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sun_salutationPractice Ideas: More Inversions; Vinyasa on One Leg with Crescent Lunge, Standing Split and Side Plank
Disclaimer: 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.
More Inversions
For everybody who is working on Plow and Shoulderstand, I stumbled upon Shiva Rea's Inversions from Yoga Shakti on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBffP8trBs8. Did I mention this before?
Vinyasa on One Leg with Crescent Lunge, Standing Split and Side Plank
So are you bored to death with the Surya A up-down vinyasa? For a fun strength move, try this. (With a couple of standing poses and an arm balance thrown in the middle.) This is one of my favorite segments from any of my DVDs – it's a piece of MTV Power Yoga. The instructor is Kristin McGee.
From Down Dog, lift the right leg to the sky for Dog Split.
Leave the right leg raised, and flow into Plank, then Chaturanga.
If you can, keep the leg lifted as you press upward into Upward Dog, or lower the leg, if that's more appropriate for you.
With the leg still raised (or raising the leg again), press back into Downward Dog Split.
Bring the right leg forward into a lunge. Place your right hand on the floor and step into Crescent Moon. Also at Yoga Journal: Crescent Moon at Yoga Journal. Hold for three to five breaths.
Bring both hands to the floor and raise your back leg to Standing Split.
You can try a vinyasa with the Standing Split, lowering the back leg and bending both knees, as if you were going to sit on the floor in Easy Pose, then bursting open again, straightening the lower leg and raising the back leg to the sky again. Inhale, coil as if to sit, exhale, burst open. Try that three times, or just breathe the split three to five breaths.
Drop your leg back down to a lunge, return to Down Dog.
Move forward again into plank.
Rock to the outside of your right foot and your right palm for Side Plank. Hold for three to five breaths.
Drop your hand and return to Plank, then Down Dog.
Repeat on your left side.
You Tube Help:
Crescent Moon at eternityyoga.
Crescent Moon with Sadie Nardini.
Crescent Moon with CorePower..
Side Plank with Laura Schneider, who shows a couple of beginner variations.
Side Plank with Christine Navarro.
Alas, I could not find a decent YouTube of a standing split. How odd.
Namaste.
Disclaimer: 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.
More Inversions
For everybody who is working on Plow and Shoulderstand, I stumbled upon Shiva Rea's Inversions from Yoga Shakti on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBffP8trBs8. Did I mention this before?
Vinyasa on One Leg with Crescent Lunge, Standing Split and Side Plank
So are you bored to death with the Surya A up-down vinyasa? For a fun strength move, try this. (With a couple of standing poses and an arm balance thrown in the middle.) This is one of my favorite segments from any of my DVDs – it's a piece of MTV Power Yoga. The instructor is Kristin McGee.
From Down Dog, lift the right leg to the sky for Dog Split.
Leave the right leg raised, and flow into Plank, then Chaturanga.
If you can, keep the leg lifted as you press upward into Upward Dog, or lower the leg, if that's more appropriate for you.
With the leg still raised (or raising the leg again), press back into Downward Dog Split.
Bring the right leg forward into a lunge. Place your right hand on the floor and step into Crescent Moon. Also at Yoga Journal: Crescent Moon at Yoga Journal. Hold for three to five breaths.
Bring both hands to the floor and raise your back leg to Standing Split.
You can try a vinyasa with the Standing Split, lowering the back leg and bending both knees, as if you were going to sit on the floor in Easy Pose, then bursting open again, straightening the lower leg and raising the back leg to the sky again. Inhale, coil as if to sit, exhale, burst open. Try that three times, or just breathe the split three to five breaths.
Drop your leg back down to a lunge, return to Down Dog.
Move forward again into plank.
Rock to the outside of your right foot and your right palm for Side Plank. Hold for three to five breaths.
Drop your hand and return to Plank, then Down Dog.
Repeat on your left side.
You Tube Help:
Crescent Moon at eternityyoga.
Crescent Moon with Sadie Nardini.
Crescent Moon with CorePower..
Side Plank with Laura Schneider, who shows a couple of beginner variations.
Side Plank with Christine Navarro.
Alas, I could not find a decent YouTube of a standing split. How odd.
Namaste.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-01 02:03 pm (UTC)I have a big ass. But I've also been working on my abdominal muscles and do quite a bit of pilates. But unless I'm rolling back and forth, I can not get back into plow, and not even a hope at shoulderstand. I can't even feel which muscles should be contracting in order to lift my ass off the ground.
And, yes, I've done bridge against the wall, too. And even with my back off the floor, I don't feel any closer to an unsupported shoulderstand. Instead, it's like bridge on the floor where all of my vectors are with my feet pressing against the wall no matter how much I visualize my femurs reaching toward the ceiling.
Anyone else have this problem, or do you all just pop right up and the only need to focus on the staying up part?
(edited for spelling - and rephrased when cross posted to
no subject
Date: 2010-04-01 02:21 pm (UTC)Firstly, I also have to kind of rock back into Plow. Not too dramatically, but I don't get into it with total ease. However, once I am *in* Plow, there seems to be a natural flow to Shoulder Stand. In Plow, you should already have your hips more or less in the right place relative to your shoulders, so then the trick is lifting your legs. Which, btw, is also not so easy for me, exactly. I always enter Shoudler Stand by way of Half Shoudler Stand - that sort of sitting in an upside down chair position. I get my balance there, then extend my legs.
So maybe the key for you might be to focus on getting a good mastery of Plow? Using the strength of your legs to help pull and lift your torso into the right position?
That may not be incredibly helpful, but it's the best insight I can offer. Hopefully someone else will have more.
Funnily, my problem is sometimes getting *out* of Plow gracefully. You're supposed to grab your feet and roll down one vertebrae at a time, but sometimes I sort of get stuck, and can't get the rolldown started without a big flop.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-01 02:43 pm (UTC)No, I'm not as graceful as I'd like to be, but there I can feel which muscles would be more helpful and it's not as incomprehensible to me what would help.
If you are okay with your spine flexibility in plow, then you can nudge your self out of it by flexing your feet and grabbing at the floor with your toes so that you walk them closer to your head and get past the vertical point that you're pushing past to flop.
If this doesn't work, then try ignoring the feet and work with your core. First, tense your abdominal muscles (as much as you can, I sometimes find that keeping them lose in plow is how I keep breathing even though my breasts are in my chin). Then tighten your lats so that your shoulderblades move down your back and your head pushes forward, and see if that uncurls you in a more controlled way.
And then once you get past the vertical and it's all about controlling your descent - play with where your arms are. Putting your arms on the floor beside you allows you to push against the floor to push up with your hips while descending. Holding your feet puts you at the easy end of the lever to have the least amount of force to control where your feet are going - but it also puts the arm movement as kind of out of control. You can also try holding the backs of your thighs - you don't have as much leverage for controlling the movement, but you do have a nice combination of straight line, grip, and elbows on the floor to give you a push up, too.
And yes, lots of ab work.
Or, erm - practice.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-01 02:51 pm (UTC)That actually sounds very interesting - the toe walking idea. And your description of the working muscles and how to use them is definitely food for thought. I will try to think that way next time and see if it gives me better control.