Margot's Workshop - Sunday

This session focuses on the opening of the chest and the pelvis.

One important thing to consider in many asanas is the action of the arms and legs. Strong arms and legs allow the organic body to be quiet and to extend. An example would be sucking in the outer hips - the flesh of the outer hips moves towards the femur. I really felt this effect doing Urdhva Prasarita Padasana (see below) - concentrating on extending through the heels and sucking in the hips helps the abdomen to stay relatively relaxed and allows the torso to lengthen. Another example would be to extend the arms up (Urdhava Hastasana) strongly. Moving the outer elbows towards the inner elbows opens up the area in between my shoulder blades.

Chest Openers
Start out lying down - you will need two wooden blocks
1.Two blocks on the long narrow sides down. Lie with your shoulder blade tips touching the lower edge of the one block, the other block is underneath your head. Opens shoulder and chest. Stay here for a few minutes.
2. Two blocks (upright - i.e. small area on the ground - longer smaller side along the spine) - the other block underneath your head - Opens shoulder and chest II. Stay here for a few minutes.

Tadasana Urdhva Hastasana
move the shoulder blades towards each other, then a little bit apart to find a balance, stretch, move the outer shoulders towards each other

Downward Dog
1. legs and hands wide apart (mat wide apart) - move around
2. Regular Downward Dog

Virasana Modifications:
1. sit on your heels - on a foam block (between buttock and heels) - note: knees are pointing forward; arms - eagle pose: elbows and forearms 90%

2. put a rolled map behind your knees - sit on a foam block - hands in Urdhva Baddha Hasasana (fingers interlaced - palm stretching up). Great opening for the knees (which I need!)

Supta Virasana on two blocks (two blocs as in chest openers above). Tailbone moves towards the feet. Lift sternum.
Supta Virasana Modification: lift your chest - rest the crown of the head on the floor - if the crown of the floor touches the floor - put your hands above the hand and hold your elbows. Elbows are moving away from the shoulders and towards the ground.

Urdhva Prasarita Padasana (Plate 278-279 LoY)
Lie on the ground - legs 90 degrees (towards the ceiling). Suck in the outer hips - keep the abdomen quiet. Lower to 60 degrees, then 50 degrees. Hold. Use the arms and legs to get an extension in the spine.

Uttana Padasana (Plate 292 LoY)
with arms and legs in a 50 degrees angle - suck in the outer hips

Navasana
from lying on the ground - get up into boat pose

Resting Pose
lie on the ground - legs extend towards the ceiling - have a strap loop around your feet and at the base of your scull - head and shoulders off the floor - relax head into the strap - relax shoulders - the legs are firm. Great for neck and shoulders!

Sirsasana

Backbends on a chair:
1. Feet against the wall, lower part of shoulder blades against the edge of the chair. Grab your elbows and move elbows away from the torso towards the floor.
2. Feet flat on the floor. Crown of the head touches the floor. Arms in Sirsasana. Elbows move towards each other and press into the floor.

Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana (Plate 516)
Variations: 1. knees are bent. 2. knees bent and together

Eka Pada Viparita Dandasana (Plate 521)
Modification: with a partner - the partner holds up a strap - that goes around the middle of the buttocks to support the backbend - knees are bent - knees are together - lift one leg towards the ceiling.


Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Plate 98 - gem for women)
Shoulders rest on 3 blankets - hands in the same position as in shoulderstand - legs parallel to the floor - feet against the wall.

3x twist on a chair - to neutralise the backbending action.

Supported Shoulderstand on a chair and bolster
lift chest - legs together - supported on the chair

Supported Forward Bend with a chair
Sit with your legs apart in front of a chair - rest the head on the chair

Savasana with legs supported on a chair (knees 90 degree angle)

Margot's Workshop - Saturday

This is a draft version of the 4 hour afternoon session on Saturday. At this point I just want to note the sequence and the most important comments I heard in the workshop.

Parvatasana - Crosslegged Variation (Plate 107)
Sitting Pose - interlace the fingers - stretch the arms forward - lower the shoulder blades into the back - stretch arms up - relax the shoulders - extend the arms from the hips up - press through the palms towards the ceiling - slightly bend the elbows - move the arms behind the ears - stretch again - outer elbows towards inner elbows.
Interlace the other side

Upavistha Konasana (Plate 148 - LoY)
sit up right - press down the thigh bones - lenghten the calf muscles - put your hands behind you - spider fingers -
lift yourself up moving the sit bones towards each other - sit down again. This helps to get an inner lift from the perineum up.
lenghten the sides of the torso - relax the shoulders back - lift the sternum - lengthen the spine - grab your toes - lengthen your sternum up and move forward - this way you roll on the front part of your sitting bones - stay in the forward movement for a few breaths (Plate 148 - LoY)

Upavistha Konasana - Variation - One Sided Seated Angle Pose (Plate 152 - LoY)
sit upright -move torso towards the right - have spider hands on both sides of your thigh -lengthen the spine - move abdomen from left to right - move chest from left to right - stay here for a while before going forward - remember the twist in the torso - grab the foot - lengthen sternum forward - stay in the upright position for a while before going down completely.

Parsva Upavistha Konasana - Variation -
sit in upavistha konasana - press down thigh bones - make sure the knees are pointing upwards (the back of the knees are extended equally) - put the left elbow on the inside of your calf - press the elbow in the floor - put the right hand on your sacrum - twist the torso - left shoulder moving in (under) - right shoulder moving back - lift your right arm up and back to get more of a twist grab the baby toe side of your left foot and twist deeper. Stay here for several breaths. Repeat on the other side.


Parighasana Gate Pose(LoY - Plate 39)
left side kneels - the inner thigh rotates slightly forward (Opposite of Tadasana!) - the right leg is bent in a 90 degree angle - stretch the arms to the side - palms facing up - put the right arm on the inside of your knee -stretch slowly move downward on the inside of the calf - extend the leg towards straight - left arm straight up - move back to get more twist of the torso - back to centre line and then into final pose. Stay here for several breaths. Repeat on the other side.



Downward Facing Dog - Heels against the Wall
Arms: spiraling action
baby finger towards index finger (uppermost part of the palm)
wrists (inside towards outside)
Elbows (outer elbows towards inner elbows)
Inner Elbows towards outer shoulders
This spiraling action makes the arms strong

Standing Poses.

Trikonasana
entire side of the back foot against the wall - slap the "belly of the hamstring" to get a tingling sensation - press forward - press side of the foot into the wall - ground on the outside part of the heel - this action lifts the inner arch
...
move upper arm backwards to get more of a twist.
Throughout the pose focus on the thigh pressing forward - the side of the foot pressing into the wall.

Extended side angle
entire side of the back foot against the wall - front leg 90 degrees - elbow on the inner side of the bent knee - twist again - put front arm on the outside of the knee - knee and arm press towards each other

Parivrtta Trikonasana
heel against the wall - front heel lines up with the arch of the back - engage back leg

Salamba Sirsasana II
put foam block in between the elbows - press towards each other - this broadens the back

Baddha Hasta Sirsasana IV
against the wall - press upper arms into the floor

Supta Padanghustasana (Plate 284- 287 - LoY)
important - the leg that is stretched up: move femur down into socket and away from the torso.
Before you take the leg to the side (move towards the opposite side slightly to get the opp. side of the back well grounded on the floor - keep opposite side on the ground!!

Variation: move the leg that is in the air over the centre line - to stretch the hamstring a little different. Feel how the hamstring strech differs - put your mind on the stretch.

Uttanasana
(I forgot where this was in the sequence - we did it twice)- move the skin of the feet forward - bones in the feet backward - shin forward (grab calves if necessary) thighs back

Anantasana Vishnu's Couch (288-290)
move the under chest forward - gives you more stability in the pose


Shoulderstand
with a strap - the strap is tighter than usual
lie down - grab the sides of the mat - lift up the chest - go into halasana - clasp your fingers - Important: Move lower arms towards the outside - roll shoulders under - move inner thighs towards the ceiling - get up into shoulderstand - relax jaw - move chin up a little bit to relax throat. One foot down - both legs to the side get in Plate 247 (Halasana with legs apart) - move both legs to the right (keep hips up)
Supta Konasana Two
Karnapidasana
Salamba Sarvangasana II
Halasana

Parivrtta Paschimottanasana
Paschimottanasana

Savasana

Preparation for Pranayama

I am in a yoga workshop with Margot Kitchen all weekend. It started off with a 2 hour session yesterday - Friday night.
A good way of clearing your mind is to start of with Pranayama.
We started of with
Sirsasana - Headstand (5min)
Sarvangasana - Shoulderstand (5min)
Halasana - Plow Pose
Bridge pose

Pranayama
Sitting Pranayama
Bhastrika
Kapalbhati http://www.theholisticcare.com/Pranayama/Kapalbhati%20Pranayama.htm

Lying down
Uyjaji
4 bands of breath - i.e.
breath moves from your lower abdomen towards the lower ribs
breath moves from your lowever abdomen towards middle rib cage
breath moves from your lowever abdomen towards upper rib cage
breath moves from your lowever abdomen towards collar bones

Intro

The longest journey is the journey inward.
Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish diplomat (1905 - 1961)

I have recently signed up for a Yoga Teacher Training at the Yoga Studio. Officially I will start in January. So far I have committed to one year, but it is Iyengar Yoga and to obtain the official Iyengar Yoga Certificate, one has to be a yoga teacher trainee for 3 years and then go for assessment. The advantage of Iyengar yoga is that it is internationally recognized and it provides a system for ongoing learning.

My intention is to use this blog as my yoga journal. A blog is easy to use and I can check and update it from anywhere in the world - I love technology! I can keep track of my practice and progress. And last but not least, I can share information with other yoga enthusiasts.

Namaste!