Knees away, groins emerging for better back bends

This week I will be running a workshop delightfully titled 'Groins Emerging'.  Here is a little taster of Harry and I doing a little bit of synchronous work along that theme!

One of the key things we will be working on is the idea of softening and lengthening around the front of groin area as one of the 'tricks' to free the spine in back bending positions. I call this position knees away, groins emerging.  They don't get pushed or forced up.  They 'emerge' and soften as the knees move away.

This is slightly different to how many people are used to initiating a backbend.  To people newer to my class what I see are lots of pelvic curls and groins thrusting going on.  I don't want to suggest that this is a wrong movement.  But for my spine freeing purposes it can tend to jam you in the lower back.

So we will be working on figuring out some ways to first get length in your lower back.

Then we will move to some arms away and chest emerging, as shown below.

From there we might work towards combining those two elements (knees away, groins emerging and arms away, chest emerging) to see how it can support a possible spine lengthening back bend.

From there some people will possibly work on a bit more arms away and chest emerging to go deeper. But that is pretty tricky.  It is not for everyone.  

Harry and I went back up to our backbend to take a foot up.  But you could also do this (and we can try in the workshop) with the elbows on the ground like in the start position.  Maybe not.  I will be there to see what type of position will be helpful for you and it might be something different.  

We ended up where we started.  In our case this was on the road in front of what turned out to be the rubbish tip.  No wonder it smelled so bad.  Still, through it all we smiled and kept in touch with the core theme of knees away, groins emerging.  

Finishing up with a bit of eye contact, some shared laughter at our antics.  This felt beautiful to do together, almost like we were synchronised swimming yogis on the road.  

So join us for an extra special workshop on Good Friday if you are round, 9-11am (probably a bit later).  This is not for 'advanced' or 'extreme' back bending but for people who want to learn to move more freely in their spines, stop over arching their lower back and feeling all scrunched, and who want to hang out and share a few laughs.  

Happy and safe practicing. 

Much metta,

Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com

www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Forward bend, handstand, backbend

Here I show the transition between forward bend, handstand prep, and backbend that we are practicing in our current sequence.  

Watch the video first then I highlight some key points.  In the video I do a lot of wriggling around.  It took me several takes to complete this video.  I have several rotated vertebrae along my spine which makes arm balances difficult as I tend to lean into one shoulder and it is not comfortable.  A part of my wriggling is me squirming around trying to get length wherever I sense a sense of 'dis-ease'. 

 

Key points

Bend knees and push them forward.  Push hips down and forward.  Push shoulder blades forward and up.  

Continue to come down by bending knees and pressing hips down and forward.  Who cares about straight legs?  It is not important here. 

Hands to the ground, knees can be bent.  

If possible and comfortable then...

..straighten the legs. 

One hand forward, other hand pressing into back of calf.  Toe tip back (same side as the hand that is forward).  Press the armpits in the direction they are facing (firm them).  Lean forward so the forward leg toes start to grip.  Press the sitting bone of the forward leg down and forward towards the front toes. Knee can stay bent.  

Keeping previous actions, bring knee to chest.  

Keeping previous actions, take knee towards the sky.  Be mindful not to let the sitting bones go up.  I keep an effort in pressing them down and forward.  Even though my knee is going up to the sky I still feel as though I am making an effort to bring it towards my chest. 

Straighten the raised leg.  The raised leg thigh turns in.  The grounded leg thigh is rolling out. 

Bring both hands to ground in front.  Firm the armpits. Keep lower ribs lifted into middle back.

Lean forward so hands come flat on the ground.  Bring knee towards chest.  You can keep more weight on grounded foot if needed and stay here. 

Or, keep leaning forward so more weight comes to the finger tips and the back heel raises.  Keep drawing knee to chest.  Look forward.  Try to bring the grounded leg knee towards your chest.  It probably won't go anywhere but get the feeling.  Stay here.  It is pretty intense.  Or...

Maybe there is a handstand.  Maybe not.  It is all good. 

Back down.  Knees bent.  

Press hips forward to stand.  Armpits forward. 

Keep pressing knees and hips forward.  Armpits forward and up as you raise the body. 

Arms straighten as you continue to press armpits forward and up. 

Begin to lengthen the front of the body without squashing the back. 

Keep lifting and lengthening the spine, hips moving forward.  Find your position.  It may not be the same as mine.  

This is pretty intense.  Happy and safe practicing.  Do not do anything that hurts.  Ask questions as needed!

Much metta,

Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com

www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Spinal Lengthening For Backdrops

Here I show lots of movement throughout my spine as I try to get my wriggle-on and lengthen my spine from bottom to top as much as possible to come into a standing backdrop that lengthens rather than squashes my spine and so feels delightful.

I wriggle up...

and up...

and up...

And my up takes me back...

And down, but in an up kind of way!

When practicing backbends it is important the spine does not feel tense.  It is important to feel light and free.  It is important that your whole body is smiling from the inside.

Well, that's how I like to practice.

This video is not intended for anyone to copy.  Such poses are learned from a teacher.  It is more for my students to have a look at how when you keep wriggling up you can also come down.  A bit like a slinky.  

Happy and safe practicing and hope to see you soon.  We will be practicing outdoor yoga in the sun from now on so protect yourself however you need.  See you in Canberra or Sri Lanka for my upcoming retreat (October 1-4 2015).

Much metta,

Samantha

Active Movements For Better Natarajasana

Full natarajasana

‘Is that real yoga?’

That was a comment from a passerby who chatted to us as we practiced our outdoor class last week. 

It certainly felt very real to us as we all attempted to hold our active natarajasana!

Below is a photo of me in active natarajasana.  Look, no hands!

Active natarajasana

If the passerby had have walked past a few moments later when I was in full natarajasana (picture at top of page) then no doubt she might not have even asked whether we were doing 'real yoga'.  

The thing is, the top pose looks really impressive, but the active, less impressive looking one, is, in many ways, harder.

In this post I talk about how to progress to full natarjasana.  A video of me coming into the posture is at the end of the post. 

What is Active Natarajasana?

Active natarajasana is where you try to initiate the pose without using your hands. 

It is relatively easy to pull your foot to your bottom using your hand. 

It is much, much, much harder to try and draw your foot close to your bottom without using your hands and then try to push your shin back and foot up (still without hands). 

It is challenging for a number of reasons.

For a start you are trying to balance on one leg as you do something tricky. 

Then, while many people may have tight hamstrings, not many have strong hamstrings (note you can be tight and weak).

Bringing your heel to your bottom without hands activates hamstring muscles. 

Try it yourself and see how much you can bend your knee.  

If you are like many people it wont be very far. 

In fact, you might be lucky to get it past 90 degrees. 

Then, if you do manage, you might find that you start to get a cramp either in your calf or foot or hamstring or any combination of these and you somehow need to figure out how to come into the pose without this happening!

Here I had a special note, it helps if you do not point your toes and foot and if you move slowly.

Why would I do active natarajasana?

Active natarajasana does not look that impressive—until you try it for yourself!

I suppose that is one reason why the passerby thought we were not doing real yoga.

But active natarajasana will help your practice a lot.

Coming into poses actively helps you build strength and reduces the chances of overstretching.  And I generally find that hamstrings are always in danger of being over-stretched by yoga students.

In this pose using the hip extensor and knee flexor muscles to draw the body into the posture will help opposing muscles (the ones that will be lengthened—the hip flexors) to relax. 

This helps you come more deeply into the pose without feeling like you are stretching since the muscle is more relaxed.

That means you improve mobility. 

You can also learn to relax chronically over-tense muscles. 

Hip flexors are some of those muscles that tend to be chronically short and tight given most people sit with them in that position all day.

For some people this can, in turn, help relieve low back tension.

If you find you cannot lift the leg at all, then you can get good work with just toe tip on the ground, as shown below.

What next?

We don’t stay in active natarajasana, although some of us choose to.  That is where we might be at.

If we want to move deeper, we then go to an active-assisted version of the pose.

What is active-assisted natarajasana?

The active assisted version is where you do take hold of the ankle. 

It is the way that you take hold of it and what you do next that is important.

When you hold the ankle you cultivate a push-pull action.

That is, you try to push the ankle/shin into the hand as you pull with the hand (as though to bend the elbow).

When you do this you should find that some of the muscles that have been lengthened now start to activate. 

They are activating in a lengthened state. 

This posture is not about pulling your leg up with your hand. 

After I push my shin into my hand I then push my foot up.

I will be able to take my leg higher in this way.  But the key point is that it is still active.

At the same time there are other elements to the posture. 

I am trying to unsquash my lower back through two main actions.

First, pushing sitting bones to heels and top of pelvis back., which lengthens lower back.

Second, by using the free hand to push the armpit forward and up, which has a whole spine tractioning effect. 

Why do active assisted natarajasana?

Start by remembering, you don’t have to do it.

If you are in the posture you will find that the muscles that are being lengthened are now also being activated, which creates a relaxation effect when you come out of the posture.

That means you will have released even more tension in those muscles.

However, you are also teaching your body to be both strong and flexible.

Is this for everyone?

Well, you should let your comfort be the judge of that. 

For people with chronic tightness in their hip flexors such that they tend to get aggravated with activation I tell them to stay with just the active version and avoid the active-assistive version. 

That means they get the relaxation effect in their chronically tight muscles by activating the muscles on the opposite side of the joint. 

As a teacher (remember you are the teacher of your own self as well even if you do not teach other people) you don’t take a one-size fits all approach to people’s bodies.

For people with chronic tightness in their hip flexors that get aggravated by activation, I also modify postures that tend to oblige hip flexors to be active.

While it might now sound like I am back-tracking on active movement, it is actually that I am using a whole of body approach to balance the activation that is required to move towards freedom.

Here it starts to get very technical and where you want to make sure you talk to a skilled yoga teacher before just reading something on a blog!

Below I have taken a video of me going through the steps to come into the full natarajasana.  It takes a lot of shoulder mobility.  It is definitely not for everyone.  Most people I know cannot get enough shoulder rotation to do this and you must move slowly.  I do not encourage people to try without a teacher's guidance and it is only shown for demonstration purposes.  You can see that I let my hand go at key points and try to hold my leg in position without the hand for a small moment. 

Have fun with your active natarajasana.  You tell me whether you think that is ‘real yoga’ or not!!

I teach active movements in classes and workshops and this is definitely something we will workshop on our retreat in Bali.  Spaces are filling up fast so sign up soon.

Happy and safe practicing.

Much metta,

Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com

www.artofliferetreats.com

www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Mega Yoga Stretch

There are a few yoga poses that provide a stretch that is just, well, mega.  These mega stretches may push your intensity threshold, but they are usually worth it.

Thursday classes at the moment offer one of these mega stretches.  On Thursdays we are going from the two ends of the torso to open parts of our body that will help us fly up into backbends.  They are not the only keys to the flying backbend but they really help.  In last week's blog we thought about how our orangutan arms--how our arms connect to our waist.  This week, we get a chance to go to the other end of our torso and consider how our legs also connect to our waist. 

Anatomically, this is true.  There is a muscle called the iliopsoas that goes from our thigh to just below our lower ribs. 

This is a pretty important muscle and, among other things, influences the curvature of our lower back.  If this muscle is too tight, your lower back can get habitually pulled into a curve that is exaggerated (too curved or hyperextended).  Without going into too much anatomy, if your lower back is constantly being pulled into a tighter curve this can lead to all sorts of back problems as the vertebrae get pulled closer and closer together and the discs get compressed.

Backbends require our lower back to be long and free, not tight and compressed.  If your iliopsoas is tight you are going to have trouble feeling this freedom and it is likely that you will get a 'crunching' or squashed feeling in your lower back as you try to come into backbending postures. 

Bearing this in mind, on Thursdays we are doing a mega yoga stretch to help free the iliopasas so that we can have free lower backs in backbends.  We do a wall variation of virasana (hero pose) that seems much more difficult than virasana itself.  This is probably because your thigh is fixed against the wall and cannot move, thereby preserving your alignment, whereas in the real virasana your thigh can move around (even if you try not to let it) and subtly change the alignment of the pose.  As most of you have no doubt found out by now, the smallest change in your alignment can make a huge difference to a posture.  When our body is stretching it will often find little 'escape routes', by which I mean it tries to take us away from the intensity. 

In the the mega stretch on the video clip there is little escape from the intensity.  You need to go with the flow and breathe.  Of course, as always, be mindful of any strain that might be leading to injury.  In this pose the most likely strain would be in the knee joint or possibly the lower back if you are not mindful.  Below I have outlined a few points about the integrity of the joints for this pose:

• fold up your mat like I do in the video clip.  This is actually just to act as a cushion for your knee.  The thing about this pose is that it looks like the pressure is on your knee, but your weight is actually not on your knee cap but on the bottom of the thigh bone.  I usually do this pose against a wall without my mat, but, having said that, having a little cushion does bring a bit of comfort.
• watch the front knee does not come too far in front of the ankle and definitely not over the toes.
• in the video clip I fix my shin straight up the wall and then slip my pelvis inside the heel of my foot to take it all the way back to the wall.  You do not need to do this and you should not force yourself to do this.  Remember, yoga is never about forcing.  Your body will 'do' when it is ready. Your pelvis can stay in front of your foot, it does not have to go back to the wall, and that is completely ok!  You can use this pose as a lunge variation rather than as the virasana variation as I move into.  Work within your limits. 
• this posture requires us to maintain the normal curve of our lower back.  We don't want to try and flatten it or exaggerate it.  Most people will probably find the curve exaggerating--especially if your iliopsoas is tight.  So be sure to keep your lower ribs from jutting out, which will increase the curve at the lower back. 
• if you are going to try and take your arms overhead, make sure the natural curve of your lower back is maintained.  Tight latissimus dorsi muscles (which connect your arms to your waist--see last week's post on orangutan arms) will make it difficult to take your arms overhead and the escape mechanism for them will be to try and increase the curve in your lower back to allow you to do so.  So watch what happens to the curve in your lower back as you try to take your arms overhead.  If it starts to get exaggerated then don't take them up any further. 
• ankles that are tight might make it a bit difficult to get into this posture.  If the front of your ankles are tight and you cannot get them flat against the wall then roll up a little hand towel and place it between your ankle and the wall.

See if you can hold the two poses I demonstrate in the video clip for about a minute each.  Focus on steadying your breath as you do so.  In between legs, get up and move around.  You will really feel the new 'freedom' in the leg that you have just stretched.

This mega yoga stretch really targets the front of your thighs and pelvis and, combined with your orangutan arms (see last week's blog), will help you fly up into backbends!  Have fun and practice safely.

Monkey Grip: Improve Your Yoga With Orangutan Arms

I have a good friend who has arms like an orangutan, by which I mean his arm span is greater than his height not that he has hairy shoulders.  Orangutans have amazing arms and shoulders, which comes in handy when you live mostly in the trees.

But for those of us yogis who (for the most part) don't live in trees, having arms like an orangutan, or at least imagining that you do, is a great asset to your yoga practice. 

The fact is, although most of us think of our arms as starting from our shoulders, they actually start from our pelvis.  Well, not the arm bones themselves, but the muscles that help our arms to move.  We have lots of muscles that connect our arms to our torso (you've probably heard of your deltoids).  But there is one pretty big one called the latissimus dorsi that runs from your humerus (that's the arm bone that goes from your elbow to shoulder) all the way down to your pelvis. 

I don't want to get too much into anatomy here, but you might be able to imagine now that if the skeleton above raised it's arm overhead and it's latissimus dorsi were tight then the arm would not move very effectively.  This is especially if the skeleton wanted to to externally rotate at the shoulder joint, like we do in backbends, because the latissimus dorsi muscle is even more stretched in that position. 

Having extra long arms that are rooted in your waist will help you with all backbends, and will help that pesky problem of the elbows splaying out that happens in some inversions (like pincha mayurasana or hornstand).  It also helps you experience downward facing dog (adho mukha svanasana) in a different way and with more freedom in your neck and spine.  Your handstands will get better and you might even find yourself becoming more attractive, wealthier, and.... wait a minute, strike those last two. 

To cultivate orangutan arms (ie, arms that move freely from your waist not hairy ones) there are lots of things you can do.  I got on a movie-making spree last weekend and made three short clips to help you bring awareness to the area extending from the middle of your upper arm, down through the armpit, and down to the waist, and to feel the connection between these areas. 

In the first clip I try to show how to connect your arms to your waist in downward facing dog.  I also show a pretty intense stretch that will hopefully bring your awareness to the entire torso, armpit, arm complex.

In the second clip I show another intense stretch to really open up your armpit area.  After you have held this stretch for a minute (or two), I recommend you go back into downward dog again and see what a difference it makes!

In the third clip I show another way to come up into an effortless backbend by really drawing those arms back down into your waist.  As you watch this clip I hope you can see that my entire spine rises from the floor as though it is floating just by setting up my arms.  Those of you who come regularly to my classes and who struggle with backbends will know that I can help you fly up not by lifting you (I am not that strong) but just by firmly sending your arms back into your waist.  If anyone is willing to be filmed with me making this adjustment then I would really appreciate it so we can show people what I mean!!
Before you watch the movies and try some of the poses I am doing, I recommend that you try this little exercise so that you can really feel your arms connecting to your waist. 

1. Come into tadasana (mountain pose or standing upright)
2. Take your arms over your head
3. Reach your arms up as high as you can
4. Now, imagine that you have a shirt pocket sewn into your side ribs, just above your waist
5. Bring your awareness to your armpits and drop your arms back into those shirt pockets.  Your elbows will probably bend a bit.  That's fine.

Once you understand how the arms connect to your waist and can manage to keep them connected you will fly up into backbends like a wind billows out a sail. 

By the way, if you can hear Kylie Minogue in the background of these movies, it is just because I was having a bit of a yoga dance practice session when I took the shots.  Am seriously thinking about doing a yoga dance workshop as it was a lot of fun!

Orangutan Arms and Downward Facing Dog

Stretch Your Orangutan Arms!

Use Your Orangutan Arms To Fly Into Backbends!

Yoga Gems: Yoga for Your Lower Back

Previously I posted a video that showed how lying over a block placed strategically in your upper back can help 'billow' out your chest and give your upper spine a new found feeling of freedom.  Well, we can do the same thing with our lower backs too!

Lots of us want to or need to free our lower backs.  The video link shows a wonderful way to help create length in your lower back to give it the freedom to move pain free. 

The poses shown should be restful.  If they do not feel restful, or if you feel any pain, then move out of them.  It is really important to get the block position right.  It needs to be on your sacrum, which is the hard bony plate that you can feel just above the crack of your own bottom (I wish I had a better way of putting it!).  Do not put the block on the lower back itself--it will feel awful and you probably will not be able to stay there. 

If you do not have a block, be creative.   A thick dictionary could do the trick.  How high you go all depends on your flexibility. Don't go too far, too fast.  Listen to your body and respect what it is telling you. 

In the video I show a progressive series of poses of increasing difficulty, culminating with a mega thigh stretch at the end!

These sorts of poses are 'gems' and I practice them nearly every day, along with the block in my upper spine.  The lower back becomes more free and length is created across the upper thighs where they meet your torso.  This is exactly the place where many of us need to stretch out to help those deep back bends. 

Be safe and enjoy your practice.  If you have any doubts, then please consult your yoga teacher and get them to have a look at you.

Happy and safe practicing!

mettha,

Yoga Gems #1: Lie Over Things

Lie over something.  Anything.

There are lots of little gems you can use to enhance your yoga practice.  These gems can be anything from words of wisdom, particular ways of practicing, or ‘tricks of the trade’ that experienced yogis do almost without thinking and maybe you have not heard about—or have not heard enough.  I am going to start leaving a trail of them for you to collect and put in your own treasure chest for whenever you are ready to use them. 

The first little gem is to lie over something.  I do this every day, without fail.  If I don’t have a block, I use the arm of a couch, the edge of a bed, the back of a chair—something (anything!) that will support my weight and open my upper back.  I am known to do this at work on my office chair, at home just about anywhere, in airports over benches, at friend’s places over the dining chair, in parks over fences....well, you get the picture. 

In a recent blog I talked about finding the wind in your sail, and this little gem will help start to mobilize your thoracic spine (upper back), which is usually hunched or slumped from daily life.  Basically, lying over a block counters all of that forward bending that you do around your shoulders and chest.   By practicing this little yoga gem you will improve your posture, improve your backbends, open your chest to breathe.  I would like to point out that even if it did not do any of these things I would still do it every day because it just feels so darn good!

If you don’t have a block, don’t worry.  You can use a firmly rolled up towel, a firmly rolled up yoga mat, the arm of a couch—basically anything that you can comfortably lie over.  The trick is to find the right height and the right positioning for you.  Better to start small and work up, especially if you have never done this before.

Before you start, though, just lie down flat on the floor for a few moments, bringing your awareness to your breath and to the centre of your sternum.  Relax and breathe, and, as you do, feel the expansion in the ribs below the armpits to help you come to focus on the area that is going to get opened.  Then, mindfully bring yourself to whatever it is you are going to lie over.

Height

I can lie over higher and big things comfortably as I have developed mobility in this part of my spine and neck.  It is one of the reasons I can catch a big wind in my sail for backbends.  But I find it equally as enjoyable to lie over something lower, like my yoga mat.  Higher is not necessarily better it is just that sometimes you really feel like catching a big wind in your sail. 

The main thing that should guide the height of whatever you are going to lie over is whether or not it feels good in the spine and, more importantly, what happens to the curve in the neck.  The higher you go the more your head will have to go back.  But your neck should always follow the curve of your spine.  Your neck should definitely not go off at an acute angle. If your neck is going off at a sharp angle and not following the nice curve of the rest of your spine then you are too high and you either need to reduce the height of whatever it is you are lying over or place something under your head so the neck follows the same curve as the spine.

Positioning

When you lie over something, you are looking for the “sweet spot”.  You will know the place when you find it.  It is exactly the place where you have a whole body sigh as it thanks you for taking the time to open this part that is often dull. 

Generally, this place is somewhere between your shoulder blades about the level of your outer armpit.   I sometimes need to wriggle up or wriggle down a few millimeters to find the right spot.  Sometimes just rolling yourself up and down a bit is nice too. 

Breathe

Once there I just lie and hang out.  I can take my arms over my head, which stretches the outer chest/armpit/arm area a bit more, or just keep them beside me.  I spend a while taking some deep breaths into my ribcage.  This is heaven.  You can lie here for a few minutes if it feels good. 

Remove the block

After you come up, remove whatever it is you were lying over and just lie flat on the floor for a few moments.  If you had the block/prop in the right place you will now feel as though your upper back is empty and has melted into the floor.  It really is as though some magic wand has whisked away the tension that had been accumulating there.  But, as we now know, there is no magic wand.  Instead there is a little yoga gem to pack away in our little bag of yoga tricks.

Video clip explained

In the video clip that accompanies this blog I wanted to show you that yoga is not just what you do when you have yoga clothes on in a yoga class.  Here I am in jeans and a shirt one morning about to go out.  I had not done any yoga at all.  The only ‘yoga’ I had done that morning was what you see in the video clip.  You can see that I used the block to open and bring awareness to the upper chest area and start to catch the wind in my sail.  It felt so good I spontaneously came into an effortless backbend.  I am not saying this like a monkey admiring its own tail (Tilak taught me this expression last week and I love it.  I have been waiting for the right time to use it!), but rather to highlight (again) that backbending it not about grunt and grind and thrust and strength.  It is about gracefulness, opening, and ease.   Yes, I have been practicing yoga a long time and you may not quite be ready for this, but keep working on this yoga gem and I am certain that you soon will be!

Safe and joyful practicing!

Mettha,

Effortless Backbending: Catching the wind in your sail

Effortless backbends

Now that I have ventured into the world of movie-making with myself as writer, producer, sound guy, actress, stunt-woman, special effects coordinator, body double etc, etc, I have noticed something I had not quite noticed before.  I have tiny little twig arms that look like they might snap in two!  Yet, even with said twig arms, I am able to come up from the floor into poses like urdhva dhanurasana (let’s just call it urdhva D, which makes the pose sound a bit like a rap song but a whole lot easier to read). 

In class people often talk about not feeling strong enough to come up into urdhva D.  However, strength is probably not the issue as you can see with my twig arm practice.  Now, I know I am going to hear a whole host of comments to the tune of I don’t have much to lift up (although these might just imagined, comments since I can’t be sure anyone is actually reading this), but coming up into a backbend is less about strength than it is about finding the wind in your sail that billows out your chest and carries you high—imagine a kite that gets picked up by a gust of wind.

Recently I have been experimenting with different ways of coming up and down into urdhva D so that I feel relaxed and free.   There are many ways and methods of coming up into urdhva D and this is just one I use at the moment.  Maybe some of the ideas might be helpful for you, which is why I am posting them. 

After you watch the movie clip and read the blog, go away and remember to practice with mindfulness and a sense of playful curiosity.  Don’t get stuck in your yoga practice and stuck in ways of doing things.  The body needs to be challenged or it gets dull.  And (obligatory safety message although as yogis hopefully the desire to be mindful and present in your poses will steer you automatically towards safety) never move into pain.  Have a chat with your yoga teacher if you have any concerns.

Your pelvis as a helium balloon

Our bums and pelvis are getting good coverage in this blog so far and that continues here.  When you come down onto the floor, remember to place the feet mindfully.  Really engage the power in the ball and outside edge of the foot. 

From here send the knees away from you a few times and feel your pelvis float away from you.  It rises effortlessly.  You don’t need to do anything.  You don’t need to squeeze, thrust, or push.  You just need to let it float up like a helium balloon.  It does not need to come up very far at all—just let it get lift-off so it becomes weightless.  And yes, even the biggest of bums is going to feel weightless here.

Once it is up there, let your pelvis and lower back be free.  Move it gently around like a hanging basket and experience this freedom. 

Your chest as a sail

With your pelvis lifted (but not pushed, or thrust etc), bring your awareness to the space between your shoulder blades and the corresponding place on the front of your chest (just about the middle of your sternum).  This part is going to become like a sail on a sailboat.  To come up into a nice urdhva D you are going to have to catch the wind in this sail.

The tricky part about this is trying to catch the wind in your sail and not the wind in your tail.  When you first start practicing this move your pelvis might come up too but you are actually trying to isolate the two movements.  So, if your pelvis comes up, don’t worry about it, just let it float down again and concentrate on getting lift in the sail (not the tail).

Another good thing to remember is that the wind is going to billow out the sail in all directions—your back is going to broaden and your chest is going to rise at the same time.

In the movie clip I add another movement here to really get my sail into full bloom.  The secret is in the arms.  Can you see what I am doing?  It might look like I am just taking my elbows around in a circle and then digging them into the floor.  What I am actually doing is using that movement of the elbows to help encourage my shoulder blades to move further down towards my waist.  This action is really important.  I will say it again just so you get how important it is.  This action is really important. 

What I am trying to do is to feel as though I have connected my outer armpits the top of my pelvis.  This action is going to help create the circle in urdhva D. 

Pause, relax, and breathe

I have never met anyone who cannot find a way to do those two actions (helium bum and wind in the sail). It might take some practice, but it will come.  And when it does, come up, come down, come up, come down, and just enjoy the movement.

Some days I just stay here for a long time, really using the combined actions of sending my pelvis one way and heart the other to create length and freedom in my spine.    In the movie clip I have come up much higher than you really need to and that is just for effect.  You can just stay low, pause, relax, and breathe.

Do not skip this stage.  If you are a person who has trouble coming up into urdhva D, you probably start to get anxious and stressed and start worrying about how you will get up and if you will get up at this point.  Rather than use your energy in worrying, take time to just breathe.  Feel what it is like to just hang out here with no pressure, no idea of what is going to come next. 

Put the hands in place

If you feel relaxed and your spine feels free, then very casually put your hands in place.  As you do so, try as much as you can to keep those outer armpits moving down to the waist. 

If you cannot get your hands on the floor without losing too much of the connection between your armpits and your waist then you might just need to stay at the previous stage until I write my blog on using a prop to help you.  For effortless backbending you really do need to keep those upper arms bones moving into the body.  You can still come up but it will feel much more like you are levering yourself up and using brute strength. 

If you can get your hands mindfully into the floor then all you need to do is press through the hands, press through the feet, catch the wind in the sail….and fly!

And finally

Nothing happens overnight.  If you can’t get your hands into the floor then stick with the initial stages.  In the mean-time, your yoga teacher should be able to give you some tips, props, and pointers, and may even help you find the lift you need by assisting you. 

In your own practice, remember to be mindful and patient, and to work on catching the wind in your sail combined with freedom in the lower back.  Other parts of your body will need to open to help you come into an effortless urdhva D, especially around the shoulders and front of the hips, but this pose is always going to be about relaxing rather than brute strength. 

Enjoy your practice!

PS: If you want to see a real genuis backbender to inspire you, check out this youtube link of Paddy doing 'extreme backbends'

Mettha,