Day 33 : Bharadwajasana (after a sage ) and Mahabandha (great lock ) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

A nice subroutine for maybe towards the end of the practice, perhaps an alternative to full lotus if it's still, as I heard it put once, blossoming.

Bharadwajasana
In the video I'm practicing Bharadwajasana ashtanga style, here in Vinyasa Krama we look over the shoulder on the same side as the folded back leg.

The unbound hand rests on your hip rather than placed under the knee....firmly if you need the extra support for the twist.

Try to keep the shoulders level, there's a tendency to dip the side your twisting in to.

Twist a little further whith each exhalation

Mahabandha (pic 3) engages five bandhas or locks 

1.   Maha bhandha : closing anus with heel

2.   Mula bandha : rectal lock

3.   Uddiyana bandha  : abdominal lock

4.   Jalandhara bandha : chin lock

5.   Jihva bandha toungue lock

Day 31 : Tiryang mukha Marichiyasana (Backward facing foot marichi) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

Stay at each stage for three to six breaths

This subroutine is an extension on the previous subroutine but also of the marchi sequence from Day 25

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS


The forward bend here(pic 2)  is surprisingly challenging, lift up out of the pelvis, enter the forward bend on the front of your sit bones pushing your backside back.

Make the exhalation long and slow as you bend forward, constrict the glottis more to make a more forceful ujjayi to control the descent.

As with the standing and seated marchi subroutines, the bind can be the challenge


We reach behind our back on a smooth exhalation


As you swing the arm around the knee think of putting on a coat the dipping of the shoulder forward as you reach around, half rotating your arm to get further around the knee.

Engage the bandhas, mula will ground you providing more stability, sucking in your belly in uddiyana bandha will give you more room for the forward bend.

As ever on the twist we again want to stretch up out of our pelvis on the inhale and twist a little more on on each of the exhalations, lifting a little more on the inhalations.

Day 30 : Triyangmukha ( bent back leg) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

This is actually two subroutines, the first ends with Picture 5 the counter pose, however you can see how the folded back leg postures gives a stretch to the quadriceps preparing your for hanumanasana/ anjanayasana (pic 7 ).

In Hanumanasana we're stretching the hamstrings on the fount leg and the quadriceps on the back leg so we want to make sure both have received sufficient preparation in earlier subroutines in our practice.

I struggled with hanumanasana for a long time before coming to Vinyasa krama. I credit my ability to enter the posture to the long stays paschimottanasana that we'll see in the seated sequence subroutines. 

A long stay is called for in picture 2, the forward bend with the leg bent back, Ramaswami recommends five minutes and that extra time is well spent. 

Picture 4 is, I've just realised, an addition of my own, it's a bent back leg version of kraunchasana which we saw in Day 28. I've mistakenly carried this over from ashtanga but it doesn't seem out of place. Here we're stretching the hamstrings as well as the quads, again excellent preparation for hanumanasana.

Although the preceding postures can be seen as excellent preparation for hanumanasana they are all excellent stand alone postures and this is one of my favourite subroutines whether or not I choose to continue on to hanumanasana in that particular days practice or not.

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS

Ramaswami stresses here that hanumanasana, the monkey-god posture is particularly challenging and should be practiced with guidance.

Prepare yourself for a year or so working towards this, that prep will include becoming more comfortable in extended stays in paschimmotanasana.

In a sense hanumanasana is also a backbend so that is another area we can work on leading up to this posture.

When you are ready to attempt it, from downward dog you might try stepping through, rocking back on your heel and lowering on to your trailing knee.

Don't step through too far at first, as so often in Vinyasa Krama we enter a pose gently, on the breath and then return to stithi on the breath then enter again a little more deeply, eventually entering for a longer stay which we then precede to deepen with each breath.

Find a place that is comfortable and focus on your breathing keeping both legs engaged.

Eventually you will be able to step through a little further and as you rock back on your heel stretch back with your reclining leg. Again find a point that is comfortable, keep both legs engaged and focus on your breath, the longer you stay the better.

The time will come when you have stretched through and have stretched into the pose far enough to no longer be balanced on your knee, only your hands will be supporting you. Blocks here might be something to consider.

Try engaging the muscles of both legs firmly and keeping them engaged for a count of fifteen second then relax and allow yourself to lower  a little deeper. Again caution is advised.

If you overdo it here, you'll pull or at least tweak a hamstring and won't be able to work on the pose for another three to six months, this is not one to rush.

There is a temptation when you almost reach the floor to allow your hip to twist slightly and come down on the side of one buttock, this is a bad idea as it puts tension on the knee.

I found this is a nice posture to work on after practicing eka pada raja kapotasana

Day 29 : Eka pada sirsasana ( leg to head ) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

On DAY 21 for Durvasana, the standing leg behind head posture subroutine, I wrote...

Standing leg behind head, it's perhaps a good time to mention that we don't have to practice the subroutines consecutively, nor are we expected to be able to do all of them. A Leg behind head posture comes up here, in the one leg sequence, but It may be a good idea to work towards the posture in the Asymmetric sequence or Supine where it also appears. The leg behind head subroutines in those sequences include more preparation than here too.

Even though I've been able to put my leg behind my head comfortably for a number of years I still tend to include a number of preparation postures. In the subroutine above we have kauranchasana but I always tend to include akrarna dhanurasana (archer) from the previous subroutine (day 28). I'll also take the hip back as in the archer pose and then bring my leg from my foot to my knee parallel to my chest while supporting my foot with one hand and my knee with the other, I think of this as rocking the baby, I'm not sure if it has a sanskrit name or is even a posture.

The earlier Asymmetric subroutines are also excellent preparation for the eka para sirsasana and this is one example where keeping a number of subroutines together and following them in order may be good practice. Here are my key leg behind head preparatory postures.

Marichiyasana Day 25 where the knee is bent and we forward bend down the inside of the bent leg.

Maha mudra and Janu sirsasana from Day 27 where the hip is opened right up on one side and then the forward bend while the hip is so open.

Akrarna dhanurasana  from Day 28 where the the leg is drawn back, rotating the head of the femur up and back in the hip socket

Kauranchasana from Day 28 which continues the rotation of the head of the femur as we take the leg perpendicular

Rocking the baby ( see above) where the rotation is turned inward bringing the leg into a semblance of the position it will aim to be in Eka pada sirsasana but here in front of the body.

I tend to include the above postures in an extended Eka para sirsasana subroutine

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS


If putting your leg behind your head is not available to you at this time you might work towards it in this subroutine by simple putting your leg over your shoulder, your right leg over your right shoulder say. I practiced chakorasana this way for quite some time. Go through the subroutine in the same way perhaps including the preparatory postures I mention, taking the usual breath count, gradually working towards the full expression of eka padasirsasana.


Getting the leg behind the head
If your already able to put your leg behind your head it's still important to make sure your sufficiently warmed up and stretched out. The Utkatasana is a good place to start for the work on the hips, uttanasana for the forward bend and I highly recommend the Uthita padangusthasana and especially the standing marchi subroutines. The standing marchi will do a good job of pushing your hip back.

For leg behind head postures in general I made a video recently on approaching the posture in Vinyasa Karma. In the video I approach the standing LBH from seated, putting the leg behind my head and then moving into the LBH forward bend Skandasana or Richikasana. Here's the link

http://vinyasayogaathome.blogspot.com/2011/08/few-words-on-getting-your-leg-behind.html

Bring the foot into the rocking the baby position ( take the hip back as in the archer pose and then bring my leg from my foot to my knee parallel to my chest while supporting my foot with one hand and my knee with the other, I think of this as rocking the baby) take the leg outwards, rotating in the hip socket then bending then unbending at the knee bring the leg over in a circular motion dipping your head under the leg.

When dipping under the the leg slightly twist in towards the inside of the knee, as the foot settles behind the head you can the  straighten out of the twist taking the leg a little further and more comfortably over the shoulder.

Shuffle the foot a little further behind with your shoulder, you want to have your leg far enough around that the foot isn't pushing too strongly on your neck.

I used to try and pull my leg as far behind my head, as far over towards the other shoulder as possible, now I like to take my leg just over my head but as far over to the leg side as possible, this allows me to then shrug my shoulders further through and seems to allow the lag to settle lower and ultimately deeper. this is perhaps more easily seen on the video link above.

It's advisable perhaps. to have done some work on back bending postures to make your back stronger before moving on to leg behind head postures.

I've just noticed the forward bend in Eka para sirsasana picture is missing from the above practice sheet (a new practice sheet will be on it's way shortly).

Before folding forward try to stretch tall out of the pelvis just as in all other forward bends.

Lead with the chest

there is a slight twist as we bring our body over the outstretched leg

Reclining into Skandasana
Before reclining backward we want to again try and stretch out of our hip just as we have seen in the on your feet/tadasana postures.

Ground the heel, better to allow the knee to bend than let the leg come up and flap about as the grounding of the heel will give you some control and stop you from rolling over to the side.

There is a reclining version of Skandasana in the Supine sequence where you put your leg behind your head in supine, this is good to know as your head popping out from behind the head while reclined is not a disaster.

To return to Eka pada sirsasana bring your outstretched leg up over your head far enough to give you some momentum as you rock backup to seated.

Chakorasana
Place your hands forward of your hips and push down through the mat lifting your body.

Raise your outstretched leg towards your face (eventually you will be able to bring your face to your knee while lifted) by rocking your hips forward.

Day 28 : akrarnadhanurasana (archer) and Kraunchasana (heron) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

These postures were a revelation for me when working towards the leg behind head postures as they provide such excellent preparation.

Although we're holding on to the big toe and these are often referred to as big toe stretching postures it's the complete other end of the leg we're focused on,where the head of the femur enters the pelvis.

Remember this is a ball and socket joint, rather than wrenching the leg back there is a gentle drawing back of the leg that allows for some rotation in the joint in akrarnadhanurasana. 

In Kraunchasana as well there is a slow raising of the leg which allows for the rotation in the joint.

Caution

Although we're focussing on the hip joint here Kraunchasana gives an extreme hamstring stretch so we need to be sufficiently prepared, possibly through earlier standing postures in out practice. 

Day 27 : Maha mudra (great seal) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

Ramaswami mentions mahamudra as a key posture in Vinyasa Krama and encourages us to include it in our daily practice.

Ramaswami also advises us to stay in the pose 'a long time, say about five or more minutes'.

Because we are encouraged to stay in mahamudra for a significant amount of time we may choose to practice just janusirsasana in this subroutine and then later, at the end of our practice, dwell in mahamudra as preparation for pranayama.

I like to practice it in this subroutine for the usual three to six breaths and then do an extended stay at the end of my practice followed by badha konasana before entering padmasana (lotus) for my pranayama practice.

Maha mudra is an excellent posture for working on mull, uddiyana and jalandhara bandhas.

As we take hold of our toe we have sit forward on our sit bones, grounded in this way it becomes easier to focus on exploring mula bandha, the holding of the toe, gives a sense of stability when engaging uddiyana bandha


Mula and Uddiyana bandha
'The other two bandhas, however, should be practiced in most of the asanas, especially after exhalation. The first is mula bandha, which means "constricting of the anus" It is done after a complete exhalation. After the exhalation is over, the abhyasi (yoga student) should anchor the body in the asana he or she is in and then slowly and deliberately close the anus and draw in the rectum by contracting the perineal and surrounding muscles of the pelvic floor. Then as if in a continuous movement, the abdomen, including the navel, is drawn in, pushing up the diaphragm into the now almost empty chest cavity, which is then called uddiyana bandha ( drawing in of the diaphragm)... This technique is one of the specialities of yogic breathing" p127

Leaning forward to grab our toe we allow our head to tilt forward bring our chin down. the chin tilted down is almost the default positing in Vinyasa Krama for the beneficial effect it has in the spine. We can practice it lightly or bring the chin tighter into the breastbone for Jalandhara bandha


Jalandhara bandha
'There are three important band has. the first is jalandhara bandha, or locking the chin against the breastbone. This may be done during kumbhkas and whenever the the posture requires the chin to be locked, which is normally the case during forward bends and when keeping the back erect. In backbends and twisting postures it is not possible to do jalandhara bandha'. p127

Day 26 : Ardha padmasana (half lotus) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

This subroutine follows the pattern mentioned in day 25. A 'hub' pose (pic 1), a starting position or stithy  here ardha padmasana stithi (pic 3) which is also, in this case, the key posture Ardha padmasana, a number of variations follow (pic 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9) and finally a counter pose (pic 10). What's different here are the lifts/arm balances (pic 9) and the side/lateral lift (pic 6). This subroutine when practiced on both sides gives us a full range of hip movement.

Half lotus
See Day 17 Vrikmasana for some notes on standing half lotus.

To get into half lotus : Bend the knee bringing it towards the chest, allow the knee to drop out to the side, key here is the natural rotation in the hip joint. Bring the foot close to the opposite thigh, hold your foot in one hand and the knee in the other and GENTLY encourage the roration of the ball and socket hip joint, bring the knee forward parallel with the floor towards the opposite knee and the foot further up the thigh and ideally, eventually, towards the groin.

CAUTION
You don't want to force this action, if you feel strain on your knee it may be better to practice tomorrows subroutine built around mama mudra with the foot against the thigh rather than on top instead. Practicing the maha mudra subroutine will bring half, and eventually, full lotus closer.

As we have found in all forward bending asana, stretch out of the hips as we practiced in the standing On your feet sequences, the same goes for the twisting postures.

CAUTION.
In picture six (the raised hip), Vasishtasana or Kashyapasana we must be careful of the knee. Work from the top down, pushing down into the mat and lifting your shoulders then lifting the hip which will allow the leg to straighten, lower in reverse, DON'T push off the mat from the foot, knee or hip first as this will put too much strain on the knee which is vulnerable here.

The lift /Utpluthi (pic9)
Lean forward , put your hands slightly forward of your hips, engage mula and uddiyana bandha, drop your shoulders bend your elbows. Now push down through the mat lifting your body off the mat. At first you might only manage to lift your backside off the mat, your heels remaining grounded. However, keep engaging the legs for the full count of three to six breaths as this will build strength for future attempts.

Day 25 : Marchi (after the sage) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

This subroutine forms a pattern that we find in many of the subroutines. A 'hub' pose (pic 1) a starting position or stithi, here Marichiyasana stithi, the key posture, Marichyasana (pic 4), a number of variations (pic 5, 6 and 7) and finally a counter pose (pic8).

We have the option of practising the whole sequence on one side, the left say and then the right or if we are doing a number of Asymmetric subroutines we might practice all of them on one side before moving on to the other.

There are some other marchi vinyasas and that come up later in the Asymmetric series under Hybrid asymmetric vinyasas. These could be added to this subroutine before the counter pose if we were only including this subroutine in our practice.

Picture 10, Ardha matsyendrasana is not really part of the marchi although it differs from the marchi variation in Picture 7 only by the crossing of the leg and doesn't seem out of place here as an extension or development of the marchi sequence. It appears again at the end of the Asymmetric sequence with the more challenging full kingfisher pose, purna matsyendrasana.

There are a few other postures that I've encountered in the advanced Ashtanga series that don't appear in Ramaswami's Vinyasa Krama book, it's interesting to see where they might be best placed as a development and extension of a subroutine just as ardha matsyendrasana is here.

Hints/Tips/Suggestions
Remember to lift up and out of the pelvis in preparation for the forward bends. The stretching of the arms overhead in Dandasana should remind us of tadasana.

The tibia (inner shin bone) is kept upright, try to avoid turning it inwards or outwards.

There is a subtle twist at the hips as we bend over the outstretched leg.

The chin is down in a light to strong jaladhara bandha, we aim to bring the forehead to the knee or beyond in vinyasa krama.

We stay in each stage for at least three breaths.

The breaths are long, slow, steady, smooth, aim for five second inhalations but try to extend the exhalations.

As with the standing march we squeeze more air out of the lung by tightening the bind on each exhalation.

As you swing the arm around the knee think of putting on a coat the dipping of the shoulder forward as you reach around, half rotating your arm to get further around the knee.

As you settle into the bind, roll your sit bone over the muscle, once over you become more stable and feel less likely to fall backwards.

Engage the bandhas, mula will ground you providing more stability, sucking in your belly in uddiyana bandha will give you more room for the forward bend.

In the counterpose (pratikriya) ground the toes and really push the hips up on each breath, well be seeing more of these hip lifts in the supine subroutines.

Day 24 : Dandasana (Staff pose) lead in, subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

The lead in to Dandasana above includes the challenging jump through the arms to seated, below is a simplified version of the lead in where we enter dandasana from utkatasana (full squat) I've included it at the end of the video.

VIDEO LINK

Dandasana is an important 'hub' pose of all the seated asana, as such I sometimes like to explore the posture a little by borrowing the hand/arm vinyasas from the On your feet subroutines.

VIDEO LINK

Hints/Tips/Suggestions.
It's good to keep the 'On your feet' subroutines in mind with the seated postures, we have the same lifting up and stretching out of the pelvis that we stress in tadasana. The chin trends to be down as is the gaze and in the upcoming forward bends we bend from the hip pushing our buttocks back so want to be sitting forward on our sit bones in Dandasana.

Jump through
The jump through is challenging. One of the best ways to learn it is, from downward facing dog, to jump/hop to just behind our arms landing with our feet slightly crossed, then with our knees bent shuffle through our arms and sit down. Engage the arms all the time in preparation for taking all the weight of the body when progressing to the full jump through. We should also aim to engage mula and uddiyana bandha as this will help to give is some lift.

In the practice Book I include screenshots ten different kinds of jump through and jump back, they can also be found HERE and can be seen on the Video link below the poster.

Below is the legs uncrossed jump through that Ramaswami recommends, it comes towards the end of the video.

VIDEO LINK

I find the above approach to the jump back very challenging and tend to stick with the crossed leg version I'm most familiar with. Here though is a link to a video of my friend Chris from Ramaswami's 2010 Vinyasa krama teacher training course we both attended http://youtu.be/qGQSH-2OOjI.

Vinyasa Krama Asymmetric seated Sequence, speeded up

This week I'm working on the Asymmetric Seated sequence from Srivatsa Ramaswami's Complete book of Vinyasa Yoga. The plan has been to spend a week on each of the book's sequences to improve familiarity, such that I don't need to keep referring to the book during practice. This is the last week, from Sunday I'll start alternating the sequences throughout the week, interested to see how that works out.

Monday - Visesha Vinyasa Kramas

Tuesday - Asymmetric

Wednesday - Bow/Vajrasana

Thursday - Seated

Friday - Ashtanga

Saturday - Lotus

Sunday - Supine/Inverted

I plan the week like this around the Asymmetric and Supine sequences which, being long sequences, are best saved for my days off (Tuesday and Sunday). I want to do the Seated sequence with all it's deep forward bends the day after the Bow/vajrasana sequences and their backbends. I've always tended to practice Ashtanga on Friday, whatever else I was doing, so decided to keep it up, nice to have a flowing practice once a week at least. That leaves Saturday for Lotus.

The standing sequences , On your feet (built around Tadasana), Triangle and On one leg, get practiced throughout the week as warm up poses. Similar to the Ashtanga standing sequence but mixed about a little depending on the sequence I'll be doing.

Ramaswami recommends practicing the sequences in this way to gain familiarity with the asanas and, I guess, their groupings. Once you have a better idea of the range of asanas your better able to develop an appropriate practice. I'm looking forward to finding out more about this in the summer. I know he has a handful of key asanas that he recommends practicing every day. I assumed that you would practice those and then fit the other asanas around this framework in a similar way to how the Ashtanga series are formed. However, in one of his other books he seems to suggest that Krishnamacharya would have him practice the same kind of asanas within a lesson. I'm guessing one day the key asanas plus some Bow sequence subroutines another day the keys asanas and some inverted subroutines.

As you can see I'm still working all this out so don't take anything here as authoritative.

Which brings me to the video.

I tried to Video my Asymmetric sequence this morning. It's a long and complicated sequence that I've tended to save for my day off. There are around 40 asanas in the sequence but you have to multiply that by two as you have to do both sides. Each side takes thirty to forty-five minutes so that's an hour and a half plus the the Sury's, some Standing postures and finishing. The whole thing takes me a little over two hours.

Don't take the video as gospel, I'm still getting familiar with the sequence and there are a couple of times when I miss something out, add something in (Marichiyasana D for example, old habits die hard) mix up the order and get a couple of poses completely wrong (looking over the wrong shoulder in Bharadwajasana for example). I've tried to edit the video a little, switch a couple of bits around, oh and cut out the bit where forget where I am and I jump back from Chakorasana. When I get around to it, I'll annotate the Youtube video with the asana names. But here is a list of the Subroutines in the order they come up.

Asymmetric Seated Vinyasa Sequence

Lead sequence

Dandasana

Marichyasana

Mahamudra

Ardhapadmasana

Akarnadhanurasana

Ekapadasirsasana

Triyangmukha

Hybrid Asymmetric Vinyasas

Marichyasana(advanced)

Bharadwajasana

Mahabandha

Matyendrasana

Although it might look complicated, the format tends to be pretty much the same in each of the subroutines. A stretch followed by forward bends, perhaps a twisting variation and then a counter pose

Remember, this is speeded up x4. In real time it's 36:41 (should you want to slow it back down).

Leg behind head sub-routine from Vinyasa Krama's Asymmetric seated sequence

Love this sub-routine, it's from this mornings Asymmetric Seated sequence. It comes up half way through and follows a number of Marichiyasana vinyasa's. The Last two asanas come from the 'On one leg sequence' but I find it easier to practice them here.

And here's the video of the above. I kept it to about three long breaths rather than five or six for the recording. Still not completely familiar with the sequence which shows up in some hesitation here and there. Gets a bit raggedy towards the end, the breath especially which is very un VK.

Savasana looks bloody ridiculous from that angle