Over the last eight days I've presented my practice notes for the subroutines that make up the On your feet sequence. The practice sheets make up the current edition of my Vinyasa Yoga Practice Book and the idea is to add a version of these notes to the next edition to accompany the practice sheets.
Looking at the sequence as a whole we can see how it breaks down into the different subroutines.
There are ten main sequences in Ramaswami's book, The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga
On your feet
Triangle
On one leg
Asymmetric
Seated
Bow
Meditative
Supine
Inverted
Lotus.
We can practice a sequence as a whole and make that our practice for the day or perhaps split over two days, depending on how much time we have available. This is something Ramaswami recommends when first learning the sequences.
Once we become familiar with the sequence we have three options or approaches.
THREE APPROACHES TO VINYASA KRAMA PRACTICE
1. Continue to practice the full sequence
2. Choose one or two subroutines from different sequences to construct our practice.
3. Choose a number of key postures and/or their vinyasas (variations) from the different subroutines and doing the same from other sequences construct our practice.
In my own practice, over a week, I tend to employ all three approaches.
In the morning I tend to use the 3rd approach, whether It's a Vinyasa Karma practice or an Ashtanga practice.
In the evening I tend to practice the 2nd approach, a short asana practice of one of two subroutines before settling down to pranayama and meditation practice.
On my day off work I'll usually go for the 1st approach and practice a full sequence, usually one of the longer ones, Asymmetric, Supine or On your feet, or perhaps two of the shorter ones, Bow and Meditative or Seated and Lotus.
This morning I happened to included all three approaches which perhaps shows the flexibility and integration of Vinyasa Krama
The full On your feet sequence ( approach 1)
Five minute Paschimottanasana
The Shoulderstand prep subroutine (approach 2)
Five minute shoulder stand
Ten minute headstand
Five minute shoulderstand vinyasas (approach 3)
Maha mudra
Pranayama in siddhasana
Meditation in padmasana
In all my morning practices and sometimes in the evening too I'll begin my practice with a shorter On your feet or tadasana sequence. This would be the 3rd approach, a number of different vinyasas from the different subroutines that make up On your feet.
This is very similar to the short version of the On your feet sequence that we practiced every morning with Ramaswami on his teacher training course at LMU.
This is an example of one approach to Vinyasa Krama practice. Rather than rushing through the sequences to cram as many postures and subroutines into our practice as possible, we choose a number of vinyasas (variations) of postures from a couple of different subroutines and practice them mindfully paying attention to the breath and bandhas.
Starting tomorrow I'll present my practice notes for the subroutines in the Triangle sequence.
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.
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