arturoyogi

Archive for July, 2008

Yoga practice wordle

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Practice yoga like architecture

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Expansive little movie of the Grand Canyon

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I’m practicing short versions for the past few days because of project work. I might go to a led class on Friday morning. There may be some lunar observing shala refugees there. It’s okay. My practice has suffered this week and can gain some strengthening from a led class.

Here is a short video of the view from the rim of the Grand Canyon. Hmmm. If I can do this it means I could take a video of my Urdvha Danurasanas to get comments from cybershalamates. Hmmm.

Second meditation book

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I practiced a portion of Second Series today. We have a deadline at work and have been working late every day. Monkey mind is distracting me during yoga. Saturday I plan to attend a daylong meditation. Sunday there is a company picnic in a beautiful park in Berkeley. I might bicycle there, despite needing to climb steep hills to reach it. I received MS’s new book Vinyasa Krama. It is gigantic and has great pictures. Om shanti.

(PS I learned from Donuts to name a post with words that signify the main topics discussed in the entry. The result today would imply I am reading my second meditation book, but that is not the case. Books are numberless. I vow to read them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Go with the flow bro.)

CRed squirrel in the Grand Canyon

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Note to self: continue practicing calorie restriction this week despite a schedule that makes it difficult to go do groceries. Cron-0-meter will keep me in track until I can do groceries on Friday. Good way to remember: think of the healthy, energetic and calorie restricted squirrel my friend V. photographed at the Grand Canyon.

Backbending workshop with Chuck and Maty

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I spotted two assistants at the backbending workshop. One assistant is very intuitive and careful. The other assistant, who may be less experienced, may have the right intentions, but several months ago gave me an Urdvha Danurasana adjustment which involved unnatural and somewhat forced lifting of my upper ribs diaphragm, that it resulted in severe pain for a few days in which any movement that involved raising the arms hurt a lot. Ibuprofen only dampened the pain. Since there had been some discussion in the blogosphere about giving feedback to assistants, I asked myself if I should discuss my experience. I didn’t find a private moment and did not want to embarrass the assistant in front of the other teachers, so I didn’t say anything. Maybe there will be an opportunity at another time.

We started with doing Samastitihi while lying on the floor on our mats, pressing the feet against the wall, pelvis against the floor. The purpose was to understand that there are two domes in the chest. One dome occurs when your pelvis goes downward, the other when the outer shoulders go down, which happens when the outer elbows are close to the body. As we were in this position, C&M asked us raise the arms and arched them back. They asked us to find a neutral pelvis, firm the upper arms and and not life the lower middle part of the body. When you lift your arms to go back, the motion means tipping the thoracic down. This action is not about the flexibility of the arms.

(I am transcribing these notes while waiting for jury duty selection. I fulfilled my jury duty service without having to claim having the condition of Kapotasana as a reason to be excused from serving in a jury.)

We held our inner elbows together, arms on the side. The inside of the thighs, or groin doesn’t lift to the ceiling but presses inwards. The upper thighs go to the ground.

Next we did a kneeling toe yoga. hips were over the knees, heels and balls of the feet on the wall, toes curled under on the floor. We lengthened the lumbar to neutral. We checked the pelvis - the frontal lumbar and pelvis need to be in place. We lifted into the downward dog with the feet against the wall.

M. says that everything that you need for dropbacks lives in Virabadrasana A. The arms and legs are energized and strengthened by this pose. After placing the back foot, pointing 45 degrees forward, rotate the hips forward, rotating the buttocks. The top of the thighs of the back leg pushes back. When bending the leg, you don’t want wobbling in the ankle. To avoid the wobbling, your shin bone has to go back, which firms the leg down. The back leg is doing downward dog (?!) You’re doing Samastithi with the legs. Your kneecaps lift, upper thighs press downward, arms lifting. The back ribs are lifting. Front ribs are lifting. Elongate the buttocks down, which means tuck the bottom in. Keep lifting the back ribs, with arms raised. Press the arms towards the ears.
M. says that actions are more important than movements. Actions require extension and understanding. For example, firming the upper arms in downward dog is an action. Actions are like bhandas. They protect us. Movement can get you into trouble if you’re not thinking about your actions. In yoga you have to tap into strength from all of the body. You need to protect your body. Don’t focus on just the movement.

We did a cobra pose practice, again remembering that we have two domes in the shoulders. Then we did an upward dog practice with two blocks on the floor under the arms. The chest goes forward and up, the inner thighs move up. We repeated upward dog without blocks under the arms, but one block placed between the feet. All ten toes, particularly the small toes need to be on the floor. Buttocks to the floor, thighs to the ceiling, shoulder goes down. Coil the chest open. Coiling means a wheel action. It’s the forward movement of the chest. It’s not leaning, it’s not hinging. It’s coiling. Understand the action; don’t force the movement. This action applied to all backbending asanas and dropbacks - coiling, coiling, coiling, not hinging. Don’t bend back. Coil.

What happens when you tighten your buttocks? You send a braking motion to the heels. Your body does not use just the external buttock muscles to make the buttocks straight. you may need to rotate the legs inwards to get the buttocks to spread. Firm the sides in.

When setting up for Ustrasana, Laghu Vajrasana and Kapotasana, spread all toes on the mat. if you curl your toes, the energy goes to the sacrum wrongly. If you don’t curl them, the energy flows correctly. Think of the foundation of the legs as being in Samastitihi. In these last backbends mentioned, back ribs down equals front ribs up. Elbows in, widen the buttocks. Coil, coil, coil, don’t lean. Create the domes in the chest, lift the frontal chest, drop the outer shoulder blade muscles down.

In bridge (and I imagine likewise in Urdvha Danurasana keep the three points of the feet down - the the knees. The legs are parallel. Don’t say “rotate the thighs” but think of them rotating downwards.

Calling these asanas discussed here backbends is technically not correct becasue they are really chest opening poses. The first chest opening pose of Primary Series is Purvottanasana ( in which we coil the chest upward, put the hands in reverse namaste and bend forward.)

I would say that this workshop had a lot of very useful information. The challenge is that perhaps the information is handled a bit Yyengar style in terms of breaking things down kinesthetically and mechanically. That is something Yyengar is great at. You have to put it together in your practice. Patabhi Jois’ approach might be a bit different in that his adjustments are physical, not involving a lot of verbal instruction. Jois’ approach might be to help the student learn by adjusting physically so there is an imprint occurring mentally. In ashtanga one is concentrating with intention on the flow of the practice and it’s difficult then to keep track of all of the component parts of what is happening mechanically. It is interesting to study the mechanical motions as in this workshop and these are senior and certified ashtanga teachers, so I’m not judging, just sharing my observations.

Princess Laksmi’s SF adventures

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Laksmi picked me up at 6:50am and we went to practice in Berkeley with Springy Sitarist. While we practiced, we introduced PDiver, PCarl and PAigo to VSevenPetalLotus, VOwl, and VDonutszenmom. VSpringy Sitarist stayed at home to hold the fort, since Laksmi was going to meet him in person. The virtual cybershalamates broke the ice with each other in the trunk of the car. PCarl was overcome with shyness at first and didn’t want to be photographed.

My practice ran short, Half Primary, followed by Second to Kapotasana because I needed to catch a train to Palo Alto later. Springy Sitarist adjusted Laksmi in Dhanurasana, Supta Vajrasana and a few others. Laksmi felt comfortable enough to do her Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana and then did the most bendy Kapotasana I’ve seen in person. I got adjusted in Pasasana, where the work for me began at getting the feet flat on the floor. I also received a nice lift of the torso in Bekasana.

Afterwards, we went for coffee and pastry at the cafe around the corner, stopping at a mural in front of the Montessori School for a photo op with the virtual cybershalamates. Here, our teachers PDiver, with his dog PAigo and VSevenPetalLotus lead VOwl, VDonutszenmom and PCarl in a class.

My virtual cybershalamates and teachers are fuzzy or yin, while Laskmi’s are yang. We had a conversation about this. Laksmi benefits from their presence in her practice space because she feels they are telling her to be strong, to not quit, to keep going on. With me, maybe they fill a need for warmth and support, like the love I receive from my parents and friends. I commented about this to our Sutra teacher, who thought that each of us found that the practice of having these figures nearby helped create a balance. There is nothing strange about it. Laksmi gets her needs met from the figures and I receive mine. On further reflection, I recall, while working on projects throughout the US in the early 90s, that I met many business executives who while travelling constantly on the road, found comfort in placing a toy or figure near their laptop computers in their hotel rooms. They named their figures and took them everywhere and considered them their travel companions. It’s why Bindi took Geraldine the frog with her on her trip to Thailand.

I will need to put together my notes from the Chuck and Maty backbending workshop later on in the week. C & M wanted to develop a vocabulary of words that help understand what needs to happen in backbending. So we participated in unusual exercises done against the wall that made us push, pull and lift different parts of our bodies in order to pay attention to what was happening kinesthetically and mechanically in our bodies.

Here is the beautiful and creative Laksmi in context. An a picture of us. Laksmi took one of us that I think is really cheery and maybe she’ll post it in her blog.

My dinner with Andre

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I didn’t have dinner with Andre, but I’ve been wanting to label a post with that and this is a classy story. I practiced yoga Mysore style with Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty. Maty asked me if this was my first time practicing with them (yes) and where did I come from (I study with C, who was in the room to my left, and V.)

In architecture there are architect’s architects - people like Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhas, Thom Mayne, IM Pei and others, who inspire our practice. Yes, architecture, like yoga is a practice. In ashtanga there are teacher’s teachers and you could say that C & M are among them.

I had corresponded over the years with Lisa Walford, yoga teacher and co-author of The Longevity Diet. She had mentioned C & M often because she developed the yoga teacher training at Yoga Works in Santa Monica in collaboration with them. By the way two of the architects I mentioned in the previous paragraph have their offices in Santa Monica. Unusual coincidence, no?

In any case, I was reflecting that a lot of people practicing in the room where teachers. Despite the length of one’s practice, there is a lot of humility to be felt when in the simplest of things you can improve your actions. I received adjustment in how I place the hands on the mat in downward dog. Rotate the arms inwards; point the index finger; gain more distance between feet and hands. In reverse triangle M. requested I use a block to do some research. The back foot was rotated pointing 45 degrees forward, the hips squared, the arm that lifts lifting, the chest rotating opening a lot to the ceiling. That felt good.

I continued with Primary, followed by Second to Kapotasana. Surfer Guy, who gave me a ride in the morning, since the trains don’t run that early to the East Bay, was practicing nearby. His practice is really strong. C. spent a good ten minutes with him discussing the minutiae of what happens anatomically in the body to do Padangustasana correctly - shoulders down, pelvis rooted, samastitihi on your mind. Surfer Guy did a variation of Pasasana that M. must have given him. He sat on the tall end of a block to get enough lift so that the feet remained flat on the floor as he bound the hands. I need to try that. In Tittibasana B, his walk was so strong he could have continued walking out of the room bound as he was, and his Titti C was just as strong.

There was a lot of emphasis during the practice about finding the root of each asana, and on focusing on the ujayi breath, breath that is reaching, conquering, upward lifting. Going to the workshop meant the sacrifice of not being able to do laundry at my building. Instead I had to pull my heavy bag 4 blocks to the beautiful laundrette, where you have to nurse your clothes through the washing and drying cycles, or you walk back home with a lighter load, aided by cunning thieves. At the front of the store they have unusual ice creams. Despite being lactose intolerant, I sampled taro root and avocado ice creams. I paid for it later in stomach grumbling and flatulence, or maybe that was abated by what my father says, that ice cream has enough other things in it such that even a person with lactose intolerance can consume it without discomfort. Hmm, we can rationalize ourselves out of something when it tastes good.

In the afternoon I returned for a backbending workshop. I took notes and can post them later. Now I have to run over the entire bay area for a busy day - yoga, cycling, and sutra reading. Princess Laksmi Nivamalanda plans to join me for yoga with Springy Sitarist. Maybe we’ll have a photo shoot with PDiver and PCarl.

tid bits

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Thanks to lgr for pointing to this article on ashtanga yoga that appeared on the WSJ online. Apparently hedge fund managers are taking to ashtanga. I would not mind some financial advice in return for the common interest in yoga.

Since we work adjacent to Union Square, colleagues where abuzz yesterday at noon at having spotted NYC’s Nd Cowboy belting out some tunes on his guitar in his trademark attire. You can catch a flicker of it if you google.

Second to Kapo, C and M, Highness

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Here is this morning’s Krounchasana. It’s not pretty because I really would like to get the chest up higher. The legs usually think they have to step on something when I’m in this pose, so it’s hard to get the lift that is proper for this asana. Today I draped myself over the ladder to see if it would help open up the back. It just looked like one of those chairs one practices a passive stretch over. I took a picture, but it looks funny, so I won’t share it.