Forward Bends; love ‘em or leave ‘em

Some students love forward bends. Their calf and thigh muscles are very flexible and they enjoy the challenge of stretching those muscles enough so that they can (almost) rest their torsos on their legs. Other students can’t stand them (the poses, not the flexible people). As hard as they try, they can barely reach their knees and only if they round their upper backs. The poses aren’t fun or invigorating—they hurt.

No matter which camp you fall in, it is important to remember that forward bends can improve with practice, but that you need to be very aware of how your lower back feels while you are doing them. It may be that the construction of your spine and pelvis is such that you will never be able to reach past your knees. The flexibility of your legs has something to do with your forward bend “ability”, but it is more related to the length of the muscles and ligaments surrounding the pelvis and lumbar spine. Always respect the sensations of the lower back as you bend; this will tell you if you can work on deepening the pose, or if you are as far you should stretch.

Unless forward bends are really painful, there are simple modifications that you can do to the poses so that they will work for you (lift the sitbones with a higher blanket, use a belt around the balls of the feet). If they are always uncomfortable, just skip them…there are plenty of other asana that open the backs of the legs and are more supportive of the lower spine. We did this sequence in class this week. Try it, and see if it works for you!

Forward Bends
Sukhasana (Easy Pose) Sit in a comfortable, cross-legged position with the sitbones on a folded blanket. Increase the height of the blanket if you can’t sit without rounding the lower back. Take a few minutes to really concentrated on balancing the pelvis and lengthening the spine.

Dandasana + Hastasana (Staff Pose + Overhead Arm Stretch) Extend the legs out in front of you, pressing the soles of the feet away evenly and engaging the thigh muscles. Raise your arms to the side and keep the shoulders away from the ears as you lift your arms overhead. After your initial stretch, begin to fold forward from the hips; keep the arms long and the side ribs lifted. Lead with the belly button as you lengthen the backs of the legs. Come back to center and relax.
Paschimottanasana (Forward Bend) Wrap your belt around the balls of the feet and begin to pull yourself forward, leading with the belly button. You are now tipping the pelvis forward to lengthen the back of the legs. Don’t round your lower back and keep the side ribs lifted as you did in the previous pose. If it’s comfortable, release the spine and fold further over the legs.
Padangusthasana (Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose)-Lie on your back and breathe deeply into the back of the legs as you draw your right foot towards you with the belt and press the back of the left thigh to the floor. Try to keep the pelvis balanced (there will be space at the lower back). Lower the leg to the side and rest the thigh on a block so you can concentrate on opening the hip joint instead of tipping over. Bring the leg back to center and lower. Repeat on the other side.
Upavistha Konasana (Wide-legged Forward Bend) Fold your blanket into thirds, so you have a higher base for the sit bones. Spread the legs to either side, but not so wide that you can’t keep the knees and toes pointing to the ceiling. Lengthen the backs of the legs as you press the soles of the feet away, like Staff Pose. Stretch the arms overhead, lengthen the side ribs and begin to fold at the hip crease. As with the earlier Forward Bend, if it is comfortable, release the spine and fold towards the floor.
Tadasana (Mountain) Come to standing and realign the spine, paying attention to the balance of the pelvis. Lift up through the top of the head as you ground through the soles of the feet.
Chair Pose, with a Twist Step the feet hip distance apart, with the inside edges of the feet parallel. Sit back, as if in a chair, as you bend your knees and fold at the hip crease. Stretch the arms overhead and lengthen the side ribs. Fold further forwards and place your right hand on the floor or a block and twist to the left while reaching the left arm towards the ceiling. Repeat on the other side. Come back to standing.
Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) Come into this pose softly to release the lower back. Keep the knees slightly bent as you fold from the hip crease. Cross your arms and let the weight of the upper body stretch out the spine. If you want a little stretch in the backs of the legs you can slowly straighten them by lengthening the backs of the thighs. Bend your knees to come back to standing and unfold slowly.

Parsvottanasana (Intense Side Bend) From Mountain, step the right foot back and straighten both legs. Make sure the hips are square and you are lengthening the backs of both thighs. With the arms folded at your lower back, stretch the chest forwards and fold at the hips, so the torso is parallel to the floor. Keep the hips square and the right heel grounded. Release the spine and round over the left leg, if you can. Return to center and repeat on the other side.
Viparita Karani (Legs Up The Wall Pose). Lie on the floor with the backs of your legs and hips resting against the wall and the feet lined up over the hips. Feel the pressure draining out of your feet and ankles. Keep the spine long as you relax the back into the support of the floor. Stay in this relaxing pose as long as you like. ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Process not Product

It is important to remember that in yoga, as with pretty much everything else, you should always focus on the journey not the destination. Ours is a very goal-oriented society, with all emphasis placed on the finished product rather than on the work and discovery that happens during its creation; it is very hard to shift focus away from results and concentrate on method. But you should try. Whatever it is that you are involved with will eventually end (the Terrible Twos, winter, grad school, spring cleaning), and it seems a shame to be wishing your life away, rather than learning from (dare I say enjoying?) the process.

Now, I’m a lot better at dispensing this advice than following it—so maybe we should practice “being in the moment” in a yoga pose. You can apply this skill to the Big Picture later, once your Triangle/Warrior II/Dog is perfectly observed.

Pick a favorite, but challenging, standing pose—one that improves as you hold it for awhile. Obvious candidates are: Adho Mukha Svanasana (Down Dog), Trikonasana (Triangle), Virabhadrasana I or II (Warrior I or II), or Parsvakonasana (Lateral Angle). Come into the pose in stages and notice what part of the body is doing the most work in each stage—grounding evenly through all parts of the foot, squaring the hips, elongating the spine, keeping the shoulder blades down, lengthening the neck—and take a few breaths at each stage so you are fitting the pieces of the pose together like a puzzle.

Once you are in the pose, keep checking in with these key areas. Can you deepen the work in a specific area with an exhale? How does that deepening affect the next area? Keep repeating the cycle and checking in every few breaths, but allowing yourself time to be still in the pose, too. If you start to get tired, see if concentrating on just your breath allows you more time in the position. When you are ready to come out, do it slowly, area by area, so the body unfolds from the pose rather than snapping (or sagging) to attention. Come into a relaxation pose (Balasana-Childs’, Tadasana-Mountain, Sukhasana-Easy) and observe the after-effects of the longer pose.

Obviously the interesting part of this exercise is not coming into the relaxation pose, or even coming out of the more difficult standing pose. See if you can recreate the feeling of discovery and opening that you noticed during this practice in the task that plagues you in your “real” life. It will be a lot harder than balancing your foot or aligning your tailbone, of course, but maybe this awareness will keep you engaged in the process.

I can’t guarantee that this will make tax preparation any more enjoyable, but I’ll bet you will find something interesting and new about how your garden wakes as the snow melts or how you perceive your professional achievements during a job search. Worse comes to worst, you can always just fling yourself back into Dog Pose and enjoy a nice, long stretch—you know that process will make you happy. ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

A Review of the Literature...

Next week begins a new session at the Y, so I thought I'd update all my links and sidebar information. There's a lot of stuff I've been looking at over the past few months, but hadn't got around to adding it to the blog. Blogger created a new template system, so it's extra easy to add links (if you are fishing around for a new format for your blog)--so I guess my procrastination has paid off.

Yoga Resources This is information and reference material. There's a link to the Stateline Family YMCA with my class listing. Nu-Source is the company I use for yoga props. Yoga Movement and Yoga Journal are good all-over resources; YM for seeking out different web sites and YJ for just about everything yoga-related, with lots of articles and descriptions of poses and practice sequences. Yoga Dancer is a comprehensive list--with pictures--of poses. And Yoga Font is a typeface designed by an Englishman that you can download to write sequences with.

Yoga Books These are books I use all the time when writing this blog and planning my classes. They have invaluable information about the physiology of the poses and ways to modify/intensify various asana.

Yoga Blogs This group of blogs/websites/podcasts are things I've come across on the internet that I think are worth a look. Alan Little has a blog similar to mine, in which he discusses poses and suggests sequences. Body and Breath and Hip Tranquil Chick are site that sell a lot of different yoga items, but have some interesting links. Everything Yoga has some good links, too. Moving Into Stillness is a huge discussion group that covers just about every yoga topic you can think of; the moderator, Suzanne DeForest does a nice job of keeping everything civil. Open Mind Open Body is a thougtful site by Kelly McGonigal, with some good suggestions for meditation, etc. Yoga Dawg and Cupcakes and Yoga are "lighter" sites; Dawg is downright irreverent (and hilarious), Cupcakes is personal and has some nice recepies for, you guessed it, cupcakes. Yoga Peeps is an interview show hosted by Lara Cestone and is downloadable to a MP3 player.

Give them all a look, and let me know what you think. I'll also welcome any suggestions for sites to add--I only have so much time for "research." Happy Surfing!

Snow Yoga

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right? We were all out for a wintry walk yesterday morning, because we had to get out of the house. Late winter in Wisconsin can be excruciating for a 2 ½-year-old—and his parents—so we bundled up and headed out to the trail behind our house. It was a clear, crisp day with a several layers of snow on the ground from our last three weekend storms. Jim and I broke through last week’s layer, but Eamonn sailed across on the top, which delighted him (and meant he didn’t need carrying).

The boys forged on ahead into the woods, while I hung back. It was so lovely and peaceful that a quick yoga practice seemed appropriate; I plopped down into Virasana (Hero Pose), closed my eyes and let the sounds of the cool air and birds be my soundtrack. I was bundled enough that the cold didn’t bother me, so it was a really nice, different way to approach a short session of focused relaxation. Give it a try, before the snow melts!

1. Pick a quiet, peaceful spot, without distractions like neighborhood noise or traffic. Make sure you are bundled warmly; being cold will be more distracting than noise and you want to be able to focus on your environment. This won’t be for very long, but you should be comfortable.

2. Find a favorite pose that you can hold for 10 or 15 minutes: Sukhasana (Easy Pose), Virasana, Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose), Dandasana (Staff Pose) are all comfortable poses, that you could do leaning against something for more support. Adjust as you need to accommodate your winter wrapping; you will be bulkier, so you may need to modify the position because of your boots, snow pants, etc.

3. Once you are comfortably situated, close your eyes and let yourself settle into the position. Be aware of the noises you hear all around you—wind in the branches, birds, a far-off snow blower, dripping icicles—don’t focus on them but let the sounds enter and leave your awareness as it happens. Stay in this calm, alert-but-relaxed state for as long as you wish.

4. Head inside for some hot chocolate and, remember, spring is only 16 days away! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Learning from a Corpse

No, I’m not going to enthuse about C.S.I. or, for you older yogis, Quincy. Today, I’m going to talk about what you can learn about yourself when relaxing in the final pose of a yoga class, Savasana (Corpse Pose). During interviews for my recent Yoga Journal article, I asked experienced teachers how yoga instructors could gauge if their class was successful. Several of them noted that the true sign of a good class was if the students were relaxed and quiet during Corpse.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense...the power of yoga is how it creates a sense of calm and well-being in the practitioner, no matter how energetic the sequence. This calm is evidenced by how much you can let go during the final relaxation. A teacher needs to watch for agitated movement, clenched fingers or toes, fluttering eyelids—basically signs that the students cannot release their muscles, even in a quiet, soothing environment. That means the work of the class was not calming and the teacher needs to find a way to help the students relax. Or, even if the students appear to be relaxed, their minds are still racing and the students, themselves, have to figure out how to quiet their thoughts.

I think Savasana is one of the hardest poses to do, because it is so difficult to completely let go and just “be in the moment.” Here are some suggestions on how to relax the body and, once the muscles are released, to still the mind.

-Start with the body. This is not meditation, so you aren’t trying to alter your consciousness; you are trying to get the muscles in the body to relax and soften, so concentrate on the smallest and move to the largest. Start with the fingers and toes, which have the fewest motor neurons and, as a result, are the easiest to release. Then move up the legs and arms to the hips and shoulder and finally into the torso. The postural muscles (abdominals and back) are some of the most complex and it is much harder to release contracted muscles here, especially because the contraction may be habitual if this is where your store your stress, (i.e. upper shoulders, lower back).

-Stay focused on the muscles. It takes a lot of concentration to relax the muscles and keep them relaxed, so work on maintaining a released state. Sense the softening of your body with each exhale and imagine yourself sinking into the floor. Keep deepening the “melting” feeling, so each breath contributes to your continued relaxation.

-Stay in the moment. For me, it is hardest to quiet and release the mind. As the body relaxes, the mind wants to keep working so you have to shut it off or, at least, slow it down. Sometimes just repeating a simple phrase is enough: “Air comes in, air goes out,” with each breath, for example. Or visualize a scene that will keep the mind focused on the moment: clouds moving by in the sky or water passing over pebbles in a stream. Corpse is meant to be an “active” relaxation, so you want to stay present and aware, not distracted with the mind wandering.

-Do Savasana regularly. Being able to relax, but not fall asleep or zone out takes practice. But, once you figure out how to get your muscles to release and your mind to empty, you’ve got a powerful tool to help yourself stay calm and reduce stress. In a pinch, I’ve found being able to just “be” for 10 minutes is almost as good as a nap in terms of revitalization (almost).

Work on this during your next practice. See if you can get to that place where the body is completely soft and the mind is conscious, but not working. And if it’s really difficult, notice why that is. Being aware of where you are tense and can’t relax will give you a place to focus on next time (maybe by including some poses that target that area). Collect your clues and crack this case! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Cow’s Head Sequence

Sorry for the silence. I’ve been working on another article for Yoga Journal’s newsletter for teachers and I got bogged down in my rewrites. I’ll let you know when “Enliven Your Teaching: from Routine to Animated” gets posted (March 28 or so).

So I’ve been hunched over a desk for the past week--time to open the shoulder and get the blood flowing into the hips and legs. Here’s a sequence using Gomukhasana (Cow’s Head Pose) we worked on last time:

Gomukhasana Sequence
-Sukhasana (Easy Pose) Sit in a comfortable, cross-legged position with the sitbones on a folded blanket. Increase the height of the blanket if you can’t sit without rounding the lower back. Take a few minutes to really concentrated on balancing the pelvis and lengthening the spine.
-Virasana + Namaste (Hero Pose with Namaste hands in back) Lower your hips between your ankles (or onto a block), trying to keep the knees together. Keep the lower spine long and make sure the tailbone points down. Try to hold the pose for awhile and, if you can, lower your hips closer to the floor to deepen the stretch. This may work better with a folded blanket than a block under the hips. Bring the hands behind the back and either cross the arms at the lower back or bring the hands to the prayer position.
-Right Angle pose at wall Stand with the hands against the wall, even with the shoulders, and the step the feet back until your head, arms and side ribs are in a straight line. Press the finger tips to the wall as you stretch your sit bones back to lengthen the sides of the torso. To deepen the rotation of the shoulders, relax the upper back and let the head hang between the arms.
-Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) Feet are grounded evenly (right toes to the side, left slightly off-center), the hips are square, the tailbone points down and the side ribs lengthen. As you start to lean to the side, begin the twist low in the back and then move it to the chest and shoulders. The arms stretch away from each other as you lower to the shin or thigh. Finally, the head turns to look at the ceiling as you keep your neck long. Switch sides.
-Garudasana (Eagle Pose) Bend the elbows and lift them to be even with the shoulders. Cross the left elbow over the right and center the elbows with your breast bone. Without hunching the shoulders, interlock the palms. If you can't do this with out hunching, rest the palms on the shoulders or try and grab the right pinky with the left thumb. Repeat with right elbow over left.
-Uttanasana (Intense Forward Bend) Fold from the hips while stretching through the backs of the legs. Keep the weight balanced between the balls and heels of the feet.
-Gomukhasana (Cow’s Head Pose) See last week’s blog.
-Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Bound Angle) Loop your belt around your hips and over the sides of the feet, as you draw the heels towards the pelvis. Gently lower yourself to the floor or a folded blanket and loosen or tighten the belt so the knees can open towards the floor. Stay as long as you like.
-Savasana (Corpse Pose) Try to let everything completely release in this final relaxation. ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Cow’s Head or Cow’s Face Pose

Unless you’re one of the lucky ones in southern climes, you will agree that this past week has been rather challenging weather-wise. Here in Wisconsin we are getting “highs” of -2 and -4. I think there should be a rule about what meteorologists can call high…anything under 5 is not. We’ve been bundled up to the eyes so as not to expose skin to instant-frostbite and even in class we’re shuffling around with long johns and sweatshirt to stay warm. Nuts, I say.

All this shuffling and bundling is usually paired with hunching over. It’s warmer and there is less of you to catch a passing arctic blast. But it also leads to a sore neck and upper shoulders and throws the spine out of whack. A cure-all for this February Hunch is the pose Gomukhasana or Cow’s Head Pose. The full pose is very twisty and yoga looking, but if you want to skip the legs because of tight hips or knees, the arms are accessible to almost everyone if you have a belt.

Like Trikonasana (Triangle), there is a lot going on in all the joints and each side twists a slightly different way from the other. This means the synovial fluid in the joints is getting squeezed all around its cavity and blood flow is increased in the area to aid in the lubrication of the muscles. It’s not a particularly relaxing pose, or even all that comfortable, but it is very, very beneficial. Give it a try after you get unwrapped.

Gomukhasana (Cow’s Head Pose)
1. If you are doing the whole pose, start with the legs. Make sure you have a folded blanket to sit on, to lift the hips off the floor and sit with the sitbones on the blanket and backs of the thighs off. Come to Dandasana (Staff Pose), with the legs straight in front of you. Then bend the left knee and draw the left heel towards the right hip. Bend the right knee and cross that leg over the left so the right heel is at the left hip. Line the knees up with each other and then with the center of the torso. If you need to loosen the cross a bit, the heels can come a bit forward and the knees don’t have to stack.
-However, no matter what you do with your legs, make sure you can align and lengthen the spine. If your back is hunched over or rounded, come to Sukhasana (Easy Pose) so that your hips and lower back can release.

2. Place your belt over your right shoulder. Now stretch the right hand toward the ceiling and rotate it in the socket so your elbow is facing forwards. Bend the right arm and reach that hand towards your shoulder blades. Give the right triceps a gentle stretch by pressing on the right elbow with your left hand. Take hold of the belt with your right hand.

3. Bend the left elbow along side the body and reach up the back to take hold of the belt, or, if you have flexible shoulders, the right hand. When you adjust the hands, make sure they are lined up with your spine. Then check the alignment of the spine; its easy to start slouching when your are focusing so much on the upper body.

4. As you hold the pose, try to relax the shoulder and hip joints. Keep the spine long. Try to gently press the elbows back and slightly closer to the center. Breathe deeply and evenly. Then carefully release and uncross the limbs and repeat to the other side. If you do this in front of a mirror, you will see the cow’s head: your crossed knees are the lips, your chest the eyes and your elbows a couple of flopped ears. Mooo! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Revolved Head-to-Knee Podcast

Okay, here's the first official podcast for you to try...37 minutes (to be exact) of yoga, based on the practice I posted this weekend. Be patient, because it will take a little while to download (maybe 10-15min.s). It's a medium-sized podcast--34MB--so if you're downloading it to your iPod, make sure you have room.

Please let me know what you think. I'm still a novice at this and can use whatever constructive criticism you have to offer. Enjoy!

Revolved Head-to-Knee Podcast

Podcast Sequence

So, I hope those of you who downloaded the Down Dog podcast enjoyed it. It took awhile to put together, but now I know what I am doing (mostly). Here’s my idea: I will post a sequence with directions and pictures, so you can see what I am going to “teach” and will follow up a few days later with a corresponding podcast. This way you can have an image in your mind during practice, but don’t have to crane your next or mess up your alignment to see the screen.

Since I’m on a Parivrtta Janu-Sirsasana kick, let’s do a series of poses that naturally lead to Revolved Head-to-Knee. It is a very intense twist and forward bend, so it requires some preparation.

1. Sukhasana (Easy Pose) Concentrate on lengthening the side ribs to create space in the lower half of the torso. Balance the pelvis so you are resting on the center of the sit bones, not rolling forward or back.

2. Dandasana + Hastasana (Staff Pose + Overhead Arm Stretch) Extend the legs out in front of you, pressing the soles of the feet away evenly and engaging the thigh muscles. Raise your arms to the side and keep the shoulders away from the ears as you lift your arms overhead. Interlock the fingers and turn the palms towards the ceiling. After your initial stretch, bend the elbows slightly and let your palms come further back to deepen the rotation in the shoulder joints. Try to straighten the arms.

3. Seated Twist Come back to Easy Pose and check your alignment. Starting with the lower back, start twisting gently to the right, then move the twist into the rib cage then the shoulders. Change the cross of the legs and repeat to the left.

4. Padangusthasana (Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose)-Lie on your back and breathe deeply into the back of the legs as you draw your right foot towards you with the belt and press the back of the left thigh to the floor. Try to keep the pelvis balanced (there will be a small curve at the lower back). Lower the leg to the side and rest the thigh on a block so you can concentrate on opening the hip joint instead of tipping over. Bring the leg back to center and lower. Repeat on the other side.

5. Upavistha Konasana (Seated Wide-Angle Pose) Extend the legs out to the sides, but only so far that you can keep your toes and knees pointed to the ceiling. Lift the side ribs and lengthen the spine. Stretch your arms towards the ceiling to get extra length in the torso. Start folding forwards from the hip joints as you stretch the arms out…don’t collapse the chest and keep the spine long. Lower the arms but continue to lengthen the side ribs as you fold a bit deeper.

6. Parivrtta Janu-Sirsasana (Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose) See Saturday’s post.

7. Supported Forward Bend Sit with the legs in Staff pose under a chair or stool. Relax the upper body onto the support of the chair and breathe into the stretch in the backs of the legs. Try to keep releasing the legs in this comfortable position and maybe you can fold further forwards.

8. Savasana (Corpse Pose) Extend onto the floor and try and keep your legs and hips totally relaxed. Hold for as long as you like.

Talk to (at?) you soon!©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Last weekend, I went to a workshop at the Yoga Coop in Madison, led by Chris Saudek, a Senior Intermediate Iyengar teacher from La Crosse. The focus was forward bends and twists, with a few inversions at the end. The approach was All Iyengar: each pose was identified only by its Sanskrit name; we held each pose for about 3-5 mins. and we concentrated on lengthening the “dorsal spine” (opposite the sternum) to align the torso. It was very careful and intense and, although we were all stretched out at the end of class, several of us almost fell down the stairs we were so loose (myself included).

One pose we worked on for awhile was Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana (Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose), never a favorite of mine. But the way we approached it was different than I was used to, and the opening I felt when I was done was new. It works diagonally across the back, so after completing one side you can feel how uneven you are until you finish with the opposite side. I won’t say that it’s replaced Down Dog as my favorite, but its standing has improved. Here’s how we did it…

Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana
1. Begin in Dandasana (Staff Pose) with the spine long and aligned. Then slide the left knee to the side and, using both hands, gently roll the shin and top of the foot towards the floor. Try and line your heel up with the center of your perineum, but don’t loose the length in the lower back. Extend the left leg to the side so that your legs make a 90-degree angle. Keep the left big toe and knee pointed towards the ceiling.

2. Sit tall and concentrate on lifting the side ribs and lining the shoulders up with the hips. Start twisting to the right (towards the bent knee), concentrating the twist in the lumbar spine.

3. Keeping the twist in the waist and the length in the spine, start folding towards the extended left leg (leaning backwards, sort of). Slide your left hand along the left leg, or lower onto your forearm if you can still keep the spine long. With each exhale, deepen the twist as you lengthen the thoracic spine (the spine behind the rib cage). Place your hand flat on the floor to assist the twist, or take hold of your foot.

4. Bring the right arm straight up and then drop is slightly to the back to increase the twist. Then bring it to your right hip, or, if it doesn’t affect the length of the spine, reach over and take hold of the other side of your left foot. Breathe deeply and try to extend into the pose every few breaths.

5. Slowly release the hands and bring the torso upright. Untwist and then return the legs back to Staff Pose. Repeat on the other side.

6. After you’ve finished the left side, give yourself time to release in a supported relaxation pose (Savasana-Corpse Pose, Supta Baddha Konasana-Reclined Bound Angle Pose). And, whatever you do, be careful on the stairs when you’re done! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Here Goes Nuthin'

After much careful deliberation, I am ready to post my first podcast. It is just short Down Dog practice (about 8 min.s), so I could practice with my digital recorder,experiment with the editing software and learn how to turn it into an MP3 file. Not difficult, but a bit time consuming. So, give it a listen: Downward-Dog Podcast.

The only big mistake is that I called it Adho Mukha Savasana (Corpse Pose) instead of Svanasana (Dog Pose)...but I promise you are not doing Downward-Facing Corpse Pose. That would be rather ghoulish and depressing and I hope you find Dog uplifting and fun.

If you want a review of the pose, or to see modifications, check my posting from September 9. Good luck, and let me know what you think!

Week Three

This week was the third of my current session at the Y, so we are working the core muscles. My classes usually progress from the base (feet, sit bones) thru the hips into the torso and up to the shoulders and upper back. The last week of the session usually focuses on Sun Salutations or flow sequences…sort of a “putting it all together.” This approach serves new students, so they can see how a pose is “built” but also is a nice reminder for continuing yogis pay attention to all elements of a pose.

The following sequence features poses that utilize core strength. Some of it is abs work, but other contributors to the core include the big muscles of the back and the thighs. These are the muscles that work together to keep you balanced and aligned and, most importantly, protect and support the lower back. This work may give you a nice figure (as my grandmother use to say), but it is crucial to keeping the spine healthy and strong. Remember to keep the breath full and even; it is easy to hold your breath when concentrating on your abs. (You may also notice that several of these poses show up in Pilates—Josef Pilates borrowed heavily from yoga when developing his system).

Strengthening the Core
Sukhasana (Easy Pose) Concentrate on lengthening the side ribs to create space in the lower half of the torso. Balance the pelvis so you are resting on the center of the sit bones, not leaning forward or back.

Dandasana + Hastasana (Staff Pose and Overhead Arm Stretch) Extend the feet in front of you and, while pressing a block between the palms, stretch your arms overhead. Keep the shoulders down and the neck relaxed. Breathe into the lengthening along the side body.

Seated Twist Come back to Easy Pose, with the right shin crossed in front. Starting with the lower back, start twisting gently to the right, then move the twist into the rib cage and then the shoulders. Release and repeat on the other side with the left shin in front.

Balancing Cat Come to Table Pose, with the hands beneath the shoulders and knees beneath the hips. On an exhale, stretch the right hand forward and the left foot back so you are making a straight line from the foot diagonally across the torso and out the fingers. Hold for a few breaths and then switch sides.

Plank Come to your hands and knees and, with the heels of the hands beneath the shoulders, step the feet back so that the body is now in a diagonal line: ears-shoulders-hips-ankles. Keep the neck long and the breath even. Don’t let the lower back sag or the hips lift up. The majority of the work in this pose will be in the chest and abdominal muscles.

Seated Twist

Navasana (Boat Pose) Sit with the knees bent and the hands behind the thighs at the knees. Lower the torso back to a 90-degree angle from the thighs. Keep the chest lifted and the neck long. Gently roll back onto your sitbones and balance with the shins parallel to the floor. Keeping the spine long, straighten the legs and, if you can keep your chest lifted, release the hands and straighten the arms with the palms down. Keep Breathing!

Supported Forward Bend Sit in Staff with a chair over your legs or a block between your knees. Gently fold forward, leading with the belly button and rest with your arms crossed on the seat of the chair or the block. Relax into this support and feel the backs of the legs lengthen and the spine releases.

Savasana (Corpse Pose) Lie on the floor and take a minute to realign your whole torso, so the neck is long and the head is lined up with the tailbone. Sink into the support of the floor and concentrate on letting all muscles relax. ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Un-box the Block

Last week I discussed a variety of ways to make poses more supported using the wall, a chair or your belt, so you could hold them longer. Your block is a versatile tool, also, and you can use it for as a support as well as a prop for helping align or adjust a pose. While there are a variety things around the house you could use as a yoga blanket or belt (for a long time my belt came off my bathrobe), a 3” or 4” foam block is what it is and you should try and track one down. I tried to use thick books for awhile and mostly managed to break their spines. Check Nu-Source for affordable yoga supplies.

Support
You can use the block against the wall in a number of poses, so that you have a cushion between your body and the solidity of the wall. You can do Virabhadrasana II (Warrior 2) with the block between your shin and the wall (see Jan 9) to establish a crisp right angle in the shin and thigh of the bent leg. If you hold the block between the thumbs and index fingers, you can press it against the wall in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-facing Dog Pose) to help keep the arms stable so you can really press the back thighs away and lengthen the spine.

Alignment

Your block can help you keep the edge of your feet parallel (Tadasana-Mountain Pose, Dandasana-Staff Pose), or to keep the edge of a single foot perpendicular to the floor (Janusirsasana-Head-to-Knee Pose, Padangusthasana Hand-to-Big Toe Pose). Either gently press the block between both feet to keep them parallel, or rest the block against the inside edge of the foot when the heel is on the floor as a gentle reminder. Press the palms of your hands into the sides of the block in Hastasana (Overhead Arm Stretch) to help you align your upper arms and elbows.

A little lift

The block can also add 3” or 4” of length to your arms. If you can’t reach the floor in Uttansana (Intense Forward Bend), press your fingertips into the block so you can still support the torso and lengthen the spine. You can use the block in Parsvakonasana (Lateral Angle Pose) and Ardha Chandrasana (Half-Moon Pose) to help you reach the floor; the few extra inches of the block will help you keep the spine aligned so you don’t collapse at the chest as you reach down. If your hips can’t settle between your heels in Virasana (Hero Pose), you can place the block under the sit bones. You can even use the block under your head in Down Dog or Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Angle Forward Bend) as you bend forward so that the inversion is supported; the poses are more restful this way, so you can hold them longer.

Your block is an indispensable tool…you may even want to have two. I promise you will always find a use for them in yoga and you will protect your library as well! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.
(P.S. Does anywhere beside Washington DC use the term “block the box” for entering an intersection in your car but not being able to pull on through, thereby blocking oncoming traffic?)

Deflect the Reflex

Sunday night, I settled back into Supta Baddha Konasana (Supine Bound Angle Pose)—I still haven’t ventured into any standing or balance poses, yet—and immediately felt resistance in my hip muscles. I slid a couple of cushions under my knees, so they could relax, and kept breathing into my hip joints to try and get them to open. In a minute or so I was able to slide the pillows further out and finally I got rid of them all together. At the end of the five minutes, I was flat on my back and my knees were very close to the floor…a turnaround from my position at the beginning.

What is fascinating about this pose-a-day practice is how much the poses change over the five minutes. Moving slowly into a pose is the best way to maximize the stretch of your muscle tissues. You are trying to counteract the Myotatic Stretch Reflex, which is the muscle reflex that makes your foot bounce when the doctor whacks your knee with his little hammer. It is also the reflex that keeps your body upright when you’re engaged in activities that require the muscles to absorb frequent dynamic shocks (jumping up and down on a basketball court, jogging on an uneven surface). The muscles involved in the action immediately contract so they are ready to work, which is great in the moment but can lead to tightness and decreased flexibility (why runners often have tight hip joints).

H. David Coulter has an extensive discussion of how your muscles respond in this reflex in Anatomy of Hatha Yoga, pp. 39-40.

This reflex can also be triggered by forcing your body into a position that it’s not ready to assume. If you can move slowly into a pose, it keeps the muscles loose and receptive and you can come deeper into the final position. As you hold the pose and breathe deeply, you will relax the muscles allowing for even greater lengthening. Here’s an example:

Uttanasana “over time” (Intense Forward Bend)

Roll your blanket—tightly if you have fairly flexible calves, looser if not. Now stand with the toes and balls of the feet on the blanket and the heels on your mat. Straighten and come to Tadasana (Mountain) making sure the tailbone points down to the floor and the shoulders are balanced over the hips. Breathe into this alignment and feel the calves start to open.

-With the hands in the hip crease (where the thighs meet the pelvis) begin to fold forwards from this joint, keeping the lower back long and the chest lifted. Reach down for the floor or your block when you are as far as you can fold. Try to sink your heels and balance your weight between the front and back of the foot. Breathe into the length of the spine and the continued opening of the calves. Hold for several minutes.
-Now, slightly bend the knees and step off the blanket. Stay in the forward bend position, but notice how much further you can bend forward—or how much more comfortable the position becomes. Continue lengthening the calves and, if you want to deepen the pose, release the spine and let the head and shoulders hang down towards the floor. Cross the arms and tuck your hands into elbow crease so the weight of the upper body helps open the spine and increases your stretch.
-Slowly re-engage the spine and, with your hands on your thighs, come back to standing. ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Not-so Easy Pose

Well, one thing is for sure, there is no such thing as just five minutes. I’ve been working on resolution #2 for four days and if I don’t choose a supported pose to hold, I start to have trouble after about two-and-a-half minutes. On Jan. 1 and 2, I decided to try Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose) and Sukhasana (Easy Pose). Each time I sat with my back against the wall so I had some support. The five minutes passed quickly and I stayed a little longer because the poses were so restful and comfortable. On the 3rd, I cheated, and didn’t do my own yoga…but I did teach that day, so there was some yoga (the resolutions get broken so fast).

Yesterday I settled into Dandasana (Staff Pose) in the middle of the floor without any support. I tried to focus on my breathing, while occasionally realigning my spine and grounding thru the back of the legs. I just rested my arms at my sides. Halfway into the pose, my quadriceps (top and outside of the thighs) began to burn and it was all I could do to keep adjusting and breathing steadily. I added an extra pose that day, because I had to flop into Savasana (Corpse Pose) just to give my legs a rest after Staff. Whew.

I think it’s going to be awhile before I try anything really challenging like Parsvakonasana (Lateral Angle) or Virabhadrasana III (Warrior 3).

Here are some suggestions for making various poses more supported. Even if you don’t have a-pose-a-day resolution, it’s a nice way to end the day and you still can get some benefits without overdoing it. Most poses can be done against the wall, so that you can lean slightly back; others can be done with a chair support the torso. Even the belt can give you some help, so you can stay aligned longer.

Up Against the Wall
Most standing poses can be done against the wall to either remove the need for balance or to help support an element of the pose that normally requires strength. Trikonasana (Triangle), Parsvakonasana (Lateral Angle), Vrksasana (Tree Pose) or Ardha Chandrasana (Half-Moon Pose) can be done with the back of the hips gently resting against the wall. The backs of the heels should be an inch or two away so that you don’t fall forwards. Virabhadrasana II (Warrior 2) can be done with a block between the shin (below the knee cap) of the bent knee and the wall, as you stand with your side to the wall; you will find that you can bend that knee a bit deeper and hold the pose longer with the help from the block.


Various inversions can also happen against the wall. You will find that it is easier to be aligned in Salamba Sirsasana (Headstand), Salamba Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand) and Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-legged Forward Bend), when done at the wall. You can more easily line the upper and the lower body in Head- and Shoulder Stand, and keep the hips over the ankles in the Forward Bend.

Many sitting poses will be good for meditation or breathing exercises if you lean. The aforementioned Easy and Bound Angle Poses, for example, or even Staff and Upavistha Konasana (Seated Wide-Angle Pose) are much more relaxing if the back is against the wall. Even Virasana (Hero Pose) would benefit from the extra alignment, although you’ll need to give yourself a little space for the toes or place a block between the shoulder blades and the wall.

Help from a Chair or a Belt
In many forward bends, you can rest your head and/or chest on a chair or stool. By relaxing the torso onto a support, often times the hips will release and you can stay in the position longer. Paschimottanasana (Forward Bend) and Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Legged Forward Bend) both work this way.


We often use the belt as an extension of the arms, but, as a long loop, it can also aid in challenging poses. In Bound Angle Pose, you can loop it around the top of the pelvis and over the outside edge of the feet to help keep the knees bent, so you can concentrate on the opening of the hip joints. That same loop can help in Navasana (Boat Pose)—in this pose, the belt wraps around the entire body, across the middle back and behind the thighs, so that you can focus on leaning back on the sitbones and lifting the chest rather than on keeping the legs lifted.

The block has its own series of support functions, but I think that’s a discussion for next week. Let me know you can come up with some other modifications and I’ll post those too. Good luck and good relaxing! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to 2007!

So, as we head towards New Year's Eve our thoughts turn to resolutions and vows of how the next year is going to be better. While it's fine to consider areas that need improvement, try to include resolutions that make you happy--drinking a really nice glass of wine on the weekends, planting some exotic flower in the garden or taking a ceramics class. It will be a lot easier to keep those ones than the plans to loose 40 lbs. or be less sarcastic or buy fewer shoes.

I have a couple of Yoga resolutions that I thought I'd share--you all can keep me on task. Plus, once I've published them, I'll have to follow through, right?
1. I want to do one yoga pose every day for 5 minutes, each side. It's always easy to let the home practice slide when you're teaching, so this resolution will help me reconnect with why I like doing yoga so much. Maybe I'll share a few revelations...I've got to discover something during 10 minutes of Trikonasana!
2. I'd like to explore audio-blogging. I know the written practices and pictures are helpful, but I suspect it would be easier for people to do the sequences if they could just download them to their computer or ipod and listen as they practiced. I have the software and the digital recorder, I just have to play around with it. Stay tuned!
3. I hope to continue posting at least twice a week. I got a little behind over the Xmas vacation, but now I don't have any holiday preparations as an excuse.

So, have fun and enjoy this last weekend of 2006 before we all have to start behaving again.

Happy New Year!

15-Second Vacation

When we were in grad school (MFA ’96, UTexas at Austin…lo, those many years ago), my friend Polly had a great stress-relieving technique. When the work started to pile up and deadlines loomed, she whipped out a little picture of a tropical beach and took a “15-second vacation.” Soon, all the costume-design grad students had little clipped views of beaches, waterfalls and mountains taped to our lockers. The photos of luxurious resorts were a little silly, and probably exacerbated any money-issues we had, but they made us smile and lowered the tension for a little while.

Give it a try. Right now the combination of end-of-semester/holiday/family gathering/winter demands are enough to freak anyone out…especially if you find yourself not having time to do yoga (horrors). Find a picture of some place lovely—without any people, so you can imagine yourself there—and post it near wherever you get the most stressed. These days, you could even make it a screen saver if you need to “vacate” before you start working on the computer. Visualize yourself in the scene, doing whatever you find relaxing and invigorating, and shut out the here and now for 15 seconds. If you can fit in a quick breathing exercise, even better (see July 4, Breath and the Ball Gown). Try and savor the escape and when you return, keep the positive energy flowing as you move into your next task. It won’t make the to-do list any shorter, but it might make it feel less oppressive.

I like to visit La Peruse beach in Maui. Wherever you go, Have a Great Trip! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Our Friend, The Spine

I always like to see diagrams of the spine, because it reminds me of what an amazing feat of engineering it is. A straight back really isn't straight at all, but a series of gentle curves that creates a "spring" that acts as a shock absorber for us bipeds. Imagine how jarring each step, stumble or jump would be if the back was as straight as a pole. We would have to walk around with our legs continually bent so that we wouldn't topple over every crack in the sidewalk.

Of course, remember that these curves are gentle. Any time you exaggerate these curves for too long, you are guaranteed a backache because the disks in between each vertebrae get squished unevenly, aggravating the nerves in the spinal column. When you slouch in a chair or hunch over a computer, the various sections of the spine get compressed and that's what leads to a sore back at the end of the day (exaggerating these curves continually will eventually cause your back muscles to stretch in a way that holds the spine in that position permanently, and that will really hurt). One good solution is to find a chair that supports the spine evenly; another is to keep the back aligned and work the muscles to encourage that alignment (ahem, regular yoga practice).


Twists are a great way to work on this alignment and get the blood flowing into the muscles that support the spine. They are a really nice end a long day of standing on your feet or sitting at a desk. Try this sequence while visualizing your spine in each pose and notice how much more open and loose the back feels at the end. (I'm away from my camera this weekend, so I'll post accompanying photos on Wednesday).

Twisting Sequence
Sukhasana (Easy Pose) Sit tall, lining up the ears, shoulders and hips and balance the upper body over the lower. Relax the shoulders and try to lengthen the spine without arching the lower back or jutting the chest out.

Dandasana with Hastasana (Staff Pose with Overhead Arm Stretch) Maintain the alignment of the torso, while pressing the backs of the legs down and pressing the soles of the feet away. Keep the knees from locking by engaging the thigh muscles. Stretch the palms away from the chest and then overhead, keeping the neck long and the shoulders away from the ears. When you lower the arms, try to keep the lift in the side ribs.

Seated Twist Come back to Easy Pose and realign the spine. On the first exhale start turning at the lower back; on the next exhale move the twist into the chest; on the third breath twist across the shoulders and, if you want, the head. By moving into the twist slowly, you originate the movement in the lumbar spine (the least flexible part of the twist) and move it throught the thoracic into the cervical spine (the most flexible). Change the cross of the legs and repeat the twist to the other side.

Tadasana with Hastasana (Mountain Pose with Overhead Arm Stretch) Come to standing and realign the torso. Again, lengthen without exaggerating any of the curves in the spine. Stretch the arms overhead (fingers crossed with the other index finger on top) and find length in the side ribs without lifting the shoulders or arching the lower back. Keep the lift as you lower the arms.

Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) Begin with the feet apart and the arms overhead to lift the side ribs, then lower the arms to shoulder height. Turn the feet to your Triangle stance and stretch over the right leg, keeping the side ribs long. As you breathe into the back, try to deepen the twist with each exhale by starting in the lumber spine and moving up to the neck as you did in the seated twist. Come up and repeat to the other side.

Prasarita Padottanasana (with a twist) (Wide-Legged Forward Bend) Step the feet apart another foor or so from your Triangle stance and make sure you are grounding evenly through the soles of the feet and keeping the inside ankles long (don't let the feet collapse to the outside edge). Lift the arms overhead to lengthen the side ribs and then lower them to your hips. Folding from the hip crease, bring the torso parallel to the floor and support the body with the hands on a block or the floor. Move one arm so that hand is beneath the breastbone. Start twisting towards the other hand and stretch that arms toward the ceiling so you are looking to one side and the shoulders are lined up over the hand to the floor. Then return to center and switch sides.

Supine Twist-Lie on your back on the floor and bring the knees to the chest and then roll both knees to one side as you ground the back of the shoulders to the floor and stretch the arms to the side. Look towards the opposite shoulder from the knees, if you want a deeper twist in the upper back. Repeat to the other side.

Savasana (Corpse Pose)-Release the knees and stretch your legs out. Take a minute to realign your whole torso, so the neck is long and the head is lined up with the tailbone. Sink into the support of the floor and concentrate on letting all muscles relax. Thank you, Spine! ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved.

Dog, Plank, Dog, Plank, Dog

In the category of “if you only have 10 minutes” yoga, I’d like to add a sequence that’s great for the abs and upper body. It’s sort of a yoga push-up without the push. The Dogs are (almost) the resting poses, and the work comes from the Plank and the movement between each pose. Try to move slowly and with control. It’s also a good series to pull out if you are feeling cold and sluggish; the Dogs will energize you and the Plank will get the heart pumping.
1. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-facing Dog) Start the series in a well-measured dog. Begin in Balasana (Child’s Pose) with the arms stretched in front of you and then lift up to your hands and knees. Your outstretched arms should now be placed with the heels of the hands beneath the shoulders. Lift the hips up and back, with the knees bent to get the upper body aligned and then press the thighs back to begin straightening the legs. Don’t worry about pressing the heels to the floor--as you lengthen the backs of the legs the heels will start to sink. Hold for 5 breaths.

2. Plank Pose On the next exhale, slowly lower your hips so that the body is now in a straight line: ears-shoulders-hips-ankles. The heels of the hands should still be directly under the shoulders. Keep the neck long and the breath even. Don’t let the lower back sag or the hips lift up. Lower a knee if you need to support the lower back. The majority of the work in this pose will be in the chest and abdominal muscles. Hold for 5 breaths.

3. Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-facing Dog) On the next exhale, slowly lower your hips down until the legs are straight and the torso is upright. If this is too hard on your lower back, slightly bend the knees and rest them on the floor and uncurl the toes; the lower body is supported by your legs on the floor. Keep the neck long and open the chest by drawing your shoulder blades slightly together in back. The heels of the hands are still under the shoulders and you are pressing the hands evenly into the floor. Hold for 5 breaths.

4. Plank Pose On the next exhale, lift the hips back to the straight line and try not to drop the head. Hold for 5 breaths.

5. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog) On the next exhale, lift the hips back to your Down Dog position. Try to lengthen the side ribs so that the arms are fully extended and the sit bones lift to the ceiling. Breathe deeply and don’t let the shoulders sag. Hold for 5 breaths then repeat the sequence at least one more time.

6. Balasana (Child’s Pose) Release onto the floor in a fully-supported Child. Rest your head on a block if your heart rate has come up and let your breath slow and deepen. Relax your arms alongside the body and feel yourself sink towards the floor. Hold the pose for as long as you like. ©Brenda K. Plakans. All Rights Reserved