Getting Started 5: Twisting
Jan. 29th, 2010 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muck_a_luck posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sun_salutationDisclaimer: I am not a yoga instructor. I don't know anything about exercise safety or fitness instruction. I'm not even an advanced practitioner of yoga. But I have come to love yoga and am completely self taught.
You know your own body best, so please respect your known health conditions and use the variations offered by instructors that are best for you. Remember to balance where you are now with where you could be in the future. There is no perfect pose.
Yoga As a Total Body Fitness Program
I keep repeating that yoga is supposed to be about balance.
This pursuit of balance is part of what makes yoga a great way to get a total body workout.
You target all the body areas – arms, core, back, shoulders, hips, legs – while you work for balance, flexibility and strength. You think, wow, how to fit that all in? But many postures combine many components. Upward Facing Dog, for instance, is a backbend, strengthening the core and releasing the lower back, and an arm balance. Warrior 1 is a gentle backbend, that opens the hips and develops strength in the legs.
Twisting
A complete yoga routine should include twisting.
Instructors will say that twisting is "cleansing" and "detoxifying." I have also heard it stated that twisting improves digestion. I can't speak to those issues, though they may well be true. But what twisting clearly does is strengthen the core. I would say through development of the internal and external oblique abdominal muscles. Anyone wanna back me up on that?
Twisting poses are also excellent counterposes to backbending.
Adding twisting to your Sun Salutations: Chair, with a Prayer Twist
One thing you are not getting yet from your sun salutations is twisting. However, if you have started doing Surya Namaskar B, then there is a simple variation on Chair that will allow you to add a twisted posture to your routine. Let's call this Chair, with a Prayer Twist.
When you are in Chair, draw your hands down into the "prayer" or "Namaste" position. Take a deep inhale, and on the exhale, twist your torso only, so that your right elbow rests on the outside of your left knee. Take another deep inhale, extending your spine through the crown of your head (grow with the inhale), then exhale and use the lever of your arm against your knee to help you gently twist your upper body, as if you were trying to open your chest to the sky.
You should think about twisting as actually being initiated not by the assisting lever of your elbow, but instead by the movement of your core – as if your right kidney were trying to move across your center line to the left.
Be sure to respect your spine. Don't "jam" the spine, as Rodney Yee says. And use the breath to help you deepen the pose while keeping fluidity in your spine. Grow taller when you inhale, then twist a tiny bit deeper on the exhale. Maybe wind back a bit when you inhale and grow taller, then twist deeper again on the exhale.
Try holding the twist for three breaths or so. Then return to center, the neutral Chair posture. If your legs are feeling tired, at this point rise into Mountain Pose, then take a Standing Forward Bend. Then resettle into Chair pose and this time on an exhale, twist your left elbow to your right knee. If you prefer, you can skip the transition in the middle and move directly from twist, to neutral Chair posture, to twist, without passing through Mountain Pose and Standing Forward Bend.
When you have completed the second side, proceed through a sun salutation as normal.
Now you have added twisting to your sun salutation!
Examples
Demonstration by Charity on YouTube. She offers a lot of explanation.
Demonstration with no instruction from iyogalife. This shows the bound variation, for advanced practitioners.
Written instructions for Chair Twist at yoawiz.com. (No video.)
Safety Tips
While looking for illustrations of Chair with twist today, I found this instructor talking about protecting your lower back in Chair.
You know your own body best, so please respect your known health conditions and use the variations offered by instructors that are best for you. Remember to balance where you are now with where you could be in the future. There is no perfect pose.
Yoga As a Total Body Fitness Program
I keep repeating that yoga is supposed to be about balance.
This pursuit of balance is part of what makes yoga a great way to get a total body workout.
You target all the body areas – arms, core, back, shoulders, hips, legs – while you work for balance, flexibility and strength. You think, wow, how to fit that all in? But many postures combine many components. Upward Facing Dog, for instance, is a backbend, strengthening the core and releasing the lower back, and an arm balance. Warrior 1 is a gentle backbend, that opens the hips and develops strength in the legs.
Twisting
A complete yoga routine should include twisting.
Instructors will say that twisting is "cleansing" and "detoxifying." I have also heard it stated that twisting improves digestion. I can't speak to those issues, though they may well be true. But what twisting clearly does is strengthen the core. I would say through development of the internal and external oblique abdominal muscles. Anyone wanna back me up on that?
Twisting poses are also excellent counterposes to backbending.
Adding twisting to your Sun Salutations: Chair, with a Prayer Twist
One thing you are not getting yet from your sun salutations is twisting. However, if you have started doing Surya Namaskar B, then there is a simple variation on Chair that will allow you to add a twisted posture to your routine. Let's call this Chair, with a Prayer Twist.
When you are in Chair, draw your hands down into the "prayer" or "Namaste" position. Take a deep inhale, and on the exhale, twist your torso only, so that your right elbow rests on the outside of your left knee. Take another deep inhale, extending your spine through the crown of your head (grow with the inhale), then exhale and use the lever of your arm against your knee to help you gently twist your upper body, as if you were trying to open your chest to the sky.
You should think about twisting as actually being initiated not by the assisting lever of your elbow, but instead by the movement of your core – as if your right kidney were trying to move across your center line to the left.
Be sure to respect your spine. Don't "jam" the spine, as Rodney Yee says. And use the breath to help you deepen the pose while keeping fluidity in your spine. Grow taller when you inhale, then twist a tiny bit deeper on the exhale. Maybe wind back a bit when you inhale and grow taller, then twist deeper again on the exhale.
Try holding the twist for three breaths or so. Then return to center, the neutral Chair posture. If your legs are feeling tired, at this point rise into Mountain Pose, then take a Standing Forward Bend. Then resettle into Chair pose and this time on an exhale, twist your left elbow to your right knee. If you prefer, you can skip the transition in the middle and move directly from twist, to neutral Chair posture, to twist, without passing through Mountain Pose and Standing Forward Bend.
When you have completed the second side, proceed through a sun salutation as normal.
Now you have added twisting to your sun salutation!
Examples
Demonstration by Charity on YouTube. She offers a lot of explanation.
Demonstration with no instruction from iyogalife. This shows the bound variation, for advanced practitioners.
Written instructions for Chair Twist at yoawiz.com. (No video.)
Safety Tips
While looking for illustrations of Chair with twist today, I found this instructor talking about protecting your lower back in Chair.