Sunday, 29 August 2010

backbends ......behind the scenes

Coming up from UD and dropping back.


Now it struck me the other morning that I don't tend to show the whole story with regard to my dropbacks etc. I mean you don't want to see all the faffing about right, the coming and going, walking onto the mat, walking back to the camera to turn it off, your busy yogi's you expect a little editing, you just want the main event. And yet it struck me that it gives the impression that I just stand there, drop back, come back up, finish. And something else struck me, if that is how it appears watching the video then is that what, all you who are working on coming up and dropping back, expect. I think I just expected to come up one day and drop back first time. Actually I did dropback first time I tried but the second time, a week later, I landed on my head.

Now I can dropback cold and seven times out of ten come up first time but as a rule I tend to faff about a little. I stretch back and forward, wake my hips up..... well here's the whole story...

Actually there is a little more. I usually get on the mat around 5:30 AM and do ten - fifteen minutes of Tadasana and that includes a couple of light back stretches, which if you haven't seen them before are here here , 3 minutes into the video. Then it's into my backbend faffing about.

What happens in the shalas I wonder, does every one work up to, lots of swaying back and forth, etra little stretches here and there or is it just one, two three.....


PS. Just wanted to mention a blog many might miss in my blog list as it's in Japanese. have a look at this post on C's Practice, practice, practice blog. It's has pictures of a 2nd series led class and there's a video at the end of everybody dropping back . Complete opposite of my faffing about. Everyone drops back over a count of five and come straight back up on a count of three. Check it out here.
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Tuesday, 24 August 2010

New Vinyasa Krama Yoga Blog, sequences and subroutines.

Here's an open invitation to visit my new blog, Vinyasa Krama Yoga, sequences & subroutines, humbly dedicated to my teacher Srivatsa Ramaswami. I want to stress humbly because the blog is intended as a presentation of the sequences and subroutines found in his book The complete book of Vinyasa Yoga and yet there are so many errors and inaccuracies that I hesitate to make the association. I hope to update most of the videos ( mostly taken before I attended his VK TT course ) over time to bring them into greater correspondence with the text.

Although much taken with the book, when I first came across it around June 2009 (here's my review, the day after I received it ) I found it difficult to develop a practice based upon it. I was used to Ashtanga and the same set postures every day, faced with the 10 sequences in the book and it's hundreds of vinyasas as well as no DVD's available (unlike Ashtanga ) I really didn't know where to start.

Having so many vinyasas (variations ) made it difficult to learn too, I had to keep stopping to look at the book and work out where I was and how one pose moved into the next and one subroutine into another.

Ramaswami has pointed out that while good to learn the sequences as laid out in the book and how each pose relates to one another, one should not necessarily approach one's daily practice in this manner. He did suggest however, that it might be beneficial to occasionally review the sequences.

The key, for me at least, has been to be to see the book as a collection of subroutines rather than whole sequences or individual postures. In your practice you might do a number of subroutines taken from different sequences based on the needs of your body and ability. Ramaswami stresses some key postures that his teacher, Krishnamacharya, recommended to practice daily, long stays in Paschimottanasana, Sarvangasana, Sirsasana and maha mudra and that, in your daily practice, you might aim to include these postures while attempting to cover a wide range of vinyasas over a weekly or fortnightly cycle.

The new blog seeks to present the different subroutines in order of the book, as divided up and numbered by Ramaswami in his September newsletter. The hope is that a visual representation may help in learning the sequences and transitions.

Here, In my current blog , over the last few weeks I've included some practice reports. The idea is that in the future I can present a report with links to the different subroutines on the sister blog, as well as offering some alternative practices aimed at different levels of ability.

So, for example, I tend to do a variation of the backbend focused practice below, pretty much every other day just switching some of the different vinyasas but keeping a large backbending element. A click on the highlighted subroutine takes you to the video on the sister blog.

Tadasana p.1
Usual key vinyasas but extra attention on backbend variations
*Dropbacks x 5 including Eka & Dwi pada chakra bandhasana.

Triangle Element p.147

On one leg element p87
Standing marichi, Ardha-Badha-padmasana in Vrikshasana (half locked lotus in tree pose inc toe balance) *Natajarasana

*I should really be doing my Paschimottanasana here before Bow rather than after but I want to take a long 10 min paschi as a counterpose to all the backbends coming up.

Bow Sequence p.137

Meditative pose Sequence p.176
Ustrasana (camel) subroutine, includes *Kapotasana and *Eka Pada kapotasana

Paschimottanasana p.71 10 min.
as counter to all the backbending

Apanasana (pelvic lift)
U- formation (arms and legs raised while supine)
Dwipadpitam (Desk pose)

Shoulderstand 5mins p.123
Dropping back into uttana mayurasana as a counterpose

Headstand 10 mins p.161

Shoulderstand 5 mins p.123

feet together UD as counterpose

Lotus element p.189
Bhandrasana (peaceful pose), Yoga mudra and it's vinyasas etc

Kapalabhati 108

Pranayama
Nadi Shodhana 30 minutes

Pratyahara 3min

Mantra meditation 30 min

takes about 2 1/2 hours

As you can see, there are still some videos I haven't posted. I'm thinking it might be possible to link the videos together and perhaps speed it up to have a video of the actual practice. I'm planning on posting some pranayama videos in the next week or two as well. I also hope to link from there to posts here on some of the more challenging postures I've already posted on in the context of Ashtanga.

The new blog then, is intended as an aid/resource to help in developing a Vinyasa Krama practice, to make it easier, more accessible, as such I welcome suggestions and recommendations for improving it.

Links to the individual subroutines can also be found at the bottom of this blog
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Sunday, 1 August 2010

Lotus to headstand from Vinyasa Krama Lotus sequence


I'd figured I would keep up with Ashtanga Primary and 2nd series on Friday and Saturday but decided to drop Intermediate yesterday. Enjoying VK so much at the moment and wanted to work on a lotus sequence we developed on the course, so did that instead.

I might drop Intermediate altogether and just keep Primary on Friday, I like the backbend work more in VK at the moment and tend to do arm balances in my evening practice.

I keep Primary because I still love it and like the idea of keeping some link between early and later Krishnamacharya, besides It's a nice way of practicing the Asymmetric hybrid postures.

The lotus sequence we developed on the course was to practice, as usual, through the essentials of Tadasana, some key vinyasas from Triangle and the On one foot elements ( including half lotus as prep). Then choose the Half lotus subroutine in the Asymmetric portion before Paschimottanasana. Next we go for the spread angle subroutine from Seated to open the hips nicely. Shoulderstand prep, then lotus variation in headstand and the second shoulderstand, then spend more time than usual in Lotus and it's vinyasas. The spread angle subroutine I found to be wonderful prep for my lotus.

Full Vinyasa Krama lotus sequence with practice sheets and subroutine videos as well as a speeded up x4 full sequence here.

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/p/vinyasa-krama-yoga-sequences.htmlhttp://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/p/vinyasa-krama-yoga-sequences.html

I remember trying to get the lotus to headstand move before the course, trying it again and again and not getting anywhere, seemed impossible, absurd, undoable until I saw Ricky and Chris do it in LA. Perhaps it's all the bandha work in pranayama but I managed it first time yesterday.

Note: I don't tend to think about rounding the back here, perhaps because I'm beginning from lotus rather than lowering down in karandavasana, the rounded back is more an effect of drawing the Knees up your arms towards your armpits, it's like engaging uddiyana bandha but while on an inhalation. If you aim your knees for your armpits your back is just going to curl.
Going down I tend to try and lower my lotus half way while keeping my hips high just like karandavasana and then while trying to keep the hips high curl my knees again towards my armpits and then try and glue them there as I lower eventually sliding the knees down the arms and back into your padmasana. For some resin I find it easier going up the arms than lowering the last couple of inches to a graceful rest, bit of a clunk at the end.
Here it is then, the first time properly and then the second time with a handy cheat bringing first one leg and then the other up onto the forearms.


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Friday, 30 July 2010

The grip; Natajarasana and Eka pada raja kapotasana

These poses are very much work in progress but I seem to have finally worked out what's going on with the grip.
One of the things I noticed during the recent VK TT course was how useful certain aspects of my ashtanga background have been, in particular the way we tend to work on the same poses day after day. In many yoga classes it seems, the poses and sequences can change from one class to the next, thus a posture you find difficult might not come around again for a couple of weeks. In Ashtanga, if your last posture is laghu vajrasana, you'll work on on it five days a week until you nail it and once you do you'll continue to polish it day after day. It's a possible drawback to Vinyasa Krama in that your encouraged to try to cover as many postures as possible over a week or a fortnight, although you do have a couple of key asanas that your advised to practice everyday.

My way around this is to practice the key asana as advised and then choose a couple of challenging asana to work on, if not daily then every other day, the rest of the practice will then rotate through the different sub routines and sequences over the week. The 'challenging' postures (to me anyway) that I try to work on everyday are Natajarasana, Hanumanasana and Eka pada Raja kapotasana.

One of the difficulties with Natjarasana and Eka pada raja kapotasana is the grip on the foot. here they are at full speed and then in slow motion.


and some screen shots, notice how the elbow rotates out from underneath.









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The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga : Subroutines page numbers

List of individual Asana sequences in Ramaswami's. 'The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga'
I'll also be putting this list at the bottom of the blog for ease of reference, especially for when I post practice sequences.

Highlighted link to sister blog with videos of seequences and subroutines.

Chapter I. On your Feet sequence p. 1
(special sequences from 11th chapter)
12. khagasana p240
14. dingnamaskara p237

Ch II. Asymmetric Seated Vinyasa Sequence p35

ChIII. Seated Posterior Stretch Sequence p71

Ch IV. On One leg Yogasanas p87
44. trivikramasana p97

Ch V. The Supine Sequence p101
48. advanced lead sequence p104
50.jataraparivritti(simple) p105
53.madhyasetu p112
54.urdhvadhanurasana p113
55. advanced dvipadapitam p114
60. jataraparivritti advanced p121
61. jataraparivrittiadvanced II p122
63. sarvangasana-advanced lead sequence p123
71.karnapidasana p135

Ch VI. The Bow Pose Sequence p137
83. dhanurasana p145

Ch.VII. The Triangle Pose Sequence p147
90. samakonasana p159

Ch VIII. The Inverted posture Sequence p161
94.urdhvadandasana p168
96. mandala p169
99. viparita vrikshasana (hand stands) p174

Ch. IX. Meditative Pose Sequence p176
100. vajrasana lead sequences p176
101. vajrasana p178
102. balasana p
103. ushtra nishada p181
104. advanced ushtrasana p181
105. kapotasana p182
106.virasana p184
107. simhasana p186

Ch X. The Lotus Pose Sequence p189
118. p

Ch. XI. Visesha Vinyasa Kramas p213
119. vasishtasana p219
120. anjaneyasana p223
121. halasana-pascimatana-uttanamayura sequence p228
122. utplutis p230

Ch. XII. The Winding Down Procedure p246
123. yogic postures for `breathing exercises p247
124. Kapalabhati p248
125. Pranayama p249
126. The Locks ( Bandhas) p250
127. Pratyahara - Sealing the senses p253

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