt this flow.  This is something I learned from another great teacher, Simon Borg Olivier.

Anyway, that said, this week's classes will continue to be in enforced silence, with me miming and clicking my way through.  Use it as an opportunity to explore your own movement, let your cells 'see' and do, worry less about whether you are following every instruction, and just enjoy moving!

Hope to see you in class soon!

Much metta,
Samantha

 

Do I Need To Tell You How To Breathe In Class?

 

Simon Borg Olivier in Nauli.  Photo from Yoga Synergy
(http://blog.yogasynergy.com/author/simonborgolivier/page/7/)

Students always have great questions and I love to hang around after class and talk.  Sometimes the questions come in the few minutes before class and I always try and discuss them as best I can.  Time and my own deficiencies in clearly articulating some concepts can get in the way. 

Lucky I have a blog.  And lucky my extraordinary teachers do as well so I can link you to them!

This morning a student who came to a class the previous day said she loved the class but was confused about the breathing because I wasn't telling her how to breathe and all of the other teachers were.  

This made me smile.  I joked with her whether she needed me to tell her how to breathe when she went for a walk and she smiled back and said no, she was ok doing that on her own.

The thing is, at the beginning of the class I do tell people how to breathe.  I tell them to breathe naturally and that natural breathing is breathing into their belly.  This is what I learned from senior teachers like Paddy McGrath and Simon Borg Olivier.  There are other ways of breathing but I can only teach how I learned. 

What I wasn't doing was telling her when to breathe and she noted other classes she was always being told when to breathe. 

So I did a little experiment with her that my teachers have shown me.  By this time other students had arrived and we all joined in.  I said, 'take your arms overhead'.  No-one moved and I guess they thought I was being rhetorical or something so I said, 'no, really, take them up.'

They took them up.  

Then I said take them down.  They took them down.

I said, 'take them up'.  They did.

I said, 'did you just breathe in?'

They thought about it and said, 'yes.'

'Did I have to tell you to breathe in?' I asked.

They smiled no.

'Now take them down,' I directed.

They did.

'Did you just breathe out?' I asked.

They smiled yes.  

Simon Borg Olivier does this sort of thing in his workshops and it was a  big realisation for me that I had been over-instructing breathing to students and, in so doing, getting them to breathe more than they needed in their practice. 

Yoga is not too difficult.  You shouldn't need to breathe like you are jogging or take in a lot of air while you practice.  Taking your arms overhead is not too taxing for most people yet we often get told to breathe in deeply and take the arms up or are encouraged throughout class to breathe deeply.  Often, when you are told to breathe you will start to breathe more than you were before being told to breathe.  Essentially, being told to breathe can often cause us to over-breathe.

Now it is true that some people hold their breath and grip when they are practicing, causing some tension.  To them I just remind them to breathe naturally and relax the jaw, lips, and tongue.  

If people are in challenging poses I often as them to talk to me as a sign that they can breathe naturally and manage.  

Now, I am not a breathing expert and you need to go to other sources for more expertise.  Simon has a great blog post on the benefits and effects of both over and under breathing (hyper and hypo ventilation).  You can read it here.

I don't want to convey that breathing is not important.  We need to breathe.  Bianca Machliss from Yoga Synergy instructs breath in posture very well by reminding people to take a small sip in so that when she instructs the breath in posture she tries to ensure you do not breathe in more than you need.  It is important to note it is not a full breath in or out that is being instructed.  This is probably too much for what you are doing at the time.  

Finally, I also note that the senior asthangis I have practiced with have an amazing breath practice but that it also involves strong bandha and that the breath and bandha are intimately involved and it is beyond me to talk about that.  I just wanted to provide some food for thought noting that in the style of yoga I am teaching we just breathe naturally when we start out until we become very proficient in our postures and then we can learn some more tricks about breathing.

Much metta and joyful practicing! 

Is it wrong to take your shoulders towards your ears when reaching overhead?

A photo of me pressing my armpits forwards and upwards, essential for this more advanced backbend. [Image from Canberra Yoga Space].

Is it wrong to take your shoulders upwards as though to your ears? 

Do you know you have muscles put on your body to do precisely that?  Has your body been designed incorrectly?

It is not wrong to take your shoulders upwards towards your ears.  Ordinary life requires it, especially when reaching overheard. 

Go find a shelf that is beyond your reach and try to reach for something that is on it.  Barring any shoulder/neck issues you will no doubt automatically take your shoulder forward and upward.  If you looked to the side you could probably smell your armpit it is so high.

If you have young kids then take them to a playground and watch them swing and hang from bars.  You will see that when they hang their shoulders are right up beside their ears (and they will probably bring their knees to their chest with ease, something that most adults cannot do!). 

The movement of shoulders towards ears is a natural movement that will happen in overhead reaching, often with a little side bend if you are doing it one-armed.

So I have to ask myself why am I being told in some yoga classes I attend to take my shoulders away from my ears when they are overhead?

[And I have to ask myself why did I sometimes say this to students when I was a new teacher?  Certainly not because my senior teachers had ever told me to.]

Here are some reasons I have come up with.

·      People think that a lot of us already have tension around the upper shoulders and next and hold our shoulders in a little shrug so as a yoga teacher we should tell them to counter this by keeping them down away from the ears.

·      People think it squashes the neck to take the shoulders to the ears in overhead movements.

·      People want to strengthen muscles around the shoulder blades, especially when they give the instruction to pull the shoulder blades down and together. 

There could be other reasons as well and it would be great to hear from people about this.

Here is why I am not comfortable with those three reasons as being sufficient explanation or justification for teachers to give the instruction to move the shoulders away from the ears in overhead reaching. 

Overhead reaching includes poses like adho mukha svanasana (downward dog), adho mukha vrksasana (handstand), urdhva hasta tadasana (standing with arms overhead), utkatasana (fierce or chair pose), urdhva dhanurasana (back arch from the floor), and virabadhrasana 1 (warrior 1).  There are many more, including most of the advanced backbends where you reach and catch a toe behind your head, as well as inversions like pincha mayurasana and headstand.

First, it is true that many of us hold subconscious tension around the upper shoulders and hold them in a little shrug.  But we generally hold them in a little shrug, not a big one, and the shoulder never gets the chance to go all the way up.  It is important to encourage people to take their joints through their full natural range of movement.

Also, sometimes people who hold persistent slightly shrugged shoulders might not be aware they are doing so.  Sometimes activating the muscles with consciousness and taking them all the way up can alert them can help them become aware of this and learn to notice when there is slight tension and then learn to try to relax.

Importantly, as I discuss later, if they are going to take their arms overhead for advanced postures they need to take learn to move their shoulders towards their ears when it is required or they will squash their spine.

Second, it is true that it can squash the neck if you take your arms overhead and lift shoulders to ears.  However, that is often because people are trying to take their arms overhead and then behind their ears or level with their ears.  Most western people are way too stiff to be able to do this correctly. 

Instead, if you take the arms overhead and push the armpits forward and up you should find any neck squashing tendencies are countered. 

Allow people to keep their arms in front of their ears and encourage them to push their armpits in the direction they are facing. 

If anyone still feels any neck squashing then you could instruct them to take the arms lower so they are in front of the face (but still pushing armpits forward). 

Third, I believe this is probably an instruction that is not helpful in yoga with overhead reaching positions.  The reason is I have seen it given mostly in positions where the spine is upright and also extended (going towards a backbend). 

In a backbend you want to use your arms to help you create length in the spine, not compression. 

The instruction to move the shoulders down and together will create compression in the spine.

The instruction to move the armpits and shoulders up and forwards will create length in the spine. 

To tell people to bring the shoulders down in poses like utktasana or virabadhrasana 1, where the lower back is already more likely to be squashed (though with careful practice it will not be), will place most people at risk of further squashing their spines. 

It is not until you start to move into more advanced postures that you realize the real importance of being able to take shoulders up and forwards.  Drop-backs, backbends from the floor and advanced backbends that involve reaching arms overhead to hold onto a foot that is also circling behind and up (like a full natarajasana or kapotasana) all require you to take the armpits towards the ears. 

Ask any practitioner who is in those poses to do otherwise and they will instinctively tell you no way as it will shorten the back body, which they are trying to lengthen. 

My view is that we are trying to help people free their spines, not squash them.  So let’s give them instructions that will help them in that regard.  While you may not be teaching your students these advanced backbends, poses like vira 1 and utktasana are preparatory poses for those positions and if you do not give appropriate instructions in those poses they will never get to the more advanced versions.

If you want to help them build strength around the shoulder blades through actions of drawing them back and down there are other postures more suitable.

These include poses that require interlacing behind the back, or the floor backbends that do not involve taking the arms overhead such as up dog or the simple forms of dhanurasana where you hold the ankles (but not the full dhanurasana which has you take the arm forward and overhead to reach the toe), or simple bridge poses with arms interlaced behind the back. 

It might be a more useful cue for your students to watch they do not flare their lower ribs forward as they take their arms overhead. Stiff people will often use spinal extension to get their arms fully overhead by pushing the ribs forward to compensate for lack of movement in the shoulders.  This can again squash the lower back and it is perhaps more useful for them to not take the arms so high so the spine is not masking the work. 

I want to finish by being clear that I am talking about taking shoulders to ears in overhead reaching positions.  Also, I want to be clear that I do not think it is wrong to take shoulders away from the ears (depression).  That is also a natural movement of the body. 

However, I wanted to inspire some thought about considering the consequences of what you instruct and whether your instruction is contradicting another instruction you are giving, or whether you really mean to be giving that instruction for that particular pose.  I see this frequently when teachers tell me to lengthen my spine in vira 1 and then come and tell me to pull my shoulders down and back.

For me, the best instruction to give is to tell people to activate their armpits when taking the arms overhead so the armpits press in the direction they are facing.  In an overhead position this is forward and upward.  I learned this from Simon and Bianca at Yoga Synergy.  

This simple instruction can be applied to positions where the arms are not overhead, such as plank, where again you can just instruct people to push the armpits in the direction they are facing (in that case down towards the floor and towards the hips).  If I take my arms behind my back I can press my armpits down and towards one another.  You can learn more about this and other tips to enhance your yoga practice via the Yoga Synergy online anatomy course. 

While about to post this, I also found another article that explains some of these ideas from an anatomical perspective written by Dr Roger Cole.  You can link to it here.

Also, last year I also wrote a post about taking the shoulders away from the ears!  There, I focussed on addressing the tension that gives some of us chronic tension and causes that habitual half-shrug look about us in our day to day life (I rather, perhaps unthinkingly called it rugby neck, mainly based on the look of the shrugging shoulders not necessarily what is happening at the shoulders).  My aim was to get people to use some tricks outside of yoga (e.g., at their desks) to catch that creep, or to provide them with a useful tool to counteract the tension.  However, in that post I clearly stated there are occasions where you want or need to take them up--especially in overhead positions.  I promised to write more on that but it has taken me time.  This article is the article I should have written a while ago on that matter!

Dynamic Balance

One legged standing poses can strengthen the standing leg and promote mobility in the raised leg hip

Standing on one leg helps develop stability in the hips, knees, and ankle of the standing leg.  When you are really stable on that leg you can do all sorts of interesting things with the rest of your body.


In the videos below I demonstrate how you can do a lot more with one legged standing poses than just plain old vrksasana (tree pose).  Not that there is anything wrong with vrksasana--it's great too.  But there is a lot more you can do in standing balances that will take your non weight bearing hip through more range of movement while moving energy through the spine.  



These movements are based on my interpretation of the opening postures of the Yoga Synergy Air Sequence.  Please go to the original teachers, Simon Borg Olivier and Bianca Machliss for expert guidance (www.yogasynergy.com).

I have filmed a simple version and a more complex version.  Do what feels right for you. 

One-legged dynamic standing sequence: Simple version

For most of these postures it helps if the weight bearing foot is slightly turned out.  Allow the standing leg to be bent.  You do not have to straighten it.  You can claw with the standing toes a little.  It helps with balance.  Relax your gaze.  In the beginning it helps to look at the floor but with practice you will find you can find other points of focus on.  Let the grounded foot move and wobble as needed to help you find your balance.  


The standing leg hip might try to jut out to the side so try to keep it in.  It's important that you don't feel squashing around the front of the thigh or in the lower back.  Make subtle shifts to keep these areas at ease.  It helps to keep reminding yourself to let the sitting bones move down the back of the thighs.  Relax the tongue, lips and jaw.    


The instructions for the simple and more complex versions are basically the same.  Don't raise the toe if it does not feel right.  You will develop your balance skills even if you keep the toe on the ground.  

Over time, you can lighten the load on the toe so it is just the toenail touching and one day, perhaps, the toe might feel like floating off.  Don't be in a rush to get there and even when you do come back to the toe tip practice sometimes.  I often do and it feels great.

One-legged dynamic standing balance sequence: More complex version

Instructions

Stand comfortably.  Knees soft.  Soften the sitting bones down the back of the thighs to create relaxed space in your lower back.  Relax the face.  Breathe naturally.

Stand comfortably

Simple version

More complex version

From standing comfortably, lean to the right and take your left toe tip forward.  Move the hips forward. Roll the shoulders out, chest rises.  Stay, or lift the toe.  Stay or straighten the leg.  Raised thigh rolling out. 

Simple version

More complex version

Toe tip down, take it to the side.  Thigh rolls out.  Roll the shoulders in.  Hips move forward.  Stay, or lift the toe.  Stay or straighten the leg.  Raised thigh rolling out.

Simple version

More complex version

Toe tip down, arms down.  Roll the thigh in.  Take the toe diagonally behind, knee straight.  Raise the opposite elbow to shield your face.  Lengthen through the front side waist and move the back leg hip forward and up to firm the opposite waist.  Stay, or raise the toe.  

Simple version

More complex version

Toe tip down, elbow down.  Take the toe tip behind you, knee straight.  High on the back toes.  Thigh rolls in.  Push both armpits down towards your waist.  Move the hips forward. Slowly lower the body a third to a half way, however much is comfortable.  Stay, or raise the toe.  

Simple version

More complex version

Toe tip down, thigh rolls in, body rises.  Raise the same side elbow, lengthen through the waist.  Stay, or raise the leg.  

Simple version

More complex version

Toe tip down, elbow down, you are still in a twist.  Toe tip forward, hips forward, take the arms forward and across to twist the other way.  Turn the head and look over your front shoulder, chin to the middle of the throat  head tipped to the side to lengthen the top side of the neck.  Stay, or raise the toe.  Perhaps straighten the leg.  






Return to centre.  Repeat on the other side.  Happy and safe practicing.  Look forward to seeing you in class.

Much metta,

xo Samantha

Using Your Core Wisely For Ease in Arm Balances

In this video I am trying to transmit teachings I have learned from Simon Borg Olivier (www.yogasynergy.com) and apply them in arm balance poses that we practice regularly in class, the simplest of which is bakasana.  I advise you to attend Simon's classes where you can.

The basic idea is to generate some thrust or power through the abdomen in a way that you can feel relaxed and calm but which will generate the lift you need for arm balances.  Please re-read earlier posts on how to use your hands and armpits as this is assumed knowledge here.

There are many ways to come into bakasana and my intention here is to find a way that allows you to breathe into your belly while it is firm.  I do not mean to infer that other ways are incorrect.  I like practicing this way because, as you will see in the video, I can smile and talk and have a good time in a strong pose because I am at ease.

The great thing about this way of coming into bakasana is that there is only one basic instruction, albeit with a few caveats.

That basic instruction is to start with a relaxed belly and attempt to push the hips forward.  This is not a pelvic tuck.

If you watch the video you will see I start in standing.  I soften the knees.  I let the sitting bones feel as though they are melting down the back of the legs (give length to the lower back, this is not a pelvic tuck).  I relax my belly and breathe into it.

I poke my fingers deep into my squishy belly so you can see it is relaxed.  As a little sidebar, I don't normally walk around with my t-shirt tied up in an 80s Flashdance knot, I just wanted to show you I am  not sucking all of my belly in and that I am starting with a soft belly.

Then I simply move both hips forward.

If you perform this action yourself you should feel that your lower belly automatically becomes firm.  You didn't have to tell it to do so, it just did.  Isn't your body amazing?  This is what I have learned as creating firmness through posture.

Note, you will be unlikely to feel this if you started with a tense belly.  So, let it relax.  Let it hang out.

When done correctly you should still be able to breathe into your belly, although it will not feel as though it is moving out so much anymore.  This is because it has become firm through the posture.

Once you understand this in standing you can try to maintain this feeling as you fold forward.  Only do this if it feels safe and comfortable for you to do.

You can see that I bend my knees to do a forward bend.  This helps me keep the forward momentum of the hips and the postural firmness.

The thing is, as you fold forward the firmness is going to want to escape.  It will almost definitely escape if you try to stick your bottom back and up.  If you look at me, I am trying to move more forward and down so the hips can keep trying to move forward.

To come all the way to the floor my bottom will actually move back a little.  But I keep trying to move it forward.

If, when you put your hands flat on the floor you feel you have lost the firmness then come back up again and try again.

When you can maintain this firmness, lean further into the hands--as much as is safe and comfortable for you.

Perhaps your feet will start to become light and you can dance your toes in so your knees come to rest on your upper arms.  I am not gripping or squeezing them.  I am resting them lightly.  As lightly as possible.  The power if coming from the firmness I have created in my torso and this helps me generate lift so I do not sink.

I apply these principles in other arm balances too.  However, I use postural firmness like this in all of my postures. My whole yoga practice is using my core.  Using it in a very special way; to quote Simon, to create stability with mobility and ease.

Please watch and re-watch is incredible video on the matter of whether it is correct to pull navel to spine here.