Vinyasa Krama Inverted Sequence

This week I'm moving on to the Inverted sequence, the plan being to spend a week on each of the VK sequences to improve familiarity before alternating the sequences daily. I was a little confused about how to approach them. In a newsletter, Ramaswami discusses Sarvangasana and Sirsasana together and in his book, Yoga beneath the surface, he talks about them as being preparatory as well as counter poses to eachother. In Yoga for the three stages of life he puts the two sequences together in the same section. However, in The Complete book of Vinyasa Yoga the Shoulder stand subroutine appears at the end of the Supine sequence, while the headstands dominate the Inverted sequence, which also includes forearm stands and some other arm balance poses.

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 Maha Mudra as it opens the hips and there are some lotus poses to come. Before this though I tend to start my practice with some Tadasana and a couple of Sury's)

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.

Latter in the week I'll try to add some pictures and possible a couple of videos to give more of an idea of the Subroutines.

UPDATE

...or I can just embed this 1938 video of Krishnamacharya himself doing some of the inversion variations. This is of course a Demo, In Ramaswami's book you tend to repeat the variations three to six times.

My whole practice this morning took a little under 90 minutes, which included about half hour each in Sisasana and Sarvangasana.

This is from Ramaswami's August 09 newsletter, where he discusses these inversions.

HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE ……

The two important inversion poses, Sirasasana and its better half

Sarvangasana, called the King and Queen of yogasanas are a unique

contribution of Yoga towards physical culture and physical therapy.

Several contemporary yogis have disputed the place of these poses and

have claimed that they perhaps are later day inventions. But in

Hatayoga they are considered as viparita karani mudras.

Hatayogapradipika refers to inversions as follows

“ There is a wonderful karana or procedure which helps to starve the

sun,( here the gastric fire). One may learn it only from a Guru, and

not from the books. If the position of the sun(stomach) is above and

the moon(the head) below (i.e., upside down) it is called

viparitakarani(inversion). Learn it from a Guru “

The pelvic area—kandasthana-, according to some yogis is a breeding

ground for many ailments. It is also the area from where 72.000 nadis

are said to emanate and also Kundalini. This area should be kept

clean. The dross should be burnt and blown away, figuratively

speaking. How does the Yogi do it?

We have an air principle in that area which is Apana Vayu. We have

also the fire principle in us in the abdominal area in the form of

gastric fire or Jataraagni. This flame is flowing upwards and in the

normal upright position the gastric fire is above the pelvic area,

flowing upward, sometimes when overactive, produces a burning

sensation in the esophagus producing the typical ‘heart burn”. The

Yogi by resorting to the inversions, as Headstand and Sarvangasana, is

able to place the pelvic area above the gastric area. Now the gastric

fire or jataragni,-- figuratively speaking—flows towards the pelvic

area and heats and purifies the Nadias and the Kandasthan, arouses the

Kundalini with the heat. The fire is further supposed to be fanned and

intensified by directing the air tatwa or apana by Mula bandh; it

draws the apana closer to the fire principle and thereby the apana air

also becomes hotter and in turn melts away the dross of the

kandasthana and arouses the sleeping kundalini. So headstand and

shoulderstand, the mulabandha and the intense gastric fire help to

cleanse the nadis and the rogasthana or the disease prone area is

cleaned and spruced up.

There is another interesting concept associated with the inversions of

which I may have referred to in one of the earlier letters/articles.

It is said that our head contains a liquid called amrita which may be

translated as nectar. This nectar gives us life and drips drop by drop

through the uvula into the stomach where it is consumed by the gastric

fire to provide the life energy to live. This reservoir of nectar is

slowly used up and with its total depletion comes the end of one’s

life. The Yogi tries to ration the flow of the nectar, by remaining in

inverted position for a length of time every day—say between half an

hour to an hour or so. During the period of time the yogi is in head

stand and shoulder stand, the amrita remains stored in the head

without dripping down.

The Hatayogapradika has this to say

The Hatayogapradipika explains the inversion mudra as follows. “The

cool nectar that flows from the moon (here the head) is swallowed by

the hot sun (the gastric fire). Hence one’s body becomes aged. There

is a wonderful karana or procedure which helps to starve the sun,

(here the gastric fire). One may learn it only from a Guru, and not

from the books. If the position of the sun is above and the moon below

(i.e., upside down) it is called viparitakarani(inversion). Learn it

from a Guru. Do abhyaa of this inverted pose and increase the duration

every day. One who practices this for a yaama (3 hrs) daily will

conquer death”. When I was young I came across a Yogi who was said to

be practising sirsasana for three hours every day. His face had a

unique bluish tinge. He also practised Mouna or silence.

So by this daily practice, the Yogi is able to increase, so to say,

his/her lifespan by 5%, or say between 3 to 5 years. Normally after

Headstand the yogi is supposed to spend equal time in shoulder stand

as well. In shoulder stand, amrita while still confined to the skull/

brain portion, now is allowed to flow to the entire head portion above

the neck and nourish all the sensitive sense organs, the two eyes, the

two ears, the mouth and the nose (shanmukha). This is also considered

necessary to maintain the acuity of the sense organs

as they are way up in the body and may not get the full nourishment .

Sarvangasana therefore is considered good for the sense organs whereas

the headstand is good for the brain.

The normal upright position and the chin up position in which we keep

our head, both result in a wasteful free flow of the limited amrita in

the head down the uvula to the gastric fire, like a free flowing tap.

The Yogis found it necessary to constantly control the flow of this

nectar and even temporarily stop it. They developed a simple technique

called Jalandhara bandha to temporarily stop and control the flow. The

term Jalandhara-bandha itself indicates the effect it is said to

produce. Jala means water and here it refers to the amrita or nectar

which is said to be in the liquid form. Dhara is to hold, here holding

the amrita in the head itself and bandha is the lock, the procedure

which helps to achieve the holding operation. So Jalandharabandha

means the lock that enables holding the nectar in the head. Of course

while we do asanas and pranayama we adjust the bandha in such a way

that we allow only a small and necessary amount of amrita to flow and

also maintain a good ujjayi control over the breath. That is why the

default position of the head in asana practice whether it is tadasana

or the seated Padmasana or Vajrasana is the head down position. One

could see the pictures of my Guru doing asanas and one could see his

head down position in most of them—even in asanas like urdhvamukha

svanasana or the well known upward facing dog pose. In the entire

vinyasakrama one would find the relaxed default head down position is

resorted to control the flow of amrita and the ujjayi breath.

Some contemporary yogis may read these metaphorical narrations with a

wry smile. However these inversions should be considered as unique

contributions of Yoga, for health. Within the first few minutes of

Sirsasana practice, the leg and thigh muscles, the gluteal muscles,

relax. The chest, back, shoulders and neck muscles also relax as all

these are not required to maintain the postural tone as in the upright

position. It has been found that due to the relaxation of the leg

muscles, the blood pressure in the legs drop to about 30mm.There is no

great rush of blood to the head among the adept yogis due to auto

regulation; yet the gravity helps to open up many capillaries in the

brain, head and face which may otherwise remain partially closed.

People with high blood pressure and retinal problems will have to be

careful. However persons with mild hypertension and under control with

diet, life style change and even medication could benefit from this

posture if they had learnt it from early life. It appears to increase

pressure on the shoulders which would result in the brain trying to

reduce the blood pressure. Therefore if one would practice Sirshasana

regularly for a sufficient duration, one’s pulse rate tends to reduce,

thereby reducing the strain on the heart. Gradually there is a

reduction in the blood pressure.

What is equally important is that Sirsasana helps improve circulation

of the cerebro spinal fluid, which is helpful to the brain and also

for the spinal nerve bundles—the chakras. Because of the increased

pressure in the brain due to this fluid, the pituitary secretions

increase helping the better functioning of the sympathetic nervous

system which will help in many ways including the dilatation of the

bronchial tubes giving great relief to asthmatics. There is draining

of the bronchial tubes, giving some welcome relief for those with

chronic chest congestion. Many feel increased memory power and

general better brain capacity. There are cases of even some correction

of the eyesight. The vinyasas like the twists, Akunchanasana, the

backbends like Viparitadandasana in Sirsasana and Uttanamayurasana in

Sarvangasana help the spine considerably, by not only maintaining the

flexibility of this structure but also nourish the nadis and chakras

or nerve fibers and nerve bundles in the spinal chord.

In the inversions, as mentioned in earlier articles, the internal

organs get positional correction. Pregnant yoginis may find the

inversions help relieve pelvic congestion, oedema of the legs,

conditions that are prevalent during pregnancy. Practising the

inverted poses with the variety of vinyasas gives a complete massage

to all the muscles, organs and considerably increases the blood

circulation. Perhaps equally important is the effect of the twin poses

on the major joints-- the ankles, the knees, the hips and the spine.

The intra-articular space within the joints improves and hence the

joint movements when one does the various vinyasas also will improve.

Dorsal and plantar flexions performed in the ankle joints while in

these asanas help the ankles significantly. Asanas like Akunchanasana

in inversions give good relief to the knees, while inversions help

to open the hips by dragging the big pelvic girdle down a bit and

giving more space for the femur to move and rotate nicely within the

hip socket(pl refer to Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga for headstand and

shoulder stand vinyasas). Perhaps the most benefit accrues to the

entire spine. The inter-vertebral space is enhanced and person who

practises these inversions and the vinyasas like akunchanasana and

backbends will find the spine stretching nicely and becoming more

flexible. The narrowing of the inter-vertebral space can be tackled

positively and the low back pain reduces significantly. I would say

that the inversions are the best yoga postures to alleviate low back

pain. Overall these inversions and the vinyasas in them help to keep

the spine supple and strong. It is said one is as old as the condition

of the spine. Further, because of the relaxation of the lower

extremities Sarvangasana is a good pose to help overcome insomnia.

These twin poses are very good for health.

Contemporary Yogis find the other important inversion, viz., the

Handstand or Vipritvrukshasna very popular. This is a great pose, with

a number of variations possible. However since the head is not fixed

in this group of poses, some of the finer aspects of the other two

head- fixed inversions (sarvangasana and sirshasana) may be missing.

One finds it more difficult to maintain balance and also stay for a

sufficiently long time in viparitavrikshasana or inverted tree pose

(Hand Stand) and other similar poses like scorpion pose etc. These two

regal poses stand ‘head and shoulders’ above the rest in conferring

health benefits to the yogabhyasis.