refining the obvious

If you work on all fours, with an awareness of the distribution of weight between the hands and the shins, you can move backwards to child. but coming forwards, if you keep 'weighting' the shins, the front of the knees, and begin to take the pelvis forwarsd towards the wrists, you move into something that is on its way to being cobra/up dog.

now what is interesting here is that there is a point where the lower back feels really open.

and a point beyond this where the lower back starts to feel compressed or compacted.

I owe this exploration to the scaravelli-inspired teacher catherine annis, and her version of this teaching is more hers, and more refined but as an exploration i think it is interesting.

and I enjoy this one sweet point where the lower back feels long and open before you go any further. As the shape becomes more like cobra/updog then its interesting to add the classical alignment points of these poses - shoulders back, pit of belly lifted, heart lifted - is there also some work with the legs that I haven't mentionned - but even with these 'alignment points', as the pose becomes more like a deep cobra, up dog, the lower back is still, compresed, although these alignment points feel (to me) like tools or weapons which we can use to counteract this compression - the pose is a battle (perhaps) between the more open feeling in the lower back and the compression.

again. any thoughts or responses very gratefully received.

xxx

the obvious

a brief conversation with a passing osteopath reminded me that osteos, or this particular one, noted that pain in the lower back, which is linked to hypermobility in the lower back and also weakness, may be linked to stiffness in the upper back.

now this may be kind of ultra obvious to all of you but it was worth hearing, again, for me.

i map this awareness on to the differences between a low cobra (where really just the shoulders are involved in the posture) and a upwards facing dog (which is, according to another osteopath friend of mine, more or less acheiveing 'compaction of the lumbar vertebra').

I am sure there are ways of practicing upwards facing dog without compacting lumbar vertebra. There may even be a case for compression and compaction of lumbar vertebra - and please someone get in touch to help me with that understanding - but....this particular awareness takes me (as a teacher) to a place where I would rather teach my students the lower cobra (and also practice this posture myself) than upwards facing dog.

and if i want to squeeze and release the lumbar vertebra to feed the discs, then there are cat stretches.

over and out.

Back to Life

It is time to bring this blog back to life. Forgive me for long absence.
Sometimes it is hard to even think of anything to say. Or be in the right frame of mind to communicate

But something to go on...

An intention for downwards facing dog.
The intention to explore is to suck or draw the upper arm bones up into the body and similary suck the thigh bones up into the body....and then to think about lifting the spine, as if each vertebra was attached to a tiny hook or wire from the ceiling, so the entire spine is lifted up and almost ouf of the body, then to stretch the front of the body, to lengthen the underneath of the torso...

just something to play with if you are interested in long holds in downwards facing dog and already know enough to hold the pose safely, with awareness of what is happening in your lower back and shoulder joints.

peace and love in 2010. sorry for the long, long absence.

Seated Forwards Extension, the Paschimottanasana issue

wow well its been like forever since i posted
and i apologise for the delay. but i've been busy. i've been training to teach and also teaching

anyway the point being. I always feel for people who get stuck in paschimottanasana, seated forwards bend when the teacher blithely says 'oh just come forwards' and all they can do is sort of stick out and crane their heads and bend somewhere around the middle of the back when everyone else smartly folds at the hips....

or that weird habit some yogis have of grabbing their feet and yanking their bodies and backs forwards (which i am sure is like, 'hi go straight to osteopath' manouevre)

so...solutions...one is to teach the seated forwards bend as a seated forwards extension with possibility...the extension is the extension of hte spine, rising high and tall from the body...but then...how do you begin to move....to tease the bend without saying 'oh now come forwards'....what i've been doing and saying is working on the legs....once you are sitting 'tall' then bring attention to legs and feet... be on the centre of the heels, really engage the legs as in a sort of iyengar or anusara tadasana (ligt up through the front of the ankle, down through the heel, energy up along the front of the shin, calf muscle (energetically) moving down to heel, lift kneecaps, squeeze front and back thighs towards each other...all that sort of thing...

and then...now that we've begun to get into the leg area...then the crucial teaching for trying to get at the hamstrings and 'allow' the bend....i would say extend from the knee down to the heel and the ball (and also extend as i accelerator pedeal the foot) and then draw the back of the thigh BACKWARDS from the back of the knee BACK towards the hips...and its this action which, I find, can beautifully initiate the bend for those can bend and for those who can't, we begin to work at the hamstring and at least give them something to do as opposed to sitting down and looking miserable.

this is assuming the major obstacle to a seated forwards bend is hamstrings...i haven't really begun to study obstacles in the hips, groins, pelvis....

more later, over and out. peace.xxx






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farewell to jah,,,,

first post in ages.


just saying farewell to joey who hosted his last mysore at triyoga in primrose hill this morning.
it was so beautiful. lots of regulars, joey played music - bob marley' exodus', soft electronic dub, jolly chants...it was gorgeous to hear bob marley after we chanted the ashtanga mantra; such a sweet take on what can be such a severe, serious practice...

joey had been looking after mysore in primrose hill for 7 years. he's moving on. but he'll be missed for both the softness and the seriousness of his touch and approach; a rare balance.


also just remembering how great yoga is when there is a sense of community; when the same people regularly come to practice, when you find the same person on the mat next to you and you don't compete with each other!!!! you actually support each other with the generosity of your energy and the open spirit of your own practice.

living in warmth and love today then, even though it was a cold morning in london but the warmth of the practice and the love that was in the air made everything beautifully sweetly hot.

xxx

been so long...

sorry its been so long but you can get lost in your practice

well i only practice ashtanga once a week and i totally skip the poses that hurt and numb my knee
thats it.

i also throw in extra poses to keep the juice flowing and close the practice early around mari c...

i know think ashtanga is too long, too achievement oriened and too strenuous...paul girlly said it had the highest dropout rate of any yoga....i can see why poeple like it, and i can remember why i used to love it but leaving it behind has been way way easier than i expected even though i have had to study a lot more, read a lot more, think a lot more now that i practice a more aligned hatha practice

and interesting i breathe and flow into my more aligned hatha practice...it is still dynamic but often i find myself lookig for a pluse in the pose and ways to feed and grow and pulse the pose with breath...more on this later...

peace.

ashtanga knee. oh woe.

Oh dear. What can you do with astanga knee? And why do so many ashtanga teachers just assume that you aren't, unless you tell them, in pain or difficulty. They set up a culture in the class that is quite macho or achievement oriented..its not we'll work this out slowly and safely...and I guess its my fault as a student for not stopping or even questionning that ethos but me knee now hurts so much in the ashtanga practice that I have decided to stop the practice.


So I have gone back to Iyenger and Dona Holleman influenced Hatha at home with a lot of sun saulations and vinyasa (the ashtanga influence) inbetween asanas and also chucking in Shiva Rea sequences and Simon Low's Shiva Rea and Shadow influenced Dancing Dragon sequence...which is a great flow sequence. And none of these stress my knees like the ashtanga half found Lotus forwards bend but give me heat and sweat and strength and open-ness...which is what I really really want.

I might drop into ashtanga again but I will insist or at least ask for 'mods' as in modified poses for those knee-killers. And I won't even think about attempting lotus...