I've practiced Parsva konasana in the Ashtanga style of Pattabhi Jois for a number of years, enter the posture on the breath, stay for five, exit on the breath and repeat on the other side (ashtanga generates a lot of heat and Parsva konasana comes up in the middle of the standing sequence so we're nicely warmed up for this intense hamstring work).
In the Vinyasa Krama approach to parsva konasana we can see the comprehensive nature of this style of practice. First we enter and exit a simplified, supported, vinyasa/variation of the posture on the breath, then on the third entry we stay for a significant period of time, three to six long slow inhalations and exhalations. Next up come two versions of the posture, an elbow bind and the more classic hands in reverse prayer. As we have seen from the On your feet sequences there are probably other hand/arm variations that we might explore here. Finally we enter the posture again with our palms on the mat but this time raise our trailing leg from the hip in a counter pose, holding for another three to six breaths before returning to the original starting point of trikonasana stithi. There are approximately fifty breaths taken in this one subroutine and it can take anywhere from twelve to twenty minutes depending on how long and slow we make our breath.
This is a pattern that we see in many of the Vinyasa Krama subroutines.
- Enter/exit on the breath
- long stay
- Vinyasas/variations
- counter posture
- return to starting position (stithy).
I tend to practice a couple of the vinyasas in different postures from different subroutines and sequences, building my practice by covering a wide range of posture types. This morning, re shooting the video for this practice sheet I was reminded of how profound practicing a posture in this way can be.
Entering and exiting on the breath allows us to work a little deeper into the posture each time. Knowing we have several attempts we can be gentle on ourselves, ease into the posture
The long stay in the posture allows us to settle, find the spaces, shift our weight here there, sink into the pose.
The vinyasas allow us to explore, extend, expand upon the 'theme' and yet remain centred
The counter pose and return to the point in which we began gives a sense of completeness, the subroutines generally exists as a whole.
And there's flexibility, depending on the level of our practice or how warmed up we are we might not bend as deeply, do all the vinyasas or stay as long.
Caution.
parsva konasana offers a deep stretch to the hamstrings and this is one benefit of working slowly into the posture, it's not one to rush unless we have been prepared before hand by other postures or subroutines.
Tips.
- Protect the hamstrings by pressing the leading foots toes firmly into the mat
- Focus on the trailing hip, make the movement form there. So if your bending over your right leg focus on your left hip, bend from there. but make sure your hips are in line with each other.
- Leading with that trailing hip has the curious sensation of having your backside pulled up into the air as your bent over as if there is a giant balloon hooked into your gluteus maximus
- In the final variation, when you raise your leg, again lift from the hip
- When entering those three times at the beginning of the subroutine I lead with my chin the first time, my nose the second and my forehead the third, this come from a later supine subroutine.
- Engage your mula and uddiyana bandhas, these help protect your hamstrings in paschimottanasana, the seated forward bend but will have the same effect here.
A tweaked or pulled hamstring seems to take forever to heal up completely, for months you'll find yourself mindful of it. You can still practice but it puts a bit of a damper on it, so go easy here. Thats' what a vinyasa karma subroutine is designed to do, to ease you into a posture and vinyasas.
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.
5 comments:
Ok, I admire, this is going to sound very ignorant. My question. Why are there sub routines? Is it to go deep into the routine itself?
I meant to say I admit... But I admire too, it is looking very polished, nice !
'Vinyasa' in ashtnga tensd to refer to the transitioning in and out of a posture but in Vinyasa krama it has Krishnamacharya's usage as variation of an asana ( just to put everyone on the same page)
I seem to remember Ramaswami referencing Krishnamacharya as saying that asana without it's vinyasa is futile. I'm pretty sure I've read it too but can't find it at the moment. He talks about it in the Yoga makaranda, p79 saying all the vinyasas should be followed.
The subroutines are the vinyasas/variations of an asana, but also the stages that lead into and out of an asana. Krishanamacharya says too that the vinyasas must be practiced so that the prana circulates evenly. Ramaswami talks about the vast range of asana as allowing the blood to circulate to all areas of the body. I'm happy to link prana to blood circulation. If we only practice a few asana we don't access our bodies evenly and completely. I think that's the idea.
This suggests that practicing a bunch of unrelated postures in a practice is less than ideal.
But of course we can only practice so much, so there's compromise
Vinyasa Krama recommends practicing a bunch of subroutines and then different subroutines the following day and so on through the week or ten days so we reach all areas of the body
Ashtanga has a wide mixture of postures and mini subroutines that you practice daily.
I like them (subroutines) as you can tell from this post. They lead up to a posture, give you variations of the posture allow you to extend and develop it and then finish with a counterpose, makes sense. Plus if your going to do a posture, if we think that posture has some value then surely we should be milking it for everything it's got. Every slight variation of the posture has a subtle effect on the body.
Sorry carried away : )
I see, now I understand.
So, these sub routines are for, say, an asana in particular, yet different from the routines, say in the book?
The are amplifications or further explorations for each asana in each routine? Am I making sense in the question?
That's how i see it yes. The sequences in the book are just groupings of postures, all the Supine postures, all the Bow postures. Standing gets split into three sequences both feet , one foot/leg and triangle which seems to form a grouping of it's own. then of course all the many postures in lotus and inversions etc. At the back of the book are a number of subroutines that don't seem to fit into any grouping.
Within that grouping, Asymmetric say, there are a number of key asana and it's around these that the vinyasas, the variations are built. Ashtanga has that janu sirsasana mini subroutine but it also has the one leg bent back posture, tiring mukha.... all on it's own, Vinyasa karma has a whole subroutine built around that pose, the different possibilities. Interestingly there is a nice variations in fourth series on that one, with the other leg behind the head, not as tricky as it sounds.
Some subroutines are more challenging than others and they would come later in that overall grouping of subroutines and some of those subroutines see m to lead on to each other others are complete stand alone. I'm just writing up the Virabhadrasana subroutine it seems to make sense that it follows utthita Parsva konasana but is clearly different. The parasaritta subroutine, almost exactly the same as in Ashtanga isn't a development at all and could probably go anywhere in the triangle sequence at the beginning, middle or end.
That's just how I see it though.
Thank you Claudia, was wondering what to write about the Virabhadrasana sequence : )
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