Book review. The complete book of Vinyasa Yoga by Srivatsa Ramaswam

Link to Amazon where you can LOOK INSIDE

http://tinyurl.com/mgwbhx

This arrived yesterday and it's great. Srivatsa Ramaswami, I love this guy! Love how he writes, his lightness of touch, his gentleness. He suggests things ....' I suggest three minutes at first.' he recommends ' First choose a comfortable seated pose. It would be good to take a Yogic pose- the following are some I recommend.' He encourages, ' Slowly and surely both these parameters will improve. You will stay with the breath longer.'

Use the LOOK INSIDE feature on Amazon and get a taste for his style, it's charming and delightful.

Ramaswami seeks to present a fuller treatment of Krishnamachariya's teaching, with whom he studied for over thirty years. The book presents around 900* asana divided into sequences, so you have the standing sequence, seated sequence, inverted sequence etc. If we take the Asymmetrical seated sequence, he begins with a vinyasa into Dandasana and then works through all the one legged poses you can think of, the Marichi's, Eka pada's Bow pose, Heron pose etc, then you vinyasa out and in and start on the other leg, this is basically the idea for all the other sequences. There are something like 1100 pictures.

He's very concerned with the breath, long inhalations and exhalations in the poses and a strong focus on Bandhas. It's very familiar to this Ashtangi, yet softer. I don't feel like giving up my Ashtanga practice just yet but should I become injured in any way this would be the book I would turn to. It makes me think that if I ever get too old or my life became too complicated to practice Ashtanga I would still be able to practice Vinyasa yoga (this is something that had worried me). It's already made me think that it would be nice to practice this method one day a week. Maybe not at the moment as I'm too into my present practice but I was tempted.

Although I'm not going to be switching to his method anytime soon (I love my Ashtanga), I think I'll be incorporating some of his suggestions and recommendations. His slowing of the breath for instance and he's the first guy I've read who makes me want to take Moola Bandha more seriously. Best of all he has a wonderful section at the end called 'Winding down', which is basically Pranayama and meditation. The whole book is nery well presented but this section is particularly good, very approachable. I added it on to the end of my practice this morning and loved it so much that I'll be adding ten to fifteen minutes of Pranayama to my practice every morning.

I ordered another of his books, Yoga beneath the surface just before writing this post. http://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Beneath-Surface-American-Philosophy/dp/15692429

* Although the publishers say 900 or so asana a couple of hundred of those will be the same asana but with a different leg.

108 Sun Salutations UPDATE

REPOST: I was asked about the current enthusiasm for practicing 108 Sun salutations and when it started. I really have no idea but I found this old post from May 2009 of my doing it and going by the comments it seems to have been not uncommon back then, on the Solstice say. Recently I had a student here in Japan who mentioned she wanted to practice 108 sun salutations so I'm curious why it is suddenly so popular. 

See my page at the top of the blog titled The Ashtanga Key, it's all about Sun Salutations. Scroll down and you'll find my posts on the Origin of the Sun Salutation, how it became an exercise fad, and in the posts near the top why Krishnamacharya discouraged excessive amounts of sun Salutations as well as how it taught their practice with mantras to Ramaswami. 

108 Sun Salutations at TRIYOGA London http://www.triyoga.co.uk/story.php?titleid=1436

From 8.30am to 10.30am on Sunday, May 31st, the 13th day after Guruji‘s passing, Joey Miles will be counting through 108 Sun Salutations (or as many as you can manage up to 108!). If you prefer, just come and sit. Nikki Slade will then lead us in a chant in Guruji‘s honor. All are welcome. Tea and biscuits will be shared afterward. This will be our way of expressing the gratitude we feel and a way of honoring this much-loved and hugely respected teacher.

I won't be going to TriYoga tomorrow but am planning on doing the 108 at home tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM ( plus a 30-minute Savasana/Rest afterward).

I'm still a little confused, however, as to how to go about it. Do we still take the five-breath count in downward dog when doing 108 of the buggers or do we go straight back to upward dog on the next inhale?

Counting is also a concern, how best to avoid losing count. I'm thinking ten GO stones at the end of my mat, moving one over every ten Sury's. The thing is I don't want to spend the whole time worrying about losing count.

UPDATE

A couple of hours after the 108 now my arms and shoulders still ache a little, as do my wrists and my neck. The wrists and neck are probably a result of how I half float/jump up to standing from DD. Apart from that, I feel good, no bloodied feet Ursula (thanks to my nice soft Yogitoes perhaps).

I went straight from downward dog back up to standing without taking a five-breath count, I would have been there all day otherwise. I started at 8.30 and finished at 9.22 so just over 50 minutes. Think I was probably going too fast, I tried slowing it down at one point but ended up back at the same pace.

My count was awful. I put ten Go stones at the end of my mat, counted ten Sury's in my head, and then took off a stone at the end of the tenth. I kept losing count and according to the video I ended up doing 13 instead of 10 before I moved the first stone.

I made a video of part of it. My camera only shoots 15 minutes, so I made three and stitched them together. I changed my headband after 20 because I was dripping sweat ( I weighed myself before and I was 78.4, I weighed myself again afterward and I was 77.6, I sweated almost 2 kilos, as you can see from my mat). When I pressed Record for the last part I must have pressed too hard because I moved the camera and lost the clock. This is going to be a very very boring video but maybe it's OK if you fast-forward a couple of times.

In the end, I only rested/stayed in Savasana for 15 minutes. The heating had gone off and it was getting cold. I'm sure Guruji understands.

An interesting experience, 108 is just about right. Halfway through, you start to feel tired of it and have to force yourself to keep going, but then it feels OK again and you get into a nice rhythm. It would be a nice meditation if you didn't have to worry about the count.