Day 34 : Matsyendrasana ( half and full Kingfisher) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

Ardha masyendrasana ( half kingfisher ) is relatively straight forward and a lovely posture but the full Kingfisher pose is challenging.

Getting into Purna Matsyendrasana

This is my current approach.

We need a high, tight half lotus. I take my right leg back, rotating the femur head as far back as possible in the hip socket, similar to archer pose but without bringing the foot to the ear.

I like to have my heel to the right of my belly button before rotating the femur back around, bringing my knee back to centre and my foot big up above the groin, still keeping the heel close to the belly button.

Let the right leg and knee settle on the mat then, and here's the trick, lift up a little and lower slightly on the right of the right sit bone.

Take the left foot over the knee, the knee will be half way up the foot, you kneed to have it braced enough that it doesn't pop out of the bind later.

Bring the left knee over, now here's another trick, stretch up out of your pelvis, engage uddiyana sucking in your belly, the space made will allow your foot to point upwards allowing your knee to come further over.

At the same time fill the chest on the inhalation as you bring your knee over, almost holding the knee in place with your chest as you reach behind the knee bringing your right shoulder as far to the outside of the knee as possible.

This should enable you to slide your arm down the leg and grab your left foot.

Settle yourself, open up your body to the side, look over your shoulder and reach around behind your back with your left hand and hold your right hip bone.

Now it's just a case of balancing the three opposing forces, your left knee wanting to open to the left, your right arm pushing your knee to the right but bringing but wanting to turn the body to the right and your left arm and hand on your hip turning your body out to the left.

When you get them all balanced and settle the great this really is one of the greatest of postures.

Below is  a link to a video I made earlier today that the above description is based upon http://youtu.be/vVSdO1RYMXU

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.

Day 33 : Bharadwajasana (after a sage ) and Mahabandha (great lock ) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

A nice subroutine for maybe towards the end of the practice, perhaps an alternative to full lotus if it's still, as I heard it put once, blossoming.

Bharadwajasana
In the video I'm practicing Bharadwajasana ashtanga style, here in Vinyasa Krama we look over the shoulder on the same side as the folded back leg.

The unbound hand rests on your hip rather than placed under the knee....firmly if you need the extra support for the twist.

Try to keep the shoulders level, there's a tendency to dip the side your twisting in to.

Twist a little further whith each exhalation

Mahabandha (pic 3) engages five bandhas or locks 

1.   Maha bhandha : closing anus with heel

2.   Mula bandha : rectal lock

3.   Uddiyana bandha  : abdominal lock

4.   Jalandhara bandha : chin lock

5.   Jihva bandha toungue lock

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.

The nine bandhas (yes Nine) in the APPLIED ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY OF YOGA of Simon Borg-oliver and Bianca machliss

How many bandhas can you name?

Well there's mula bandha, uddiyana bandha, jalandhara baanda.....that one where all three are engaged, what's that called again... and isn't there another where mula bandha is engaged all the time....

Recently Micqui of (Ashtanga Angel blog ) did a post on another bandha in the foot, where you kind of grip the mat with the toes and heels sucking up the instep. I mentioned it briefly in a comment on one of my posts and then Kecskeméti Balázs commented back about a book he was reading on anatomy that had several other bandhas.


'Hi Grimmly, have you heard about Simon Borg-Olivier? I just came across his book Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga, he seems to have an interesting approach to bandhas. He explains them in terms of activation of muscles and also generalises the idea (besides the 3 main bandhas he lists 6 more "bandhas" eg. knee bandha, shoulder bandha etc.) and also multiple ways to activate them (eg using posture). It's all a bit complicated but for me seems to be worth exploring. I just mentioned this as I feel reading his book is now curing my suspicious attitude towards bandhas'.
Balazs

I looked into it.

The Book is APPLIED ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY OF YOGA by Simon Borg-Olivier
MSc BAppSc (Physiotherapy) & Bianca Machliss BSc BAppSc (Physiotherapy)

As Balazs mentions, they come up with nine bandhas.

'In traditional hatha yoga, a bandha (from the Sanskrit: meaning to bind or lock) is described as a subtle internal energy lock or grip. Bandhas are said to be used to control and guide the energy gathered and generated by the internal body pressures created during hatha yoga via the postures, the muscles and the breath [Sections 1.0.4 & 8.4.1].
On a more physical level a bandha is the co-activation of opposing muscles [Section 1.7.2.2] around a joint complex [Section 1.5.3] that helps stabilise, strengthen and energise that joint complex' p58

'In most of the texts on yoga only three main bandhas are described. These bandhas are intimately connected with the strength and stability of the lumbosacrococcygeal spinal joint complex of the lower back (mula bandha), the thoracic spine joint complex of the upper back (uddiyana bandha), and the cervical spine joint complex of the neck (jalandhara bandha)'. p59


'The concept that bandhas are co-activations of opposing muscles can be extended to the major joints of the upper and lower limbs. Co-activation of opposing muscles around joint complexes (bandha) provides the strength and stability to safely perform advanced yoga postures, and to assist in the Àow of energy throughout the body.' p60

Here then are their nine bandhas

1. kulpha bandha  ankle joint complex.

2. janu bandha  knee joint complex.

3. kati bandha hip joint complex

4. mula bandha lumbar spine joint complex

5. uddiyana bandha  chest and thoracic spine joint complex.

6. jalandhara bandha  cervical spine joint complex.

7. amsa bandha ishoulder joint complex.

8. kurpara bandha elbow joint complex

9. mani bandha  wrist joint complex

Recently my teacher Ramaswami, who studied with Krishnamacharya for 30 years so a pretty classical, traditional teacher, was talking about how engaging mula and uddiaya bandha supports the base of the spine during back bending ...as if you were gripping the handle of of a fishing rod.

And in his most recent newsletter ( see yesterday ) he's writing about how asana works with the joints

'Yoga, especially vinyasakrama yoga, tends to work with almost all the articulation of all the joints especially the ankles, knees, hips, the spine and arms'.

One of the many things Borg-Oliver and Machliss are doing are doing in their book is showing how it's possible to approach each of the joints we work in yoga asana and, while practicing, give the same kind of support to the joints we're familiar with from the three more well known bandhas.

Which leads to a safer practice

...and because, the joints are more supported, perhaps allow us to take our practice further into more challenging asana.

Borg-Oliver and Machliss not only describe and illustrate the anatomy and physiology of these nine bandhas they also give suggestions and postures (with lots of pictures) on how to develop and control those bandhas.

This is only one area of their book, it's a pretty comprehensive and detailed applied anatomy and physiology of yoga, take a look for yourselves, they have a fifty odd page downloadable sample from their website yoga synergy and HERE's a link direct to the sample. The book is available as a pdf download, looks excellent on the iPad (what were you going to buy your iPad for christmas ), or in book form direct from them. It's also on Amazon, I bought mine from Amazon.com as it was a lot cheaper than in the UK. When looking at it on their website remember the price is in Australian dollars.

Oh and they also have an online course, which is looking tempting.

 

Expect to hear more from me on this as I work through the book, perhaps a post, a taste, each of their nine bandhas. Plus they have a lot to say on how asana facilitates circulation of the blood etc. around the body in asana, an interesting section on Pranayama, on diet......

I'm fascinated.

Day 32 : Ardha-padma marichiyasana ( half lotus sage ) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

This subroutine comes before Day 31's tiryng-mukha marichiyasana in Ramaswami's book and on the video link above, I missed it out from the practice sheets but will switch them back around when updating my book.

This along with Day31 and the next two subroutines are hybrid asymmetric vinyasas, each leg is in a different position, here the right in padmasana while the left is in marchi.

I find this half lotus version easier than the backward facing foot from yesterday, the lotus seems to give more stability when lowering my forehead to the mat in pic 3.

Notes for the half lotus are of course the same as in Day 26 but we're required to have a tighter lotus, the foot deeper into the groin to allow the other thigh to come up as we bring the opposite foot to our buttock.

Half lotus

See also Day 17 Vrikmasana for some notes on standing half lotus.

To get into half lotus : Bend the knee bringing it towards the chest, allow the knee to drop out to the side, key here is the natural rotation in the hip joint. Bring the foot close to the opposite thigh, hold your foot in one hand and the knee in the other and GENTLY encourage the roration of the ball and socket hip joint, bring the knee forward parallel with the floor towards the opposite knee and the foot further up the thigh and ideally, eventually, towards the groin.

CAUTION

You don't want to force this action, if you feel strain on your knee it may be better to practice tomorrows subroutine built around mama mudra with the foot against the thigh rather than on top instead. Practicing the maha mudra subroutine will bring half, and eventually, full lotus closer.

As yesterday, for the bind sit tall, stretch out of the pelvis and swing the arm around the knee on the exhalation. Search for the binding hand  as if you were trying to put your arm through the sleeve of a tangled jacket.

On the next inhalation stretch tall again up out of the pelvis to straighten and realign after the fumbling for the hand behind your back, then lower your forehead to the mat.

The same goes for the twist to look over your shoulder, sit tall and lift up out of your pelvis to create the space to allow for your body to twist.

Picture 6 is another variation of marchi, a very challenging reverse twist. It's not in Ramaswami's Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga but if your coming from Ashtanga as I did it's a posture you might miss and slips into the subroutine nicely here.

To get into the reverse twist you need to have the foot on the floor slightly to the left of your left buttock and then tilt the knee inwards. Bandhas need to be engaged, mula to ground, uddiyana to give more space around the midriff. Sit very tall, lift up as high out of the pelvis as possible. Twist as far to left as your able and swing your right arm around your right knee, you'll need to dip your body slightly down to the left to bring the outside of your shoulder as close to the outside of your knee as you can. As you stretch around to bind your shoulder brings your knee over, half way around you come out of the dip and stretch up out of your pelvis again while twisting to look over your shoulder. There is a tendency to drop the left shoulder, you'll need to keep it high to be able to reach the left hand behind your back.

The reverse twist is challenging and can take sometime to master but many of the principles are the same as the upcoming purna matsyendrasana, another posture that we gradually work towards.

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.

Day 31 : Tiryang mukha Marichiyasana (Backward facing foot marichi) subroutine practice notes from Vinyasa Krama On one leg sequence

VIDEO LINK

Stay at each stage for three to six breaths

This subroutine is an extension on the previous subroutine but also of the marchi sequence from Day 25

HINTS/TIPS/SUGGESTIONS


The forward bend here(pic 2)  is surprisingly challenging, lift up out of the pelvis, enter the forward bend on the front of your sit bones pushing your backside back.

Make the exhalation long and slow as you bend forward, constrict the glottis more to make a more forceful ujjayi to control the descent.

As with the standing and seated marchi subroutines, the bind can be the challenge


We reach behind our back on a smooth exhalation


As you swing the arm around the knee think of putting on a coat the dipping of the shoulder forward as you reach around, half rotating your arm to get further around the knee.

Engage the bandhas, mula will ground you providing more stability, sucking in your belly in uddiyana bandha will give you more room for the forward bend.

As ever on the twist we again want to stretch up out of our pelvis on the inhale and twist a little more on on each of the exhalations, lifting a little more on the inhalations.

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.