Thursday 6.30p Intro: Week 2 (Mar 12, 2009)

2 new students for March-April session
Focus: arm poses in Tadasana and leg alignment and lift in standings. Be organized, not just flexible.
Note new poses for this week are in bold face.
New students: See Week 1 for Guidelines for Practice.

Discussion: Patanjali Yoga Sutra I.31 Pain (sorrow), frustration (despair), shakiness of the limbs, and involuntary breathing are the natural accompaniments to [and signify] a distracted condition of mind.

As BKS Iyengar interprets this sutra, a disease, such as depression, is the root cause of pain. It evolves into mental despair, then shakiness, and, finally, into labored breathing, which causes a fear complex. Just as involution, turning our attention inward, begins with mastery of the grossest evolutes of the body, such as the arms and legs, and then retraces backwards to stabilize the mind, so does BKS Iyengar reverse this sutra — advising to control the breathing first in order to stabilize the mind. Involution works backwards, retracing from effect to root cause. Normalizing the breath, the effect, relieves the fear, reduces shakiness and despair, and makes the mind pleasant, which begins to ease the pain of the disease. Thus, says BKS Iyengar, “the inner mind reflects the outer body,” as well as the more commonly accepted “the outer body reflects the inner mind.” (BKS Iyengar Intensive 9-29-05 AM Demo)


Invocation in Swastikasana

1. Tadasana/Samasthiti
a. To straighten the knee, lift both the kneecap and the back thigh up, away from the knee, to make the knee light. Don’t just throw the knees back.
b. Brick between thighs to learn inner thigh lift.

2. Urdhva Hastasana
a. Without brick between thighs
b. With brick between thighs

3. Tadasana (Gomukhasana arms)
a. Ardha Gomukhasana arms: Right arm up, bend the right elbow. Hold the right elbow with the left hand and side bend to the right to stretch the right side ribs.

4. Tadasana (Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana)
a. Without brick between thighs
b. With brick between thighs. Brick facilitates lift of inner body, as when thighs are touching each other, while simultaneously descending diaphragm, as when thighs are apart.

5. Traction Supta Urdhva Hastasana
a. Lengthen armpits, side ribs, back chest
b. Now able to lift side ribs and arms higher upward with less effort in Urdhva Hastasana. Use as preparation for Urdhva Namaskarasana

6. Tadasana (Urdhva Namaskarasana) from Utkatasana
a. With knees bent in Utkatasana, link thumbs to keep palms in Urdhva Namaskarasana
b. Lift knees, pubic plate, and armpits simultaneously in the movement of straightening the legs, to lift the arms upward.

7. Tadasana (Paschima Baddha Hasta arms)
a. Added to bring mobility to the Urdhva arm positions.
b. Holding elbows, roll open from the sternum to the frontal shoulders. Roll the shoulders out, away from the sternum.
c. Not only press the arm into back ribs, but also press the back ribs into the arms. Whenever two parts of the body meet, they form a relationship, as when the palms are joined and press each other evenly in namaskar. Use that meeting point as a pivot to increase the rolling open from the sternum to the frontal shoulders.

8. Tadasana (Gomukhasana arms)
a. Ardha Gomukhasana arms: Right arm up, bend the right elbow. Hold the right elbow with the left hand and side bend to the right to stretch the right side ribs.
b. Left arm in Paschima Namaskarasana to complete Gomukhasana arms. For rotator cuff injuries, do not do this side. Instead, concentrate on upper arm lift, as in Ardha Gomukhasana, to lift the collar bone up and externally rotate the upper arm away from the injury site.
c. Added to bring mobility to the Urdhva arm positions.

9. Utthita Hasta Padasana
a. When jumping, coordinate the movement of arms extending, armpits opening, knees straightening and ankles extending - all at the same rate.
b. When landing, keep the heels up and knees bent as a shock absorber.
c. When straightening the knees, connect the lift of the back knee, lift of the pubic plate, and lift of the sternum to open the chest, similar to the rhythm in Tadasana (Urdhva Namaskarasana) from Utkatasana. Lifting the pubic plate will stop the hip from collapsing and popping in Utthita Trikonasana.

10. Parsva Hasta Padasana
a. Turn the right leg out completely to align the centers of the ankle, knee, and hip. Turn the right foot more out to get that alignment, if necessary.

11. Virabhadrasana II
a. Swap first prior to Trikonasana to learn foot and leg actions without the challenge of stiff hamstrings.
b. In Parsva Hasta Padasana, with the outer left foot at the Rope Wall, pull the lower rope to pull the inner left knee towards the outer left knee. As a result, when the spine is erect, there is a greater ability to turn the right leg out because there is less load on the right hip. Lift the pubic plate up.
c. Right ball of the big toe down, big toe up to lift inner ankle, knee and thigh. Forefoot on brick increases that action and connects the femur more into the socket. Lift the pubic plate up.
d. Lift the pubic plate up and the right pelvic rim up, off of the thigh, to bring more freedom to the hip joint when bending the right knee. Keeping that up, then sit the right buttock down.
e. Move the right femur into the socket, anteriorly, to prevent the right knee from wandering in anteriorly.

12. Utthita Trikonasana
a. In Parsva Hasta Padasana, with the outer left foot at the Rope Wall, pull the lower rope to pull the inner left knee towards the outer left knee. As a result, there is a greater ability to fold the right hip over the right femur because there is less load on the right hip.
b. Move the right femur into the socket, anteriorly, to prevent the right knee from wandering in anteriorly. Right ball of the big toe down, big toe up to lift inner ankle, knee and thigh. Forefoot on brick increases that action and connects the femur more into the socket. Lift the pubic plate up, towards the head, to stop the hip from collapsing and popping.
c. To straighten the knee, lift both the kneecap and the back thigh up, away from the knee as in Tadasana, to make the knee light. Don’t just collapse into the back knees.

13. Utthita Parsvakonasana
a. Starting as in Virabhadrasana II, with the outer left foot at the Rope Wall, pull the lower rope to pull the inner left knee towards the outer left knee.
b. Turn the right leg out more to bring the right femur more into the socket. Connecting the femur into the socket supports the pelvis and trunk.
c. Move the right femur into the socket, anteriorly, to prevent the right knee from wandering in anteriorly. Right ball of the big toe down, big toe up to lift inner ankle, knee and thigh. Lift the pubic plate up, towards the head. Then, from there, turn open the chest.

14. Parsvottanasana (hands on chair seat, head on brick on chair seat)
a. Pull right hip back, left hip forward.
b. Straighten left inner knee. Keeping the left shin back, turn the left calf from inner towards outer to bring the left hip forward.

15. Prasarita Padottanasana
a. Hands on bricks, concave back. Spread the inner knees apart, away from each other to press the outer heels down into the floor.
b. Head on brick or floor, extended spine.

16. Forward Extensions
a. Chair Paschimottanasana substituted for Urdhva Hasta Dandasana and Padangustha Dandasana to provide more rest. Legs wide apart in Dandasana for greater hip mobility, holding the chair arms to keep the chest open, rest the forehead on the chair seat.
b. Chair Baddha Konasana added to bring the femurs into the socket, and widens the abdomen for the menstruating pupil. Rest the forehead on the chair seat to keep the mind quiet.

17. Chair Sarvangasana
a. Omitted because one of the new pupils was menstruating.

18. Savasana
a. Folded blanket beneath head.