Tuesday 6.30p Intro: Week 2 (Mar 10, 2009)

3 new students for March-April session
Focus on arm poses in Tadasana and leg alignment and lift in standings.
Note new poses for this week are in bold face.
New students: See Week 1 for Guidelines for Practice.

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. This prevents indentations at either the top or bottom knee. Can wrap a belt around the thigh to feel the hamstring muscles engage.
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. Urdhva Hastasana
a. Now able to lift side ribs and arms higher upward with less effort following Ardha Gomukhasana

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

6. Tadasana (Urdhva Namaskarasana ) from Utkatasana
a. With knees bent in Utkatasana, link thumbs to keep palms in Urdhva Namaskarasana
b. Lift knees, 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. Teach jumping next week.

10. Parsva Hasta Padasana

11. Virabhadrasana II
a. Swap first prior to Trikonasana to get freedom in hips without the challenge of stiff hamstrings.
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 buttock bone in, anteriorly, to prevent the right knee from wandering in anteriorly.
d. Lift 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.

12. Utthita Trikonasana
a. 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.
b. Move the right buttock bone in, anteriorly, to prevent the right knee from wandering in anteriorly.
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. 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.
b. Move the right buttock bone in, anteriorly, to prevent the right knee from wandering in anteriorly. Then, from there, turn open the chest.

14. Parsvottanasana (hands on wall, concave back)
a. Right foot on brick, toes up the wall to pull right hip back, left hip forward.
b. Second time: 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 (hands on bricks, concave back)
a. Prasarita = spread. Spread the inner knees apart, away from each other to press the outer heels down into the floor.

16. Forward Extensions
a. Omitted for lack of time & flexibility

17. Savasana
a. Back chest supported on one blanket folded in half lengthwise, trifold blanket beneath head.