I try to keep the three locks/bhandas, (Mula -root, uddiyana-belly and jalendhara-throat ) engaged throughout my practice, in some poses more engaged than others. Uddiyana bandha, drawing in the belly, is especially useful for backbends, seems to help protect the back and ground you somehow, makes you that little more stable.
Recently, somebody mentioned a tip from a workshop where they were told to imagine they had a pea beneath their belly, that they were trying not to squish, as they were laying in the Salabhasana's (trying to find the source of this anyone remember?). Great tip, it really helps but what about standing backbends and kapo, here's my variation.....
This only works if your belly button is an innie, sorry outie's your backbends are just going to have to suffer or perhaps you can come up with your own version in which case please let me know. OK I lied, the peas imaginary ( might be worth trying with a real pea but I only have frozen), your just going to have to use more imagination if your have an outie.
The yogi and the pea
So the idea is that you imagine your holding a pea inside your belly button. Now you want to grip that pea so suck your belly in and up, grip the pea and draw it back nice and safe, now keep that engaged like that through your drop back's, kapo's and what have you.
In the video I'm just showing the feet together Ustrasana and Kapotasana the full video is on my Practicing Vinyasa Karma blog and shows me whizzing through the Bow sequence and part of the meditative sequence. The idea here, as with the previous Leg behind head post, is to show how the postures of the sequences build upon each other preparing you for the more challenging poses.
I'd already done my VK bow sequence practice this morning, here I'm going in and out of each pose on the breath but earlier of course, I was repeating the postures three times and or staying in the pose for a number of long, slow breaths.
So feet together, how was it for you?
Actually it was Ok, perhaps because of the nice build up or the pea in the belly button idea, it felt stable enough. As with the feet together drop back earlier, I'm not getting as deep, couldn't grab my heels here, didn't want to risk it but I guess that will come, principles are all the same just takes a little more control
Posts
5 comments:
Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried doing this sequence of backbends feet together and then apart?
It's so interesting how context changes everything. If I add Kapo into 3rd, before Raja Kapos, it's SO different. So easy! It's a much more challenging pose when done as a part of standard 2nd, ten poses in.
Agreed re context. Sometimes I'll do my kapo after some drop backs or after eka para raja kapotasana that said there is some nice prep leading up to it in 2nd.
btw Viparita salabhasana comes up in the bow sequence, i only showed the ustrasana and kapo here but put up the longer video on the VK blog. For some reason it's really coming on, was pretty deep yesterday and can feel my feet brushing my hair, getting there.
Will try the feet together feet apart combo have done it the other way around, bringing my feet together each time.
Wonder if the yogi and the pea thing will help with tick rocks, have stopped playing with them recently.
I'm playing with other things too, mostly unsuccessfully! No new, yogic party tricks here :) you talking about Ganda Bherundasana with the toes in hair? For sone reason my body seemingly will never do this solo, but we'll see.
The pea-thing was me :) (http://pakistaniashtangi.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/4th-july-weekend-with-tim-feldmann-part-3-bending-over-backwards/) - unless somebody else also wrote about the same thing of course. It was Tim Feldmann who had us experiment with it in a workshop this summer, as a way of getting a feel for how the uddiyana bandha should work in backbends. We also tried Ushtrasana and dropbacks, after lying on our bellies for a while trying not to crush the boiled pea with our bellies, but it certainly got more difficult at that point so it's something I have to continue experimenting with for a while to get more consistent with - it keeps slipping away somehow. It did make a lot of sense to me though, gave me a sense of what the bandhas should feel like when bending over backwards. So sometimes I flop over on my belly and try a Shalabasana or Dhanurasana again just to sort of check that I still got it right.
I think it'll be a while before I can do those dropbacks with feet together though - didn't know that was doable!
Thanks Bibi, yes yes it was you you, nice workshop report if i remember, must read your post again, have found it very useful, use it all the time now.
Post a Comment