1. Press the ball of the big toe down and roll the tops of the thighs in.

2. Lift the little toe side of the foot up and lift the outer hips to the ceiling.

3. Dig the heels and lift the lowest crease of the buttocks upwards.

4. Ground the inner heel down and take the inner groins to the floor.

5. Lift the hips to the front body until you come to the very top of the shoulders.

These are the feet actions that can be transfered to any backbend, be it Urdvha Dhanurasana, Urdvha Mukha Svanasana, Dhanurasana for example. 

The bend in backbends should come not from throwing the abdomen forward and compressing the lower back. It should come from a bend deep in the lowest crease of the buttocks so that the abdomens remains soft but lenghtened and the lower back remains broad and supportive.

Thank you for sharing your time with me.

Asha.

The movement of the shoulder backwards is balanced by the press of the lower buttock crease forward and up.

The lift of the chest is balanced with the lift and press of the abdomen.

Finally, the lift of the ribs is balanced by the lift of the inner knees.

All this is maintained as the outer hips roll towards each other.

These are the refinements in the posture.  This post assume that you know how to get up in the pose, bring the hips forward and up and move the chest forward until the back of the armpit starts going beyond the upper arm.

It is my pleasure sharing yoga with you.  Enjoy practicing.

Namaste.

It helped Virabharasana I tremendously and was also useful in Uthitta Trikonasana and Uthitta Parsvakonasana as well.

It wasn't a complete instruction on its own as the extension in the limb and the extension in the trunk still had to be impressed, but it solved a big mystery in getting the femur head and pelvis to move properly in these poses.

Mantra - With the ball of the big toe grounded, use the head of the femurs to position the pelvis

Namaste,

Asha.

Today I will focus on the movement of the skin in the four areas of the torso.  These areas are:

The Front Lower Torso or Abdomen - where the skin goes in and up

The Front Upper Torso of Chest - where the skin goes up and outwards

The Back Upper Torso - where the skin must go down

The Back Lower Torso - where the skin must go down and outward as well

Focusing on these instructions in all my postures, (especially Virabhadrasana I) caused an auto adjustment of all the limbs attached to the torso.

I call the torso, the Sewing Mannequin torso, to make it even easier to conceptualize in these poses.

It can only be recognized through Svadyaya, so I can only invite you to practice it and be invited to a whole new perspective of Tadasana.

Namaste

Asha.

To Balance the Pose Front and Back

1. Press the ball of the big tone down and take the front outer hip forward

2. Press the femur bone into the hamstring and extend strong through that back heel

To Balance the Pose Along the Diagonal

1. Move the chest towards the head

2. Extend Through the back leg

To Address Common Weakness

1. Use the stretch through the center back heel to pull the trapezium away from the neck

2. Make sure that hip flexor stretches as the chest turns upwards.

That is how I started to feel when I began to conquer Virbhadrasana I. That need to bottle up a sensation so it never ran away again.

It was Padangushtasana II that brought the lesson home however.  That one lesson transferred itself from that pose to many others.

Here are the 'magic' instructions starting from padangushtasana I with the right leg up:

1) Take the right outer hip down, the left outer hip up
2) Direct the back of the right sit bone, around to the left arch.
3) Iron the pubic plate up toward the head, and the sacrum down towards the heel.

These instructions I found, allowed the abdomen to be soft and expansive, as the tight hip joints and weak pelvis got out of the way of the abdomen's true expansion.

This bliss could then be experienced in many other poses if the same instructions are followed:

Virabhadrasana III
Eka Pada Sarvangasana
Parsvottanasa

Thanks for letting me share with you.

Namaste.

So I made some discoveries today while practicing. It concerns the subtleties in our inversions to give stability, direction and balance.

Headstand (Salamba Sirsana)

1) Press the outer wrist into the floor

2) Life the trapezium muscles upwards

3) Put the exact center of the top of the head on the floor.

Note: For 3) above it may feel like the head is a little far away from the palms if you are used to doing this closer to your forehead. But it is correct action and will prevent the trusting of the lower front ribs.

Shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana)

1) Get to exact tip for the shoulders

2) Lift the sternum

3) Roll the upper arms outwards

4) Get that stretch in the skin at the back of the neck.

In all inversions, like in Mountain Pose (Tadasana), use the press of the heal to control the back body and use the press through the metatarsals to control the front body.

So press the heal and lift the trapezius away from the neck.

Press through the metatarsals, take the whole abdominal wall in and lengthen the front body.

Practicing in this way brings balance to the organs in inversions and allows you to stay in the pose comfortably, longer.

Thank you for practicing with me ;)

Namaste.

This is often delivered by allowing the student to experience the correct actions in a seemingly less complicated pose (often Tadasana/ Mountain Pose) and then allowing them to experience the very same actions in the remaining asanas of the class.

What this means is that the more senior the teacher, the more his/her classes are organized around a central and identifiable theme. It is identifiable mainly by a mantra, or oft repeated phrase.

The mantra I found myself repeating in class this week was 'Take the diamond of the abdomen back and take the tail bone to the floor'.

Now first some definitions:

The Diamond of the Abdomen - this is the entire wall of abdominal muscles, that begins underneath the lower ribs and continues to the top of the pelvis. It is nicknamed as such because of the shape of the bones that define the region. Instructing a student to take that area back, is more efficient an than instruction than 'Take the abdomen back', as the abdomen is often perceived as a small area surrounding the navel. The diamond of the abdomen, when clearly identified, helps the student perceive the whole abdominal wall of muscles, regardless of the pose/configuration they are in.

The Tail Bone - This is at the very tip of the spine. In many individuals, especially those with lower back issues, the tail bone points back and up, rather than back and down. This is due to the lordosis or concavity that occurs in the lumbar region. The purpose of taking the tail bone down, is therefore to create extension in the back lumbar region.

These two action correct many things in one, but overall they create awareness in the back body. I will illustrate with Tadasana.

In Tadasana, often in an effort to open the chest, the part of the abdominal wall near the floating ribs is thrown forward, the hips go forward of the heels, the top front rim of the pelvis tilts forward, and the majority of the feet's weight goes in the toes.

When the whole diamond of the abdomen is taken back and the tailbone is brought down, the lower ribs can line up with the hip bones, the pelvis is realigned and the weight on the feet goes back towards the heels.

These are seemingly simply actions that have profound consequences:

Physically,
1) they realign the pelvis. (This is especially important in women who have borne a child.)
2) they relieve lower back issues, as the lower back is encouraged away from a state of lordosis.
3) they bring tone to the entire abdominal wall

Mentally, they can do a lot as well. Many of us live mentally in the future. We are often think of what we have to do when we get out of practice, or when we reach the supermarket etc., rather than live in the moment. This physically manifests itself by a heavy inclination towards the front body. Protruding foreheads, protruding lower ribs, bulging abdomens, are all a physical manifestation of that mental tendency.

This whole idea then, of bringing as much awareness to the back body as to the front, is a physical manifestation of yoga bringing you back to the present. It can initially be experienced in Tadasana and then in all the other straight-spine postures as well.

Reason One: To maintain an open chest

One of the main reasons mentioned prior, was to maintain an open chest.  

It should be no secret that the breathing techniques are extremely important in yoga. As such, it is introduced in many a beginner class in a variety of ways.  In some schools of yoga, the breath is first laced within a flowing sequence of postures.  In other schools of yoga, a full fledged Pranayama practice is introduced from day one. In Iyengar yoga, the importance of breath first manifests itself by aligning the pose so that chest is open and the breath can be full.

Opening the chest then, should take priority over everything else. Reviewing the sets of pictures from the last blog post, will quickly reveal how the chest opens up in the final set, where the legs are wider apart and the hand is higher. In the case of Triangle Pose then, widening the stance and introducing a block or chair for the front hand is a good option. It is all depends of the direction of the center of the practitioner's chest. Is it pointing directly outward or is it pointing down to the floor?.  The former, of course, is ideal.

Reason Two: To allow the torso and head to turn freely

Triangle Pose is a twist. It is often thought of just a standing pose, but there must be some revolution of the torso and head for the pose to be done correctly. As with all twists the spine must be extended before twisting can begin. Creating more distance between the legs allows the the torso to extend and the twist to be deeper. At the same time it becomes more therapeutic for the neck and shoulders.

To see if you twist enough in Triangle Pose pose, see if while in the pose,  the lower side of the torso is directly above the top of the front leg. This way you practice self-study or Svadhyaya.

Reason Three: To find Tadasana in the posture

The third reason underscores one of the understated aims of yoga: and that is, to find Tadasana (Mountain Pose) in every posture.  

The picture below will illustrate how Tadasana can be found in Triangle Pose.

The back leg is the standing, or Tadasana leg. The chest is open, and facing forward, just like in Tadasana.  In any other variation of the pose (see last blog post's pictures), Tadasana can not easily be found, as the chest closes and the back leg wanes.

Not only is this important from a physical stand point, but from a mental standpoint as well.  The question is, Can we maintain the steadiness of mind, the focus, the alertness that Tadasana requires, in every single posture?  Can we then carry that over into life, and be as present in every situation that we find ourselves in? We will expand a little more on this in a future blog post but that is the question many of the standing poses ask.

Utthita Trikonasana - Finding Tadasana in the pose

Reason Four: To allow the legs to work correctly

The fourth main reason for the alignment mentioned in the last post is to make the legs work correctly.  I will again demonstrate with pictures.  

One of the missions of the front leg in this pose, is to teach the hip opening action that is found in more advanced poses such as Padmasana.  There are several ways to experience it:
1) Turning the knee to the little toe side of the foot.
2) Rotating of the thigh muscle to the outer hip.
3) Rotating the front buttock well underneath, until the sit bone is in line with the heel.

Regardless of the action(s) you are familiar with, they all results in the same thing: the rotation of the front femur (the thigh bone) in its socket.

If the pose is too narrow, the back leg is disturbed by these actions.  The back thigh tends to pop forward and the back knee tends to bend. This happens because the legs don't have enough room to work independently.  Then the back leg looses its 'tadasana-likeness' and the groins get compressed.

Utthita Trikonasana - actions to rotate the front thigh bone in  socket. Notice the  back thigh wants to pop forward. Taking the legs wider will begin to address that.

So in many cases, to allow the legs to work independently, without affecting the potential contribution of each other, they must be further apart.
 

Yoga Philosophy and Triangle Pose

Now just to touch briefly on how the suggestions made in this blog post tie back to the philosophies of yoga.  Remember in Iyengar yoga,  the intention is to reach a meditative state within each posture, regardless of the level of the practitioner. 

Its a little bit different from other forms of yoga where asanas are done and then meditation follows. In fact this is one of the reasons the poses are held so much longer. The idea is that if we can meditate in each of the 600 postures identified in modern yoga, then we can meditate in any situation in life.

To reach a meditative there are certain requirements. Here are just a few:
1) The mind must be free of fluctuations (vrittis) - physical discomfort is one possible source of distraction hence the emphasis on having them removed.
2) An alert mind - hence the attention on attaining a 'tadasana-like' state of mind.
3) Self-study - hence the encouragement to align the pose from within.
4) A steady full breath - hence the priority given to opening the chest.

Summary

Observing the suggestion 'Step Wider, Go Higher', Triangle Pose can move from just being a hamstring stretch, as the hand reaches to the floor, to opening up the possibilities that it could be much more.  With the correct adjustment for the practitioners level, it could be a hip opening, chest building, neck freeing, leg strengthening experience as well. More importantly, it is one way (not the only way) of moving closer to the aim of yoga.

That is not to say that the hand must never reach the floor. It simply is not the first priority. Most importantly, it should not be done at the expense of all the actions and benefits here mentioned.