1. School children participate in a mass yoga session during the third day of 21st International Kite Festival at Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, 11 January 2011.
2. Thousands of people take part in a mass yoga class conducted at an Art of Living Centre in India. 12 December 2006.
3. A demonstration in Beijing's Tai Temple Square marked the resumption of mandatory exercises for Chinese workers. 11 August 2010
4. &5 Thousands of people took a group Yoga class in New York City's Central Park. 22 June 2010

(Found here)

details

The inspiration for all that deep groin release in class this week was this post from Anna Karkovska McGlew at fleshcontext.

"...this is an active groin release, not a passive one. It involves a strap, so go get one (the longer the better; if not, you might need to connect two straps to make a long one). The video will show you how to loop the strap around your feet, shins and thighs. Notice that the heels are not together in this variation, only the toes and the balls of the feet are touching, the heels never touch. Once you get there, anchor your upper arm bones against the floor. As you pull on the tails of the strap, actively press the balls of the feet into each other and resist the heels away from each other (same idea as above). At the same time, lift your heels away from the floor, as if someone is prodding the outer heels and the outer edges of the feet up from underneath. By this time, you will probably feel a stretch from the pubic bone through the upper inner thigh. Don't forget to breathe and keep space between the upper and lower jaw. Also, your buttocks will be working, but don't confuse working with overworking and gripping. If you feel like you are gripping, think of broadening the buttocks away from the sacrum and lengthening the center of the buttocks away from the top of the pelvis in the back. Finally, check once or twice to see that the heels are evenly lifting away from the floor. Often one will be higher than the other, as in the upright version--you  might also be able to discern this from the tone of your buttocks against the floor/mat..."

It's been helping me with my hip movements in overhang climbs too.

The Art of Improvisation

When it comes to my own movement practice, be it yoga asana, climbing, dance, making things or going out for a run, the holy grail is improvisation. Ido Portal is a big advocate of this and it's his 'Three I's' that have inspired me here....I've added the first I...

Intention

What do you need from your practice right now?

Regardless of what you actually do, if your practice is an expression of what is alive in you now, that practice will help you stay present during your time on the mat. That experience can serve as a model for practicing presence all day long. It will also satisfy you and thus help give you the impetus to practice again tomorrow. If you force yourself to practice because you think you should, because you didn't yesterday, or for any other more external reason, even the most technically polished poses will not answer your inner need for ease and wholeness. 

Isolation

Break down the patterns that make up the shape you are working towards, or the area of practice strength/flexibility/ease of movement that you want to work on.

Isolating the basic movement patterns and practicing them with care is like taking a daily shower. These movements will always be useful and will keep your system open and mobile.

Integration

Start to combine those basic actions by creating simple sequences that helps you address your movement patterns or the components of the particular posture you are working towards.

Improvisation

Uneducated improvisation is disconcerting: beginner dancers attacking an irish jig, your housemates experimental cocktail you are still trying to forget...Good improvisation is usually (there can be exceptions) grounded in strict theory that becomes plient when mixed with a little creativity. You have to know the technique behind what you are trying to do, then depart from it.

Once you learn how the big patterned movements work together in your body and where your limitations are you can start to improvise with sequences. What this means to you depends on the movement qualities you have developed and what you are working on now. It’s a personal thing. Everyone moves differently.

Work on finding that connection with the parts of you that meet the ground. When well grounded we may be still but the slightest impulse can initiate movement and breathing can adjust appropriately. Any unhelpful tension will stiffen us, fix the breath and take away the potential for free movement away.
Keep yourself in motion, keep working—this practice won’t give up anything easily, but it will reward your work and your curiosity and your commitment.

Take inspiration and instruction from class, ofcourse, but balance that with some healthy questioning of what you are told. You have as much intuition, self-awareness and self-knowledge as the next person. Use it. Trust your self! You are looking for freedom, not someone else’s idea of how your body should move. 

Phrases

I've been thinking a lot about transitions in my own practice recently, like really really precise foot work when climbing and noticing the subtle shifts in weight when doing floor work, and how important awareness in those small linking movements improve the quality of the shapes with bigger demands on the body.

It's been a really nice theme for my classes this week too. To prepare for class I've been making little 'movement riddles' for my self. I'll start with a particular asana or pattern (I think of it as a phrase) and then break that phrase down to the most basic elements try it with pauses, linked with more fluid movement,  then reversed and maybe inverted...I end up holding acres of movement in my head, what I'm going to teach always starts like a broken jigsaw. In getting students to use these phrases to inquire about their own movement we learn together. I love that. 

 

"With asana I felt there was a desire to create perfect lines that I question in their straightness. Why if our bodies are so rounded, and our muscles wrap around everything so fluidly, why the attention and determination to become a straight line? It felt like something was crooked. Something was not serving the way my body is."

--  Andréa de Keijzer 
from a conversation with Matthew Remski.

(Found here)

step back.

There is a transformative power in seeing the familiar from a new, more distant perspective.

 Chose to step back sometimes.

Wild Thing

" The claim that Wild Thing can be done safely might involve the same wishful/magical thinking as the claim that yoga and meditation will automatically “shift consciousness”, whether individually, communally, or “vibrationally”. Both claims seem to depend upon overlooking concrete material conditions in favour of nurturing faith in vague metaphysical principles. Concrete material conditions demand specific learning objectives. If yogis want to be smart on the biomechanics front, yoga needs physios, osteos, neurologists and kinesiologists. If yogis want to be at all relevant on the cultural front, yoga needs anti-oppression educators and activists."

If you have a bit of time to spare I would recommend heading over to Matthew Remski's blog to read his What are we actually doing in asana? posts. His latest addition to the ongoing project provides
a thorough biomechanical critique of what “Wild Thing” forces the supporting shoulder joint to do. 

His writings so far make for some thought provoking reading, every time I delve in I come away with the same simple question; 

 'What is my intention when practicing and teaching this stuff?'

It's an important question and Mr Remski (and others!) are opening up a well needed debate.

Go check it out!
(p.s. read the comments section too!)

Mad Love

Meghan Currie's Mad Love time lapse.

Practice

Your Yoga practice, if preformed intelligently, is a self exploration. You can learn about the way in which you inhabit your body. You can learn about muscular habits and patterns that you have laid down in your life and you can start to find out what these patterns mean for your body. You can also start to re-write the script and change the patterns that are not helpful.

YOUR BODY REPRESENTS THE LIFE YOU HAVE LIVED THUS FAR, YOUR HISTORY.

image from here

Keep it simple.

If this practice is not bringing you any joy or discoveries or suppleness then maybe you are doing too much or trying too hard?
You need to take the time to listen as you work.

If you lose the simplicity, go for a walk and come back later.

Love!
(found here)

"When I teach now, I no longer look at a posture as something to do, nor at the student as someone who should do it. I see the posture as something to try, and the student as someone who might find it interesting, with or without the potential benefit of my experience, which may or may not apply to them. However they engage the posture, it will be with their body: the body that they are, the body they live through, a body I am not, a body that does not exist as I experience it but as they do, in a way that I will never fully know.

Realizing that you can never fully know someone — because you are not their body, which means you can neither possess nor change them — is at the root of being able to love them while glimpsing your own strangeness, and while keeping the bullshit to a minimum."

-- Matthew Remski

Quote taken from the blog post 'I am not (what you need) from my body: Expanding-on-a-yoga-meme" . Worth a read!

Yoga to go: The keys to a rewarding home practice

Newsflash!!!
WORKSHOP ALERT

Where? Triyoga Chelsea 
When? 31/01/2014
Time? 19:30 - 21:30
Price? £25

So if you are interested in nurturing or developing a home practice or if you find your self at a loose end, or not knowing where to take a new pet, human or otherwise I really must recommend you come along and say hi and get your stretch on...click HERE for tickets.

And here is the blah blah...

Do you love your yoga practice at the studio but your home practice never quite meets your expectation?

Our bodies represent the life we have lived thus far; a map of our personal history. The physical aspects of Yoga provide a useful tool to view the way we move. For this practice to be of use, it makes sense to tailor it to your life and body. That’s where rolling out the mat at home comes in.

Going to class is brilliant, of course, but translating that to a home practice can be tricky.  In this workshop you are invited to make clear choices about which feelings in your body you pay attention to - building your self-knowledge, intuition and self-trust that, if used intelligently, will help you direct a practice that fits within the boundaries of where you are, what you're feeling, and what you're needing.

Join Rachel in starting and/or nurturing your home practice, to get the most out of your body in the safest possible way. Prepare to:

     

·         Focus the mind for the moment-to-moment noticing and decision-making that takes place during asana practice

·         Create templates for your own safe sequencing

·         Get rid of the myths and inspire yourself to help make things a little easier when removing the obstacles to practising at home

teacher bio:

Rachel’s teaching springs from the very precise Iyengar system, but is also greatly influenced by the study of functional movement, the work of Vanda Scaravelli and her current teacher Anna Ashby.  Classes combine an appreciation for alignment with a real love of movement, while including more restorative practices where appropriate.  Rachel’s training includes the Karuna Yoga Teacher Training Diploma (RYS 500 hours, 2007-  09) and the Restorative Yoga (36 hours, 2011) taught by Anna Ashby and Chris Swain.

www.rachel-and-yoga.com


(image found at goldlionaz)

Chez les Yoghis

This is fanTASTIC!
Found via Yoga Dork

Grounding

All posture work should be preceded by a sense of grounding so that we don't carry tension and previously held patterns into our practice. A slow but fruitful practice!
Posture work is a constant investigation into ways to maintain the integrity of a movement without accumulating tension.
Tension = unnecessary effort put into an action.

image from here

Sequence: with swimming in mind...

1.Virasana.
(swimmers use the ankles as the foundation of movement propelling the body forward with a kick. In freestyle the top of the foot should hit the water as if in Virasana at 180 degrees.)
2. Balasana 
3. Kneeling Twist/Thread-the-needle
4. Adho Mukha Svanasana to Urdhva Mukha Svanasana x3
(Rotator cuff injuries or shoulder tendonitis occur when the rhomboids are not held in place when the arm is raised in freestyle stroke. Instead of the muscle carrying the weight of the arm, the tendon bears the burden. Over time the tendon becomes frayed and aggravated. Adho Mukha Svanasana and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana are great for teaching the action of the shoulder blades needed in freestyle)

5.  Balasana  - to - Adho Mukha Svanasana – to -. Uttanasana - to –  Malasana - to - Uttanasana - Adho Mukha Svanasana (Reapeat a few times keeping the space in the belly and inner groins as you move)
6. Baddha Konasana
(Baddha Konasana demonstrates a healthy external rotation of the hip. For many people, though, the hips can feel locked and stiff. In a swimmer, this congestion can manifest in a faulty breaststroke kick. Without free, loose hips, it's difficult to complete this stroke effectively and efficiently.)
7. Savasana
 

Start where you are.

When you approach a challenge in a pose ask yourself 'Where do i feel safe/comfortable?'
START THERE.
Over time you build on that comfort and do what needs to be done to bring back optimal function in that movement.

Workshop

I spent my Sunday in a beautiful (cool!!) studio in South London yesterday for yoga a workshop with Peter Blackaby . It was brilliant. 6 hours flew by and it has sparked so many interesting ideas about my own practice and the way I teach. If you ever get the chance to go to one of his classes/workshops then take it! I also highly recommend his book Intelligent Yoga, it's been a favorite of mine for some time now.  

"...Drop people into their bodies and encourage them to be honest with themselves about what they feel.

All yoga postures are there to help us notice how we are as we act and we can use the practice to change from working/feeling/responding from our own histories to creating new, more helpful patterns, which ultimately gives you choice."