yoga with sage

Class Reflection #3

Kim’s Level 3-4

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

The theme of today’s class was: finding the pelvic floor.

1. squatting with ropes -> utkatasana

Find length in the side ribs!

2. utkatasana at wall

Same idea as in Monday’s class—stand half a foot length from the wall and enjoy the fire in the quadriceps. I’m realizing I don’t spend a whole lot of time in this pose so spending a lot of time on it two days in a row was challenging muscularly (and mentally).

3. hasta padangusthasana ish with a block or two

a) begin with knees deeply bent and a bit of extension bias (especially lumbar lordosis) to the spine

b) keep pelvis way back, don’t allow the “containing” leg knee to come forward at all as you straighten one leg. this pins the femur way back in the socket

c) visit utkatasana, observing spine (did you gain any more length, or extension? don’t lose it on the next side)

BONUS POSE! (i.e. I forgot to include it in the notes) urdhva ardha bekasana at the wall

4. adho mukha utkatasana (bent knee dog pose) -> adho mukha svanasana

5. and 6. virabhadrasana 1

First we explored Vira 1 with a heel to heel stance, then again with a narrower stance. In the second version the pelvic floor is much easier to access (or so Kim and others say, I am still slowly developing an awareness of pelvic floor stuff so I’m pretty much just accepting  what folks tell me about this at this point).

7. parivrrta trikonasana

Sitting bones together is another way to say “Engage the pelvic floor!” as essential action for not falling over in this pose.

BONUS POSE! Angela’s dog!

8. “a whole fleet of boats,” starting with lagunavasana

The overarching theme of all the boat poses was: can you start off with an engaged, active pelvic floor then add in the abdominals? The abdominals will come on board regardless but can you access the pelvic floor from the beginning?

9. paripurnanavasana

10. salamba paripurnanavasana (with wall, block and mat)

Can you pull the sacrum away from the block?

11. ardha ardha navasana (“half” half boat)

This is the one where you squash your partner’s poor defenseless finger by weighting the middle of the sacrum. This is flexion, people!

12. ardha navasana

The full version of the pose! Still partnered though. The “pose”-er has the fingers at the pubic symphysis to observe the abdominals, which should not press forward (they always seem to do this) but rather pull in and up. I’m keeping the faith, y’all. Someday I’ll know what Kim (and my classmates) is talking about.

The partner has the palm of their hand at T6, inflate the back to create healthy, long flexion. In this one you balance on the sacrum.

13. series: dandasana -> paripurna navasana -> ardha navasana -> etc.

14. supta navasana

The cervical spine follows the thorasic flexion, so there is length in the neck rather than compression (like looking up in Vira 1, the jaw and base of the skull lift). Other than that the curves of the spine are theoretically neutral. You’ve got lumbar lordosis and T6 at the floor (we hope).

15. uttana padasana

No abdominals for this pose! Iliopsoas it is.

16. adho mukha svanasana—the best downward facing dog ever!

17. trikonasana—breif visit

So nice to do challenging standing poses this late in the practice. How accessible they feel!

18. adho mukha svanasana once more!

19. savasana!

Great class today! A lot of the pelvic floor stuff feels like it’s over my head (under my head?) so I’m excited to revisit this sequence once I get more of an embodied understanding of what the role of the pelvic floor is.

Part of the 300 Hour Yoga Teacher Training program I’m taking at High Desert Yoga involves attending 36 (I think) classes and doing a little write-up of each one, including the sequence and a reflection, which I’ll share here.

Class Reflection #1

Avery’s Level 2-3

Saturday, January 21, 2017

1. om satya om

We started this class seated, chanting.

2. urdhva hastasana to utkatasana

3. version of hasta padangusthasana (lower spine rain catchment!)

4. adho mukha svanasana

5. parsvottanasana and adho mukha svanasana

6. tadasana with gomukhasana arms

7. reverse namaskar (preparing for parsvottanasana with reverse namaskar arms)

Begin with feet as wide as the mat, bring hands to reverse namaskar. Press equally the base of the palms, the mounds. The fingertips are the nose of a little fish, swimming up the spine! Fold as in uttanasana, which broadens the back and asks more mobility of the shoulder joints.

8. parsvottanasana with reverse namaskar arms, visit virabhadrasana 1 between sides

Big balancing pose, with the arms “bound” in this way. Requires a lot of work from the front leg outer thigh, to contain all that joint-loose wobblyness I have 😉

After parsvottanasana, vira 1 felt much much more accessible and free. A bigger, deeper, more stable and adventurous vira 1 than I’m used to experiencing.

8.5 best down dog ever!

I love doing multiple down dogs in a class. It’s so much fun to watch the way the pose evolves after certain poses. This one was the bomb! Felt like a lot of stuff was clicking into place. Femurs back = quiet mind.

9. virabhasdrasana 2

10. makasana + eka pada

T1 in! Suction the two halves of the pelvis toward each other! Internally rotate the thigh of the lifted leg. That back groin will broaden. Lots of muscular work in the legs and outer thighs.

11. pinchamayurasana with block

The challenge here is to lengthen the heels up the wall, which helps keep the kidney area from collapsing (my usual tendency).

12. sirsasana

Press shoulders forward. This does not unground the humeri, but rather keeps the cervical spine from collapsing and becoming compressed, congested.

13. sarvangasana-related poses

a) chatush padasana

b.1) setu bandha ish with feet supporting at the wall

b.2) sarvangasana

b.3) halasana

c) rest—shoulders come to the floor, the edge of the blanket supports under the scapula, stretching the upper lungs open. Delicious!

14. leading toward savasana

a) kurmasana ish, with those sarvangasana blankets supporting under the calves (so quieting!)

b) savasana with calves still supported by those sarvangasana blankets, plus a pillow for the head

I loved this class! I felt totally ready for the day.

Class Reflection #2

Kim Schwartz’s Level 2

Monday, January 30, 2017

1. supta urdhva hastasana -ish on a rolled blanket supporting the pelvic rim, with bent legs

Bending the legs at first perhaps increases a feeling of safety for a new practioner who might feel more vulnerable with the legs extended first thing. Perhaps with the legs bent the belly can soften and the groins can deepen.

Also, with a reduced challenge to the lower half of the body the focus can really come to deepening the armpits as much as possible, the biggest focus of this pose. How much can the upper lungs stretch open? How deeply can the inner heads of the humerus sink back into the shoulder sockets? And how heavily can the heels of the hands press into the wall, i.e. how much length can be found in what Kim sometimes calls the “armpit groins”?

2. a version of pavanmukhtasana on the same rolled blanket

The rolled blanket support challenges the hip joints more due to the big untuck of the pelvis.

3. a version of supta hasta padangusthasana on the same rolled blanket

Again, the big untuck of the pelvis supported by the thick rolled blanket challenges the hamstrings and hip joints more than a smaller support (say, a tri-folded blanket) would.

Let’s say the right leg is lifting first. Here the intention is to keep the left hamstring on the floor, keeping the belly soft as the right leg lifts. This is maybe not an abdonimal pose, as Kim said today. An iliopsoas pose, sure, but hopefully not abdominal. The belly can be soft even as the quadriceps engage enthusiastically, outer thighs alive, the inner head of the left femur sinking toward the floor and the outer head of the right femur drawing down across the room.

3.1-3.3 utkatasanas at the wall

I must be making some kind of progress here, because these utkatasanas at the wall are feeling less claustrophobia-inducing of late. In fact, I’ve been feeling more able to manage those gritchy feelings of “ah, I’ve gotta get out of here!” (i.e. the pose) or at least I’d like to think so 😉

3.5 utkatasanas with ropes

Here, we started in a rope-supported version of utkatasana and with as little disturbance as possible to the pelvis and spine, extended one leg back at a time, allowing the back leg toes to rest on the floor. It’s a challenge to keep the extended leg groin lifted.

4. femur grounding pose with wall, chair, and belt

For me this one always gets the outer thigh of the supporting leg nice and warm, maybe even cramping! Finding that work in the outer thigh can be hard to access but this one is so great for awakening that aliveness. I like doing this pose before something that requires a lot of stability like Vira 3. I tend to wobble less after doing nice stabilizing, outer-thigh awakening stuff like this.

4.5-4.6 vrksasanas, in middle of mat and at wall

We first explored vrksasana in the middle of the mat before Kim walked us back to the wall.

The wall version was interesting—during the first phase the instruction was to press the knee of the lifted leg strongly into the wall, creating a nice big external rotation of the lifted leg and encouraging the “back groin” (i.e. outer head of the femur area) of the lifted leg to suction into the body, drawing down toward the floor. During the second phase more stability was needed—with the knee pulled ever so slightly away from the wall.

Kim also said something amazing I’m having trouble clearly remembering right now—something about an action originating from the outer thigh of the supporting leg. Maybe that’s where the openness of the lifted leg groin can come from?

5. gravity assist parsva konasana

Ah, for a floppy flexy joint loose person like me these can really activate the outer thighs. Seems like that’s the theme of this class. Make Sage’s outer thighs as shakey and quivery as possible.

I’ve got this big desire in this pose to avoid as much as possible the walking of the fingertips up the wall. Probably because that takes more muscular work than dropping the palm of the hand to support at the chair seat, which is my big inclination.

6-6a. virabhadrasana 2

Rajiv Chanchani, in a workshop I took at the Yog-Ganga Centre for Yoga Studies in Old Rajpur, India last November, said something about Americans who wear their hearts on their sleeves and also have “I love yoga” bumper stickers. He said he wanted to take a magic marker and add to them “for two minutes.”

I was remembering this as we stayed in this big muscular standing pose. Remember that thing I said before about thinking that I was not feeling as much “Get me outta here!” type feelings as before? Ha ha haa!

7. anjaneyasana

This second side of this pose is usually significantly more difficult for me—it’s a fatigue thing.

8. Ah, delicious downward dog!

The first downward dog of the day and it came so late in the practice! And how delightful it was. I wish we had stayed longer.

Coming into this pose so late in the practice, most everything seemed nice and warm and ready for a satisfying visit to the pose. The untuck of the sitting bones was nice and accessible, the calves not too resistant to releasing the heels toward the floor.

9. supta twist (with extension bias) on bolster, with sandbag and blankets

I’ve had a hard time with this one. It’s difficult to attain a feeling of symmetry between sides. The set-up somehow seems more confusing and prone to error in terms of getting the first and second sides to feel similar to one another.

Plus, I prefer the prone version with flexion bias because it’s just so dang quieting and relaxing. Instantly.

10. sava!

Need more sava. How do people get out of the pose and the class so quickly?!

Also I didn’t set myself up well—I could have used more length in the lower back, there was some compression there.

I loved this class too! Interesting how difficult “simple” pre-asana can be, especially for the mind. There’s a lot of “Get me outta here!” type of emotions that can pop up. The theme of this class definitely seemed to me to be about femur grounding and outer thigh awakening, all things I could use more of. Immediately after class my outer thighs were all shakey, now the morning after class I’m noticing a little soreness in the quadriceps. 😉

I’m most of the way through this 200 hour teaching training program at this point and it’s probably the neatest thing I’ve done with my life, ever.

What did we talk about this past weekend? Wellll. This stuff is difficult to describe in writing, but here I go anyway.

First, a defining of terms. Grounding the femurs. Femurs are thigh bones. When they come forward in the hip sockets, this is referred to as an ungrounded femur. This is undesirable. When the head of the femur presses forward, rathen than back deeply into the socket as it is meant to do, the weight of the body hangs forward onto the ligaments of the front pelvis, giving little sense of organization or support to the rest of the body.

Most hip replacements occur because the cartilage of the front edges of the hip joint have worn away from standing in such a way over the course of a lifetime.

Second term: Gripping the kidneys. This is not so much an action of these organs themselves, but more of a habitual action of the back body which could be a result of muscular gripping or collapse around the back bottom ribs. Holding tension in this area can aggravate the adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys. This can cause anxiety, a fight/flight response—also not a great habit. Lengthening and broadening this area can be a very good thing.

Next! Opening the upper chest. A lot of people collapse their collarbones forward, rounding their shoulders which pushes T1 (the first thorasic vertabrae) out toward the back body and allows the sternum to collapse. This puts weight on the upper lungs. I’ve heard one teacher describe this as crippling self-doubt.

This collapsed chest is very fashionable. I remember reading in a copy of Cosmo once that it’s a shape women should make with their bodies in order to attract the men to them at bars. They called it “cradling the baby.” Because…that would remind men of women’s fertility and the sexual attraction? …and then they’d think of babies and the sex that would ostensibly need to happen to make the babies? …and then they’d come over and ask for your number? That, along with allowing your high-heeled shoe to come off your heel a bit. (Not to mention how raising the heels presses the femurs forward into the sockets…talk about ungrounded!)

Look at all the babies these folks are just waiting to cradle. from luca sartoni

Anyway, I went to a bar a couple weeks ago. Everyone—men included—was cradling the baby. Everyone’s shoulders were rounded forward, with a collapsed sternum. As a culture, why are we doing this?

Now, onto the story from class I mentioned paragraphs ago. Kim, my teacher, mentioned a story that his teacher, Ramanand Patel, told him. Ramanand had a theory: if everyone in the world had grounded femurs, there would be no war. Because people would have such a strong sense of self from their stable, organized bodies, that they wouldn’t feel the need to lash out as others.

Then Ramanand took a look at Saddam Hussein. Very grounded femurs, distressingly enough. But, he also drove his kidneys forward and collapsed his sternum. So here’s a person who has a very strong sense of self and purpose (grounded femurs, root chakra), lots of aggression (kidneys driving forward/manipura chakra), and no heart (collapsed sternum/heart chakra).

So Ramanand had to revise his theory.

Grounded femurs have to be mixed in with other important organizational factors. And, of course, none of this is a guarantee. A collapsed sternum does not guarantee a lack of heart. There are many variables at play. But there’s no question that the organization of the body does have a direct affect on the psyche.

from wikimedia commons

And as if this weren’t fascinating enough, Kim went on to tell us about an ex-military student of his, who described the “at attention” posture during class: femurs poking forward (no will, no sense of self, “cog in the machine”), kidneys driving forward (lots of aggression), sternum collapsed (no heart).

The reason I find this so fascinating is that if the yogis and the military folks have both noticed these patterns in the symbolism and function of posture, there has got to be some truth to this yoga stuff. 😉

Yoga is this all-encompassing life science that can teach a gal ever so much about the way that people move through the world.

Here’s to practicing better posture!