How To: Handstand

Step by step guide into handstand.

Here are some tips:

  • Straight arms: Keeping the arms straight will keep you and your students out of “nose to floor” danger
  • Midline: Hug the inner thighs together to maintain a neutral alignment in the hips
  • Straight legs: Keeping the legs straight makes your students safer, more supported, and more in control.  Resist bending the knee to get to the wall – it will only create instability for most students
  • Shoulder blades: Draw the shoulder blades onto the back strongly to keep the upper back from rounding.  The action of the thoracic spine keeps the upper body from shifting forward (avoiding that “nose-wall” relationship!)
  • Patience: Handstand is psychological as well as physical.  Allow the gradual and calm unfolding.

 

How to: Chaturanga!

Learn to do and teach an excellently positioned Chaturanga. Use props to find your best alignment and protect the delicate shoulder joint for repetitive stress injury. Check out as we do this is in the YYoga 200-hour Teacher Training.

How to: Chaturanga to Updog

This is a challenging transition for the best of us! Check out these options that you can use to help both do this transition – as well as teach it to your students. Avoid “cheating” and be kind to your rotator cuff 🙂

How To: Handstand Prep

Join and and the YYoga 200-hour teacher trainees as we look at how to do and teach Handstand Prep. The secret is in the bent knees and the shoulder blades…. 🙂

How To: Supta Hasta Padangustasana

An awesome way to teach Supta Hasta Padangustasana – the floor gives you great feedback for your spine and the wall allows you to feel the turn out that tends to happen as our leg takes the path of least resistance.

Using your hip stabilizers effectively in asana

 

In yoga asana, we often experience imbalance in our body, where certain muscles love to be powerful and to dominate – like our hip flexors – while others (our adductors and abductors) begin to soften, weaken, and become quiet.  By bringing our bodies into balance and allowing each muscle to truly step back fully into its functional role, the whole of our system becomes more expansive, powerful, and expressive.

Five minutes to Hip Functionality

I learned this marvelous and simple exercise from Susi Hately Aldous.  You’ll need a block and a strap.

  • Lay in semi-supine (lay down, knees bent)
  • Place your hands on your hip flexors (place your hands at the crease of your thighs and hips)
  • Lift one leg at a time
  • Feel your hip flexors fire under your hands
  • Now, place a block between your upper thighs (as high as it will go)
  • Squeeze the block and hold.  Release.  Repeat several times.
  • Notice what you feel beneath your hands.
  • Now, release the block and place a strap around your mid-thighs snugly
  • Press your thighs out into the strap firmly and hold.  Release.  Repeat several times.
  • Notice what you feel beneath your hands.

Did you notice your hip flexors firing when you squeezed the block or pressed out into the strap?  Most of us will.  However, we don’t need our hip flexors to fire when we’re doing either of these actions.  If your hip flexors fire, that is a sign of these big and overworked muscles are trying to take over for the adductors (inner thighs/ squeezing the block) or abductors (outer thighs/ pressing into the strap).   Your muscular relationships have become co-dependent.

  • Try the exercise again; this time keeping your hip flexors as settled and quiet as possible
  • Are you able to let them quiet down?  Even a little?
  • Once you’ve let them become silent, increase the force that you use against the block or strap.
  • In other words, once you’ve empowered your boundaries, you can increase your power  – functionally.  Sounds a lot like a relationship to me.

Application to Asana

Here are some ways to bring this functionality into your asana.  Empowering your boundaries will make your practice lighter, more functional, and more free.  Now, having great boundaries isn’t necessarily “easy” – in fact, at first it might be harder – but it creates the groundwork for more power and personal expression.

In Surya Namaskar:

  • Hug a block between your thighs through the whole cycle: how does this change your core connection?  The lightness of your spine?  How does this empower your plank?
  • Strap yourself snugly at your mid-thigh: how does this change your strength?  Your plank and chaturanga?  The freedom of your lower back?

In your externally rotated poses (Warrior II, Side Angle, Triangle, Half Moon):

  • From Warrior II, use your hands to actively externally rotate your front thigh in the socket and press your knee towards your pinkie toe
  • Feel the outer hip engage to support you
  • Keep this support so that your knee tracks over the center of your ankle as you transition to Side Angle, Trikonasana
  • In the transition to Half Moon, can you keep this integrity through the outer line of your hip as you move?  You can even place a hand to the outer thigh and actively press into your hand as you move.  This action will begin to imprint the support of your outer leg into the movement.
  • Once in Half Moon, use the stability of your outer hip to deepen your hip crease. As you stabilize the lower leg, then you will have the freedom and stability to open the pelvis and spine safely towards the side wall.

In Bakasana:

Crow pose is not only a balancing pose.  And trying to balance your knees in your armpits will disconnect your midline and your core – the very support that you need to realize this pose effectively.

  • Toes together, knees apart, come into a low squat
  • Bring your elbows underneath your knees so that your knees are hugging the outside of your arms, as high up as possible
  • From this low and tight position, squeeze your knees and connect to the inner lines of your legs
  • Now, stay low as you shift forward and lift the toes off the floor
  • If you’re feeling your inner thighs – you’re doing it!
  • Once your feet lift, squeeze your knees in to lift your upper back to the sky and straighten your arms
  • Use the connection of your inner thighs to squeeze in to send you up

In Handstand

To do this, we’ll play with lifting both legs at the same time.  If you have a regular handstand practice, add this into the mix to explore the connection of the inner and outer thighs.

Most of us know the importance of the inner thighs in handstand.  After all, we squeeze the legs together like crazy once we’re up.  Reinforce this action on the lift up by placing a block between the upper inner thighs as you hop up.

  • Downdog at the wall, block between your thighs
  • Bring your shoulders over your wrists and straighten you arms completely
  • Keeping your tailbone high, bend both knees and squeeze the block
  • Squeeze the block, keep your arms straight as you play with hopping the hips above your shoulders and bringing your legs into a pike position, then eventually straight up
  • Do the same with a strap at mid-thigh to bring the outer legs online.

What have you noticed in these explorations?

Do you feel more integrated, lighter? Is there more or less space for your own growth and expression here?

Final thoughts

Creating strength in our adductors and abductors will free your power muscles to do their job with greater functionality and grace.  Although waking them up may take a little effort and time, the greater result will be integration and ease.

I used to think that boundaries would make me hard, impermeable, rigid, un-loveable.  But in fact, cultivating boundaries and unsticking ourselves gives us space to grow.

Having clear boundaries lets us nourish our internal goodness so that we can shine our best self forward.  Then we have the strength to uphold others with compassion.  We can serve as an inspiration to those needing to find love in their own eyes rather than the eyes of others.

In the Upanishads, it is said, “The pleasant is one thing.  The good another.”

May we rise to the good.

Teaching Flow versus Power: what’s the difference?

These two styles look the same, so what’s the difference?

At YYoga, we make a distinction between Flow and Power.  Now, these styles are very similar and use the same kinds of poses (sun salutations, standing poses, arm balances, inversions, complex backbends).  They both derive from the Ashtanga tradition, which incorporates standing poses held for 5 breaths interposed with vinyasa.  While there is also a temperature difference for our studios (Power classes are heated), the goals of each style are actually slightly different and will prompt us to use different tools as teachers.

Because they have similar components, we can envision Flow being on one end of the spectrum, and power on another.  While we will use elements of both for our teaching, we can benefit from being clear about which side of the spectrum that we are playing with and WHY.

flow-power

 

 
 

Power Classes

  • Tools:
    • Fewer poses held longer – static
    • Ujjayi pranayama
    • More time for props, teacher demonstrations, going to the wall
  • Strength building
  • Slow, steady work
  • Focus on alignment and muscular action
  • Encourages body awareness – annamaya kosha (physical body)
  • Grounding
  • Creates tapas (transformational heat), intensity, focus, stability
  • Harnesses energy IN
  • Consequences of the style to be aware of:
    • Burning out your students in long holds
    • Impact of holding on wrists, etc.
    • Moderation of chaturangas etc. when you’re peak pose is on the hands
    • Keeping ambitious students within their means (Power students may like to push)

Flow Classes

  • Tools for Flow
    • More poses moved through more more quickly – dynamic
    • Linking poses
    • Ujjayi
  • Flexibility building (or strength in movement)
  • Smooth, almost continuous movement
  • Focus on breath and fluidity
  • Encourages breath awareness – pranaymaya kosha (breath body)
  • Flowing
  • Illuminates spanda (the divine pulsation in us – here in the breath), breath expansion, mobility
  • Expands energy OUT
  • Consequences of the style to be aware of:
    • Necessity for safe transitions when you are moving quickly
    • Newer/ stiffer students may have a hard time keeping up
    • Can’t cue as much alignment in flow when you’re cuing the breath and moving quickly

As you’re creating your class, consider:

  • What is the experience that I want to offer my students?  Stabilizing and grounding?  Or flowing and expressive?
  • Which tools can I use from each style to create this experience?
  • How can I deliver this experience being mindful of the “Consequences to be aware of?”

Happy Teaching!

 

Linking in flow classes: how to teach smart transitions

Have you been in a class where any of the following have occurred:keep-calm-and-vinyasa-flow-2_large

  • The teacher (maybe it’s us) links 12 million poses on the same side.  Thighs are trembling.  Anger is mounting.
  • The teacher forgets to do one side, or forgets and entire series of poses
  • You have to change your foundation to get to the next pose…and the next
  • You’re not even sure how to get from one pose to another
  • You’re up.  You’re down.  You’re up.  You’re down.  You’re up.  You’re down. You’re seasick.
  • You’re not sure exactly what you’re supposed to be doing in the pose (what pose is it?) because it’s not about alignment, baby, it’s all about the FLOW

Alright.

So before we chat about how to flow SMART, let’s talk about why we flow, period.

Why We Flow

“Flow” yoga has its roots in Ashtanga yoga, where practitioners interpose a vinyasa (Chaturanga-updog-downwdog) between most static poses.  Each pose is held for five breaths, and the breath links the practice from its absolute beginnings until Savasana.  This steady, meditative practice invites a profound connection with the inner body, the breath, and the core.

It’s also a set sequence.

Flowing is a heck of a lot easier when you know where you’re going.

However,  now we have “flow” classes that are not set sequences.  In fact, the pressure is on for teachers to create increasingly wild and creative sequences so that students stay engaged and – dare I say – entertained by the class.  In other words, rather than addressing the crazy fluctuations of their minds through slow one-pointed focus, students are craving classes that bulldoze these fluctuations by replacing them with something so consuming that it is impossible to focus on anything else.   Oh right – and then add music.

Now, despite my cute tone, this is not a bad thing.

After all, meditation is the process of giving the practitioners something to harness their attention to.  If the bells and whistles need to be a little louder in order to break through our insane headspace, then I’m all for it.

But what I’m not a fan of is reckless transitions.

Why our Flow can get gnarly

In our zeal to create a powerful flow sequence, we can get carried away by our own invention.  And we also forget that:

  • our students don’t have the same proprioception that we do
  • our students aren’t as experienced as we are; they don’t know the risk factors of the asana
  • our students generally aren’t as strong or as flexible as we are
  • our students don’t already have the sequence in their heads
  • we are generally teaching multi-level classes with beginners
  • our students have injuries.  And need a I add: knee injuries.

SMART FLOW!  Rule number 1:

Here’s the number one rule of flowing smart:  in transitions, keep the action of the hips the same.

What this means:

  • Link externally rotated poses with externally rotated poses.
  • Link neutral poses with neutral poses.
  • And when you don’t link “like with like”, teach the heck out of the transition

That’s it.  This simple protocol will keep your students knees and lower backs happy.  And hopefully keep them from falling over.

Does this mean never break the rules?  No, of course not.  But be sensible about it.  If you are going to change the action of the hip, you must change the foundation of the pose and you must therefore TEACH the transition.

This means that instead of saying, “Warrior I, okay now takeWarrior II…”, you’d have to say something like:

  • “From Warrior I, tack your outer right hip back so the front knee tracks over the ankle…
  • Keep this as you turn your back toes to be parallel to the back of your mat..
  • Heel-toe your front foot to the left so the front arch bisects the back foot…
  • Now, keep your right hip drawing back and your knee over your ankle as you turn the pelvis towards the left.”

Phew!

Or you could just link Warrior II to similarly externally rotated standing poses such as Side Angle, Triangle, and Half Moon and spare yourself some trouble and verbiage.

If you want to really flow – that is, move fairly quickly through yoga asana in order to create a dynamic movement experience – then it is sensible to link poses smartly and safely so that you can maximize your students’ stability and enjoyment of their practice.  Smart Sequencing will allow them to think about their breath and not about their ouchy knee.

SMART FLOW!  Rule number 2:

Always use a stabilizing cue.

In your transitions, ask yourself, “What is at risk in this transition?”  Then offer a quick cue to stabilize the student against this risk factor as you move them through the action.  For example:

  • Transition: Triangle – Half Moon
    • Risk: Knee
    • Cue: “Hug your standing outer hip back as you…” or “Anchor your knee over the center of your ankle by pressing it towards your pinkie toe as you…”
  • Transition: Chair- Revolved Chair
    • Risk: Low back/ Hips moving
    • Cue: “Hug your knees together/ Firm your outer hips in as you…”
  • Transition: Crescent – Revolved Side Angle
    • Risk: Balance
    • Cue: “Hug your legs to the midline as you…”

Now these are pretty straight-forward, but you can apply the same principle to more complex transitions.

Linking “like with like” and using stabilizing cues in your transitions will keep your students connected and safe while allowing you to create to your heart’s content.

Happy Flowing!

 

 

Open those hips! Eka Pada Koundinyasana A

My IT Band is tight.

Tiiiiiiight.

Or more correctly, I should say that my gluteus maximus, which feeds into and inserts on the IT band, is tight, so that the resulting pull tautens the IT band.  (“IT” stand for “ilio-tibial”, and this band is a swath of connective tissue that runs from the pelvis to the outer knee.  The glute maximus and the tensor fasciae latae insert into it.)

Here’s an IT band loving sequence that culminates in Eka Pada Koundinyasana A – a crazy extension of Side Crow (Parsva Bakasana).

Eka Pada Koundinyasana A

Component Parts:

  • core
  • scapular stabilization
  • thoracic rotation (and some lateral flexion)
  • IT Band/ outer hip opening
  • Engagement of back line

Now, to be fair, this is really more a pose about the torso’s rotation and flexion than about the IT band…but, I think it warrants the exploration.

Here’s the sequence I used:

  • Sukhasana with unleveraged, then leveraged twist

I place my hands on the ribcage and twist from there, then release the arms and keep the twist to work the obliques.  Finally, we leverage the twist by using the arms to find the full range of motion.

  • Cat and Cow with leg (and arm) extension
  • Surya A 5 times
  • Warrior II with a twist and fingers interlaced overhead  -> “floating” Parsvakonasana to work core
  • Trikonasana -> “floating variation” to work the obliques
  • Plank with one hand lifted to work obliques.  Can also lift a foot.
  • Uttanasana with IT band stretch (both sides)

My teacher Chris Richardson introduced this to me.  Come into Uttanasana.  Place your hands on blocks and then turn around to the right on your feet so that they face the back of your mat and your legs are crossed.  Then continue to walk your hands further to the right (you can place them on blocks) as you like.  Press through the big toe mound of your left foot and shift your hips further back to the left until you feel a stretch through the outer hip.

  • Crescent -> Pvt. Parsvakonasana (unleveraged, then leveraged twist)
  • Lizard  (deep lunge) -> Ardha Hanumanasana (externally rotate the front thigh for another IT band stretch…yikes!) -> Brigid’s Cross (IT band stretch and deep twist: it’s like Parivrtta Supta Hasta Padangustasana facing down)

Eka Pada Koundinyasana A – take off sequence

  • Stage 1: Squat with knees together, twist: belly, waist, ribs
  • Stage 2: Hands to floor, shoulder distance apart
  • Stage 3: Parsva Bakasana
  • Stage 4: Eka Pada Koundinyasana A

Happy arm balancing!

Rachel

Back to Basics: Plank Pose

You know it.

You love it, you hate it.  You love to hate it.

It’s plank pose.

 

What’s plank pose?

Also known as “Phalakasana,” plank pose is a modification of Chaturanga Dandasana (“four-limbed staff pose”), which is doozy of a core stabilizer found in the traditional Sun Salutations.  Plank looks like a high push up position;  Chaturanga is pretty much the same pose, but with the elbows bent to ninety degrees.  In a traditional Sun Salutation, practitioners jump back from a preparatory pose directly into Chaturanga – a challenging move even for advanced practitioners.  To better control this transition, we usually step back to plank first, and then lower down into Chaturanga.

Uses of Plank

Although it has humble beginnings as a modification, plank has become quite the showstopper in its own right.  Forearm plank is held for a minute in the YHot practice to help practitioners develop their core strength and stability.  Plank is used in power and flow classes to create heat in the body, cultivate scapular stabilization, improve core strength, and act as an intermediary through transitions.

Anatomy of Plank

Plank pose is a lot of work for the upper body.  The shoulder girdle is intrinsically a joint of mobility, not stability (this ball and socket joint actually looks more like a baseball stuck to a plate).   In order for the practitioner to effectively manage his or her body weight, he or she must actively recruit the larger muscles of the back to stabilize the scapulae (the shoulder blades), so that the rotator cuff (the four little muscles that hold the humerus to the shoulder blade) isn’t struggling to bear the burden.

The primary muscles that keep the scapulae happily secure are the rhomboids, the trapezius, and the serratus anterior. They work in opposition to each other to make sure that the shoulder blades don’t “wing out” or slide too far afield.  You can understand their respective actions through the following exercise:

  1. Come onto all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips, as if you were about to do cat/cow.
  2. Keep your arms and your spine straight (unlike cat/cow, where we round and arch)
  3. Now, slide your shoulder blades closer to each other on your back (your chest will move closer to the floor, but your arms stay straight).  The drawing closer of the scapulae to the spine reflects the action of the rhomboids and trapezius.
  4. Now, slide your shoulder blades apart from each other so that they wrap around your ribcage and your upper back lifts to the ceiling.  This action is created by the contraction of serratus anterior, a wing-like muscle that pulls your scapula around the sides of your ribs.

When these muscles act together effectively, the scapulae stay well-secured on the back for plank – and ultimately for the transition to Chaturanga.

Finding your awesome plank pose

To find your plank, first find and excellent foundation:

  • Come onto all fours with your knees slightly behind your hips.  Place your hands outer shoulder distance apart, line up the center of your wrist with the space between your index and middle finger, and press firmly through the four corners of your hands.

Now, engage your scapular stabilization:

  • Lift your back ribs up to the sky so that your shoulder blades slide apart (this is serratus working).
  • Keep the upper back inflated as you draw your shoulder blades closer to each other on your back until they are nestled securely against your ribcage.

Now find your core:

  • With your shoulder girdle well-supported, draw the sides of your waist skywards in order to activate your core.  This action will help you to support the back body with the strength of your front body.

Add the pelvis:

  • To recruit the integration of the pelvis, roll your upper inner thighs back as you draw your sitting bones down to your knees.
  • If this feels like good work for you, then you can stay here on your knees in modified plank.

Add the legs:

  • To come into full plank, keep the stability you’ve created through your shoulders and your pelvis and step one foot back at a time.
  • Engage your quads and fully straighten your legs.
  • To prevent collapse in the lower back, lift your pelvis in line with your shoulders and lengthen your tailbone to your feet.
  • Finally, reach your sternum forward as you reach your heels back to expand the length of your plank fully.
  • Eventually, you may lower your hips to make one straight line from your heels to your shoulders (rather than keeping the hips and shoulders in line).

Plank to Chaturanga

Once you are able to hold your plank solidly for 5 breaths, you are ready to explore lowering to Chaturanga.  Through this transition, it is vitally important to keep your scapulae securely on your back.  We often allow the shoulder heads drop forward and down as we lower, which is a compensation can be injurious for the rotator cuff over time.

To come into Chaturanga:

  • Keep your legs engaged and your scapulae securely on your back.
  • Shift onto your toes so that your chest moves forward in space a few inches.
  • Keeping your shoulder heads lifted, bend your elbows and smoothly lower until your shoulders and elbows are in one line and your elbows are over your wrists.
  • Nothing about the pose should change save the angle of the arms.
  • Work up to holding Chaturanga for 5-8 breaths.

Modifications and Variations

Here’s a couple common modifications to make plank more accessible:

  • For wrist issues, come onto your forearms or fists.  You can also place the heel of your hand on a rolled up blanket or mat to decrease the angle of flexion in the wrist.
  • For a developing core, keep your back knees down
  • To cultivate great adductor strength, put a block between your thighs

To increase the intensity of the pose:

  • Lift one arm
  • Lift one leg
  • Lift opposite arms and legs
  • Draw a knee into your chest
  • For abductor work, tap a foot out to the side, then back

Happy Planking!

 

 

 

 

Tips to Mastering an Arm Balance

To master an arm balance, you must master your booty.

Seriously.

Your pelvis is heavy, and knowing where to put it during an arm balance will make a big difference in your ability to distribute your weight effectively and ultimately find lightness and ease in your pose.

Balancing in an arm balance is about:

  • hands
  • shoulder stability
  • core strength
  • pelvic placement/ weight placement

Okay, okay, naturally you need core strength.  But not as much as you think.  Place your weight smartly, and you will use less tension, find more ease, and gain levity and freedom in your arm balances.

Tip #1: Maintain excellent hand positioning

To protect your weight in arm balances, weight all four corners of the hand evenly.  For most of us, this means pressing more firmly into the index finger mound.  Without adult supervision, weight will naturally roll to the outer heel of the hand.  But we have a lovely little nerve in there called the ulnar nerve (if you’ve ever had numbness in the outer hand after practicing, the compression of this little guy may be the reason why).  There is also a nerve in our carpal tunnel called the median nerve.  Keeping weight into our fingertips and medial palm edge will take the weight off of the heel of the hand and help you to protect both these nerves from over-compression.  Weighting into the fingertips will also give you more control of your weight – just like your toes help you to balance when you’re standing.

Tip #2: Maintain shoulder stability

Our shoulder girdle is only attached skeletally in one little place: the meeting point of the collarbone and sternum.  That’s it.  That’s all the skeletal support you’ve got when you’re balancing on your hands.  Therefore, you need excellent muscular stabilization through your back and your shoulders to support your arm balance effectively.  In the YYoga TT, we employ the actions, “lift your back ribs while you draw your shoulder blades together on your back” in order to recruit both sets of muscles that will stabilize the scapulae effectively.  In a nutshell, this means that the shoulders and the back body must become a place of support.  While it becomes tempting in arm balances to drop our shoulders down to the floor, we must earnestly continue to stabilize the shoulder blades on the back rather than collapse into gravity.

Think of lowering into chaturanga.  Effectively lowering from plank to chaturanga means that our shoulder blades stay on our back and that the heads of the arm bones stay lifted towards the sky.  When the shoulder heads drop, we place far too much pressure on the front of the rotator cuff and joint.  Similarly in arm balances, we must lift the heads of the arm bones skyward to maintain adequate stabilization of this shallow joint.

Tip #3: Core strength

You knew it would be in here. Yes, you need core strength.  However, core strength isn’t just about your six-pack.  Core strength means finding the connection from your big toes through the inner seams of your legs, through the pelvis floor and into the deepest layer of your abdominals, the transverse abdominus.  In a nutshell, find your “leg magnets” (as Chris Clancy might say) that link the inner seams of your legs together.   This engagement through the legs will naturally lift the pelvis floor and help you to deeply engage your core.

When doing an arm balance, we usually have our upper leg against our upper arms: use this connection to assist you in finding the muscular engagement of the inner leg.  Also, remember that your toes are part of your body, too.  By maintaining awareness from toes to pelvis, you will be able to recruit the legs to work for you so that they are not dead weight.

Tip #4: Control your booty

When doing a pose like bakasana (crow), the booty actually needs to be down.  Lifting the bum high will disconnect you from your core connection and make the pose more precarious.  By keeping the tailbone down and lifting vigorously through the sides of your waist, you will recruit more muscular stability in the pose, rather than teetering in a balance.

However, in other poses such as Eka Pada Galavasana, Parsva Bakasana (side crow),  and Eka Pada Koudinyasana, we must keep our bum high.  Letting the pelvis drop in these poses will deflate the integrity of the pose and make it much harder to shift your weight forward to take the weight off of the feet and find your balance.  While core integrity is necessary, lift off  in these poses depends on your ability to control your weight in space  – much like we move weight in a teeter totter.  When the pelvis stays high, you have the ability to shift the chest forward in space, which will allow the legs and back body to become light and eventually float.  If the pelvis drops, everything will move earthward and the levity of the pose will dissipate.

Playing in the poses

Bakasana (Crow): Booty low

  • In bakasana,  place your feet together on a block and take your knees wide.  Then place your hands outer shoulders’ distance apart, spread your fingers side, and evenly weight into all four corners of your palms – particularly the index finger mound
  • Get low, and bring your knees as high up onto your outer arms as you can.
  • Clamp your knees onto your outer, upper arms.
  • Gaze forward.
  • Keeping your booty low and your side waists high (think of an angry cat), begin to shift your weight forward into your hands as if you were a hovercraft.
  • Play with moving back and forth, and you will find that your feet become lighter and eventually leave the block.
  • Once your feet leave the block, clamp in with your thighs, lift through the sides of your waist, then begin to press down through the hands until the arms become straight.

Eka Pada Koundinyasana: Booty High

  • Come into a low lunge with both hands to the inside of your front foot.
  • Lift your back leg and lift your booty high.
  • Clamp your front knee onto your upper arm
  • Press into your hands, lift your back ribs skywards, and keep that as you anchor your shoulder blades on your back
  • Lift onto your front toes
  • Lift onto your back toes and begin to shift your weight forward
  • Keeping your shoulders lifted skywards and your booty high, lift your front foot off the ground. Either keep it bending in, or reach it diagonally away from your body (like you’re reaching it to 2 pm on a clock dial)
  • Keep your booty lifted and shoulders lifting as your reach your sternum forward and bring more weight onto your hands
  • Find the teeter-totter balance here as you reach the chest forward.  When the weight moves far enough ahead, the back toes will lift off the floor.

Bonus Tip #5: Patience

Arm balances are not natural for human kind.  After all, we don’t often find ourselves suddenly falling into an arm balance as we walk down the street!  Naturally, it takes time for our body to become confident balancing weight onto our hands.  Be patient, work slowly, and the support and ease that you cultivate will put in you in an excellent position for coming into flight.

In the meantime, the conscientious practice of the following poses are excellent warm ups to include in your preparations:

  • Cat/ Cow – particularly cat so you can keep your booty low!  Also, work your excellent hand position here
  • Plank – Chaturanga: practice keeping the shoulder heads lifting and keeping the hips and shoulders in line
  • Lizard – good for hip opening and practicing keeping that booty high!
  • Malasana – good for hip opening and finding the engagement of the inner thighs
  • Crescent- hug your “leg magnets” to find your core from your toes to your pelvis

Happy practicing!

 

 

Spring into Spring: Handstand!

Spring into Spring!

Flowers are blooming, sprouts are sprouting, the sun is out in Vancouver, which means that it’s time to do handstand!

Inversions are asana of marvelous integration, asking us to stabilize our mobile shoulder joints and connect all of our moving pieces together – no small task while we’re all topsy turvy.  The opportunity to explore ourselves in an unfamiliar orientation lets us experience our cells, our blood, our organs and muscles in a new way.   We literally get to turn our world upside down.

 

Physically, inverting give the blood and lymph in our legs the opportunity to race back heartwards via the force of gravity.  Our organs move and settle in a different orientation.  Blood moves into our brain and offers these vital tissues an oxygen bath.  The upper body gets a fantastic work out.  And psychologically, we practice courage and a sense of play by moving into the unknown.

 

There are many different kinds of inversions.  Downward Facing Dog and Forward Fold are great “light” inversions that we practice all the time.   (In a “light inversion,” the head is below the heart, but the rest of the body and the blood column in the legs isn’t adding any additional pressure.)   To do a “full” inversion, the entire weight of the body is transmitted and supported through the shoulder girdle rather than the pelvis and we bring our legs over our head.

 

Before inverting, there are a couple of sensible precautions to keep in mind.  As we will be increasing the amount of the fluid in the brain, active inversions should not be practiced if you’re experiencing high blood pressure or have a history of stroke.  If you’ve had recent eye surgery or have glaucoma, raising the pressure in the eye is also not recommended. A more passive inversion – like legs up the wall – is a great alternative that imparts lots of juicy inversion benefits while keeping the head and heart at the same level.

 

Are you ready to invert?

 

Our shoulder girdle is a marvelous, mobile joint that allows us to reach out through our arms and experience the world.  However, it’s only attached to our skeleton in one little place: right between your collarbone and your sternum!  This lack of bony attachment means that the support of the shoulder girdle comes from the muscular stability around the joint and from the muscles of the chest and back.   If we’re going to fully invert, then we need to ensure that we have enough integrity here to support our body.  Additionally, we have to get our arms all the way overhead by our ears without losing the connection to our core, which requires a good bit of shoulder flexibility.

 

To find out if you’re ready to do handstand, investigate the following poses as a warm up:

  • Plank: focus on stabilizing the shoulder blades onto your back as you lift your lower ribs up and into your body.  Hold for one minute.  Repeat.
  • Downward Facing Dog: bring your arms in line with your ears without collapsing the ribs towards the floor or letting the upper arm bones wing out.  Straighten your arms fully.  Continue to lift through your back ribs as you draw your shoulder blades slightly towards each other.   The shoulder blades and front ribs hug into the center line of the body, connecting the back and front body towards your center.
  • Dolphin:  (Downward Facing Dog on your forearms, with your hands interlaced.)  Walk your feet towards your shoulders without collapsing the ribcage down or towards your hands.  Press the elbows forward and down to lengthen the back of the arms and draw the shoulder blades into the back body.  Stretch the hips up and back.
  • Puppy Dog (Warrior III at the wall): Place your hands at your hip level on the wall, then walk your feet back until your hips are over your ankles and your body forms an inverted “L”.  Bring your feet together, hug your midline.  Keeping your hips level and your arms straight, lift one leg slowly up behind you.  Pause, check to see that the toes of your lifted leg are pointing straight down and draw your opposite hip back.  Then, continue to lift from your inner thigh until the leg is in line with your body.  Draw the bottom ribs and core into the body as you press into your hands and firm the outer arms in.  Hug the thighs and arms towards each other, and firm your outer hips in.  Keeping all the outer parts of your body connecting into the center, stretch from the core of your pelvis out through all four limbs.

If these poses are going well, then it’s time to move onto handstand.

 

How to do Handstand:

Stage I:

  • Come into Downward Facing Dog, placing your hands about a foot away from the wall.  Place the hands outer shoulder distance apart, spread the fingers wide, and press through the four corners of each hand.
  • Walk your feet up to your hands about halfway until your shoulders are over your wrists.
  • Lift through your back ribs as you hug the shoulder blades closer to each other (here’s the muscular engagement to keep your shoulder girdle strong and stable)
  • Lift one leg up – just like you did for Puppy Dog.
  • Hug the inner thighs in and lift the leg higher as you press through your hands vigorously
  • Stay here for 3-5 breaths, then change sides.
  • Child’s pose or sit on your heels.

Stage 2:

  • Continuing from Stage 1, keep the hips lifting up and back as you bend your standing leg.  Keeping the lifted leg strong, straight, and neutral, now begin to take small controlled hops.  Press strongly through your hands so that your arms remain straight.  The back, lifted leg is like a rudder: keep it straight and strong.
  • Change sides.
  • Child’s pose or sit on your heels.

Stage 3:

  • Once both legs are up at the wall, immediately hug them strongly together
  • Press through your hands vigorously as you stretch up through your heels.
  • Roll the inner upper thighs to the wall as you lengthen your sitting bones up to your heels.
  • Come down one leg at a time.
  • Child’s pose or sit on your heels.

 

Most importantly, after doing handstand, take the time to absorb what you feel.

In child’s pose or seated on your heels, close your eyes and feel the rush of blood and life force that is coursing through your body.   Take several deep, smooth breaths.

Enjoy!

Freeing the Shoulder: quick tips for creating space

What exactly is the shoulder?   And why do they get so freakin’ stuck when we try to lift our arms overhead?

Two Joints of the Shoulder

The shoulder is actually two joints in one: the gleno-humeral joint (the ball and socket joint where the upper arm connects to your shoulder blade) and the scapulo-thoracic joint (a functional joint where the shoulder blade slides around on the back ribs).  In order to lift your arm up more than about 30 degrees to the side, you have to actually have to move your shoulderblade on your back.  (Go ahead: try to lift your arm overhead without moving your shoulder blade – not going to happen).

When we do this motion, the shoulder blades have to protract – that is, they move away from each other and wrap forward on your ribcage (check out the pic).  They also they upwardly rotate, which means that the inner border of your shoulder blade actually moves down as the outer edges move up.

“Draw your shoulders down.”

When we’re in yoga class and lifting our arms, we often hear the phrase, “Draw your shoulder blades together” or “draw your shoulder blades down.”  These actions are counter-intuitive to the actual bio-mechanics of the shoulder blade on the back.  While a small degree of these actions can create stability, too much will restrict your freedom of movement.

When teachers say, “bring your shoulders down,” they are actually trying to get you to relax your upper trapezius.  The traps are the muscles at the base of your neck that love to overact and make your shoulders look all crunchy like.  While relaxing your traps is a good idea here, we need to remember that part of the shoulder blade must actually be going UP in order to get your arms overhead.  Trying to drag the whole shoulder blade down can create constriction and lessen our freedom of movement.

To get freedom in the shoulders as you lift your arms:

  • allow your scapulae to move freely on your back body
  • externally rotate your upper arms as you bring them overhead to create more space between the bones of your shoulder
  • visualize the inner borders of your shoulder blades moving down as the outer borders move up
  • relax the muscles at the base of your neck (they’re not needed here) – rather than trying to drag the shoulder blades down your back – to create space around your neck

Still tight?

Some of the muscle that can restrict us when we lift our arms up:

  • Latissimus Dorsi
  • Triceps
  • Posterior Deltoid

Try some dedicated, long stretches for these muscles to open them up.  Then explore again and see if one of these has been the culprit.

Happy exploring!

 

Alchemy! The secret roots of hatha yoga.

Did you know that alchemy is part of the roots of hatha yoga?

The desire to transmute the body into a worthy vessel was inspired in part by the alchemical explorations of turning lead into gold.  “The siddha is a spiritual alchemist who works on and transmutes impure matter, the human body-mind, into pure gold, the immortal spiritual essence.”  – Georg Feurstein, “The Yoga Tradition, Chapter 18: Yoga as Spiritual Alchemy: The Philosophy and Practice of Hatha Yoga.”

Learn more about the history of alchemy with this fun podcast from the gals of “Stuff you missed in history class.”  An interesting detour into one of the influences of our modern day yoga.

Protect thy neck: further thoughts on yoga injuries in headstand and shoulderstand

Tonight in class, one of my students asked me to expand on the response article to “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” particularly as it relates to two asana: shoulderstand and headstand.

Headstand and Shoulderstand – labelled the King and Queen of Asana by Iyengar for their therapeutic properties – got a bad rap in the NYTimes article.  And no wonder.  These are high demand poses, asking practitioners to support the entire weight of their body with their mobile shoulder girdles.  Unfortunately, some practitioners foray into them before they’ve developed the strength and flexibility to sufficiently support their body weight, which means that they are slinging weight instead into their cervical spine.

How to Protect yourself in Headstand

Tip 1: First of all, practice Sirsasana A, not B.  Sirsasana A is performed with the forearms on the floor and the hands interlaced behind the head.  Sirsasana  – also called tripod headstand, or teddy bear – is done with head on the floor and the hands flat, elbows at a 90 degree angle.  The problem here is clear: in Sirsasana A, you have the opportunity to use your the muscles of your arms and back to take weight off of your neck, while in Sirsasana B, there is no choice but for your cervical spine to bear weight.

I know, I know.  Some of you have heard that Sirsasana B is “easier.”  It’s not easier, it’s more accessible.   There is a critical difference between the two. It’s more accessible because it doesn’t require your shoulders to be as open and you have an easier time balancing.  However, it’s far more treacherous for your neck since your head is weight-bearing.

Tip 2: Support yourself on your forearms, not your head.   Although yogis extol the virtue of stimulating the crown chakra by having the head on the floor, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s probably wiser to start by protecting your neck.   Keep your head light, and root like heck through your forearms – especially during your transitions.  Worry about the subtle body after you take care of your spine.

Tip 3: Never jump or hop into headstand.  Be patient.  There’s no gold pot of liberation once you get up there, so practice until your body can smoothly and safely sustain the transition.  Therein lies the actual reward.

Tip 4: Neck feel cramped?  Some of us have lovely long necks.  If this is you, there won’t be any amount that you can press through your forearms to get the weight off your head because your proportions will make this impossible.  Instead, place blankets under your forearms evenly so that your arms are artificially longer.   Presto.  Instantly reliever for neck compression.  Now press down your forearms with gusto and get the weight off your neck.

Tip 5: Keep your neck in its natural curve.  Take care when you’re on your head (even though you’re not putting a lot of weight there), to ensure that you are not rolling forward or back on you head, but that you can lengthen through all four sides of the neck evenly.  Maintaining the natural curve of your cervical spine will protect the delicate vertebrae of your cervical spine, which are not designed to be weight bearing.

How to Protect Yourself in Shoulderstand

1. Use blankets.  For the love of God.  Please.  I know you want to “get into the pose already” and going and getting props is a drag (especially when the teacher doesn’t suggest them), but trust me.  For the long terms health of your neck, there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain by folding some blankets and putting them under your shoulders so that you’ve got some space for your neck.  Here’s why:  when we’re in shoulderstand, the weight should actually be on the triceps, elbows, shoulders and (slightly) the back of the head – not the upper thoracic spine or the neck.  Most of us can’t sufficiently lift through our upper backs (nor do we have the opening in our shoulders in extension) to get our vertebrae off the floor without props.  So instead, we wind up putting all of our body weight on our upper spine, rounding through the upper back, and bringing the neck into extreme flexion.   While this may not bother you now, over time this can cause an over lengthening of the ligaments in the back of the neck that protect the natural cervical curve.  Read more about this in Roger Cole’s Yoga Journal article.  

Dr. Jeremy Brook add, “As a chiropractor, the problem I have with shoulderstand relates to most people’s habitual patterns, injuries and structural imbalances. Many people sit at a desk for hours, collapse on their sofa and sleep on their stomachs. While this example is extreme, most modern bodies are far different from those of the ancient yogi who practiced asana hours each day, meditated, read sacred texts and slept on a hard straw bed. Thus, a modern practitioner may possess the same spirit, but in a body with a far different, and likely compromised, neck. ”

2. Do a modified pose if you don’t have blankets.  Grab a block and come into a restorative shoulderstand with your hips on a blocks, legs up, and your upper back essential in bridge pose.  Same benefits, much less risk on the cervical spine.

3. If you’re a teacher, then Teach the Pose.  Let’s get rid of the habit of tossing shoulderstand in as an “if you want to,” or “if it’s in your practice” last minute offering.  Take some time, get out the props, teach it conservatively, and let’s reclaim the therapeutic potential of this Queen of Asana.  Maybe then it can really become the “the greatest boons conferred on humanity by our ancient sages” (Iyengar, Light on Yoga).