Today class was interesting as the teacher shared his techniques in some of the arm balance asanas like Koundinyasana 1 etc. Arm balancing poses has always been one of the most challenging to most beginners as these require not only some flexibility ( certain poses ), opening of hips or shoulders as well as some strength. Sometimes even people with great strength may not be able to do some of the arm balancing poses! To many, arm balancing poses seemed to require a lot strength in the arms.

But the actual fact cannot be further from the truth…

Yes, some strength is required but only with a combination of all strength, flexibility, opening that you can get the beautiful graceful lightness that you see when some of the incredible yogis around. You simply can’t do it with just brute force!

Of course, to do a arm balance pose, we also need to understand some basic physics of it in order to find “tricks” or techniques to help us and not hinder us. Today we did the Koundinyasana 2 with a tip or cheat to help us. The leg in front has to be tucked behind the shoulder as far back as possible before even lifting the front leg up and shifting the body’s weight to the chaturanga arms. Put the other free bent arm (the side without the front leg) near the body, as close to the ribs as possible. With that arm also helping to support your body weight, half the battle is won. From there, you can easily lift the leg up and hold there.

And it so was true! I could hold there with ease, much more ease! Although the leg is just parallel to the floor, it was still lifted and it was quite easy and I could hold there for quite a while. Some of the other “cheats” include putting the head on the floor ( this is really a BIG cheat… hehe ), shifting the weight by leaning forward ( I use this alot to help me lifting the back leg higher… ), rolling in the inner thighs before lifting and then tucking the tailbone strongly to activate a higher lift…

Some tips may work better for some as we are all built different. The only way is to try and experiment. This is why yoga is so fantastic. While working with ourselves, we learn more and more about our body. We appreciate our body and we understand how we make it work with the eventual goal of effortless in the pose and hopefully to a state of meditation after…

~Namaste!

He also demo-ed crow pose and then go into Lolasana and then to handstand. His handstand is the traditional style with the back arching but not those that we do with the back straight.

On Saturday, I woke up early and bright ( thanks to dear dorothy… hehe ) to attend a hot class greatly raved by another yogi. Oh my goodness… it was soooooo hot! I am not a fan of hot yoga classes…. never have been. I perspire a lot, just normal class is enough to get me perspiring. This class was yoga flow in a hot class. And it included inversion of headstand also ( at the wall for me, of course ). We did a revolved half moon, and when I lifted by leg, my perspiration was dripping from my hair in front of my head like a tap… in usual class, it drip.. drip… drip… in this hot class, it was dripppppppppp…driipppppp…. like from a water tap which you forgot to turn off…

And, yes, when I came out of the class, oh, how sweet and delicious the outside air was!

OM~

Technorati Tags: indian yoga class, Lolasana, handstand, hot yoga

Why is it called Flying crow? ( Eka Pada Galavasana : see pose here ) I often wondered…
Why not flying dove or flying falcon or flying sparrow?

There must be a trick to get the back leg lifted up despite the bottom… in today’s Heeboon’s Hatha 2 class, he asked us not to go into Chaturanga hands… erm… but just shift the weight forward. He mentioned about the prana and apana, the balance of 2 forces in this pose. Prana is the upward force and Apana the downward force. I found this interesting article on Prana and Apana at this page and here’s a quoted paragraph :

“In yoga, prana is of primary importance. With the practice of pranayama the yogi directs the flow of prana downwards toward the pelvic plexus, where it mixes with apana, the air which resides in the lower intestines. When prana and apana flow together through sushumna – the central passage of the spinal column – to the top of the head, the experience of samadhi takes place, which is the goal of all yogic practice.”

hmm… not really sure what exactly it meant… i think i need another ten years more to truly grasp the whole enchilada of being a true yogi. First thing first… how to fly….like a crow…

I shifted the weight towards the hands and the back leg (engaged) was even in tippy toes but still unable to float up. My crow needs to cut down on chocolates and do more ashtanga perhaps…

The class today seems to be a hamstring torture day… we did standing split today ( Prasarita Eka Padasana ) which I love. The key to getting the pose I find is to “flont” your lifted foot ( the in-between of pointing your toes and flexing your feet – or pushing out the balls of your foot instead of the toes – spread the toes ). Think extending your leg up and keeping your body close to your standing leg. AND REMEMBER TO BREATHE. ( this I find extremely important… once i can breathe slowly and evenly, I can extend further and maintain balance ). Once you are stable enough, then you shift the hand ( the hand on the same side as your standing leg ) to hold the ankle of the standing leg.

Of course, Heeboon added a further variation… to have both hands in nasmate while maintaining the lifted leg. The balancing was sooo difficult…

I definitely need more practice…

Technorati Tags: Flying crow, Eka Pada Galavasana, prana, apana, samadhi, standing split, Prasarita Eka Padasana