Urdhva Dhanurasana Variations

Urdhva Dhanurasana translates as Upside Down Bow, some traditions call this Cakrasana, Full Wheel, and sometimes I have heard it called Bridge Pose. This posture works the muscles of the back of the body that are necessary for upright postural alignment. It also works the muscles of the shoulders and arms and the back of the legs. The entire front of the body, including the ribcage and front of the pelvic structure is opened by the pose. Areas to be careful of in the posture are the lower back and the shoulders. As with all of the postures you want to avoid unnecessary strain, while moving into the posture. If you open your body to where it can go in the pose you will get more from the pose than if you try and push to get farther into the pose that your body wants you to go.

Busy But Enough Time for a Brief Note on Breathing

Wow, I have been busy; too busy to do a lot of things. This breathing anatomy and practice course has gone really well so far though. Well enough so that it looks like, in the fall they will add more segments of it as an ongoing continuing education course in breathing anatomy and breath-work. I will add links when I have them.

It is amazing to see how people's breathing patterns improve from simply understanding what they are working on more completely rather than dogmatically presenting one method of breathing as THE method. And when people's breathing patterns improve and they are able to breath with less unnecessary tension in their breathing, and with an intelligent framework for understanding what they are trying to do with their breathing, it is pretty remarkable how much better it makes you feel; what a deep experience you are offered just by improving your breathing patterns, just by understanding more completely.

Peace.

Notes from My Breathing Seminar at Yoga Sutra

So on the Monday that just past, July 9th, I taught the first part of a 4 part series called “Breathing Anatomy and Techniques for Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation”. It was interesting to see the responses from the students after class. Everyone seemed like they were completely blissed out. It is amazing how deep you can go with just some simple breathing. And then if you add some techniques and some information that help people remove unwanted tension from the body caused by inefficient breathing patterns, it is amazing how much opens up, both physically and in some way that transcends the physical level. It was a great group to work with and I am excited about this upcoming Monday. Last week we worked on how the spine, the ribcage, the abdomen and the diaphragm work together in breathing. This coming Monday we are going to focus on what accessory muscles to breathing do to determine the way the body changes shape around the breath and how different patterns of holding or releasing tension in the muscles of the torso can create different breathing patterns. The interesting thing about this subject is that if you become more aware of ways of changing patterns of holding and releasing tension while breathing you start becoming aware of what your habitual patterns of holding tension are in breathing and in every day life. Being aware of these kinds of things so that you can use those patterns of work when they are useful and release them when they are getting in the way of what you are doing can be an interestingly powerful tool in all aspects of the practice of yoga and even in every day life.

Peace

UpSideDownCarl

Experiencing the Breath

It really is amazing how powerful and healing the breath can be. Just a short practice where you are doing simple postures where the central focus is the breath instead of the actual posture for itself can effect such a great amount of change in the internal system. Tension melting away, your mood changing, that ability to go far more deeply inside yourself; I guess it is hard to explain and put into words but the best things in life seem to be that way. I highly recommend to everyone out there, every once in a while to try a very simple gentle asana practice with the main focus being on the breathing in the postures. You can move into and out of the postures repetitively several times before holding them and then when holding them focusing on the breath ratio you established while moving, keeping the breath long and smooth, relaxed and even, almost like what you are doing is a breathing exercise while doing simple postures. Even just fifteen to twenty minutes of doing this kind of practice can put you in a new place and set the stage for you to hit new levels in other aspects of your practice. If you add a seated breathing exercise at the end where you focus fully on the breath you will notice how much the practice--doing postures while focusing primarily on the breath--can free your system for breathing. And then when you sit still afterwards that ability to go inside and how the breathing techniques can significantly enhance that ability to go deeper within. Freedom.

To explore more have a look here: A Breathing Seminar with Carl

Marichyansana A; Another Angle on Opening from the Hips to the Lower Back to Reduce Tension

This pose, like all poses, has to be adapted to your current needs. If this is done, you get a nice angle from your pelvic structure into your lower back in this pose and the asymmetrical quality of the pose, like with Janusirsasna, causes you to get a nice release in the tension from the pelvic structure to the lower back.

The First Principle of Therapeutic Yoga

The first and most important principle of working therapeutically with a yoga practitioner is not to cause harm, not to make things worse. Part of what you need to do to do this is to find out what will potentially cause damage and what is causing the damage in the first place. What makes this complicated is that it could be any number of things. It could be something the person is doing while practicing. It could be something the person does while they are sleeping or during any other daily activity. If all you do, in working with someone who has an injury, is help that person remove the source of the problem you have done something really monumental in leading that person towards the direction of health. With most injuries, if the source of the problem is removed then the person’s body will heal itself over time. If you figure out what is creating a problem, understand what that is, and change the patterns that are causing the damage, replacing them with something that will not cause harm, something positive, things will usually just get better.

Therapeutic work in yoga is usually more complicated than just the simple physical level of things, but this is really a good place to start. And it is interesting that sometimes this works with deeper emotional stuff as well. Finding your way to the root of a problem, understanding it, and replacing damaging patterns of behavior with useful ones can do amazing things.

Knowing what exercises will make a physical problem better without addressing the root cause of the problem can really end up being like putting a band-aid on a cut that needs stitches.

Of course this is my opinion but.... :)

Peace.

UpSideDownCarl

Yoga of Heart: A 5-Day Workshop to Advance Your Practice with Mark Whitwell

This is a workshop from July 1st through July 6th at the Omega Institute. Here is where to go to find out full details on the workshop: http://www.eomega.org/omega/workshops/60d21e455fa4babfbfa9be115c974525/

Mark is a wonderful teachers and I have learned more from him than any other yoga teacher I can think of. And I cannot really think of anything that would be better than to be someplace beautiful like the Omega Institute for five days with a gifted and inspiring teacher like Mark.

Mark has decades of experience teaching and practicing and has a unique skill of getting practitioners to put the practice in a real and authentic perspective. Mark helps you go deep into your own understanding of practice in a way that few teachers will ever understand how to duplicate. I cannot recommend this workshop highly enough.

Peace.

Bright Spirit Yoga 300-Hour Advanced Teacher Training

I wanted to post this. Bright Spirit Yoga 300-Hour Advanced Teacher Training. That is a link to a 300 hour teacher training that I will be teaching a few small segments of. They are having me teach a few segments. These are the subjects they are having me present: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras In Our Asana and Daily Life, and The Bhagavad Gita in Modern Yoga. It should be a lot of fun teaching these subjects. The directors of the training program are Carrie Parker Gastelu and Jillian Pransky. They are both wonderful teachers who I have known since 1999. I guess it is even longer than I realized. How time does fly when you are having fun.

Peace.

Breathing Anatomy and Techniques for Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation

In July I will be teaching this program on Breathing Anatomy with a focus on how to apply techniques in practice at Yoga Sutra. This link will bring you to the full description of the workshop:

http://www.yogasutranyc.com/yogicstudies.php#5

The workshop will be part of a series of workshops that the center is offering. If you want to see the full list here is the link:

Yoga Sutra Advanced Studies Programing

They have some good programs including one with Srivatsa Ramaswami.

Parivrtti Janusirsasna: Opening From the Outer Hip into the Side of the Body Reducing Tension in Lower Back

This variation of Janusirsasna where you are lengthening from the outer hip into the side of the body directly stretches the muscles that attach from the iliac crest to the lower ribs including the quadratus lumborum.



As a result it can help reduce tension in the lower back if it is applied appropriately to the needs of the individual. Because it is a pose where you are extending the spine laterally, it also stretches the muscles in between the ribs (the intercostals muscles) and the muscles on one side of the spine. For some there is also an element of opening in the inner thigh of the leg with the bent knee.

Janusirsasana: Asymmetrical Opening from the Hips and Pelvic Structure into the Spine Reducing Tension and Improving Health of Lower Back

Here are two different arm positions for Janusirsasana. Applied appropriately this pose can really be great for your lower back. One of the reasons is that you are stretching the muscles of your lower back asymmetrically. On the side of the body with the knee bent you are opening from the outer hip and inner thigh into the lower back in a way that helps you open the muscles that encase the kidney region on the outside of the lower back. One of those muscles is the Quadratus Lumborum. On the side where the leg is straight you are opening from the back of the leg, the hamstring muscles, into the lower back. If you do both sides evenly this angle on the lower back can be very beneficial to the health of your spine because you get a more complete opening by adding muscles farther away from the spine that attach to the Illium (major hip bone) of the pelvic structure. You are also lengthening one side of the spine a little more than the other so there is a little bit of lateral extension in the posture and then you are rotating a little towards the straightened leg so there is an slight amount of rotation in the spine. This adds to the asymmetrical quality of the pose and is also part of what makes the pose so good for the health of your lower back as long as you do not push beyond your capabilities while going into the posture. When you feel the opening in the pose you are far enough and you want to be able to relax while working in the pose so that you can enjoy the benefits you are getting while you are in the posture.



This second arm variation helps emphasize the asymmetrical nature of the pose by making bent knee side lengthen more than it would with the first arm variation.

Reclining Core Strengthening Twist

Here are two variations of a reclining twist done in a way that will cause the focal point to be strengthening the core. If you are attempting to scoop your abdomen inward the core will work more effectively and the work will be more beneficial. These postures also can help the health of the lower back and postural alignment as they strengthen muscles in the spine and ribcage and muscles in the abdomen that help with postural alignment. Applied appropriately these can be powerful and useful postures for the overall health of your system.

More Core Strengthening Postures for Improved Postural Alignment and the Health of Your Spine

The main thing with these postures is that if you are trying to scoop your lower abdomen inward it makes the work in the core stronger and helps you use that strength to lengthen the lower back. This makes the work more beneficial to maintaining good posture and improving the health of your spine. In these postures you can also see that, while I am working strongly, I am also relaxed and not overworking. So sthirasukham is also possible while strengthening the core.

In this first picture you can see how strongly I am scooping my abdomen inward.



In this pose you can see how I am scooping my abdomen in as well.



In this pose it is harder to scoop the abdomen in but trying makes the work much deeper.



In this pose it is also hard to scoop the abdomen inward, but again, if you try to, it makes the work more powerful and the pose will give you more work in the deeper muscles of the abdomen where you want it.



In this last pose you can either do the pose with the knees bend or straight. Both variations of the posture are good work for the core. And just like with all the other postures, scooping the abdomen inward while expanding the chest will make the work in the core deeper in precisely the way you want it to be deeper.

Bharadvajasana, A Twist that Opens Your Hips and Releases Tension in Your Neck and Shoulders As Well

This pose is unique in how it opens the hips in both internal and external rotation at the same time because of the leg positioning. Because of the bind it opens the shoulders in a nice way. And, because the head and neck are turning in the opposite direction from the rest of the body the neck, shoulders and upper back get a stretch in a unique way that is hard to find. It is not often that the spine below the shoulders is turing in one direction while, above the shoulders, it turns in the opposite direction. This pose can release tension in the neck, shoulders and upper back while releasing tension in the hips and lower back at the same time.

Core Strengthening with Pelvic Opening

I am going to let these pictures stand for themselves. The main thing to make these more powerful for the core is to try and scoop your abdomen inward as you are balancing. It really feels good to my body to do postures that release tension in the pelvic structure and work the core at the same time.

Ankle to Knee Pose: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Stretch from the Outer Hip into the Lower Back

These poses are powerful for opening from the outer hips into the lower back. For most people, these ankle to knee variations are a little more intense than the Cow Faced variations from the previous post. If the postures are applied in a way that is appropriate for the practitioner they can help reduce tension from the hips to the back and which can help the heath of your spine.

However, with ankle to knee particularly, you need to be careful that the knee does not have unwanted stress on it. You are using the knee as a fulcrum to rotate the hip and, even if it seems that you have good alignment, if you go too far you can stress your knee and over time this could lead to damage. You want your knees in a position as close to a 90-degree angle as possible and your shins as close to parallel to each other as possible in all the variations. If the knee is bent farther than 90-degrees it is easier to damage the cartilage in the knee (the cartilage in the knee is called meniscus or menisci: singular=meniscus, plural=menisci). Therefore, when you are trying to open the outer hip it is worth proceeding with caution. If you were doing a posture like Lotus pose which requires a deeper than 90-degree bend in the knee your hips should be open enough so that it is not an intense hip stretch in order for it to be safe.

=

In this first variation the feet are under the knees, which helps protect the knees and makes the depth of the rotation gentle. If this one feels deep enough this is the variation that should be used. If this is too deep, or if your knees cannot rest comfortably on your feet then you should do one of the variations lying on your back.






=

This second variation is a little deeper. The shin and foot is resting on top of the lower leg's calf. This variation should only be done if you can fully rest the top shin on the lower shin. If the top shin is not fully resting on the lower shin this one can be more dangerous to the knees than either of the other variations. This variation is deeper than the previous variation but not as deep as the next variation.





=

This last variation is the deepest of the three. The ankle has come across to the outside of the knee and is not touching the leg. This one can be practiced safely even if the top shin does not rest on the lower shin. However, if the top shin is more than an inch or two above the lower shin, you should not fold forward. Instead you should stay upright and hold the pose feeling the opening there. You should only fold forward in this posture if the top shin is either resting on the bottom shin or close enough to it so that when you fold it does rest on the bottom shin. This pose should also not feel too intense and if you feel the stretch is too intense or that there is stress in the knees you need to back up to one of the previous variations or one of the variations lying on your back.





Go to: Reclining Hip Opening Postures to Reduce Stress in the Outer Hips and Lower Back
Go to: Cow Faced Pose: Gomukhasana: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Reduce Tension in the Outer Hip and Lower Back

Cow Faced Pose: Gomukhasana: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Reduce Tension in the Outer Hip and Lower Back

If this pose is adapted in a way that is appropriate for the practitioner, it can be effectively used to help reduce tension in the outer hip and lower back. You want to make sure that the pose is not too intense on the hips and that the knees do not feel tension as you progress your way into the posture.

=

In the first picture I am setting up the leg position. If this is as far as you go, then this might be enough opening for your body.

=

In this second picture I am starting to move the feet away from each other so that the opening in the hips is a little deeper. As you are doing this, when your body tells you that you should not bring your feet farther away from each other that would be far enough, and then you could fold if folding feels okay for you.

=

In this third photo the feet have gone out just about as far as they can so my knees are stacked one on top of the other. The closer the bend in my knee is to a 90-degree angle, so that my shins go straight out to the sides, the deeper the opening in my hips will be.

=

In this forth photo I am folding forward. This makes it so I can get the opening from my outer hips into my lower back. The release feels great. If you hold a lot of tension in your outer hips and lower back this is a great way to help reduce that tension and get your lower back to begin to relax. However, when you fold, you should only go as far as your body tells you is okay so that you remain safe. There is no place to get to. The release in the pose should be comfortable and enjoyable, not overdone.

Go to: Reclining Hip Opening Postures to Reduce Stress in the Outer Hips and Lower Back
Go to: Ankle to Knee Pose: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Stretch from the Outer Hip into the Lower Back

Yoga Anatomy By Leslie Kaminoff

Leslie Kaminoff's new book, Yoga Anatomy is almost out. You can preorder it and it should actually be out in about three weeks. Amy Matthews contributed and helped with the book and there are pictures in the book that are drawings adapted from photos of me in it. I have seen drafts of the book and it looks like it will be quite a useful book. There is not another book out there like this one. I recommend checking it out when it comes out.

Reclining Hip Opening Postures to Reduce Stress in the Outer Hips and Lower Back

These are some variations you can do while lying on your back to open your hips and help reduce stress in your outer hips and lower back. Because you are lying on your back it makes it easier to protect your knees as you open the outer hips. Some of what you are releasing is the tension in the external hip rotator muscles like the piriformis or the obturator internus and externus. There are a lot of muscles in that area that attach from the pelvic structure to the outer thigh. When these muscles are stressed or tight it can cause some tension in the lower back. Reducing this tension by stretching the outer hip muscles can help relieve some of this tension.

The four photos that are variations of reclining ankle to knee go from softer and easier to more intense and deeper. There are also four photos of a reclining variation of Cow Faced (gomukhasana) pose that progress in a similar manner from move basic to more challenging.

==

In this first photo it is hard to see that my hands are holding my right leg so that my hands are in between the back of my calf and the back of my thigh.



==

In this second pose I am a little deeper as I am holding the knee. This gives me a little more leverage to open deeper.



==

In the third photo I am holding the back of my heel from the outer edge of the foot. The leg position starts to look a lot like the seated pose without the ground there to force you deeper than ought to have gone.



==

In the fourth photo I have simply taken the pose a little deeper.



==

The fifth photo is the first variation of Reclining Cow Face. It is gentle I am only holding softly near the knees.



==

The sixth photo, which is the second Reclining Cow Face, is almost the same as the previous photo. The main difference are that my hands are a little farther away from my knees and I am trying to rotate my shins a little more to open the hips a little more deeply.



==

In the seventh photo I am holding my shins right near my feel and going considerably deeper than I went in the previous variation.



==

And in the eighth photo I am still doing reclining Cow Faced Pose, but I am holding the back of my heels to help protect my knees while opening my hips far more deeply that in any of the other photos presented here.



Go to: Cow Faced Pose: Gomukhasana: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Reduce Tension in the Outer Hip and Lower Back
Go to: Ankle to Knee Pose: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Stretch from the Outer Hip into the Lower Back

Dynamic Alignment While Folding Into a Standing Forward Bend

The idea of these pictures is to show good form while folding into or coming out of a forward bend. A lot of the time people think of alignment as something that occurs when you have set yourself in a pose. If you move into a pose with good form then you enter the form with good form as well. Your alignment while moving from one posture to another is at least as important as your alignment while holding a pose and it is harder to have good alignment in a movement than it is to adjust yourself into alignment when you are holding a posture and have more time to make micro-adjustments and observe how the posture feels to you.

Details to note about the form of these postures: My spine is long and relaxed all the way through. I am not arching my back like a banana (hyper-extension) and I am not rounding my spine (flexion) either. My spine is almost completely straight the whole way through the movement until the end parts of the movement when my spine rounds to complete the forward bend. My spine being basically straight means I am not shortening my spine while I fold. A back arch or rounding would mean my spine is shortening. And if I was arching my spine into hyper extension I would be working and shortening the back muscles more than would be useful for the fact that I am about to lengthen the back of my body in the forward bend. Often when people do this (sometimes referred to as “swan diving”), they are putting a lot of stress on the lower back and the back of the neck. Most adult human beings--at least in western culture where we often sit in chairs, talk on telephones and work at computers--don’t really need more tension in those areas of the spine. So, in a sense this is about being kind to your spine and the nice thing to know that it is much more challenging, better work and healthier for you all at once to have good form in movements.

Hip Opening Crow Variation: Eka Pada Galavasana

I thought these photos show this pose nicely so I figured I would throw them on. Not much to say about them aside from the standard comment that part of what makes them look good is the relaxed quality in the work: strength without tension, softness without laziness, power and stability balanced by comfort and enjoyability, alertness and relaxedness at the same time. You can tell that what I am doing feels good and I am focused on what I am doing.

Alternate Vinyasa Sequences: Part Eight; A Brief Note

Alternate Vinyasa Sequences: Part Eight; A Brief Note

I hint at this somewhere in the dialogue. The possible combination of vinyasa sequences that could be used in place of chataranga, upward facing dog and downward facing dog is really limitless. You can creatively link the posture, explore and experiment, and you will come up with some wonderful combinations of your own. For this reason I have specifically tried not to formalize what I have present or make the sequences seem like are supposed to go in any specific order. All I have done is categorize the poses by the breath, so that a practitioner will be able to know if he or she should be inhaling or exhaling while coming into a particular pose.

What I have presented is really just a starting point. With the postures I have presented there are hundreds of ways in which they could be combined to create different kinds of sequences. I hope you enjoy exploring the process of moving with your breath and opening your creative mind to new ways of getting from posture to posture while making the practice right for your current needs.

Peace.

UpSideDownCarl


Go to Part One
Go to Part Two
Go to Part Three
Go to Part Four
Go to Part Five
Go to Part Six
Go to Part Seven

Alternate Vinyasa Sequences: Part Seven; Sun Breath Variations

Urdhva Hastasana, arms up position, to be done on an inhale. Two variations.

Uttanasana, the forward bend, to be done on an exhale.

Three versions of Ardha Uttanasana. These postures to be done on an inhale after the forward bend.

=

Go to Part One
Go to Part Two
Go to Part Three
Go to Part Four
Go to Part Five
Go to Part Six

Go to Part Eight