I seem to remember trying to do it it, what, four, four and half years ago when I first started practicing Ashtanga. Didn't manage it then and it always seemed the least of my worries, there was binding in mari D to worry about, getting arms through in garbha P, not falling on my face in Kukkutasana or bhuja and of course jump backs.
So it got put to one side, I settled with lifting my feet up to my hands and then other challenges would come, drop backs, kapo's karanda's.......
Forgot all about it.
Earlier in the week I'd filmed that part of Primary for some reason and while watching it back decided to ask the question...
'Oh and a question....how do you lift the feet up in Konasana B without letting go of the toes, raising the legs a little and then grabbing the toes again...hints/tips/suggestions?'
Thank you to Karen and Steve for offering up some advice, which can be found in the comments to the post HERE
from Karen
Upavistha lift = inhale from the chest on the floor position while holding onto your toes. Exhale and dip your head back almost to the floor, then strong inhale and pull up. The legs do a quick abduction, then adduction on the way up. Matthew Sweeney mentioned that at a workshop and it made all the difference in the world for me. The very strong inhale and the abduct/addict combo does the trick.
from Steve
Uphavista Konasana is done wrapping your hands around the feet (applying thumb pressure at the big toe joint). Completely evacuate the lungs, catch your bandha & lift on strong inhale, looking at your third eye. No squinting.
I've never attempted it holding the big toes, but I'd imagine it's unnecessarily difficult.
So I tried it tonight, i love karen's abduction, adduction suggestion but if I'm honest everything went out of the window and i just started dipping and pulling, engaging and yanking and to be honest I've no idea how I managed it. I think in the end I kind of worked it out in reverse, held my legs and then lowered them and tried to catch that same feeling coming up that I had lowering.
Hopefully over the next few day's I'll work out what seems to be making the difference and will add an update.
Once coming up holding the toes becomes comfortable I'll give holding on to the outside of the feet another try.
Here's a treat, the Upavishta konasana scene from the old SKPJ led workshop at Yogaworks back in the day.
Anyone else struggle with this?
Just had a quick look at my Primary movie collection
Sharath lets go and then takes the feet up to the hands in his DVD.
Kino takes feet to hands like Sharath, Lino too surprisingly.
In Yoga Mala and in Swenson too, you keep hold of the outside of the feet.
'Now doing puraka (inhalation), lift only the head, do rechaka (exhalation), and without losing hold of the sides of the feet, come up to sit straight on the buttocks while doing puaka, hold the raised legs wide apart and straight, as in the 8th vinyasa, keep the chest, arms and waist straight, look up and do rechaka and puraka as much as possible, this is the 9th vinyasa' Sri K Pattabhi Jois, Yoga Mala p95-96
John Scott holds on to the toes in his DVD,
Can't remember how Richard Freeman approaches it in his, he's holding the outside of the feet in the video above.
Is there a hard and fast rule now or is there freedom here as with how you jump through? Not that I'm that concerned with what's du jour, think I'll go with Yoga Mala on this one.
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12 comments:
As far as I've been taught you hold the sides of the feet in this asana, not the toes, maybe that was what Karen meant? and also I was taught that you release the hold, take the hands up and then lift the feet up to them. If we brain was less fried I'd list the correct vinyasa but it's been a long day ;)
Hi Mel
Sharath lets go and then takes the feet up to the hands in his DVD which is what I learned it from.
In Yoga mala and in Swenson too you keep hold of the feet. It's there in that 80's video of joys doing the workshop at yoga works, will see if I can find it on youtube, nice clip, watching it now. John scott holds on to the toes in his DVD, Kino takes feet to hands like Sharath, Lino too surprisingly.
Kind of like the idea of keeping hold or will do when I can do it with a little more finesse.... think holding on to the toes to take the feet up is cheating a bit but I'll settle for that for now.
I hold the sides of the feet for the 5 breaths of the asana, then grab toes for the lift. Once up, I switch back to the sides of my feet. I actually don't recall where I learned this, but it seems like I've always done it this way. As I mentioned, Matthew Sweeney saw/commented on the asana, so I guess it was okay by him. At the shala I occasionally visit with an authorized teacher, I was asked to demonstrate it -- so I figured the holding-the-toes on the way up is standard. I'm curious now, and will have a look at some books/vids tomorrow. I'll turn to the vid of my gold standard: Richard Freeman. :-)
I just checked my David Garrigues DVD and he let's go of feet, brings arm up and the legs up and grabs sides of feet. He even bent his legs a bit on the lift up. I'm guessing it's not too important anymore how you get there.
I agree laura, not so important, seems unlikely it's something anyone would get held back for but it takes control, focus and there's a little bandha magic going too, all good stuff to work on so why not, taken me five years to get around to bothering with it.
Did you see the bit in the video where I try to lift up while still holding the outside of the feet Karen, seems impossible... but then so did lifting up holding onto the toes in the morning's practice. They all do it I think in the Jois video so doable and it makes sense to keep holding on to the outside of the feet if your able to. Think I'll go with your outside/toes and lift/back to outside for a bit.
Ahhh Laura, your in Mysore at the moment, don't suppose you feel like asking Sharath in Conference tomorrow ; )
the quote from Yoga Mala is
'Now doing puraka (inhalation), lift only the head, do rechaka (exhalation), and without losing hold of the sides of the feet, come up to sit straight on the buttocks while doing puaka, hold the raised legs wide apart and straight, as in the 8th vinyasa, keep the chest, arms and waist straight, look up and do rechaka and puraka as much as possible, this is the 9th vinyasa' p95-96
Sadly I'm no longer in Mysore. I had one glorious month there but left Nov 19. I will see if I can get Globie to ask, he hasn't left yet.
Just looked at Richard Freeman's DVD. I suspected that's where I learned it (i used his DVD to learn before I ever went to a Mysore room) and yes, he grabs outside of feet for the chest-to-floor part of the asana, then toes for the lift, then switches to outside edges.
I'll be in Mysore in a couple of weeks. We'll see if anyone corrects how I do the lift. :-)
Interesting Richard switches to toe and back in his dvd as he manages to lift them up still holding onto the outside of his feet on the Jois Yogaworks clip, looked very smooth too, wonder why he changed.
Seems like it's good for the bandhas and going by Suzy's conference notes
http://tinyurl.com/bs93pxs
Sharath seems to be into the lifts at the moment
Yes, only a couple of weeks for your and Susan. This is the year I should have gone too, doing Primary anyway, might as well have done it there, lot warmer than the home shala. Will you blog?
This conversation reminds me of something Cary said to me after I'd practiced with a certified teacher who taught lots of different (more difficult) versions of asanas which were slowly ironed out of my practice by her as not correct... she said just because it's harder doesn't make it better ;) It just strikes me Grimm that if all of those teachers you have observed practice something one way, then that's probably the way it's being taught now - regardless of how it was back in the 80s. But as we all know, it's not really that important!
I'll be blogging at http://journeytomysore.wordpress.com
Can't wait to see Susan again. And meet Sharath! :-)
I don't know Mel, don't think it's a case of whether something is harder but whether there's any benefit in it. Besides we're not talking fancy extra handstands here, this is in Yoga Mala, Jois sat down and wrote it out like that and it's a very carefully written book but forehead to knee has been dropped, eight counts have gone, four vinyasas in paschi?... gone ( what are we down to now two?). Full vinyasa gone (except when Lino's in town)....we keep tearing pages out of yoga mala there won't be anything left. Seems a bit of a shame, got a soft spot for that old text.
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