It does not rain it pours! Two videos in about ten minutes.
This is also from our current sequence and is part of the standing practice. I have also sped it up. I quite like the flow of the movement at this speed but when you practice try at least a quarter speed. The real-time practice took about 8 minutes.
I could have equally called this practice interesting spine because it is really about spinal movement. But I also want to cue you into turning the hips and then the feet when you move from the central posture to the asymmetric ones.
A very long time between postings! Yikes. This one I promised to my students several weeks ago and is from our current practice.
I generally don't recommend practicing something without a teacher and especially not this one if you are not familiar with the hip rotation.
But for those of you who are, here it is! At last.
Remember, keep the ankles off the floor. Turn the hips and let the feet follow. Move slowly--there is no rush. If you are 'looking' for anything it is joy and not an end posture.
I practiced outside on this lovely patch of grass in the winter chill where I had fresh air, a kiss of sun on my skin, and the pleasure of a the earth beneath my feet. Why not find your own patch of grass?
I have sped up the clip so if you were to practice this it should take at least twice as long.
Hi! I am away in Nepal/Sri Lanka from 23 June-18 July 2017 so no classes then. I will be back 19 July 2017 and classes will resume then. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Looking forward to travelling to Colombo, Sri Lanka for a holiday and to run these yoga workshops in April. We will be outdoors but under cover at Sooriya Village.
We will get a chance to explore movement and poses and work towards improving your practice or maybe starting one. I particularly want you to learn about spinal movement, about active movement, and pain-free movement.
Please contact either myself or Tilak for more details.
samanthawhybrow@hotmail.com
tilak@antsglobal.lk
If you know you want to book just contact Tilak but if you have any questions about what we will do, whether it is suitable for you, any concerns about injuries etc that you might have then feel free to contact me. Oh, Tilak is the guy in the photo in the batman t-shirt raising his leg quite impressively in a standing balance!
I love sidebends. While out and about today I found some nice spots to practice a few.
These sidebends are spinal sidebends. My spine curves to the side.
Key to this type of side bending is that I make an effort to lengthen one side without squashing the other side. You can sort of just droop yourself and look like you are side bending but that just makes you feel squishy and sometimes squashy.
When I teach side bending I often say imagine the arc of water coming from a firefighter's hose as it tries to go up to a high window on a tall building. It does not mean you have to be upright but rather you get an internal feeling that you are reaching up and over rather than just leaning out to the side. As always, lift rather than sink.
The video below shows some standing sidebends, including some balancing variations.
These sidebends should feel active. There are a few key elements to each of them that I will mention here.
In general I am pushing my front of groins forwards.
In particular I am pushing the front groin forward and up on the side that I sidebend to
I press the same side armpit down to that same front groin
On the lengthening side I am reaching up and over
On the lengthening side I am pushing my armpit forward and up and over as though I am bringing my armpit towards my face/nose
Once I have my sidebend I turn my navel, ribs, and chest towards the lengthening side
Then I do a little backbend through my whole spine
If you do not know what these things mean or feel like it is best to come to class.
In the first standing variation I start with a sidebend and balance on tip toe. Then I deepen it by transferring the weight to that ball of foot (rather than being on tip toe).
In this posture I keep leaning more weight onto the ball of foot.
I am not leaning or sinking down into the leg with the lower arm. Rather, I am actively pushing that armpit down.The arm remains straight and I do not dump the weight into it. While it is on the knee I am using it to press and help me lift more.
In this posture I am side bending, then I do a twist, then I do a little backbend. You can find your own comfortable position for your neck.
Do keep pressing front of groins forward in this posture so you do not end up with your butt hanging behind you.
In the second variation I take this to a more challenging balance with the leg raised.
I hug that knee to the chest and then go for a sidebend there.
In the third variation I straighten the bent knee and take my top hand over to the foot if possible.
I make sure to maintain sidebend, twist, and then a little backbend.
This third variation is obviously quite tricky.
Catching the foot means you need to be long in the legs and long in the side body and be able to maintain a turn.
Sometimes people try to grab the foot without regard to the rest of the posture and so they lose the twist and some of the sidebend.
This is because when you lean your body forward and turn your torso towards the ground it makes it 'easier' to get the foot. Alas, you will have left half of the posture behind!
So, bear in mind the point of this position is to sidebend and turn. It is not to get the foot. Do not sacrifice the posture for the foot.
In the video you can sort of see that my foot and hand come to meet one another without me losing the positions I had established beforehand.
The first two of these balance variations somewhat resemble parsvakonasana. They are, indeed, a sort of balance version of that posture.
Parsvakonasana is a pose where you can sidebend, then twist, then do a little backbend. It feels delicious.
Whether or not you reach the ground is irrelevant. Most people will not be able to do that and it is ok. If you make sure you maintain the key actions you should find that you are doing a lot of work in this posture without ever needing to reach for the ground.
I found this lovely arch to do parsvakonasana beneath. It inspired me because the arch shape reminded me of the arch of my sidebend.
I found out that this gate was a gift to Canberra by the Hungarian government made by a Hungarian artist. It is quite beautiful.
Happy and safe practicing. Look forward to seeing you outdoors soon!
We had a mini-workshop on the weekend (unplanned) where our class ended up playing around with hornstand and ways to help ourselves in this posture.
Hornstand is a forearm balance--that means the head is not on the ground. The head is as far away from the ground as you can manage. If your head starts to unintentionally dip towards the ground while you are in this posture then come out.
You should feel light and lifting in this posture and all of its variations. If you feel heavy and sinking then these practices are not for you just yet.
In the video below I have put some ways to practice hornstand with increasing difficulty. I have skipped the more basic practices and this post assumes you can get yourself into a downward dog on forearms position while feeling freedom around the neck and shoulder area. If you cannot then don't practice any of these variations.
Variation one is against the wall with your tummy facing the wall. I get myself into a small little ball and then 'emerge' into forearm down-dog from this little ball. I am not concerned with straightening my legs but more trying to let my spine unroll and feel as light as possible. In class I sometimes say it is as though a crane has got your hips and is just lifting them straight up.
In this wall variation I am on tip toes. The soles of my feet are against the wall. Being able to be on the tip toes is important for the upcoming variations.
If it feels comfortable (and no sinking head) I can take one foot up, then the other. My legs are not straight. I am not trying to make an 'l' shape. If possible I take one leg up and reach up through the ball of foot and hang out there. This is actually 'easier' than having both feet on the wall. It is a great way to start to feel your balance and lightness. Don't try to take two feet off. If you come crashing down it will be into the wall and will really hurt.
Variation two relies on you being able to kick up to a wall. That is a technique in itself (not described here). If you can get to the wall then I practice trying to find my balance point by keeping one tip toe on the wall as lightly as possible. Then, slowly remove the other leg and bring it more over your shoulders. You will need to find the place where you feel like it is helping you lift and reach and balance.
Keeping the toe tip lightly on the wall you hang around there and start to pay around with putting weight through the horn and making slight weight shift variations until that toe tip starts to 'float' off the wall. When you are in the right balance the toe will just come away from the wall so don't try to take it off.
Variation three is the full hornstand away from the wall. Look how far my kicking leg has to come behind me initially. I spend some time in a sort of 'splits' with the legs and slowly bring the front leg up as I bring the back leg forward to bring them together.
Don't practice this without a teacher. This post is mainly intended for regular class attendees who can get individual attention and adjustments so we can discuss whether this is appropriate for you.
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.
