our-yoga

In the last couple of weeks, I have been devoting more attention to backbends in my daily practice. In particular, I have been working on opening the front body more in dropbacks. For the longest time, whenever I get to the dropbacks, my mind always consciously or unconsciously says to itself, "Ah, dropbacks! Last set of intense poses before the sweet release of the finishing sequence. Quickly do the dropbacks and standups, and get them over with!" As a result of this way of thinking, I always had the tendency to kind of just rush through dropping back and standing up, with the result that they are usually kind of sloppy. 

In the last couple of weeks, however, instead of simply rushing through the dropbacks and trying to get them over with, I have been spending more quality time with them, by doing more with less: Less dropping all the way to the ground, and more hanging back and opening. Instead of just ritualistically dropping all the way to the ground and coming back up three times, I have been doing three hangbacks and then only dropping back all the way to the ground on the fourth and final time, walking my hands to touch (and hopefully, one hand, grab) my heels. This is what Kino does at the mysore sessions at her workshops. It's a good way of building strength and flexibility in the front body, especially in the psoas and in the quads, especially if you keep your knees extended (or as extended as possible) the whole time. Keeping the knees extended (or as extended as you can make them) has the effect of really getting the backbend into the quads and the psoas.

Seen from the outside, hanging back instead of dropping back may look less intense, and it may look like one is doing less work. But looks are deceiving: By engaging the psoas and the quads and opening the front body more, one is actually moving more intently from the center than if one were to simply drop back for the sake of dropping back. This brings to mind something David Garrigues wrote a couple of months ago:

"Generally speaking in our daily practice we can get sucked in by the lure of our fantasy about the forms of the asanas in sequences... In our fantasy of what we will look like and how good it will feel we overextend ourselves in our efforts to achieve what we consider to be the end goal or final pose. Our excursions take us too far away from the center where the skeletal support is, where our breath really does lead the way– where we make optimal use of our muscles and organs and where our brains are situated properly to minimize reality obscuring ego striving.

For example, to go for a drop back and be unheeding of the position of the skeleton in order to get your hands to the floor is a long term mistake. In the short term there might be a thrill, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of maximizing progress. a feeling like you are working at the edge so you will improve and be an intense student... How strict are you going to be? How close to center are you going to stay? How many props (please note: only if necessary and desired and under certain, specific conditions) are you willing to use to remain close to center, close to principles?—We want to explore the foundational principles of the positions and see how those principles will always lead back to that central asana that has so many important names—but actually is unnameable—"

David's words here are priceless: Definitely something to constantly ponder and come back to.

On a slightly different note, it has recently occurred to me that asana practice has many similarities to artistic interpretation. Just as the same piece of music played by two different musicians can give rise to two different works of art, no two individuals will ever realize the same asana in the exact same way. For instance, Urdhva Dhanurasana expressed in my body will never be the same as Urdhva Dhanurasana expressed in your body.

Actually, this difference in interpretation also shows up in the way different yogis assimilate the same yogic insight. Take for instance, David's words above about moving from the center. Two different yogis may both perfectly understand these words. Yet they will both apply these words differently to their own bodies, and adapt them to fit the needs of their minds and bodies in order to make these words work for their bodies. The first yogi may have longer psoas and quad muscles, and may be able to go deeper into the posture, or even drop back all the way to the ground right away and still move from the center. The second yogi, by contrast, may have tighter psoas and quad muscles, and may need to not drop back all the way in order to work more from the center. In this way, we can say that the two bodies "interpret" the words differently. Indeed, this interpretation difference is necessary in order for the asana practice to be fruitful and productive for each individual.     

Just my two cents', as always. :-)

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

I said a few days ago that I wasn't going to blog about this yoga-can wreck-your-body affair again, but things have now taken such a bizarre turn (in a way that actually has something to do with me, as I shall presently explain) that it is just impossible to ignore the whole thing anymore. So yes, my blogging drishti has gone to s%#t yet again... (what's new?)

So here's the deal: I just read Steve's latest post at the Confluence Countdown, where he relates the latest developments in the saga of William Broad and his book, "The Science of Yoga" (hereafter simply "the book").

Many of us are probably familiar by now with Broad's widely-publicized conclusion: Yoga can kill you!

Steve reports that in the last few days, Broad has decided to take a slightly different angle, and has now arrived at another conclusion: Yoga will help your sex life!

I don't watch much TV, but apparently, Broad was featured Thursday night on ABC’s Nightline on a segment called, “Better Sex Through Yoga.”

Here’s the teaser from the show’s blog (thank you for bringing this to my attention, Steve :-)):

          '"The latest way to improve your love life doesn’t involve a slick how-to guide. It doesn’t  involve Big Pharma, either.

          It’s yoga.

According to William Broad, author of “The Science of Yoga,” which came out Feb. 7, there is real evidence yoga helps sex.  For example, the cobra pose boosts blood flow to the pelvis.

“Why spend millions on those little blue pills, right?” Broad said in an interview with ABC News’ Dan Harris.

          Broad, a science writer for The New York Times, spent years combing through the scientific     literature on yoga.

“I can cite you study after study after study,” Broad said. “We can go through hormones, brain waves, vaginal blood flow…”

           Broad said yoga started in medieval India as a sex cult, a series of practices that used our sexual    energies as the fast track to enlightenment."'

Ignoring Broad's claim about yoga originally being a sex cult (what do I, a yogic prude, know about sex cults, anyway?), let us just take a step back, and consider the two claims that Broad has made so far since publishing his book:

(1) Yoga can kill you!

(2) Yoga will help your sex life!

Put (1) and (2) together, and what do we get? Yes, we get:

(3) Yoga will kill you by improving your sex life!

Hmm... No wonder yoga is so dangerous. It turns you into a sex dynamo, and causes you to have so much sex that you just roll over like a depleted energizer bunny and die!

I guess I should sign off now. After all, sex gods are not supposed to spend their Saturday afternoons in front of computers. They should be doing more adventurous things, don't you think? :-)

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

This morning, I did full primary and second up to Ardha Matsyendrasana, followed by three UDs and dropbacks and standups, and then went on to commence my daily adventures in half-tick-tocking, doing three half-tick-tocks and standing-up. The tick-tocking itself was more or less the same as yesterday's experience, except that I managed to hold the handstand for a couple of seconds on the second attempt. But considering the fact that I did the second series backbends before coming to tick-tocks, this is probably the most amount of backbending I have done in a single practice. Like ever.

Speaking of second series, I actually did not do any second series at all during the two self practice sessions at Lino's workshop this past weekend. Part of the reason was because I somehow felt it to be more respectful to do only primary in front of a teacher whom I had never practiced with before. The other part of the reason was that I was feeling like I wanted to take it easy and not over-extend/over-exert myself, especially because there's always this tendency to want to impress senior teachers (at least, I have this tendency...). So the primary-only rule was my way of counteracting this tendency. But now, after the workshop, I'm beginning to second-guess my decision here: I can't help but wonder if Lino and his assistants might not have given me some really useful feedback on second series if they had been able to see my second series practice. Ah well... what was that saying?... "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."

I have definitely been feeling the effects of all that backbending today. My quads (especially the left quad) have this nice sore, achy sensation. And there's also this emotional feeling of being open. When I went down to my car to drive to campus, I couldn't help feeling that the sky seemed especially clear (even if it wasn't) and the air especially crisp and fresh (even if it wasn't). So much so, that I couldn't help standing there in the middle of the road and looking up at the sky for a couple of minutes. Then suddenly, I heard a low rumbling sound behind me. I turned around, and saw that it was my neighbor trying to drive past me. I quickly got out of the way. Hmm... yoga does ruin your life, doesn't it? It might cause you to almost get run over by your neighbor :-)


In other news: Kino has just very generously sent me copies of her books Sacred Fire and The Power of Ashtanga Yoga, along with a CD of chants by her. Hopefully, I will be posting reviews of these books on this blog pretty soon. I know that I am very much behind the bandwagon (is this the correct expression?) on this: Both her books have been out for a while now, and probably millions of people have already reviewed them. But you must know that I am not usually in the reviewing products business; over the last year or so, people have approached me several times to review their products and/or websites on this blog, but I have always declined, because, well, this is not a yoga-product-reviewing website. But Kino is different, because she is, well, Kino. So stay tuned for these upcoming reviews.   

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

I did my practice this morning on about three-and-a-half-hours of sleep. I got back from Bozeman last night at around eight-thirty in the evening. Which wasn't late at all. But I was feeling so jacked up from driving four-and-a-half hours that I just couldn't go to bed right away (being handstanded and half-tick-tocked by Lino earlier in the day probably didn't help either). So I dropped in on a friend, and we drank wine and shot the breeze till past midnight.

I probably could have slept in a little (my first class didn't start till nine), but I was so excited by the prospect of trying the half-tick-tocks that Lino "gave" me that I didn't want to skip practice, even if that meant losing some sleep. So I got myself up at the usual un-Godly hour of four-thirty, did my Buddhist prayers, and hit the mat.

I did full primary, then three Urdhva Dhanurasanas, then three dropbacks and standups. I then proceeded to do the half-tick-tocks. I decided to go balls-out with this, and told myself I'd just kick up into handstand and try to see if I can land on the other side without breaking my back (or breaking something else).

It didn't go too badly at all. My landing wasn't very controlled; there was a pretty loud thump, and the left foot seemed to be taking more of the impact than the right. But I landed on my feet in UD, walked my hands towards my feet a little, and then stood up. I then rinsed and repeated the whole sequence another two times, for a total of three attempts. The subsequent two attempts were exactly the same: Landed more on my left foot than my right, but I landed in UD, and stood up alright.

So I now have more confidence in my ability to land in UD from handstand without killing myself. Now I'll have to work on staying in handstand for a second or two longer, and on having a softer landing. Will keep you guys updated on this as things progress (or not).

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

I suppose the more correct expression would be to say that I got stood on my hands during this morning's practice with Lino. But even this sounds wrong. But anyway, here's what happened. Towards the end of this morning's self practice with Lino, I did three Urdhva Dhanurasanas and three dropbacks and standups. Then I crossed my hands in front of my chest and waited for Lino to come over and drop me back. Lino came over, and asked me if I ever did handstand before. I said no; which is not, strictly speaking, true. I do play with handstands outside of practice now and then, but I knew that Lino was referring to going up into handstand and then dropping back into UD, so I simply said no, this is not part of my regular practice. Anyway, Lino asked me to give it a shot. I kicked up into handstand, Lino caught my feet and guided them part of the way down to the other side, so that my landing into UD from handstand wasn't so hard. And then he stood me up from UD. We repeated this handstand-UD-standup action three times. Then he dropped me back and stood me back up five times, before I went into the finishing sequence.

Now I'm wondering if I should incorporate this half-tick-tock sequence (I'm guessing this is what it's called) into my regular home practice, now that I have a senior teacher's blessing to do it. But then again, I won't have anybody at home to help me to cushion the landing into UD from handstand, so I am a bit hesitant. I suppose I'll come to a decision about this soon. But in the meantime, if you have any feedback and/or suggestions about this, I'll love to hear them.

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

These days, it seems like the only thing I really have to say about my practice is my backbending. Perhaps I should start a weekly (or maybe even twice-weekly) State of the Backbend post to record the ongoing process of my backbend practice. We'll see.

So here's how my backbending has been going this week. Over the last week or so in Kapotasana, I have been trying to lengthen and create space in my spine at the same time as I am walking my hands towards my feet. Basically, this involves landing on my hands first. Then (1) inhale, tilt the ASIS forward while at the same time lifting the stomach and ribcage. Then (2) exhale, walk a little. Then repeat steps (1) and (2) somewhere between five to ten times, until I grab my heels.

I guess you could say that from a purely mechanical perspective, this amounts to doing Kapo B first before doing Kapo A (or more precisely, doing Kapo B, then Kapo A, then Kapo B again before finally exiting the posture). Besides lengthening and creating more space in the spine, this way of getting into Kapo A also seems to cause the breath to be longer and slightly more relaxed while in Kapo A. Or perhaps spinal lengthening and the length of the breath are related.

Anyway, I won't offer too much more commentary on it. I'm just writing this post to record and register what has been going on in my backbend practice.

A few days ago, Micqui over at Ashtangi Angel wrote a blog post about the relationship between shoulder-blade alignment and backbending. In that post, she also mentions what she calls a "Lino style" drop back. I was unfamiliar with what such a dropback would look like, so I asked her to explain. Here's how she describes this way of dropping back:

"...you start with your hands supporting your lumbar spine, then you slowly move them down the legs, walking, walking, until you get to your calfs, so you're still holding the calfs (calves?) then you let go, rotate them medially and down you go. You end up only about a foot of the ground when walking down so it seems less scary :)"

A reader of this blog also very helpfully emailed me a video of Michael Gannon assisting a student in such a dropback (thank you!). Here is the video:

Anybody have any thoughts about this?     

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

As I worked on my backbends this morning, more things from Kino's recent LA workshop came up in my mind. One thing that came up most prominently is the importance of positive self-talk when doing difficult postures, especially in backbends. In an Elephant Journal article she wrote last year, Kino observes that:

"In a posture like backbends many students feel a shortening of breath, tightening of the air tube, an inability to breath and the ensuing panic that brings them out of the posture. Some people might say that in that case the student should not do the posture.
 

But yoga is about learning to balance the mind so that it meets pleasure and pain, attachment and aversion with the same steadiness."

 

This is where having the ability to continually give oneself instructions that reinforce certain positive habits while in the posture becomes important. Or, as Kino puts it: 

 

"If you are able to maintain both careful and clear directions to yourself throughout the exercise and your inner dialogue is positive this will help you. In other words you need to be your own coach."

 

With respect to deep backbends like Kapotasana, positive self-talk for me involves repeating certain specific movement instructions to myself ("Ground the big toes firmly to the mat, rotate the thighs inward, bring the ASIS forward and up, bring the shoulder blades down the upper back, breathe evenly. Repeat..."). I have found this to be very helpful in helping me to do productive work in my backbends. 

 

At her workshop, Kino mentions that the importance of positive self-talk/self-dialogue is often neglected in yoga circles. This is due in no small part to the notion many people have that yoga should be about "quieting the mind." Basing themselves on this notion, many people try to deliberately shut their minds off when they are getting into difficult postures. But such an approach is at best unproductive and anxiety-producing, and at worst harmful and injurious to oneself; if one shuts one's mind off and just pushes blindly through difficult postures, one would likely miss important cues from the body.  

 

Perhaps more significantly, in shutting off one's mind, one misses a valuable opportunity to find equanimity in the posture and to become truly, truly present in that difficult moment that the posture presents in one's consciousness. Positive self-talk is the tool that enables one to find this place of presence in the heat of the posture: Through giving oneself positive messages that will enable one to focus on what one needs to work on in the posture in that particular moment, one can navigate steadily through the storm that the posture stirs up in one's body and mind. This, I believe, is what is truly meant by "Yogas Chitta Vrtti Nirodhah" ("Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of consciousness"). 

*******************

 

On a very different note, we are now in the month of April and the beginning of spring. It's hard not to notice this, because the weather is definitely getting warmer, and one can finally smell the grass and hear the birds again. Well, actually, if you are blessed enough to live in, say, Thailand, none of this would probably make a difference to you; I imagine you are able to smell the grass and hear the birds all year around anyway...

 

But not all souls are equally blessed in this way. So for those of us who do not live in lands where the grass smells and birds sing all year round, the coming of April is a significant time of the year. Whenever I think of this, I can't help thinking of that Simon and Garfunkel song. In fact, it's ringing in my head right now. So maybe, rather than just let it ring in my head alone, I'll make it ring in yours too! Well, here goes: 

       

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Ah... it's Friday again (TGIF?). The end of another week. What do I have to say here? Well, my practice is... going on. I'm still working on getting that inner rotation of the thighs in backbends (for more details, see this post). It seems to be working well thus far; if nothing else, I am definitely feeling a lot less compression in the lumbar spine and more of that sweet delicious burning sensation in the thighs. Other than that, the practice is as it is; there are ups, there are downs, but the journey continues. Nothing really worth rhapsodizing too much about on this blog.

But here's something that might be worth blogging about: I'm going to get to see Kino again soon. Yesterday evening, I signed up for Kino's upcoming LA workshop at Omkar 108 on March 23rd and 24th. I spoke on the phone with Jörgen Christiansson, who was most kind and helpful in getting me registered and paid for the workshop.

So, God willing (I don't actually believe in God, but "the universe willing" just doesn't sound right), I will be in SoCal exactly two weeks from now. I plan on making this a big road trip, as this will be during my spring break, and I have a little more time to play around with. The plan (again, God willing) is to set out from Pocatello, Idaho (where I am right now) sometime around mid-day on Thursday March 21st, drive down to Salt Lake City, Utah, to meet with a friend and fellow academic who also does research in procrastination, and talk about procrastination for a couple of hours. And then stay the night in Salt Lake, get up on Friday morning and drive about 10 hours till I get to LA. God willing, I should get into LA sometime on Friday evening. And get up fresh and bright for Kino's workshop the following morning. After the workshop, I'll be in SoCal for a couple more days, visiting a couple of friends in Orange County.

Kino has also very kindly agreed to another video interview with me (if you haven't seen the previous interview which I did with her a couple of years ago, check it out here). This one will probably be on the niyamas, in continuation from the previous one, which was on the yamas. Gosh, I just estimated that if I do an interview with her on each of the eight limbs every couple of years, I will probably cover all eight limbs in about... twenty years! What a thought.

Oh, and of course, if you are also going to be at the workshop, and would like to notify me of your existence, please look out for this Asian guy with black horn-rimmed glasses (for more details on his appearance, see the interview video above). If you go over and say hi to him, he will not bite (he is not a zombie).

Anyway, I got to go play some chess now. More later.  

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Haven't had much to say since coming back from Randa's workshop in Bozeman last weekend. During the workshop, Randa brought my attention to an unhealthy habit in my backbending; I have a tendency in backbends (especially Kapotasana and the finishing backbends) to splay the feet open and compress the lumbar spine in order to bring myself deeper into the posture. Actually, I've been feeling this compression for a while now. It just took an impartial observer that is not myself to call me out on this, bring this to the light of my conscious attention, and give me and my ego the impetus it needs to get to work to change this habit.

So for the last few days, I have been working on really getting and feeling that inner rotation of the thighs. I've gone to the extent of putting a block between my thighs in Kapo and the finishing backbends. Not "standard" Ashtanga, I suppose, but in my case, the block turns out to be a really good litmus test of whether I'm keeping my thighs close together and innerly rotated: If I move my thighs away/splay my feet, the block starts slipping and falling; it is harder to "cheat" when one is backbending with a block.

Well, there's only so much one can talk about practice. So let me change the subject, and bring your attention to a (maybe not) totally useless factoid I just heard on the radio: According to a few recent studies, nutmeg is good for treating premature ejaculation! But then again, I suppose many of the readers of this blog wouldn't have much use for this factoid, especially if you are (a) a woman, and (b) only have sex for procreation and never for pleasure (for more details, see Grimmly's recent post on this and other Ashtanga-ulous factoids).

Now I wonder if there is Karandavasana premature ejaculation (we of course all know what Karandavasana impotence is).

Ah well, I'm boring even myself with my random useless musings here. So little to write about these days. So I guess I'll sign off now.   

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Last night, I had a very interesting dream. In the dream, I was in Mysore, practicing at KPJAYI. Sharath came over and told me to do Kapotasana. And I did; I got on my knees, arched over, reached my arms back. The front of my body lengthened spontaneously like the longest rubber band in the universe, and my right hand grabbed my right ankle with the greatest ease, as if my spine didn't even exist. My left hand didn't quite get that far; it kind of touched my left heel, but didn't go any further. (Which, by the way, is kind of the way it is in my waking life; because of my mild scoliosis, my backbending has always been uneven; one side of the spine is more flexible than the other. When I do Kapo in waking life, I'm able to grab the right heel/ankle with my right hand, but I usually have to walk the left hand a couple of inches to grab the heel/ankle). Anyway, Sharath was standing by watching as I did all that. He smiled and said, "Very good! You try again tomorrow!" And went away.

Isn't it weird that I should dream about Sharath even though I have never met him in real life? Actually, I have also dreamt about Guruji in the past (whom I never met). Sometimes, I wonder if this may have something to do with why I got into Ashtanga rather than any other style of yoga; maybe I dream about Guruji and Sharath because I feel a certain kind of affinity to what they teach. But I'm really just speculating here; I'm no dream-reader...

Anyway, when I woke up this morning, I thought about Sharath's "You try again tomorrow!" And then I thought, "Well, isn't this tomorrow?" But as I haven't attempted Kapo in two months (I cut back down to primary only when I moved here to Idaho, and am slowly building my second series practice back up), I decided that I would just do my practice as usual, and see how my body feels when I get to second before I decide whether to attempt Kapo today.

So I did that; started with the Suryas, went through standing and then full primary before doing the first few postures of second. And then I decided to try Laghu Vajrasana (which I also haven't attempted in two months). If I have become so weak that I can't even get up from Laghu, there won't be any point in trying to do Kapo, I thought to myself (oh, btw, you might be interested in reading this little post about Laghu that I wrote some time ago). I lowered myself into Laghu, breathed five times, and then, the moment of truth... my legs engaged, and I came back up. Yay! Now, Kapo. I got on my knees, took a few breaths to try to open the upper back, and then reached back, all the while trying to get my body to recall that sensation of utmost ease I had in the dream. No such luck; my right hand grabbed my right ankle, followed by the left, but I definitely felt my spine. But I was happy that Kapo is still there after two months of not doing it. So I did Kapo A, then Kapo B, then got back up. I then did the next posture in second series (Supta Vajrasana, which is always difficult to do without a partner), then went into finishing backbends. 

So yeah, I thought I'd write about my practice in this post, since I haven't done this in a while. And besides, having a dream about practice is probably a good omen for writing about practice, no? :-) But I have to go take care of other things in my waking life now. More later.

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I have scaled back my practice to primary only for the next few weeks, in order to energetically adjust myself for my move to Idaho.

Some people may see going back to primary only as taking a step back in the practice, but this is incorrect. If nothing else, going back to doing primary only can be an invaluable "reset" button that enables one to clear up whatever sloppy technique/faffiness/spiritual-physical gunk that may have accumulated from not paying enough attention to the basics. In any case, any sort of significant progress can only occur through a period of "stepping back" and consolidation.

I have discovered in my case that nowhere is this more true than with backbends. As you know, if you are doing primary only, the only backbends you get to do are the finishing backbends, plus dropbacks and standups. Now there has been a lot of debate recently in the Ashtanga blogosphere about whether it is a good thing for teachers to insist that students be able to drop back and stand up before going on to second. Many people have made the argument that this no-second-before-standing-up-from-backbending rule (let's call this "NSBSU" from now on) is not a sound rule, because some of the first few backbends of second series may actually help the student to find the muscles that she needs in order to stand up from a backbend.

I personally think there is some merit to this argument. I myself was moved on to second by my teacher before I could stand up from dropping back: If I remember correctly, I was actually able to grab my heels in Kapo by myself before I could find the necessary muscles to stand up from dropping back.

But over the last few days, as I restricted my backbends to Urdhva Dhanurasanas and dropbacks and standups, I began to see that there is a certain beauty to NSBSU. Here's why: If you have to go into UDs and dropbacks immediately from primary, your body (and mind) doesn't have the luxury of relying on the first few second series backbends to open up your body for you. In other words, you don't have the luxury of thinking: Okay, I have all these nice gentle second series backbends (except Kapo, of course) to open up my body for me, so I can, you know, relax a little, and let these backbends do the work for me.

I suspect that too many of us have a tendency to think this way, and, in this way, to use these second series backbends as a sort of psychological crutch. And as you know, in yoga practice, whatever happens on the psychological level inevitably translates into something on a physical level. Which also leads me to suspect that more often than not, this kind of "relax a little" mindset leads one to execute the second series backbends in a sloppy fashion (a possibility made all the more tempting by the fact that you are lying prone on the mat...). Which leads to one getting less out of these backbends, and possibly even to injury.

I'm not making any sort of categorical claim that it is impossible to do the second series backbends without sloppiness. Rather, I'm just speaking from my recent experience here. As I was saying, over the last few days of doing primary only, I've realized that if you have to go into UD straight from primary, you pretty much have to do a lot of work right away to bring as much of the backbend into the upper-back (by bringing your shoulders over your elbows) and into your quads and psoas, because you only have three UDs before you have to drop back and stand up. No time or space to mess around. I discovered that because I had to do so much work in so short a time, my backbends felt more open, and there was this delicious burning sensation in my thighs from all this work (for more details on this sweet delicious burning sensation, see this post). Which makes for a very satisfactory and fulfilling backbend practice, all in all.

In other news: Happy Boxing Day! Speaking of Boxing Day, this quirky post that I wrote on Boxing Day last year has unexpectedly been getting a lot of views in the last few days; people probably stumbled upon this post as the result of randomly googling "Boxing Day" or "Boxing Day Images". In fact, as you can see, it is actually the second most read post of all time on this blog as of right now.

As a result of this unexpected occurrence, this blog has been getting a crazy number of hits yesterday and today. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the number of hits I've had so far today (I won't tell you how many) is the highest this blog has ever gotten in one day! Crazy, right?

So yeah, now you know: I actually do look at my blog stats... Did I ever say I did not, anyway? But all this leaves me with mixed feelings. My ego, of course, feels good from having so many blog hits, but there's also a more ambivalent part of me that finds it rather strange that a supposedly Ashtanga blog should be getting so many hits on account of something that is totally not yoga related. Ah, c'est la vie...          

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

This morning, I did primary up to Supta Padangusthasana, followed by second up to Yoganidrasana. This has been my practice for the last two or three weeks.

Over the last week or so, I have been noticing an interesting interplay/tension between the leg-behind-head postures and the second series backbends. When I get to Supta Kurmasana, I am able to put my legs quite easily behind my head. By the way, I have been getting into Supta K from Dwipada Sirsasana; I understand that there is quite a bit of disagreement among Ashtangis as to whether it is "kosher" to get into Supta K this way. From what I hear, Sharath is okay with this method of entering Supta K, but a number of senior teachers are not favorably disposed towards this method of entry, as they think that it violates the correct vinyasa count. But this will have to wait for another post.

Anyway, as I was saying, I can get my head quite easily behind my head in Supta K via dwipada. But I have been noticing that when I get to the leg-behind-head postures in second series after doing all those backbends (including our favorite pose, Kapotasana ;-)), it becomes harder to put my leg behind my head. I mean, I still am able to get the leg/s behind the head, but the hips feel tighter and the foot doesn't go quite as far down the neck/upper back quite as easily. I'm guessing that anatomically, the reason for this is that effective execution of backbends (especially deep ones like Kapo) require a substantial amount of inward rotation of the thighs, whereas effective execution of deep forward bends like leg-behind-head postures require a substantial amount of the opposite action, i.e. external rotation of the thighs and hip rotators. This being the case, a body (at least, this body) that is accustomed to doing a lot of deep backbending may not be able to transition so readily to the diametrically opposite muscular actions required of deep forward bending. At least not yet. Perhaps, over the course of Dirgha Kala (this is becoming my favorite phrase :-)), things will gradually even out, one way or the other.

In any case, so far I am only considering things on a purely physiological/anatomical level. Ashtanga practice (especially second series and beyond) is just as much about the bandhas and the energetic level as it is about the physiological/anatomical. I think David Garrigues wrote somewhere that in third series, one often has to go from extreme forward bending in one asana to extreme backbending in the next, and that without strong and constant bandha engagement, the practitioner will not be able to pull this off safely. I don't do third series, but perhaps if we look at second series in the light of David's words here, we can think of second series as a sort of "training wheels" version of third series: Unlike third series, there is actually a "buffer zone" between the backbends and the leg-behind-head postures in second series (consisting of Bakasana, Bharadvajasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana), which gives one extra space to prep and transition one's body from deep backbends to deep forward bends. So all in all, perhaps the real secret to transiting effectively from deep backbending to deep forward bending is in strong bandha engagement. Gotta work on that.

But sometimes, in my more wistful moments, I can't help thinking that I could use some strong assists in deep forward-bending, especially in Yoganidrasana. Speaking of which, here's a recent video of Tim Feldmann adjusting some, ahem, lucky soul in said asana:


It's nice to get assisted in this posture, with a teacher you trust, of course (Tim did mention at the end of the video that you don't want to try this assist on a student that is a little jumpy or that you don't know.).

At her workshop in Richmond last year, Kino also assisted me in this same posture; she did a different version in which she stepped both her feet on my hips; which means that she was standing on my hips for five breaths (and, if I remember correctly, at the same time using her hands to bring my shoulders closer to the ground). Which probably looked a little bizarre to an observer, but it actually felt really good. Under the firm pressure of Kino's feet, I could feel my hips slowly but surely opening up like a durian being opened... uh, okay, I'm guessing this won't make any sense to you if you don't know what a durian is... well, slight digression here: A durian is a tropical fruit which looks like this:


It has a very distinctive smell which you will either love at first sight or despise for the rest of your life (for more details, see this post). Here is a visual illustration of how you open a durian and get to the delicious (or repugnant, depending on your tastes) flesh within:

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

It seems that I can never say enough about Kapotasana; actually, talking about Kapo seems to be becoming my default thing to do when I find myself running out of yoga-related things to blog about... well, actually, there are a few very interesting things happening at work right now that are yoga-related in a very bizarre kind of way. But I try as much as possible not to talk about work directly on this blog, and I have yet to find a way to talk about these interesting things indirectly. So... let's just talk about Kapo.

I recently wrote about how Kapo seems to be becoming more difficult for me, probably as a result of the shoulder-strengthening/tightening effects of adding the three leg-behind-head postures to my second series practice. It turns out that the solution to this issue is, quite simply, patience and time. And I mean this in two ways. First, as many of you out there who do second series know, the shoulder-tightening effects of the LBH postures and the arm-balances (i.e. the infamous Karandavasana) is supposed to be temporary, and one should, ideally, get back the depth of one's backbend in time. So if one just continues to practice jusdiciously and carefully, the shoulders or whatever-it-is-that-is-tight should open up with patience and time.

But there is also a second, more immediate sense in which one can apply patience and time to the practice of Kapotasana at a time like this: Simply hang in the posture for a few breaths (or more) longer, rather than dive for the feet right away. This is what I have been doing over the last week or so. On most days, I would hang for up to 10 breaths and bring as much awareness as possible to the mid/upper back at the same time. I would only go for the feet when I can see at least one of my feet in my field of vision (ideally, I should be able to see both of my feet all the time, but I think my mild scoliosis causes my back to open up unevenly, so that one side of the back opens up more than the other. At any rate, this is my theory...).

The interesting thing about hanging in the posture longer like this is that when I actually go for the feet, I can pretty much get the heels right away, without having to grab the toes or mid-soles first and then walk the hands to the heels. I have also noticed that hanging in the posture longer allows me to lengthen and stabilize the breath more, so I am not huffing and puffing like a cow (although I am still not as at ease as Kino was in that video I posted last week...).

Yesterday, I even tried speaking to the cockatiels while holding my heels in Kapo, and I am pleased to report that my voice actually came out sounding quite normal and even. Which is a big improvement from a couple of years ago... I can still remember when I first started doing Kapo a couple of years ago: I was in the posture at my teacher's shala in Milwaukee. Somebody on the other side of the room saw me in the pose and said to me, "Nice work!" I said "Thank you!" in response, and was horrified when my voice came out as this weird-sounding croak (who knew that Kapo can turn you into a frog?). Which elicited a big laugh from everybody in the room. Yes, I sometimes double as the class clown when I'm in a shala (usually without intending to...)

So yeah, patience and time is the solution to tightness in Kapo (and probably to many other things as well...).   

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

It's official: Technology is a bitch. Can't live with it. Can't live without it. And yes, I do know the irony of this pronouncement: You wouldn't even be reading this if you didn't have access to technology.

I guess I should explain this rather random-seeming rant on my part. Well, here goes: This morning, in response to a comment Claudia left on my recent post on adding Ekapada Sirsasana about the energetic effects of leg-behind-head postures on the mind/body, I dug up my copy of Gregor Maehle's Ashtanga Yoga--The Intermediate Series to get the full explanation of the energetic effects of said postures. I know that Maehle has some very interesting and illuminating things to say about the relationship between backbends, LBH postures, and how they work together in a synergistic fashion in the Intermediate Series in order to strengthen and make the spine vibrant, to prepare it for the eventual ascent of Kundalini Shakti up the spine. I had typed out the relevant passages from the book into a word document and saved it onto a flash drive, intending to paste it onto this blog to share with the entire world--well, I mean, with all of you who take the time to read this blog-- when I get to this coffeeshop from which I am now writing (My internet connection at home has been very spotty of late).

Alas, this was not to be. When I got here, I stuck the flash drive into my computer, and tried opening the file, only to realize that it had been corrupted! I got into panic mode, and started transferring as many uncorrupted files and folders as possible from that flash drive to my computer. Fortunately, I managed to salvage most of my files: It appears that the corruption has not spread to most of the files in that flash drive.

But what that means is that those passages from Maehle that I had painstakingly typed out are lost--gone forever in the abyss of cyber-corruption.

Well, no use crying over spilt milk (or corrupted files). Let me now do my best to see how much I can remember from what I read from Maehle this morning. Oh, by the way, whatever I'm about to say can be found on page 106 and pages 134 to 135 of the book (I'm good at remembering numbers :-)). So if you actually have the book, you probably should just go read these pages now, rather than read my half-assed summary from memory :-)

But here's my half-assed summary: First, according to Maehle, backbends are a very important part of the asana practice, because in the process of doing advanced backbends like Kapotasana, you lengthen the spine and release the trunk extensor muscles, paving the way for kundalini shakti to rise up from its sleep at the base of your spine. At the same time, by opening up the rib cage, which is commonly regarded as the "cage" or the "armor" of our selves, backbends tend to make us more sympathetic and accommodating to the views of others, especially those views that are contrary to our own.

However, too much opening without a corresponding "closing up" and drawing of boundaries is no good: You can't say yes to people all the time (especially to crappy people: see this post by James for more details.). Which is where the LBH postures come into the picture. The extreme forward-bending facilitated by the opening of the hip joints in these postures symbolize and cultivate the strength to draw boundaries and say "no" to things and people that we need to say no to. I, for one, definitely have issues with saying no; see, for instance, this post. So I probably should do more LBH postures :-) On a purely physiological level, the LBH postures also cultivate strength in the trunk extensor and abdominal muscles, by making them work together to support the weight of the leg behind the neck. This, as you probably notice, is the diametric opposite of the releasing action that is demanded of these muscles in deep backbends. On a symbolic level, the ability to bear weight with these muscles also symbolize the shouldering of responsibility and the cultivation of humility and forbearance in one's own life.

Well, this is my half-assed summary. Thanks for reading it, if you made it this far. I hope you find it useful. Oh, one other thing: In his explanation, Maehle also makes a lot of references to Freud and the "anal" and the "oral" dimensions of our psyches, but since I know very little about Freud, I've decided not to try to reproduce what he says here. Moreover, I'm always a bit wary of super-imposing western psychoanalytic frameworks onto yoga; I often wonder whether in the process of understanding yoga through psychoanalytic lenses, we end up distorting at least as much as we understand. But I'm way out of my depth here, so I'll stop here. Oh, and if you don't happen to own a copy of Maehle's book, you might be interested in getting a copy here :-)

         

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities