Day 18 : Standing Marchi subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

TIPS/HINTS/SUGGESTIONS

As with yesterday, Day17, slow steady breathing, downward gaze fixed on a single point and the engaging of the bandhas can help here.

Ramaswami suggests leaning forward slightly when we try to reach around the leg.

When bound, as we bend forward, we aim to ultimately bring the forehead below the knee but in the beginning can settle for first the forehead and then the nose.

We might entering the posture on the exhalation and then come straight out on the following inhalation. then as we become more confident stay for one breath and progress from there, the die is to work on remaining steady and comfortable.

the gaze will move of course as we bend but try to keep it in a single line, tracking from the mat to our foot and up our leg.

Ramaswami asks us to squeeze the knee tight against our chest on each exhalation 'squeezing as much air out of our lungs as possible'.

Caution
As we bend deeper into the bound pose we give quite a stretch to the gluteus maximus (buttock) so want to make sure we're sufficiently warmed up. The forward bends, uttanasana and ardho uttanasana subroutines in the On your feet sequence are a suggestion.

NB: These are practice notes that will be tidied up and put into the new edition of my Vinyasa Yoga Practice Book along with the current sequences and subroutines. The book can be freely downloadedHERE. There is a page on Facebook HERE with all the latest sheets and updates. This book is in no way a substitute for Ramaswami's Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga.