Vinyasa Krama Seated Sequence Speeded up x4

Another run through of a sequence from Ramaswami's Complete book of Vinyasa krama. Just a guide as it can be difficult to get an overview of the VK sequences from the book. There are a couple of places I get it wrong, (can you get something wrong in Vinyasa krama?) or at least drift away from the sequence as it's laid out, mainly by forgetting what comes next.

I tend to start my practice with some Tadasana (mountain) poses followed by a few Sury's A and B and usually at least one chanted (with the itouch ). A standing sequence, lately that's pretty much been the 'On one leg' sequence' before the lead in to seated. The video takes it up at the lead in Straight leg jump through. The video ends with a jump back legs uncrossed. From there I go into a pretty much standard Ashtanga finishing sequence of Shoulder stand variations, headstand and Padmasana before settling into some Pranayama.

And here's a list of how the video differs from the Sequence laid out in the book.

0.06 Where I lay down at the beginning, after the lead in, my arms should be stretched out over my head. To get the shot I had to move back too close to the wall. Had to just lower after Supta kurmasana rather than jump back for the same reason.

0.50 I do a full wrist bind here, in the book the fingers are linked behind the feet. In the Paschi's the head position changes throughout the variations from forehead to knee to face, chin and then eyes to toes.

2.03 I do a leg behind head, dwi pada sirsasana entry to Supta Kurmasana (turtle in shell) that I picked up in Ashtanga 2nd. In VK the hands appear to be clasped lower, around the backside rather than the back.

4.38 There should be a couple of reverse twists through the arms after the forward twists.

4.43 I should go into a side splits subroutine here, Samakonasana. Not gonna to happen.

5.12 I slip in a lame mulabhandasa here just because it seems an appropriate place and it's something I want to work on.

5.40 There are no lotus variations in the book just padmasana for twelve breaths but it's a short sequence so I tend to do a couple.

6.30 Yoganarasimbasana pose (lion-man) I should have my arm outstretched in frount of me, palms down, arms resting on my knees just behind the elbows.

Slowed down X4 if you speed it back up it's about 27 minutes.

I tend to slip in a couple of extra jump backs in between the different sub routines.

I'm taking three breaths in each pose because I'm making the video. Usually I take between five and ten. The forward bends tend to have a shorter inhale but a long slow exhale that I tend to retain while I engage the bandhas.

Vinyasa Krama Jump through and jump back

Feel like I'm stepping back in time, back to when this blog was called Ashtanga Jump Back, anyone still reading from then I wonder, and if so did you get your Jump back? What do you think it was that made the biggest difference and allowed you to nail it? Just curious.

I've always tended to do a crossed leg jump back. In fact, up until recently I wasn't aware there was an uncrossed version. I don't mean lifting up with the legs straight and then bringing them in, crossing them and taking them back through, but this.

'From dandasana, exhale, hold your breath, and lift your body to dandasana-utpluthi. bend your knees, keeping your feet together. Do not cross your legs. Take a short inhalation, balance yourself nicely by leaning forward a little and keeping your head down, and hurtle backward smoothly, close to the ground. Land on your big toes.' S. Ramaswami, The Complete book of Vinyasa Yoga p69-70

'Keep your feet together'

'Do not cross them'

I'd never noticed this before, saw the pictures and did my Jump back. But then I noticed something strange about the picture, the ankles aren't crossed!!! I tried it this morning, no way not even close, impossible, can't be done. Checked Youtube, nothing there. Does anyone do it this way or has seen it done in the Shala or on video? If so please let me know and send me links.

UPDATE

Thanks to niall for this link to a video of Olaf doing this style of jump back. I love it and will be working on this over the next couple of weeks. I have, what, two and a half months left to nail it.

Luckily the Jump back/through doesn't play a huge role in VK (and it's hardly a dogmatic system, adaption is it's middle word). You tend to have a jump through to Dandasana at the start of most (but not all sequences), Seated Sequence, Asymmetric, Lotus etc. Then you tend to have a return series which is basically the jump back to downward facing dog (depending on the series).

Still it would be nice if I could work it out.

And how about the Jump through? Well it's the straight leg version. I've always done the crossed leg Kino style jump through. I learned the Straight leg version a while back (blindfolded) but never really practiced it that much so have forgotten it again. Will have to go back to Blocks and socks on the bathroom floor.

Flicking through the book I came across a Jump through sequence I hadn't really noticed before. This is in Chapter 11 Visesha Vinyasa Kramas. This chapter contains some miscellaneous subroutines. The Chanted Sun salutation is in it, as is the Anjaneyasana/Hanumanasana subroutine along with some others. Buried in there is this little Jump through subroutine that includes all kinds of Jumps. Jump through (and then back) to Dandasana, to lolasana, to Vajrasana. Jumping through one leg bent, jumping though in half-lotus, Durvasana Bhuju, Baksana, handstand, Mayurasana, Astavakasana, Ekapada sirsasana, just about every kind of jump through variation. Curious routine and I can't wait to try it, that's my Easter egg.

Interestingly in Mark Singleton's Yoga Body, a fascinating but quite devastating book by the way, there is a group of pictures from Kuvalayananda's Yougik Sangh Vyayam 1936, that appears to show the same feet together, uncrossed jump back. What's that all about.

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.

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).

Vinyasa Krama Inverted sequence, speeded up x4

I posted on the Inverted sequence at the beginning of the week but realized that it's probably a little confusing. I'm taking recommendations from three of Ramaswami's books rather than sticking to the Inverted sequence in The Complete book of Vinyasa yoga. I made a video of this mornings practice to try and illustrate the basic idea. Because Youtube has a ten minute limit I speeded it up x 4. It was originally around forty minutes, this is a little quicker than usual. I started the camera after standing and cut off most of the Pranayama. All the asanas are pretty straight forward, the main challenge of this Sequence is probably the long headstand and keeping the breath slow steady and even while engaging the bandha's upside down.

Curious thing I've noticed about the Inversions is that all week I've been feeling incredibly mellow. The restless night after intense backbending is often remarked upon, I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar reaction to long headstands.

I've lifted the description of the practice from my earlier post with the Krishnamacharya video.

Looking at the three books together plus the newsletter and bringing it all together the recommendation seems to be the following.

A mudra pose that engages the bandhas. (I'm choosing Tatakumudra, pond gesture. Before this though I tend to start my practice with some Tadasana and a couple of Sury's and perhaps some standing postures)

The Sarvangasana preparatory poses...

Apanasana (pelvic lift)

U- formation (arms and legs raised while supine)

Dwipadpitam (Desk pose)

Savangasana Subroutine (As prep for headstand, I do around fifteen minutes of Shoulder stand variations, I stop before the lotus variations)

Sirsasana Subroutine ( Took me around thirty minutes this morning, around three long slow steady breaths engaging moola and uddiyana bandha during exhale retention while in each of the variations)

Childs pose

Sarvangasana (switching back to Shoulder stands here as counter poses for headstand and supposedly to retain the benefits longer. I do the unsupported Shoulder stand variations from the end of the Subroutine)

Padmasana (It's recommended to finish with a seated pose for ten minutes or so).

The Sirsasana and Sarvangasana Subroutines follow a similar pattern in their variations. While up in the the pose you tend to start by bringing the legs to the chest individually and then together as well as in half lotus. This is followed by bringing the legs to the floor individually then together, some lotus variations, halasana variations etc in the Sarvangasana subroutine as well as some unsupported shoulder stand variations. You finish off with some inverted backbend postures.

Had a quick look through the video and noticed that there are a couple of postures I missed out and even a couple from the Krishnamacharya video that slipped in.

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.