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!

 

Victoria Yoga Conference: 2013!

RachelScottheadshotRachel will be teaching at the Victoria Yoga Conference February 2-3rd, 2013.  Don’t miss this great opportunity to take advantage of her best insights from her years as a Teacher Trainer!

Empower Your Boundaries – Saturday, February 2, 2013 – 8:00 to 9:15 am – Studio #1

Clear and strong boundaries give shape and discipline to our lives. In asana, clear and efficient engagement of the outer lines of our bodies harness our power so that we can graciously and effectively use our inner strength to take our practice to the next level. In this Wake up the strength of the inner and outer lines of the hips, legs and arms, and discover more grace, ease and stability in all your yoga poses.

Happy Knees, Happy Pigeons – Saturday, February 2, 2013 – 1:15 pm to 2:30 pm – Studio #1

Located between the mobile hip and ankle, your vulnerable knee often becomes the victim of mismanaged communication. Learn about the structure of the knees and empower yourself to protect them in all asana – including the treacherous pigeon pose. Through both power point and practice, you will gain a new and visceral understanding of this marvelous joint. As a bonus, discover why “flexing the foot to protect the knee” is a myth.

Sun Salutations – Sunday, February 3, 2013 – 2:45 pm to 4:00 pm – Studio #112-130-Yoga-Poster-Electronic-600x771pixels

Ever wondered if you were really doing chaturanga right? Want to figure out that pesky jump forward? Revolutionize your sun salutes with this in-depth, fun, and transformative workshop. With just a few simple adjustments, you will learn how to protect your joints, prevent repetitive stress injury, and fire up your core. You do them every practice, it’s time to do them right!

Location:  Victoria Conference Centre, 720 Douglas Street

Register Now!

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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!

 

 

 

 

Lessons in patience. Or, what yoga has to do with flowers.

Okay, okay.

So you’ve met a guy or gal.  You’re excited about them.  A connection has been made. Your eyes have gotten slightly glassy and you get a little breathless and a-flutter when they send you a text. You long to unwrap them (immediately) like a Christmas present and discover all their yummy secrets.

However, despite every screaming instinct to the contrary, this is the time to pause and slow down.

I know it’s hard: when I get excited about someone, I am NOT what you’d call a patient person.  The new connection is like an intoxicating, young flower that is all wrapped up in its own pretty petals – and I want to pounce on it like a tiger and shred it apart with my hot little claws.

And you know what I get then?

One pretty darn fucked up flower.

Like flowers, relationships need their own time to unfold in order to reach their full expression.   No matter how much we’d like to just move forward NOW, we can’t pry them open early without sacrificing their beauty.  By cultivating patience, we can give the relationship the space to find its own unique expression.  And then if we decide that we dislike this particular flower after all, fair enough.  At least then we’re pruning honestly.

Similarly in yoga, we often rush to get to the “full expression” of the asana.  Rather than letting the pose open in its own time, we push our way in and shred some petals in the process.  This kind of end-gaining may get us there, but generally we’ll also be rigid, overexerted, and strained.

So what if we truly practiced patience in our yoga?  Give the pose a month, a year, five years (ten!) to decant.  In the yoga sutras, Patanjali suggests that practice is “earnest, sustained effort for a long time.”  We show up, we practice, we repeat.  Nothing is quick.  Pattabhi Jois suggested the same longevity when he said, “Practice – and all is coming.”  By slowing down, we give ourselves the opportunity to arrive organically at the heart of the experience.  As in relationships and gardening, finding patience will allow our yoga practice’s unique and graceful beauty to be fully – and unexpectedly – revealed.

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!

 

 

Top Ten Life Lessons from my students

1. Practice.

We all reach plateaus in our practice.   “I’ll never get handstand.”  “I’m afraid of bakasana.”  But with every class, their sun salutations get a little stronger, their bodies more integrated, and their feet a little lighter.  Then one day, we have the a-ha!  “I’ve never done that before!”  Watching my students inexorably progress in their practice reminds me to stay patient and wait for the inevitable unfolding – not just in practice, but in life.  Everything really does move forward.

2. Community elevates.

It never fails: doing partner work in a class elevates the energy in the room.  Given the opportunity to connect with our fellow yogis, we all become brighter, more energized, and more dynamic.   Helping someone else reminds us how much we know and how much we can share.  Take this into the world and we find that connecting with our community helps us to tap into our potential.

3.  Connection energizes.

There have been many times where I have arrived to teach dog tired and done.  But I never fail to leave a class better than when I have arrived.  The opportunity to connect with my students and share gives me energy.   Teaching reminds me that when I share of myself, I am also elevated, healed, inspired.

4.  Be yourself.

The best classes that I have taught are classes where I have not tried to be an “ideal teacher,” but have simply been myself.  While this may have led to some goofy moments (“make your butt like Beyonce” was a recent artifact of this authenticity), I have found that students immediately respond when I am genuine.  Being a pristine asana robot just doesn’t cut it; they want the real thing – goofiness and all.   They remind me that sharing my silliest parts is actually far more rewarding than trying to fit into a box of perfection.

5. Fall Down.

Sometimes you have to fall over in Half Moon to figure out where the boundaries of balance are.  I’m thrilled when students dare to fall down.  How else will we find out where our edges are?  They remind me that moving forwards isn’t always about looking pretty.

6.  Turn the Heat Up.

Having just finished the YHot training, I can attest that sometimes you just gotta turn the heat up, close the door, meet yourself in the mirror, and sweat it out.  Like life, sometimes we need to move into the discomfort in order to break through.  Dare to face the intensity.  On the other side is a great Savasana.

7. When it’s tough, breathe more.

In the moments where we hit our peak pose, the room will often go silent.  As we intensely concentrate, we forget to breathe.  But once the reminder is sent out and the room starts to inhale again, the poses actually become more integrated and find softness.  When we face our greatest challenges,  we can get out of heads and back into our hearts by simply focusing on our breath.

8.  Take child’s pose.

The most advanced student in the room is the one who takes child’s pose when she needs to.  While there can be great value in rallying into intensity, sometimes the practice actually calls for surrender.  Determining which path to take requires discrimination and self-love.  Having the bravery to practice self-care by softening can do more to propel us along our path than twenty chaturangas.

9. Feel.

One of the gifts of the yoga practice is to feel more deeply into our bodies, our breath, and our aliveness.  I love to see my students take an extra breath in downdog, give a deep sigh, or take the arm variation their body craves, because it means that they are feeling into their bodies and following its guidance.   Rather than simply doing the practice “right,” they are using the practice as a conduit to greater self-connection.  When my students feel their way through the practice – rather than just “doing” the practice – I am reminded that the body is a deep and innate source of wisdom.

10. We are all human.   

When I share a personal story at the beginning of class and see nodding heads, I am reminded that we have far more in common than we have divergent.  Each of us has dreams, regrets, conflict, hopes, loss, and love.  Each of us is trying our best to negotiate the waters of life with grace and compassion.  When we practice yoga in the classroom, we come together with a diversity of people from all walks of life.  On the mat, these differences drop away and we meet each other from the heart.   Out in the world, this reminds me to look for the good in others, rather than staking my ego on our differences.

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!

Are we teaching yoga?

The Times recently wrote an article about the 2012 yoga competition held in New York City. 

Yoga competition? As in prizes?  Seriously?

Founded by Rajashree Choudary, the wife of the famous Bikram Choudary, the competition is open to all asana practitioners but is primarily attended by those who practice the Bikram style.  Competitions like this are apparently more common in India, where teachers drum up publicity for their yoga schools through exhibitions.  However, in the States, it’s a rather new – and somewhat startling – activity, given that yoga here still bears the traces of its hippie, counter-culture origins, which eschews all things regulated and corporate.

However, yoga has now gained enough popularity here that it’s possible to hold competitions and evaluate someone’s prowess in this (spiritual?) practice.  So now what separates yoga from, say, gymnastics or cirque de soleil?  Rather ironic since these physical endeavors are renowned for injuring its adherents, while one of the goals of modern yoga is to promote health and wellness.

“I’m exhausted mentally and physically,” Jared McCann [competition winner] said, grinning. “My left toe is numb and I’ve got some kind of back spasm.” He paused before adding, “There’s always something.” (Times)

All this talk of injuries, scandals, and yoga competitions has me taking a pause.  Not to disparage Jared McCann or Afton Carraway for winning the 2012 competition – good on ’em, it must have been years in the making – but what is the larger message that we are getting here?

Let’s face it: the umbrella of yoga is becoming laden with competition. As the next generation of teachers starts to jockey for position, everyone is looking for their special derivative niche: acro-yoga, ballet-yoga, spin yoga, tai chi yoga, aerobics yoga, runners’ yoga – not to mention all the individual name brands that have become popular.  And of course we are diversifying.  It’s one way to survive in an increasingly saturated marketplace.

As this happens, ways of evaluating good “yoga” could become increasingly external.  After all, it’s easier – and perhaps more impressive – to measure how far someone can get their foot behind their head than how calm their mind is or how present they are.   (Although who knows, maybe we’ll have meditation competitions soon that measure practitioners’ theta waves.)  Realistically, teachers who can do complex asana may be taken more seriously than teachers who are passionate about pranayama and meditation.  Classes that invite asana showmanship may be more popular than classes that seem quieter or more introspective.

While there’s nothing wrong with striving to advance one’s personal practice, the growing anxiety of competition has led to increasingly insecure teachers.  We fret, “are my numbers good,” rather than asking if we’re actually teaching the yoga that we want to.  We can get caught in the cycle of teaching what we think the students will want, rather than teaching from our hearts.

And while it’s true that good teachers will endure and their students will find them eventually, it is naive to think that teachers needn’t be concerned about how popular their classes are.  Most students cultivate a love for the deeper practices of yoga after getting their asses kicked by asana for a couple years, so the majority of the students may not want to hear a long dharma talk or sit and meditate.  Being real about this may save us the depression of having three students in class – and getting concerned looks from our bosses.

One of my favorite teachers, Mark Whitwell, once said, “Give them what they want, so you can give them what you want.”  Mark is pretty darn smart and experienced, so I’m thinking that we will always be dancing between delivering yoga that is popular and yoga that reaches deeper. (And lord love those precious teachers who manage to do both at the same time, you do inspire me.)

So it’s not an either/or proposition.  In the midst of yoga competitions, prolific branding, and career insecurity, we can still find some room to return to our source of inspiration.  As Mark might say, we can still return to the “Heart of Yoga.”  While we “give them what they want,” we can also remember why we started yoga in the first place and trust that our students will be similarly inspired by something as simple as connecting to their breath.

To all those teachers out there who have struggled with the insecurity of popularity (including myself), I’d like to offer the following hopeful reminders:

  • Simple is not the same as boring.
  • Yoga does not need to be entertaining or even unique to be transformational.
  • Your students actually will find you.
  • It’s not about you; it’s about the practice.

So while we dance this dance – while we navigate marketing, yoga competitions, and class numbers – we can also try the occasional experiment.  Once in awhile, let’s see what happens if we teach the kind of yoga that we do in the living room when no one else is watching.    The kind of yoga that may not win any awards or look impressive on our websites, but simply leaves us more connected to who we are.

 

 

 

 

 

Sit your ass down, already…and other thoughts on meditation

Today, or this morning rather, I was eating piece toast with cashew butter (homemade, even, dee-lightful). And I decided to make a little agreement with myself.

To self: I will eat this toast with homemade cashew butter, and endeavor to do just that, and only that.  No checking email, no reading the paper.  Just simply stand, and eat.  And taste.

I didn’t get very far before my hands reached for the tv remote (put it DOWN, now! My head belatedly hollered).  Then I found my hand reaching for my Iphone (the phonecall to Mom can WAIT!, I suddenly thought, and mentally slapped my hand away.)  Then I found myself wandering across the room to go check on the cat (the damn cat is FINE, I caught myself, now just stand still!)

Apparently, I cannot even get through one piece of toast without my mind – and body – running off in six different directions.

This is a sobering thought, as it illuminates something frightening: What is happening for the vast majority of the time when I’m not actually trying to stand and just eat a piece of toast?  How much compulsion is daily pouring through my body and mind that I simply go along with (reach for remote, Iphone, cat, etc?).  When actions are done before I even realize that they’ve happened?  If I have to do some serious focusing just to stay in one place, then what’s going on when I’m not paying so much attention?

Freaky.

I do not have any glorious, pithy wisdom to offer up here.  I obviously spend a great deal of time in the throes of my subconscious urgings and only occasionally make it above water to look around at the scenery.  But the experience did remind me of a suggestion in the Yoga Sutras, which I’ve been cruising through lately.  The Sutras, a series of terse aphorisms compiled back in 200 CE or so, basically throw down the meditative wisdom of the time.  Most yogis are familiar with the second Sutra which declares that “Yoga is the restraint of the fluctuations of the mind.”  Here’s another that is particularly piquant (translation by Carlos Pomeda):

Sutra 1.13: tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasa
“Practice is the effort to remain there.”

Basically, Patanjali is saying that we need to just sit down already and eat our cashew butter covered toast.  Do one thing at a time.  Stay “there.”  In that space.  Can we sit in our stuff?  Literally and metaphorically?  And not go wandering after the damn cat?

Doing our yoga doesn’t always have to involve incense, candles, and a meditation cushion.  We can do it right now, simply by trying to anchor ourselves in doing one thing at a time.

Eat Toast.  Then call Mom.  Then pet cat.  Rather than eat/talk/pet.

A revolution of non-multi-tasking.
So here’s to sitting our asses down, already.

And just taking a moment.

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).  

When the muse stops talking: how to teach when inspiration doesn’t strike

A yoga teacher and galpal of mine recently emailed me about the proverbial drying of the creative yoga well.

“Last Wed I feel like I taught the WORST yoga class of my life: it was so vanilla, last minute sequencing on my feet (which sometimes I’m good at, but this time I lost the muse), and I felt like I kept saying the same damn thing over and over- just uninspired. I think I need a workshop or something to inspire me again, but saving my pennies. I guess I was wondering if you’ve ever felt that way and/or how you deal with it. I need some stimulation!”

Girl, we have all been there.  Who hasn’t taught the occasional class that feels repetitive or uninspired?

I’ve always found that the solution lies in my own practice.  Usually when I teach a cringe worthy class (at least that’s the way it feels), the root of the problem is my own lack of connection; I don’t feel like I have anything to share authentically from myself.  Investing time to practice and prepare holds the antidote – and doesn’t require spending money on a workshop.  Everyone gets jazzed differently through their yoga teaching:  some people find their soul connection through theming, others through sequencing, others through music.

If your muse doesn’t show up, here’s some tips to help hunt her down.

  • Give yourself an hour to just play physically – not even to do a “yoga practice” per se, but sure, start there and see where it takes you. Then take whatever you discover as an inspirations to share in your class
  • Take 20 minutes to journal on the message you want to share with the world. What lessons have been hard for you? What is a tool that you use when you come up against this challenge? Is there a way that you can share this tool through a physical yoga practice?
  • Open up your favorite inspirational books. Theme a class around your favorite quote.
  • Prepare a sequence to a kick ass, fun peak pose.  Be creative about how you get there.
  • Give yourself an hour to create an awesome music mix (of stuff that you like), then create a dynamic class to go with it.
  • Get back to what YOU need from your yoga practice, then share that gift with your students. Forget all the rote blah blah – speak truthfully from exactly where you are and see where that takes you.
  • And if exactly where you are is in the duldrums, then investigate what tools you can use to move beyond that (not just in yoga, but in life) and share those tools in the practice (like playfulness, or community, or non-judgment). Then everybody wins.
  • And…if all else fails…plan some accessible partner work. That makes almost any class fun. The community energy will feed itself.

 

“How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body”: A Response

The New York Times recently ran an article, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,”that has a rather sensational and silly title and a fairly simple point: doing yoga can cause injuries.  The article, citing the musings of yoga teacher Glenn Black, references the medley of yoga injuries that have been developing through the West over the last ten years.  The article whispers to us in horror: ‘Black has come to believe that “the vast majority of people” should give up yoga altogether. It’s simply too likely to cause harm.’

The response to this: Well, duh.

Of course it can cause injuries.

Hatha Yoga (which includes power, flow, Anusara, “hatha”, and every other physical form of yoga) is a physical, bio-mechanical practice.  Ask any yoga teacher and – if they’re over 30 and being honest – you’re likely to find some sort of medical history.  To share my personal trophies, I’ve torn my hamstring in Prasarita Padottanasana, damaged the meniscus in my knee from too many lotus attempts, and dislocated a rib facet falling out of handstand.  And these days, with the emphasis on “getting” handstand in the middle of the room to be a “real yogi” or pushing through thirty chaturangas in a class to “test your edge”, it’s no wonder that we are limping to the physio and crying to our RMT’s.  But before you gasp in shock and tremble because yoga is supposed to be a cure all, listen up.  Injury and stress is the nature of any repetitive physical endeavor done passionately over time.  I’ve also tweaked my hamstring playing touch football on the beach, damaged my wrist skiing, and hurt my back in Cross Fit.  Golf causes injuries.  Martial Arts causes injuries.  I may be going out on a limb, but I bet you can develop repetitive stress injuries in swimming too.

Anyone who expects yoga to be a panacea for all ills isn’t paying attention.  The author of the article, William Broad, describes his experience: “While doing the extended-side-angle pose, a posture hailed as a cure for many diseases, my back gave way. With it went my belief, naïve in retrospect, that yoga was a source only of healing and never harm.”  William, thank you for the wake up call.  We should all set our naivete aside.  Living on this plane of existence with muscles, bones, tendons, and blood, we are subject to the forces of time and aging.  We move in a world of form and limitation.  Expecting yoga to transcend the nature of this Universe is like expecting dinner to cook itself or time to move backwards.

Does this mean you shouldn’t do yoga?

Absolutely not.

Yoga is revelatory for self-connection.  Yoga wakes you up and asks you to breathe.  Yoga cultivates strength, suppleness, and fluidity. Yoga asks you to commit to your deepest and most passionate self and cultivate a deep inquiry into your life and your place in this world.  Yoga is a tool for helping you to become more fully yourself.   And – when done mindfully and with kick ass alignment – yoga heals.  So yes, do your freakin’ yoga.

But here are some tips:

  • Set aside your naivete that yoga will fix everything.  Physically, it won’t.
  • Listen to your body.  For reals this time.
  • Practice the style of yoga that you need, not just that you like.  If you need more strength and less flexibility, get your ass out of yin.
  • Please, focus on your alignment.  Do less, and do it better.
  • Complement your yoga practice with other sensible physical fare.  You’re not invalidating your yoga by doing your physio exercises, taking a jog, or going to the gym.
  • When you do these other physical activities, leave your Ipod at home.  Really pay attention to what you’re doing, and these activities can be yoga too.
  • Go to yoga class to work on your mind, not just your body.  Take the pressure off your yoga practice to be your workout, and you’ll find that you can actually move move deeply, find more ease, and (crazily enough) your practice will actually advance faster.

Yoga is one of the best things that has happened in my life.  If you’re reading this, my bet is that it’s transformed you, too.  But let’s remember what our yoga is really about: self-revelation, compassion, and a deep connection with the world.   Yoga is a tool for co-creating with the Universe; for nourishing our bodies, minds, and hearts and exploring the wonder of our own expression while we live on this marvelous world.

Do your yoga.

Just do your yoga smart.

Sugarcane in the moonlight: Ardha Chandrachapasana

Who doesn’t like sugarcane in the moonlight?  De-lish.

Photo courtesy of Yoga Journal

But let’s face it, getting into this variation of Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana) can test your balance, flexibility, and coordination as you reach back and grab your lifted leg.  Never fear, here are some tips that help make this elusive pose more accessible.

Component Parts

First, to approach the pose, we must understand its component parts.  Let’s start with Ardha Chandrasana:

External Rotation of Standing Leg

The key to Half Moon is the strong external rotation of the bottom leg.  (Think about it for a moment: the bottom leg.  Often we get confused and think it’s the lifted leg in rotation, but actually the lifted leg is neutral.)  The strong external rotation of the lower leg is counterbalanced by the drawing in of the lower shin and anchoring of the inner edge of the bottom foot.  Together, these two actions create a diagonal spiral effect that keeps your standing leg stable.   Against the external rotation of the standing thigh, the pelvis can open to the side plane.  If you lose the anchor of external rotation, the standing knee will collapse in, the booty will swing with abandon to the back plane, the the containment of the pose will be lost.

Great poses to teach this external rotation in a non-balancing position: Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II), Triangle (Trikonasana),  Gate (Parighasana), Side Angle (Parsvakonasana).

Hamstrings/ Adductors

The standing leg hamstring must be open, as well as some of the adductors.  Imagine triangle pose on its side, so the back leg is now in the air, and you have Half Moon with a balance added.  Good standing poses for opening the hamstrings: Uttanasana, Triangle (Trikonasana), Wide-legged forward fold (Prasarita Padottanasana), Hanumanasana and Ardha Hanumanasana (splits), Pyramid (Parsvottanasana), and Standing Hand to Foot Pose (Utthita Hasta Padangustasana).

In traditional Half Moon, the torso stays steady in all three plane so that it is like Tadasana, but with the arms wide.  If the neck is comfortable, the gaze anchors to the top hand.

Getting into Ardha Chandrasana

To move into Ardha Chandrasana effectively, you must impress upon your students the imprint of the external rotation of the standing leg so that you can steady the knee appropriately.  Without this rotation, the inner knee will collapse in and the foundation will usually become unsteady.  The knee will torque and the lift that we need out of the standing leg will deflate.  Rooting through the inner edge of the bottom foot while strongly externally rotating the standing leg thigh will create a powerful dual action to steady the lateral lines of the leg.

For this reason, coming to the pose from another externally rotated pose is ideal.  Trikonasana is an obvious choice, but Parsvakonasana (Side Angle) is also effective.  Once you have transferred your weight to the standing leg, pause, and bend the standing leg knee.  With the knee bent, you can clearly discern the efficacy of your external rotation.   Strongly wrap the standing leg buttock under you until the sitting bone actually feels like it’s sliding towards your lifted leg.  When this action is effectively performed, your standing leg knee will again track over the center of your ankle.

Now, maintaining that rotation and lateral engagement, begin to straighten your leg by rooting strongly through the standing leg heel.  Because you’ve entered the pose from Trikonasana or Parsvakonasana, the torso is likely already facing the side.  Maintain the rotation of the bottom leg as you open the pelvis further.  (Rather than turning your chest, first turn your pelvis.)  Where the pelvis leads, the body follows.

In traditional Ardha Chandrasana, the body is essentially in Tadasana with the arms wide, except the bottom leg is strongly externally rotating.

Ardha Chandrachapasana

When we elevate the pose to Ardha Chandrachapasana, we add two elements: the bending of the top leg and a backbend.

Adding a thigh stretch to the upper leg requires balance, coordination, and open hip flexors.  Prepare for the action of this variations in non-balancing poses such as Anjaneyasana (low lunge), Crescent (high lunge), and variations with a thigh stretch.  I recommend doing a low lunge with a thigh stretch where the student reaches back with the ipsilateral hand for the leg, in order to imprint of holding the foot with the same side hand in ACC.  Awkward pigeon with a thigh stretch is also an interesting warm up, as the hip are mimicking some of the actions of ACC: the front leg is externally rotating while the back thigh’s hip flexors are stretching.

Backbending requires thoracic extension, which can be efficiently added to poses like lunges and thigh stretches, and warmed up separately in poses such as Bhujangasana (cobra), sphinx, and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Dog).

Putting it Together

To enter the pose from Ardha Chandrasana, the obvious transition is to simply bend the top knee and reach for the top of the foot.  However, this is frequently inaccessible to many students.  Another way in is to bend both knees and actually draw your top knee into your chest.  For most, this makes it easier to find the top foot.  From this contracted position, actively hug towards the core of the body until you are stable.  Then, unfurl the pose by pressing your back knee towards the back of the mat.  The back thigh stays parallel to the floor; watch the tendency to float the knee towards the ceiling, which diminishes the stretch of the front of the thigh.

Like Ardha Chandrasana, the external rotation of the bottom leg is essential.  That rotation is the “brake” that allows the body to then uncurl into a backbend.  Without the hip drawing under, there is little leverage for the body to move back.  With the bottom leg still bent, reaffirm the external rotation of the leg by drawing the hip firmly under and lengthening your tailbone towards the lifted knee.  Now keep that strong action as you begin to draw the shoulder heads and the throat back and open the chest.  The foot and the hand form a reinforcing energetic loop; press the foot strongly into the top hand to further open the heart.  When the body is steady, take the gaze to the ceiling.

Releasing the pose

Coming out of the pose is just important an opportunity as coming into the pose.  Bring your gaze to the floor to create a visual anchor.  Re-establish the steadiness of the bottom leg.  Energetically maintain the bend of the top leg as you release it from your hand and bring the spine back to Tadasana.  Re-connect to the external rotation of the bottom leg as you step back to Trikonasana or Parsvakonasana.

Playtime

Experiment with this pose at the wall.  Place your standing foot parallel to the wall and about 18 inches away (everyone’s distance will be a little different, you’ll adjust if you need to.)   Come into Ardha Chandrasana.  Then bend the top leg and place the top of the foot on the wall behind you.  With this third point of contact, the body will have a chance to settle more so that you can work the actions without worrying so much about balance.  Also, you can explore the actions here without actually holding on the foot.

If possible, reach back to hold onto the top foot. Otherwise, wrap your standing leg hip under, press the top foot into the wall, and begin to explore the opening of the backbend with the top arm simply lifted towards the sky. The connection of the foot to the wall will begin to imprint the actions of the pose into the body.

 

The Elegant Wheel

Photo courtesy of YYoga

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow, also known as “Wheel”) is one of the most delicious and expansive of yoga asana, inviting a full opening of the “Eastern,” or front, side of the body.  As in all yoga asana, the stability (sthira) of the back body is essential for supporting the full expansion and sweetness (sukha) of the front body.  Also, Urdhva Dhanurasana calls for a profound opening in the hips and shoulders in order to access the fullest expression of the spine.  Since the body has to put all these parts together effectively, accessing the full expression of this pose can sometimes be elusive.

However, with some preparation and variation, the benefits of this pose can be readily be made available to a wide range of students.

Component Parts

Hips

Finding the full range of motion in the lower body for Urdhva Dhanurasana is more than a matter of spinal flexibility.  For most of us, we can find about 45 degrees of mobility through the spine, and an additional 15 degrees of extension between the hips and the thighs.  What this means is that in order to access the full “bow-ness” of Upward Bow, we must be conscious to open the hips as well as the back.

The muscles to target here are the psoas, iliacus, and rectus femoris (one of the quads).  By effectively opening these muscles, over time the full hip extension of Urdhva Dhanurasana becomes accessible.  While opening the quads can be targeted through thigh stretches (think low lunge, bending the back knee, and drawing the heel towards the buttock), the ilio-psoas needs to be stretched by a differential between the angle of the back thigh and the pelvis.  Crescent and Upright Low lunge are great candidates.  When stretching the psoas, the back leg will often turn out in a clever attempt to avoid the stretch.  Focus on softening the upper inner thigh of the back leg towards the back plane of the body until the thigh is neutral in the socket.  Once space and alignment is created, the anchoring of the tailbone down will create the posterior action needed to begin stretching this important muscle.

Because the psoas attaches all the way up the lumbar spine towards T12, conscious alignment of the hips is one half of the equation.  Note that in the stretch, the lumbar and thoracic spine will want to pull forward in space.  Instead, consciously draw the lower belly and sides of the waist back and up (almost like scooping your belly with an ice cream scoop).  This lifting and scooping action will draw the superior fibers of the psoas away from its insertion on the back thigh.  Like ice cream: delicious.

Shoulders

Urdhva Dhanurasana requires a lot of openness through the shoulders.  Invariable, this is why some of our sturdier male students remain landlocked on the ground.  The arms need the facility to flex fully at the shoulder joint.  External rotation of the upper arm is preferred to help anchor the scapulae firmly on the back.  Prepare the body for this position by focusing on poses that get the arms above the head: crescent, chair.  One of my favorite poses is to do Chair (utkasana) with a block firmly positioned between the hands.  Work on pressing your hands into the block as you externally rotate the upper arms, straighten the arms, and then lift them overhead.  Once you’ve worked in these positions, move the body in weight-bearing positions to open the shoulders in such asana as dolphin and handstand.

Thoracic Spine

Naturally, a backbend ain’t a backbend without the extension of the thoracic spine.  Start small and target the upper back through poses such as cobra and sphinx.  Once the upper back has been educated, then you can move to fully spine extensions such as full cobra and updog.  When working in spinal extension, it is important to maintain the stability of the lower back in order to avoid over-compressing in the lumbar and lower thoracic.  The lower back is the backbendiest place of the spine, and the juncture between the lumbar and thoracic is particularly mobile.  While we do use this mobility when we backbend, we don’t want to overly capitalize on it and neglect the opening that needs to occur in the upper spine.  Create length and stability by maintaining a broadness in the mid and lower back and focus your backbending efforts higher up.  Use the external rotation of the upper arms to facilitate a greater sense of drawing the scapulae into the back.  This will help with your thoracic extension.  (Try it: do a mini standing backbend with your arms externally rotated, then internally rotated – which is easier?)

The pumpkin

The buttocks in backbending can become overly zealous.  My teacher Catherine Munro called this phenomenon the “pumpkin.”  While the glutes work, we want to be careful that they don’t overly engage.  The secondary action of the glutes is to externally rotate the thigh, which can lead to compression through the lower back and inability to lengthen the tailbone.  Use the muscular midline (adductors, internal rotators) to keep the legs neutral even when the glutes engage.

You can teach proper engagement in your backbends, but also in poses such as crescent or 3-legged dog, where the back leg needs to find a slight internal rotation to bring it back to neutral.

Getting up there- Two hand positions

After you warm up your students thoroughly and appropriately, start your students in bridge and confirm the neutral placement of the feet.  The feet – as a distal reflection of the thighs – will attempt to turn out when the glutes engage.  Use midline to keep the legs (and feet) parallel.  As your students lift into bridge, confirm the action of the legs and pelvis in this non-weight bearing position.

From here, they place their hands in position #1: by the ears and close.  The proximity of the hands to the head will give them more muscular access to lifting up.

Once they come onto their heads, widen the hands into hand position #2, which creates a little more space into the shoulder girdle.  While they will have less power to press up, most students appreciate the extra space.  They can also turn their hands out slightly to create even more room.

Now it is time to affirm the lift into the thoracic spine and appropriate action of the shoulders –  before they become weight-bearing through their arms.  Have your students roll towards their hairline to draw their chest forward through their arms as they root the upper arms bones back into their sockets (towards their hips).  This will anchor the scapulae on the back.  From here, they can then press into the hands and feet evenly (watch the feet don’t move – continue to hug the midline) to come up.

There are two variations of Urdhva Dhanurasana. In variation 1, the student works to create an even bow through the whole body, with the pelvis and ribs level.  While this is easier on the shoulders, it’s harder on the wrists as they are at a very acute angle.  In version 2, the student begins to bring their shoulders forward over their wrists (see pic above). Easier on the wrists, but asking for lots of space in the shoulders.  Eventually, you can take version 2, then walk the feet in as is comfortable to tighten the bowstring.  Students should maintain the capacity to feel grounded in the feet (good for standing up eventually from this pose) as well as rooted in the hands (great for shoulder opening).  Here’s a tip from Asthanga teacher Chris Richardson: To keep the lower back long, move everything from the navel through the thighs towards the feet, while the navel through the back spine reaches forward into the hands.  Move both parts of the body away from each other to create spaciousness in the center.

If you have students who are limited through their shoulders, you can have them hold your ankles.  They should place the webbing of their hands into the crease where your leg and foot meet and hold there, rather than wrapping their hands around your lower leg.    (Make sure to keep your feet on the wide side.)  Otherwise their hands will slide down to your feet anyway, giving you a you an unwelcome skin massage.

 

One step at a time

Many times students will forget about the foundation in the excitement of getting up and turn their feet and leg out every which way in an effort to “do the full pose.”   While this may be initially exciting, it is far better to proceed with patience so that the whole body can be integrated in the pose – from the toes to the fingers.  Otherwise, cranky low backs will ensue rather than the adrenal stimulating, expansive awakening that Urdhva Dhanuarasana provides.

The”full expression” of Urdhva Dhanurasana allows you to leverage the action of the arms to open the upper back and chest, your students in bridge are still experiencing the delights of spinal extension.  Over time and patient practice, the body will become more receptive and open to this luxurious expression.  Warm up intelligently, manage your foundation and actions, and allow the pose to unfold from there.