Epiphany, from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation, striking appearance"
Whatever the backbend, standing, supine, bow, inverted.... engage mula bandha to lift your hips off your femur heads and uddiyana bandha to lift up out of your pelvis.
In bold, highlighted, underlined ....so I don't forget.
The problem
Standing backbends are relatively easy (in the sense of less counterintuitive), you stretch up out of your ankles, your knees, your femurs, your pelvis... but what about when your supine or in bow, kneeling or inverted, how do your get that same action?
The first mini epiphany came last week, the epiphanette, which was to stretch out through the whole length of the legs while also stretching up out of the pelvis, like being stretched on a rack, pulled in both directions. I credit that with allowing my toes to reach my head in Raja kapotasana and Garbha bundhasana last week.
Stretching out through the legs though seemed to pull the hips down, how to keep the hips lifted while stretching out through the legs?
Bandhas, it's always the bandhas, engage mula bandha and draw your hips up off the femur heads, engage uddiyana and lift up out of the pelvis.
No doubt I heard or read this a hundred times before it manifested in the body and in the mind in one big, striking Ahhhhhhh moment.
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3 comments:
Well standing backbends may be relatively easy for you! ;) but this is exactly what I'm trying to work on in my dropbacks too - though bandhas seem to be something that develops more organically, more subtly, than other strengths. You can't just turn it on and get on with the backbend one day. More than with other muscles it takes time to figure them out and pinpoint what to do with the bandhas, I think. So even though I know what to work toward, what you underlined above, I'm still having trouble with finding the right support in the standing backbends, getting everything to do the right thing at the right time sort of. Guess I just gotta be patient and keep trying! :)
Sorry Bibi, 'easy' is perhaps not the best choice of words, what i mean is, less counterintuitive than in Supine, Bow, inverted etc. I had to work a long time at dropping back too. it's NOT easy.
To think i started this blog out of irritation at people saying to jump back just engage the bandhas and here i am saying a similar thing re backbends.
I'm using bandhas here in a less 'mysterious' sense, more as a muscle groups around a 'joint complex' rather than as some energetic lock (which I still don't tend to get). just try and grip, tense, engage everything in your pelvis to try and it up a bit off your legs as your stretch and then try and stretch out of the pelvis itself...take practice.
For me with drop backs the most important thing was leg strength and pushing the pelvis as far forward as possible while constantly trying to straighten the legs.
Nice back bending DVD by Heather Morten available for download via paypal here http://www.freedomofthebody.theyogaway.com/index.html
She studied with Venkatesh in India for ten years ( 'The backbend guy' in Mysore)
I was just joking actually, I know that you know that it's not easy - you do have a few years on me on that dropback ;) But I agree, the bandhas are even harder to "find" when supine or upside down like you were in some of those pictures. I also think of it as muscle group mainly though, at least for these purposes, don't get the energy lock thing yet either, so I like your checklist, the lifting up off the femur heads and lifting spine out of pelvis, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the link too, will check it out!
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