Unusual core and splits

We have more interesting 'move from your core' work in this sequence that also leads to splits in another orientation to gravity.  

Remember, you don't have to do the splits--try not to 'aim' for that.  Try your best but don't be attached to an outcome.  Most people will not be able to do the splits and what you might do is bring knee to chest as shown on the left.

You do what feels possible and comfortable for you without straining.  Feel challenged but without mental or physical tension.

I have made two video versions of the sequence.  One to show what you could do for splits variation. The other to show for knee to chest variation.  

You will get a feel for what is possible for you.  

I come into these postures actively.  That means I bring my leg towards my chest without using the hands.  This will require good balance and core stability, as well as good hip mobility.  

Take a look at the videos so you can see the movement in action.  Then take a look at how I deconstruct the postures in the pictures.

Video: Splits Variation

Video: Knee to Chest Variation

Key Actions

Below are some step by step instructions.  Remember do not do anything that hurts.  Be mindful of your knees.  To get into the posture there are some tricky hip movements and whenever you are working with hips you need to be cautious of knees.  

Move slowly so there is no strain.  If you feel strain then go back to the previous position you were in. 

Lunge

In this lunge bring your hand towards the ground but do not 'dump' the weight into the hand.  Support yourself with your legs.  The hand is more there for a bit of balance if you need but you should feel you could take your hand off the ground.








Turn feet 
Both feet turn the same way.  Turn the back foot 90 degrees and onto its side.  Keep your ankle away from the floor.

The front foot turns as well but that is not where the movement comes from.  I actually think about rolling my thigh out rather than moving the foot.   I lift the ball of that front foot and as I roll the thigh out the knee will move out to the side and allow your foot to move with you.  Move slowly and carefully.  If this is not comfortable go back to the lunge and remain there for a while until the side lying part comes up.

Be on the outer edge of the front foot as well.  Keep the ankle away from the ground.

In this position stay lifted out of the arm on the ground.  You could take it away.  To do this you need to ensure you are pushing your front heel down and away from you and firm in your other leg.

Lower hip to floor

Mindfully lower the hip towards the ground.  Go slowly.  No strain.  If in any discomfort go back to the previous position.

Stay lifted out of the arm as though you are pushing that hand down and away from the side of the body and so the chest feels as though it is moving away from the ground.









Lie on your side

This bit gets fun.  Take your arm under the side of your body.  Find a position where it is comfortable.   Feel as though you are pressing that arm into the ground.

Keep your legs and feet firm.

If possible take the top arm to the top side, as shown below.

Try to be in a straight line.  Hips and shoulders stacked on top of one another.  There will be a tendency to drop one hip or shoulder back.

Knee to chest

Carefully bring knee to chest.  Be mindful that you do not drop a hip or shoulder back to come into this position.  Feel your tummy muscles working for this.  As I prepare to come into the position I feel as though I am pushing the sitting bone of that top leg forward.


You can hold there or see if you can straighten the leg, as shown below.

If you straighten the leg, keep the foot and leg away from the floor.  See my foot is not on the ground. 

You can then use your hand to come into an assisted posture.  

Graceful exit
If you are in a good split you can come out of the posture by rolling tummy to ground.






Then coming up into a split.












If you are with knee to chest or if your split is not 'split' enough then hug knee to chest.   Be firm behind the knee (as though you are gripping a rolled up towel or something behind there).

If your knees are ok then carefully roll tummy towards the ground so shin is on the ground.   Be mindful.  If you are lolling around a bit like a beached whale then rethink your exit strategy!  We want graceful exit so your exit might be to come back into a lunge (not pictured).



Then come up like an elegant swan!

In this posture I still want to feel like I am lifting away from the ground.  I press my front foot down into the floor.  I am also using my back foot to press down into the floor.  I feel as though I am drawing the back knee towards my chest so that I am not sinking into it.

You will know if you have got good lift as it will be easy to take the arms up.

Have fun.  Be safe.  Feel like you are doing something but not straining.  Try your best but do not be attached to an outcome.  Move slowly.  Tense less, stretch less, breathe less, and think less.  Smile.  

We will be working with this as part of our sequence for the next 5 weeks.  Join us for outdoor classes, rain, wind or (we hope) sun!

Much metta,

Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com

www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Create firmness in tummy and stabilise shoulders with these cues

Tiny things can make an enormous difference to your practice.

In this post I share some small tips to help you in suriya namaskar.  They will help create postural firmness in your tummy and around your shoulders.

When you use these tips you should feel from but calm.  If you were beside someone you should be able to be in the posture and talk to them normally, without feeling breathless.  Otherwise you are too deep in the posture and you need to back off.

When applied mindfully these little tips will help you practice less with more benefit.  Then you can spend more of your time living your practice and being happy and helpful to other people and less time in the practice arena.

Watch the video then read the written and visual instructions.

In your own practice you should maintain the free feeling in your spine.  It is easy to hang in your shoulders and your lower back and the cues I give here should help you avoid this and thus avoid strain.

Four cues

1. I have put circles around the lower back area to show you that it is always in a lengthened position.  I would not call this neutral or tucked under pelvis.  I imagine I am lengthening my sitting bones towards my heels and my top of pelvis back.  This lengthens my lower back and lengthens the front of groin area.  I am looking for this feeling of lengthening and freedom throughout the cycle.  CUE: Sitting bones down, top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back.
2. I have put circles around the shoulder joint area to show that I am focussing on not dropping or sining into the shoulders.  Instead I feel that I am lifting out of them.  Pressing my hands down and forward helps with this lifting feeling.  CUE: press hands down and forward.
3. I have also put circles in some positions around the elbows.  The cue here is that I am bending the elbows so they point back towards the knees/hips/toes and squeezing them together as though they are trying to touch.  Even when my elbows are straight, as in the plank or down dog, I feel as though I am making those actions but with straight arms.  This gives me a feeling of broadening across upper back and neck.  CUE: elbows bend towards hips, squeeze in.
4. I have put circles and arrows around feet and knees.  I try to keep as little weight as possible on knees and toes as possible.  I make an effort to drag the toes or knees (whatever is on the ground) towards the hands.  This creates more tummy activation.  CUE: feel as though you are pulling toes/knees towards your hands. 

There are more things you can do in these postures but these cues will help create postural firmness in the tummy and around the shoulder joint so that you feel like you are doing something but can breathe naturally and without feeling stress or strain in your spine or shoulders.

From Plank

Be on the very tip toes in your plank.  Not on the ball of the feet.  Right up there on the toe nail area.  Over the tops of your toes if possible.  With the shoulders over the wrists this should automatically create firmness in the tummy in a way you can still breathe. 

The feet feel like they are pulling forward towards the hands. This should create more postural firmness.

It is important that you start from a position of the lower back lengthened.

The lower ribs are lifting.  If you look at my spine it is more in a straight line than with any dips.  No valleys between my shoulder blades.  

Kneeling Plank

I lower my knees softly here.  In the video I show how I raise and lower the knees and the knees feel light on the ground.  I feel as though I am pulling my knees towards my chest.  Shape of spine did not change. 

Bend and squeeze elbows

From kneeling plank I bend elbows back towards hips. It does not change the height of the posture.  I do not dip into my shoulders or create valleys in my shoulder blades. 

I also squeeze my elbows towards one another.

Your elbows might not bend very far.  It is not important.  You should feel the work around the under arm and side chest area and that your neck has become more free. 

Lean forward

Lean the whole structure forward.  You are not trying to lower.  Try to stay up.  You will lower somewhat but that is not what I am thinking about at all.  I am trying to maintain the integrity of the structure I have created and just lean the whole thing forward.  

Most people will find they cannot go very far.  That is not important.  Maintaining integrity is important.  Don't let your ego write cheques your body can't cash (do I need to put the reference in there?  It's from Top Gun of course!).  

Knees up

If all is good maybe, just maybe, you might feel you can press your heels back to lift the knees while maintaining your integrity.  There should be no change in the structure aside from a secret knee lift.  If you cannot make that secret knee lift then you are not ready for this version of the posture and go back.

Knees down

Pop knees back down if you took them up.

Chest forward and up

This sequence of postures has me maintaining, in particular, integrity of my lower back.  Feeling as though I am drawing my knees forward helps tremendously.

I do not dip into the shoulders.  I simply (well, if you try you will maybe find it is not that simple after all) try and wriggle my spine forward and up through my arms.

Take your pelvis away from the floor if you feel any strain in your lower back.  This should not feel like a back tensing posture.  It should feel like a spine lengthening posture.

Down dog

Ease your way back to a buoyant child's posture and to down dog.

In Sum
A feeling of ease and length in your spine is glorious.  You will feel less like you are stretching and more like you are just having a bit of a jet spa inside your body, loosening and relaxing your muscles.  You will definitely still feel like you are doing something.  But practice to a level where you can still breathe easily

This is the way I like to practice.  It is better than any massage I have ever received and, when done well, you feel like you are floating buoyantly.

I hope to impart this type of knowledge and practice to you in my Canberra outdoor classes and in my upcoming retreat in Sri Lanka.

Practice mindfully.

Much metta,
Samantha
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

Using Your Core Wisely For Ease in Arm Balances

In this video I am trying to transmit teachings I have learned from Simon Borg Olivier (www.yogasynergy.com) and apply them in arm balance poses that we practice regularly in class, the simplest of which is bakasana.  I advise you to attend Simon's classes where you can.

The basic idea is to generate some thrust or power through the abdomen in a way that you can feel relaxed and calm but which will generate the lift you need for arm balances.  Please re-read earlier posts on how to use your hands and armpits as this is assumed knowledge here.

There are many ways to come into bakasana and my intention here is to find a way that allows you to breathe into your belly while it is firm.  I do not mean to infer that other ways are incorrect.  I like practicing this way because, as you will see in the video, I can smile and talk and have a good time in a strong pose because I am at ease.

The great thing about this way of coming into bakasana is that there is only one basic instruction, albeit with a few caveats.

That basic instruction is to start with a relaxed belly and attempt to push the hips forward.  This is not a pelvic tuck.

If you watch the video you will see I start in standing.  I soften the knees.  I let the sitting bones feel as though they are melting down the back of the legs (give length to the lower back, this is not a pelvic tuck).  I relax my belly and breathe into it.

I poke my fingers deep into my squishy belly so you can see it is relaxed.  As a little sidebar, I don't normally walk around with my t-shirt tied up in an 80s Flashdance knot, I just wanted to show you I am  not sucking all of my belly in and that I am starting with a soft belly.

Then I simply move both hips forward.

If you perform this action yourself you should feel that your lower belly automatically becomes firm.  You didn't have to tell it to do so, it just did.  Isn't your body amazing?  This is what I have learned as creating firmness through posture.

Note, you will be unlikely to feel this if you started with a tense belly.  So, let it relax.  Let it hang out.

When done correctly you should still be able to breathe into your belly, although it will not feel as though it is moving out so much anymore.  This is because it has become firm through the posture.

Once you understand this in standing you can try to maintain this feeling as you fold forward.  Only do this if it feels safe and comfortable for you to do.

You can see that I bend my knees to do a forward bend.  This helps me keep the forward momentum of the hips and the postural firmness.

The thing is, as you fold forward the firmness is going to want to escape.  It will almost definitely escape if you try to stick your bottom back and up.  If you look at me, I am trying to move more forward and down so the hips can keep trying to move forward.

To come all the way to the floor my bottom will actually move back a little.  But I keep trying to move it forward.

If, when you put your hands flat on the floor you feel you have lost the firmness then come back up again and try again.

When you can maintain this firmness, lean further into the hands--as much as is safe and comfortable for you.

Perhaps your feet will start to become light and you can dance your toes in so your knees come to rest on your upper arms.  I am not gripping or squeezing them.  I am resting them lightly.  As lightly as possible.  The power if coming from the firmness I have created in my torso and this helps me generate lift so I do not sink.

I apply these principles in other arm balances too.  However, I use postural firmness like this in all of my postures. My whole yoga practice is using my core.  Using it in a very special way; to quote Simon, to create stability with mobility and ease.

Please watch and re-watch is incredible video on the matter of whether it is correct to pull navel to spine here.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMe1lRpNYi8