our-yoga

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:

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As you may know, my daily practice now consists of primary up to Supta Padangusthasana and second up to Yoganidrasana. I have recently expounded on the possible appetite-boosting effects of leg-behind-head postures. As it turns out, these postures may also result in a craving for sweet things and caffeine. It could also be, of course, that I am in an environment (a coffeeshop) where such things are quite readily available. But I'm also pretty sure that I did not desire such things as much as I have started to recently.

In any case, this is what happened. A little over an hour ago, I went up to the counter and ordered a large slice of German Chocolate cake (which I, thankfully, ended up not being able to finish) and a big cup of Earl Grey: I have this funny idea that all these quaint-looking English people in period movies (think about Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice) never get fat even though they have tea and scones and cakes all the time because they drink endless cups of Earl Grey, thus washing the fat-making components of all these sinful desserts down their throats and out their digestive tracts. So I decided that some Earl Grey might mitigate the damage that the German Chocolate cake might do to my, ahem, figure. 

Yikes! I just realized that I may be perpetuating a stereotype of English people. My apologies to all of you readers from the fair British Isles (I know there are many of you, thanks to Feedjit :-)). During practice tomorrow morning, I will perform a couple more Surya Namaskars (both A and B) and maybe put my head a few seconds longer behind my head by way of apology.

But perhaps the LBH postures by themselves also accomplish the same effects as Earl Grey. Perhaps the LBH postures stimulate appetite, but also make the digestive organs work more effectively at the same time, thus counteracting the fat-making effects of such dietary evils as German Chocolate cake. At any rate, I can hope... Otherwise, there's always Earl Grey :-)   

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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 :-)

         

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It's true. I didn't really realize this until about half an hour ago. I was teaching class, standing at the front of the classroom leading a discussion. Somebody brought up the example of eating food at a buffet (I can't even remember what the example was supposed to illustrate; shows how hungry I am), and my stomach began to growl involuntarily. Gosh, I hope nobody else in the room heard it. At any rate, this is the image that immediately formed in my mind:

Given that I am not usually this hungry at this time of the day (I generally have a light lunch, which sees me through pretty much the whole afternoon), and given the addition of Ekapada Sirsasana to my practice the last couple of days, the most viable explanation for my increased hunger would be that doing leg-behind-the-head postures stimulates the appetite much more than usual. Actually, I've also written about the effects of LBH postures on the appetite before in the past, come to think of it (see, for example, this post).  So I guess none of this is really news.

But still, it's an interesting phenomenon. I don't have any yoga books on hand right now to look up, to pinpoint the exact explanation for this phenomenon; I'm guessing that being very deep forward bends, LBH postures stimulate the digestive fire more than ordinary forward bends, which results in greater appetites and greater hunger.

But then I hear stories about yogis of old who could live on just one fistful of food a day. How's that possible? Well, either (a) they have attained the siddhi of being able to survive on very little food while putting forth great exertion (as a result of their yogic practices, their bodies can metabolize/extract nutrients from food much more efficiently than those of common mortals), or (b) they simply don't do LBH postures!

I wonder which it is? Any of you out there have similar experiences with LBH postures and your digestive fires? Did you find yourself gaining significant amounts of weight after beginning to practice LBH postures? If you have anything to say about these matters, I would love to hear from you. In the meantime, I think I'm going to go get some food...   

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