Wednesday 9.30a Intro — Week 10 (May 6, 2009)

Wednesday 9.30a Intro — Week 1 (May 6, 2009)
Focus: Week 6 of syllabus. Consolidate standings and add Sarvangasana with variations. Coordinate breath with movement.

No new students.

Note new poses for this week are in bold face.

Discussion: Patanjali Yoga Sutra II.49-50, What is Pranayama?
Continued discussion from last week.

Invocation in Swastikasana

1. Tadasana/Samasthiti

2. Tadasana (Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana)

3. Tadasana (Paschima Baddha Hasta arms)

4. Tadasana (Gomukhasana arms)

5. Tadasana (Paschima Namaskarasana)

6. Utkatasana

7. Vrksasana

8. Utthita Trikonasana
a. Make the legs rajasic to remove the tamas in head and chest.
b. Exhale and go down in one movement to create sattvic lightness.

9. Virabhadrasana II

10. Utthita Parsvakonasana

11. Vimanasana
a. Perform classic pose without lifting the left heel.

12. Virabhadrasana I
a. Using the intelligence, “fill up” the inner back knee to straighten it, then turn the inner calf out. Then strongly, rajasically, lifting the front and back thigh, pull up the entire thigh into the hip socket. Connect it so that, with only sattvic intelligence, you can easily lift the pelvis. This makes a heavy, tamasic, pose lighter, more sattvic. Then the mind becomes more sattvic.

13. Prasarita Padottanasana (concave back)
a. Head on brick as restorative pose. If losing equanimity, support higher.

14. Ardha Chandrasana
a. Right hip at the wall. Keeping the right knee bent, and the right inner foot pressed down, lift up the left leg. Don’t allow the right foot to rajasically “dance” up and down. Make it tamasic, firm and stable.
b. Extend the left leg through the left heel, else it becomes tamasic and heavy. Take it away from the wall to prevent pain in the lumbar.
c. Inject the right femur into the socket.

15. Parsvottanasana (hands on chair seat, head on brick on chair seat)

16. Adho Mukha Svanasana

17. Chair Kurmasana
a. Thighs on chair seat, bend forward from the hips. Head on brick. Hold back rung of chair.

18. Padangusthasana

19. Uttanasana (hands on floor, feet apart)

20. Sarvangasana Cycle
a. Salamba Sarvangasana

b. Ekapada Sarvangasana
Foot on chair seat.

c. Halasana
Feet on chair seat.

21. Forward Extensions
a. Adho Mukha Swastikasana (forehead on chair seat)

b. Paschimottanasana (forehead on chair seat)

22. Savasana