Tuesday 4.30p MS — Week 5 (June 2, 2009)

Focus: Calf stretches both to improve gait mechanism. Support in hip and leg stretches to prevent fatigue due to hot weather.

No new students.

New poses in bold face.

Invocation in Swastikasana

1. Calf Stretcher Tadasana
a. Soles on wooden calf stretcher, back to wall. 2 X 10 behind calves.
b. Soles on inverted chair seat, facing wall and holding lower ropes. This continues and increases the stretch in Parsvottanasana, to emphasize heel strike in gait and prevent walking on tiptoes.
c. Preparation for Parsvottanasana.

2. Parsvottanasana (hands on chair seat, head on brick on chair seat)
a. Adds hamstring stretch to calf stretch.

3. Chair Kurmasana
a. Preparation for Prasarita Padottanasana and Uttanasana.
b. Thighs on chair seat, bend forward from the hips, hold the back rung of the chair with head on bricks.

4. Adho Mukha Swastikasana (forehead on chair seat)
a. Sit on bolster, head on chair seat.
b. To relieve pain due to ankle and hip stiffness: Sit higher up on extra blanket on bolster with blanket under feet. Insert rolled blanket perpendicular to shins, between the ankles. (LM)

5. Rope Wall Uttanasana (5 min.)
a. With the buttocks at the Rope Wall, loop a long nylon belt around the lower rope hooks and the thighs to belt the upper thighs, just below the groins, tightly to the wall. This provides space in the groins, and, thus, the abdominal organs, and makes the thighs recede posteriorly when extending forward, increasing range of motion. Head on blanket stacked on bolster on chair seat. Stand on bricks if 5’-6” or less so belt is across upper thigh, not hip bones or waist.

b. Bend forward from the right and left hips evenly. For hip tightness due to birth injury when left femoral head jammed into hip socket: Affix thighs to wall, then belt right ilium in to counter right iliac outflare. This pulls the left acetabulum slightly away from the left femur to allow even bending. As a result, the feet met the floor with greater feeling and there was less limp in the gait. (LM)

c. Parivrtta Uttanasana to untwist spine due to scoliosis. (LM)

6. Viparita Karani (10 min straight legs)