Day 69 : Urdhva Konasana in Sarvangasana (shoulderstand) subroutine from Vinyasa Krama Supine sequence

VIDEO LINK

As a reminder, Ramaswami recommends we spend five minutes in Sarvangasana (first three minutes with the legs relaxed next two with the legs straight in standard Shoulderstand) before practising the sarvangasana vinyasas

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS

Ramaswami suggests the option of opening and closing the legs into urdhwa konasana three times, on the breath, before remaining in the posture for three to six long breaths. 

This is a good opportunity to work into the stretch, starting with the legs opening to quarter, half and finally full stretch.

Try not to allow the legs to come forward or the back to drop too far back into your hands, this posture should ideal happen with the hips and legs in line, on a plane as it were.

In Urdhwa baddha konasana, I find it useful to roll on to the outside of the feet to open the legs wider before bringing the feet back together.

There is the option of bringing the legs down towards the mat and then raising them back up into urdhawa konasana, three times on the breath, each time going deeper into the fold.

Engage bandhas, drawing the belly back and up to create mere space for the deep forward bend.

We can begin by holding the toes, then the sides of the feet and finally the heels, drawing ourselves deeper into the posture on each long exhalation.

Day 63 : Supta trivikramasana & yoganidra (reclining yogi pose) subroutine from Vinyasa Krama Supine sequence

VIDEO LINK

It is interesting to compare the preparation for the leg behind head postures in Asymmetric sequence (Day 29 Ekapadasirsasana) and here in the Supine Sequence with the Supta trivikramasana subroutine. 

In the Asymmetric sequence we have the hip openers of janu sirsasana and Ardha padmasana followed by the archer and heron postures. In the Supine sequence we also have a half lotus vinyasa in the dwipadapitam (desk pose) subroutine and the hamstring stretches in the previous subroutine ( Day 62 leg and arm lifts) that include spreading the legs wide and drawing them back and down. 

In this subroutine the preparation continues. Suptapadangustasana can be practise as part of the previous subroutine or here before moving into the half crossed body pose, sputa ardha-parivarta-dakishina-padangustasana. 

Of course the postures and subroutines mentioned above are all valid in their own right but it's important to see that the leg behind head postures don't just appear out of nowhere, they are challenging postures and as such are carefully worked towards and prepared for.

This should be taken into account when practising at a subroutine rather than sequential level. If in our practise we wish to include some Asymmetric and Supine postures we might include subroutines that prepare for the leg behind head postures in Asymmetric E.G. janu sirsasana, archer, heron but then practice Dakishina bhairva asana (pic 4) in this subroutine. Or we might use similar preparatory postures and subroutines from the On one leg sequence, Vrikmasana, standing march and the uttuta padangustasana subroutine that also lead up to a leg behind head posture, Durvasana.

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS

If putting your leg behind your head is not available to you at this time you might work towards it in the eka pada sirsasana subroutine from Asymmetric Series (Day 29) by simple putting your leg over your shoulder, your right leg over your right shoulder say. I practised chakorasana this way for quite some time. 

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.

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.

Before folding forward and dip under the leg 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

In Dakishina bhairva asana (pic 4) ground the heel into the mat, 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.

In yoga nidra, put the left leg as far behind the head as possible, preferably slightly over the shoulder to take the strain from off of the neck. Hold the right leg lower than normal, at the calf. bring the right foot to the left and use the left foot as a pivot to bring your right foot further down over the ankle and thus deeper behind the head. ideally you want the feet to cross at the ankles and pointing straight.

In the beginning you'll be using the  ankles to hook the feet together and stop them from slipping further up the neck.

Yoganidrasana tends to feel more comfortable than Dakishina bhairva asana as there is more stability. Some call this pose the sleeping yogi pose rather than the reclining yogi, the inhalation will be shallow but try to lengthen/slow the exhalation and relax into the posture. 

once familiar with yoganidra it's possible to remain in the posture for a considerable time.

I like to follow yoganidra with earlier Supine postures like tatakamudra and dwipadapitam as counter poses 

Day 62 : Leg and arm lifts subroutine from Vinyasa Krama Supine sequence

VIDEO LINK

Urdwa-parasarita-pada-hastasana Pic. 8, along with Anapanasana and Dwipadapitam are the three postures that Ramaswami recommends as preparation for shoulder stands

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS

Raise the arm(s) over the head on the inhalation, raise the legs on the exhalation

Hold each posture for three to six breaths

Ideally we want to keep the sacrum, the small of the back on the mat while lifting the legs, difficult, engage mula bandha to anchor.

Suptapadangustasana pic. 6 & 7 is another vinyasa found in Ramaswami's Yoga for the three stages of life.

After raising the arm above the head and again when lowering the leg we take a couple of breaths to really stretch the leg and arm on the same side or across the body on opposite sides.

When raising the leg we begin the lift at the buttock, the hip joint rather than just with the foot and lower portion of the leg.

Stretch through the whole length of the arm and leg when lifting and lowering.

On lowering both arm and both legs, another vinyasa is to hold for a breath at 45 degrees.

In the final posture, suptaparsvapadangustasana (pic.11), spreading the legs and lowering as far as possible try to drop the femur heads in the hips socket which is really dropping the sacrum back towards the mat rather than just pulling out and down on the toes.

Work towards suptaparsvapadangustasana (pic.11)  by working on the parasarita series from the triangle sequence along with trikonsasna from the same series and the upavishta trikonasana from the seated sequence.

Caution

The leg lifts are basically forward folds/bends, as such they can involve an intense hamstring stretch, be sure you are sufficiently warmed up, perhaps through some of the standing postures. Alternatively, work in to these stretches by raising the leg only half way for the first couple of breaths, going a little deeper with each vinyasa.

Day 61 : Madhya sethu ( mid region bridge pose) & Urdhvadhaurasana ( bridge) subroutine from Vinyasa Krama Supine sequence

VIDEO LINK

We often tend to think of bridge postures as backbends, this seems misleading causing us to focus on the arch of the back rather than on the raising of the hips, of the pelvis. In Vinyasa Krama the bridge postures are a continuation of the pelvic lifts, the dwipadapitam (table poses), of Day59, the division into two separate subroutines is arbitrary.

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS

Ramaswami describes these postures as an arching of the torso, we achieve this by 'pressing down' the arms, neck and back of the head in Madhya sethu, by 'anchoring' the back of the head and neck in the Madhya sethu vinyasa (pic 3), 'anchoring' the buttocks and crown of head in uttana padasana, 'anchoring' the crown and feet in sethubandasna and 'pressing through' the palms and feet in Urdhwa dhanurasana.

Anchoring, pressing down, pressing through, in these postures the legs and arms, shoulders neck are engaged, it is this strong support that allows us to arch the back safely. the arms and shoulders are strengthened in the arm raises hand arm variations of the on the feet subroutines, the legs strengthened through such postures as those found in the one leg sequence, the half and full squats, this strength protects the back in so called back bending postures

As a rule of thumb 'a back bend begins in the toes and ends in the fingertips', the whole body is engaged rather than just a bending of the spine.

'Backbend preparation begins in postures that strengthen the ankles, legs, hips, pelvis, shoulders, arms, neck.

In standing 'backbends it's easy to fall into the mistake of immediately bending the back in the supine postures because the back is lying on  the mat and can't bend backwards we are forced to consider the other factors.

In supine we tend to think more easily of arching the back,in Ramaswami's words we 'arch the torso', ground the neck and shoulders or crown of head and lift the chest, creating an arch in the spine.

We also continue the pelvic lifts of Day59 and grounding our feet lift our hips, the legs are engaged from the toes, through the heels, calves, back and front of thighs all the way up the the hips.

The tailbone is tucked in and held in place by mula bandha, creating space for the spine to avoid any compression as we arch up.

Sethubandasana

Ground/anchor the crown of the head and as we arch up by lifting the chest and hips, roll over to the forehead, be sure to drop the shoulder blades down the back so as not to hunch the shoulders and compress the neck.

Urdhva dhanurasana

The necessary Shoulder strength can be built through surynamaskaras, lead in's to the sequences, practising the arm raises of tadasana vinyasas daily as well as some of the easier arm balance postures.

Take the urdhava dhanurasana position with the hands over the shoulders and press down without lifting up, just engaging the hands , arms and shoulders, raise the hips as in dwipadapitam but don't lift the shoulders just keep them engaged and breathe, three to six long exhalations.

When your ready to lift the shoulders, raise up for one breath and lower, repeat one more time than feels comfortable, try to include a few minutes on this every practise.

Inhale hold and lift

Rather than thinking about the arms, think of lifting the chest, rather than thinking about your legs thin about lifting the hips.

Once lifted  work on bringing the shoulders the chest further over the arms as if your being lifted and drawn backwards.

Chakrasana

As we walk in we are creating a deeper arch or rather a higher arch, think Cathedrals, lifting the hips higher and higher.

Walk the hands towards the feet rather than the other way around.

We don't want to compress the spine but rather create more space for the arch to take place, tuck in the tailbone, engage mula bandha strongly to keep it tilted, push out the chest, drop the shoulder blades down the back so as not the compress the neck.

STRETCH rather than bend

As you walk in breathe, settle the breath, try to elongate the exhalations to relax into where you are, inhale strongly, hold and step in, exhale slowly.

Each time you step your hands closer try to take three steady breaths, if your feel comfortable take another small step closer to your heels. When you have gone as far as feels 'comfortable, step back out and take a couple of breaths until you have come back to where you first raised up then lower back to the mat.

Day 59 : Supine : Apanaasana (pelvic floor poses) subroutine from Vinyasa Krama Supine sequence

VIDEO LINK

This subroutine alternates vinyasas of two postures, apanasana, pelvic floor poses and pavanamuktasana, wind relieving posture.

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS

In all the anapanasana vinyasas the head stays on the mat, the hip lifts to bring the knee or knees to the chest.

In all the pavamuktasana vinyasas the head lifts off the mat to bring with the chin, nose or forehead to the knee or knees.

It's acceptable to raise the head when catching the knee in anapanasana but once caught lower the head, and tighten the grip around the leg or legs and press the thigh(s) against the lower abdomen.

In the pavamuktasana vinyasas be careful not to strain when bringing your forehead to your knee, stretch up through the length of your spine and drop your shoulder blades down your back.

Engaging uddiyana at the end of the exhalation may also help to allow the forehead to reach the knee.

Ramaswami includes anapanasana along with urdwa-parasarita-pada-hastasana ("U" formation) and dwipadapitam (desk pose) as important sarvangasana (shoulder stand ) preparation.

I also find anapanasana and urdwa-parasarita-pada-hastasana ("U" formation) to be excellent counter postures to intense back bending along with yesterday's tatakamudra ( pond gesture).

Vinyasa Krama simplified Supine Sequence Speeded up x4

I realized that in the Inverted sequence, posted a couple of weeks ago, I pretty much had most of the Supine sequence on video (I'm tending to bring together the Supine sequence, with it's shoulder stands, together with the Inverted sequence, with it's headstands, see this post). I Just needed to shift a couple of subroutines around, with my limited editing skills. Hopefully it's enough to give an idea of the Supine sequence, which is the point of the exercise.

The main sections missing are some half lotus postures while in desk pose at 01:17 which leads into Uttana padasana and Urdhava Danurasana (wheel), I guess as counter poses. At 01:48 there should be a Supine leg behind head subroutine with a couple of prep poses that leads on into Yoga Nidrasana (sleeping yogi). At the end of the sequence at 4:29 there should be Savangasana Mandala (circular ambulation), this is very silly but I quite like it. I used to try it last summer and have a video from my phone which gives the general idea. Sadly, now I'm upstairs, I don't have the room for it.

So I'm calling this a simplified version, if it wasn't speeded up it would run to about twenty minutes and misses out the tricky LBH asanas. Normally in Supine I would go about the Leg to chest, Arm/leg raises and Desk poses much more slowly, longer stays etc. but this, as I said, was originally filmed as part of the Inverted sequence and I tend to use these poses there as prep postures.

As I've mentioned elsewhere (link to come), there would be some Sury's and some standing poses before this sequence and some finishing poses afterwards, similar to Ashtanga but taken from some of the other Vinyasa Krama sequences depending on what seems most appropriate.

NB. 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. The point being, these aren't fixed-in-stone sequences, adaption is the name of the game.

Better Supine Sequence

Much better Supine sequence this morning. I started earlier, closer to my usual time. Also, I decided to do just five, straightforward, dropbacks after the urdhava Danurasana, in the middle of the sequence, without any experimentation. That left me to concentrate on the series without looking ahead. I was more familiar with the sequence and only needed a couple of quick glances over at the book and was much more able to focus on the breath.

Given that it's a long series the only standing I did was a quick Tadasana subroutine and a few Sury's with mantras (Post and video to come on this). This sequence starts easy so it kind of includes it's own all round Supine warm up. You can use the first part of the series in place of Standing and the long shoulderstand section at the end as finishing, thus despite being a long series it can fit into your usual schedule.

I really like these first couple of postures Tatakamudra which means 'pond gesture', it's called that because the intense uddiyana looks like a pond, I'm pond life.

Another surprise was the leg and arm raises. These come after Desk pose. The Desk pose subroutine ends with Urdhava Dnaurasana and it's here I stick in my dropbacks. I thought about skipping the arm and leg raises, they feel a bit like gym rather than yoga (whatever that means, don't want to think about it). As it happens they are perfect counter poses to backbends.

The asanas aren't so dramatic in this series so you can really focus on the breath, those long exhales and engaging of bandhas,. It sets you up nicely for your Pranayama session. I did a comfortable 40 minutes Pranayama, felt relaxed throughout, followed that with twenty minutes chanting, half an hour meditation then moved on to Cake.

Vinyasa Krama Supine Sequence

Supine sequence. I'm yet to love this sequence. It's longer than the others so I need to practice it on a day when I have a little more time, a Sunday or a Tuesday. but those are my favourite days to practice and this is my least favorite sequence.

It's not a particularly difficult sequence, though can be hard work, I always ache after practicing it. It revolves around some pelvic floor poses, legs to chest that kind of thing, then a lot of desk pose variations. This is why I wanted to do it this week. In Dwipadapitam (desk pose) your working a lot on lifting the hips. I thought that would help with what I'm working on with the drop back, getting those hips forward and up.

: ) just checked the Birthday cake I'm making and it's rising nicely.

Anyway the desk poses lead into Urdhva Danurasana and I've added the drop backs after that. This doesn't really work, it's OK for this week but they don't really fit there, especially as I'm doing so much experimentation, it's like stepping off the mat and checking the cricket scores or something and then coming back to the practice, doesn't work, distracting. I wanted to focus on Pranayama this holiday and backbends have somehow taken over. Still doing the pranayama but it's not as focused as it was at the beginning of the week, a lesson there.

Mmmm, can smell CAKE all of a sudden.

After UD its leg and arm raises which is kind of a forward bend, I guess, so works as a counter pose but I'm too used to UD coming at the end of the practice, disorientating. Next is some supine leg behind head and then yoganidrasana. Had forgotten these were in there, haven't done any LBH work for about three weeks, had to chuck in a couple of extra prep poses. This usually leads into a long Shoulder stand subroutine but I'm kind of putting that section with the headstand subroutine, kind of keeping the inversions together in the Inverted sequence, kind of feels the Supine series just trails off, need to think about this.

It might also be that it's because I'm starting a new sequence that I haven't practiced for a while and have to keep stopping to look at the book, might be better towards the end of the week. Better I do this now than when I'm back at work.

One nice thing I did do today was to make a slide show of the Vinyasa Krama Sun salutation with mantra sequence. This is a little different from what were used to in Ashtanga, a couple of extra steps, including laying flat on the mat with the arms outstretched. Plus at the end of each stage you retain the inhale/exhale and recite a short mantra in your head. I've played with it a little but this was the first time I could really focus. I timed everything out on the slide show and added the mantra from the Vinyasa Krama home page chanting section so I could practice along, reciting the mantra in my head with the recording.

hmm this post is kind of trailing off like the Supine sequence.............

Something almost agonizing about the smell of cake emanating from the oven, surely it's ready...

Drop backs were OK, still think I'm on the right track with the forward and up through the hips think but don't want to over do it, it'll come. Besides only a couple of days left of this holiday and i don't want it to take over the rest of the week.