Five-Minute Yoga

Rob a bank and you are likely to be punished by losing your freedom of movement.
But for no greater crime than getting older, or sitting too much, or both, you can lose the freedom of movement in your hips. Even some otherwise beneficial acts, like running, cycling and playing team sports, can put you into tight-hips prison.
How do you tunnel your way out of your cell and back into a fluid walk, deeper forward bends and a quieter, calmer mind?
Here’s one place to start:
Sit on your mat with your knees bent, feet on the floor in front of you, about one foot apart.
Have a stack of chip-foam yoga blocks – or an old phone book or two – close by.
With your left hand, reach under your knees and grasp your right ankle. Pull your foot toward you until your knee lines up with the centre of your mat, and your foot rests out to the left side of your hips.

Then swing your left leg over your right leg.
Make sure you’re not sitting on your right foot.
Check the position of your sitting bones. If they aren’t equally weighted on the floor, put a block or book under your hips.
Add height until your sitting bones press down evenly into the support.
You will feel a stretch in your outer hip, ranging from moderate to extreme.
Stay with a moderate stretch. You should feel that you can stay seated and explore the feeling of length coming to your outer hip muscles.
If your brain feels tight and you’re just enduring the pain, add more blocks under your buttocks.
As you sit, inhale into the hip of your top leg, expanding and warming the joint. As you exhale, release and let your hip flesh sink toward the floor or blocks.
If you’re already sitting on the floor, and would welcome more stretch, fold into a slow forward bend.
Remain seated for one to five minutes.
Change sides.

Benefits: Days spent sitting at desks create tightness in our hips which restricts our movements and adds underlying tension to our minds. This simple hip opening can reverse the process. Daily practice is the key to results.

Sequence: As a stand-alone practice, do this any time you have a chance to sit down. You can watch TV or talk on the phone while giving your hips the long, patient stretching they need.
As part of a longer practice, try this pose before hip-challengers such as reversed triangle pose and reversed half-moon pose.

Ouch: If your lower knee does not reach the floor, put a block or two beneath your knees, so you can rest your calves on a firm support.
If you can’t take one leg over the other without pain, then come into the position with your right leg, but instead of crossing your left leg over, keep your left foot on the floor beside your right knee.
If you feel knee or back pain in this pose and can’t make it go away by using more blocks, stop doing it. Ask your teacher for a hip opening you can do without pain.

Most of us come to yoga from one of two directions. We are flexible but weak, or we’re strong but stiff.

After our first few classes we already know the poses we love. They may not be effortless, but we understand their logic and find them exhilarating to practice.

Then there are those other poses, the ones we dread.
Right away, they smack us up against our limitations, whether that’s tight hamstrings or weak triceps. Worse yet, they can drag us into nausea, dizziness and fear.
Next week I’ll tackle physical strategies for working with poses you don’t like.

For today, here are two ideas for changing your mental approach.
1. As maddening as it is to hear the person next to you contentedly sighing in a twist that’s squeezing the air out of your lungs, consider this: each one of us struggles with different poses. Someone out there hates the poses you turn to for comfort, and someone else is bound to love the poses you most avoid.
That means it’s at least possible that you too could come to love whatever pose currently drives you away from your mat.
Notice what you tell yourself when your least favorite pose comes up. Practice flipping “I’ll never do that,” into “maybe, someday.”
Be particularly on guard against the self-limiting definition – “I’m just not a back-bender.” “I’ll never do a headstand.”
Instead, remind yourself that you can’t possibly predict how your poses will change over time. Leave your options open.

2. Claim your detested poses as your own unique suffering, tailored to fit you, and you alone, by everything that has happened in your life up to this point.
Truth is, if you caught a good look at someone else’s suffering, you likely would turn down the chance to trade.
Whatever it is you most need to know, change, or release is waiting for you in those poses. Welcome them, because they hold more potential for freedom than a hundred effortless asanas.
Just remember, nothing says you have to process your suffering all at once.
The key is to find a way to take on the right amount, every time you practice.

Benefits: By changing the way you think about the poses you hate, you create a larger picture of what’s going on. You’re not a victim any more.

Sequence: All the time, on and off the mat.

Ouch: Changing our self-image can be scary. Suppose you could do chatturanga dandasana (the yoga push-up) with ease? Or open into an easy, graceful backbend? Who would you be?

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It’s not all bliss: how to work with poses you don’t like, part two

Feeling twisted out of shape isn’t fun, nor is it pleasant to find yourself all tied up in knots. But here’s a yoga paradox: the more strongly we twist, the more we unwind.

Rotated triangle pose is an intense twist, but at the beginning less of our attention goes to twisting than to maintaining balance. Take it to the wall and you can deepen the twist with good alignment. Once you’ve learned how that feels, you can recapture it in the full pose without the wall.

To go further, have a brick between your front foot and the wall. Once you have the twist in your ribcage, slowly slide your hand down the wall to reach the brick.

To begin, stand with your back to the wall, feet three to three and a half feet apart. Bring your pubic bone parallel to the wall in front of you. Lift your thighbones up toward your hip sockets.
Draw your shoulder blades down.
Now rotate your right foot and thigh 90 degrees to the right, and your left foot and thigh enough to bring your hip bones parallel to the wall in front of you.
Lengthen your left calf muscle to bring your left heel to the floor.
Press down into your left outer heel.
Lift both thighbones and press them back. Inhale and lift your ribcage. Roll your shoulder blades down your back. Now firm your back thigh, exhale and rotate toward the wall. Place your hands on the wall.
With your inhalations, lift your thighbones toward your hip joints. With your exhalations, keep your legs firm as you rotate your ribcage to the right.

Make sure your pubic bone is still lifting toward your navel. Squeeze your thighbones tightly toward the centre of your hip sockets. Continue to rotate your left ribcage to the wall.

Hold for two or three soft, even breaths, then release, and bring your feet to face forward.
Check that your feet are still parallel, then repeat on the left side.

Benefits: Rotated triangle tones the thigh, calf and hamstring muscles, expands the chest, invigorates the abdominal organs and strengthens the hip muscles. Working with the full pose improves your balance.
Taking the pose to the wall lets you work the actions of the pose without fighting for balance.

Sequence: If you are a beginner, try this preparation on its own, whenever you need to refresh and untangle your mind and body. In a longer practice, place it after triangle pose and before the rest of your standing poses.
In a more mature practice, use this preparation before you work with rotated triangle, and take what you learn at the wall into the pose. You can also use this preparation to warm up before seated closed twists such as Ardha Matsyendrasena and Marichyasana III.

Ouch: Although this is a gentle preparation for the full pose, if you have a back injury, check with your teacher before you try it. Do not practice rotated triangle pose if you are menstruating or pregnant.

Sanskrit Corner: Say: par-ee-vrit-tah trik-cone-AH-sanna. Parivrtta means
to turn around, to revolve. Tri means three, kona means angle, asana means pose.

On Saturday night, someone walked out of the German Bakery in Pune leaving behind a knapsack with a bomb inside. It went off around midnight, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 50.
I’ve been to the German Bakery many times. In the month I spent at the Iyengar Institute, it was our Sunday breakfast spot, and anytime we were nearby, we stopped for coffee.
So my sadness has the extra edge of grieving not just for the people who were hurt, and their families, but for the place itself, the bookstore upstairs, the little Tibetan jewellry stores in the lane and the rickshaw stand outside where you might or might not find a driver willing to break away from the conversation and take a fare.
The German Bakery was close to the Osho compound, the centre built around the late Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, the Rolls-Royce guru of Antelope, Oregon.
The bakery was cleverly named, because Osho has a strong following in Germany, and there is nothing German travellers seem to miss half as much as German bread.
But apart from the name, and parts of the menu, there was nothing especially German about the German Bakery. The only shiny things were the two glass display cases in the back, with yogurt, muesli, cinnamon buns and other sweets, wholewheat bread and German jams. It served good coffee, real toast, omelets and other breakfast food, sandwiches, fresh fruit, juices and herbal teas.
First you’d place and pay for your order, an exercise in navigating chaos, then try to find a seat. There were low benches to sit on and small tables you could move around or assemble for a big group. The tables were about knee high. In the daytime, it was bright inside, a green and watery light, partly from the translucent plastic roof over the front seating area, partly sun streaming in the window and through the cracks in the painted bamboo walls.
And while young Indian people ate there too, mostly there were travellers, tall German women in Osho maroon robes, lithe North American and Australian yoginis wearing the bright, loose cotton clothes for sale on the street outside, young families in hiking boots, older travellers in uber-practical Tilley gear, all of our travels momentarily intersecting in the friendly green light of the German Bakery.
Along with the building, the bomb destroyed the comfortable illusion that despite its four million people, Pune is really a small town, and those who can somehow convince themselves that killing is good will save the mayhem for bigger, more important places.
Perhaps more than most travellers’ cafes, the German Bakery attracted people whose paths were spiritual, who based their lives on ahimsa (non-harming, or friendliness), the first and most profound yogic value. In the face of this horror, the strongest thing we can do is to renew our commitment to a life of non-harming.

Among beginning yoga students, one of the most difficult props to acquire is a yoga wall, wide enough to spread your arms out wide without hitting anything, and blank.
Most walls are already in use. Couches rest against them, pictures hang from them. And if your living space is small, the need to sit down on something definitely trumps a wall left blank for practice.
Yet if I had to pick just one prop for my practice, it would come down to a choice between a mat and a wall.

With a wall, you can relax in legs-up-the-wall pose, and if you have a bolster, in viparita karani, with the bolster under your waist. You can use a wall to help refine your alignment in shoulder stand, to learn balance in headstand, to support your back in a squat, to provide gentle leverage for a seated twist.
Best of all, you can use a wall to clarify and support your standing poses.
With your back to the wall you can take a truly wide stride without worrying about your balance. You can feel where you are in space. You’ll know if your front leg buttock is resting on the wall, which means your weight is dropping back from the line of the pose. You can fine-tune your alignment. And you can do all of it with less effort.
The poses can be quieter, less about survival and more about curiosity. You have more time to turn your attention to the work of the pose, to explore, to work on the instructions you remember from class, and eventually, to feel the delight of the pose.
When you clear a space, something else happens. A blank wall is a declaration of intent, an invitation to your practice. It clears a space in your mind as well as a space in your house.

What if it’s just not possible? What if your living space is just too tight? Then it’s time to turn to the kitchen counter. You may not be able to use it to practice shoulderstand, but it will work just fine for supporting the standing poses.
Last week in the level one classes, we worked with “dropping a block” – not just in Triangle pose, but in Warrior II and Extended Side Angle. Check it out and let me know how it works for you.

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Loose Your Counterbalance in Halfmoon pose at the Wall

Take Rotated Triangle Pose to the Wall

Drop a block to tune your triangle pose

 

It’s a happy coincidence that just as the triangle is the first figure of plane geometry,
Utthita Trikonasana (extended triangle pose) is often the first place where many of us feel the inner geometry of yoga – the understanding that as we align ourselves physically, we also somehow bring our minds and emotions into alignment as well.

When we learn to balance the strength and stretch of the legs in triangle pose with the lightness and freedom of the arms and upper body, we become firmer on our feet, and more capable of balance off the mat too.

But tight hips and hamstrings can keep us away from true balance, at least until we learn where it lies. In the beginning, we tend to let the buttocks drop to the back body, while the upper body swings forward in compensation. This can feel like a safer position. In fact it restricts our spinal movement and keeps us trapped in a counter-balance.

Here’s one way to feel the correct action of the front buttock in triangle pose – an awareness that will also be helpful in Warrior II and extended side angle pose.

Stand with your back to the wall, heels two inches away from the wall. Have a chip foam block nearby. Take a wide stride. Check that your feet are still parallel. Rotate the left foot slightly in, right foot and thigh all the way around. Check that your front heel intersects with the middle of your back arch, and your front knee points straight ahead over the centre of your ankle and foot.

Now insert the chip foam block between your right buttock and the wall.
Firm both legs. Press into your left outer heel and your right big toe. Pull your right thigh muscles toward your hip crease, moving your thighbone deeper into your hip socket.
As you begin to hinge toward triangle pose, lift your buttock away from the chip foam block. Press it toward the front of your body. You’ve succeeded when the chip foam block drops to the floor.
Keep the buttock drawn in.

Notice how moving the right buttock forward helps to stretch the right groin.
Now check that your head is in line with your front foot. Roll your shoulders back and rotate from your right ribcage toward the ceiling. Notice how having the buttock in the correct position frees your upper body.
Stay for two or three long, soft breaths. Come up on an inhalation.
Repeat on the left side.

Benefits: Triangle pose stretches and strengthens the legs and ankles, while it stretches the hips and groins. It also expands the ribcage and can bring relief to sore backs.
Working with a block at the wall teaches the sensation of moving the front-leg buttock forward. Once we find true balance and stretch inside it, the inner nature of the balance can reveal itself.

Sequence: Try Triangle pose first in the centre of the room, then take it to the wall. Return to the centre, and duplicate the feeling of moving your front-leg buttock forward as you hinge sideways.

Ouch: If you feel the stretch largely in your front knee, make sure that you have adequately rotated your front thigh. The knee should face squarely over the ankle. Then bend your front knee, and focus on bringing it back to straightness by firming and lifting the quadriceps muscles.
If knee pain persists, check with your teacher.

Sanskrit Corner: Say oo-TEE-tah trik-cone-AH-sanna. Utthita means extended. Tri means three. Kona means angle. Asana means pose.

Is it extreme to bind your upper thighs like a very tightly wrapped sausage and then crank them into the deepest external rotation you can manage?

Yes, but it’s worth it.

Hip joints are strong and well protected. Knees are much more vulnerable. When you increase your ability to externally rotate your thighs, your hips will become more flexible and you’ll be able to move into bent-knee poses with less risk of injury. All that and your Baddha Konasana (bound-angle pose) will improve, and you’ll have greater ease of movement.Two straps make this preparation more efficient, but one will do nicely – it will just take longer.

Sit on the floor. Make a loop in the strap and slip your leg into the loop. Make sure that the buckle faces up and the tail of the strap sits out to the side of your thigh.

Tighten the strap. Now take the tail of the strap under your thigh and wrap it around, rotating the thigh outward. Keep binding your thigh until you have just enough strap left to hold and pull down with your hands. You should feel a strong rotation of your thighbone in your hip socket.Bring the soles of your feet together and sit in Baddha Konasana.

If your knees are higher than your navel, sit on a chip foam block, or a bolster.

Benefits: Baddha Konasana steadies your body and mind, which is why it can be used for meditation and pranayama (breath work). It also increases circulation through your pelvic area and brings a strong stretch to your inner thighs. Use the straps to make a stronger external rotation than you could on your own, and you will teach your body the feeling of rotation necessary for safely moving into poses such as Padmasana (lotus).

Sequence: Try this preparation whenever you have a chance to sit on the floor. To deepen your work in other poses, place it before standing poses that require external rotation of your front leg, such as triangle pose and warrior II.  It’s particularly useful early in a practice of sitting poses.

Ouch: Pay attention to the sensation in your hip joint. Make it strong but not painful. Respect your tightness. If you are working with a knee injury, move especially slowly. If you experience any pain, especially in your inner knee, ask your teacher for help.

Sanskrit Corner: Say BAH-dah cone-AHS-anna. Baddha means bound. Kona means angle. Asana means pose.

If I could write a letter to myself at 39, I’d probably make it anonymous, so as not to freak myself out by revealing a rupture in the space/time continuum.
But what would I say to that brand new yogi with her faltering home practice? After 23 years of practice and 10 years of teaching, what’s my best advice on having a home yoga practice and keeping it going?

Here are the top ten things that spring to mind:

1. Do the standing poses. They make you strong. Whenever you’ve been away from practice, and in the beginning that’s going to happen more often than not, start back with the standing poses.

2. Aim for a short practice every day, and make it a habit. Find a spot in your day for 15 minutes and make it as automatic as brushing your teeth.

3. Start by centering. Sit still, close your eyes, connect with your body. Drop your sitting bones, lift your spine, relax your face. Then do some standing poses.

4. Move in slowly, move out slowly. You’ll be amazed at how much you learn by slowing down. You can only hold your alignment on the way into a pose if you’re slow. Move out of poses slowly and you’ll protect yourself from injuries – like that nastly little hamstring tear from sitting up too quickly from wide-legged forward bend (Upavistha Konasana).

5. If you’re not completely sure of a pose, do it anyway. Figure out where your confusion is and ask your teacher at the next class. If you don’t practice it, you won’t remember to ask.

6. Always include a pose you love.

7. Set a timer for three minutes short of your practice time. When it rings, lie on your back with your knees bent, and relax your back into the floor. Never skip savasana.

8. Every practice contains at least one improvement or insight. Celebrate the small gains.

9. Remember how good you feel when you practice.

10. Be grateful. At the end of the practice, take a moment to give thanks for arms, legs, eyes, ears, breath, yoga mats, bolsters, teachers, teachings, for whatever moved, or didn’t move, and for being alive to experience it all for one more day.

What would you add to that list? Is there a practice principle, or a practice tip that helps you?

Nothing exposes our minds for the busy monkeys they are quite as well as standing in Tadasana.

After all, most of us have been standing since we were a year old. We already know how to stand, in a way that we don’t know how to do triangle pose, or warrior II.
That’s why setting a timer and holding the pose can be so enlightening.
First, you get to focus on the basic alignment  – an alignment that has to be maintained in every other standing pose.
Then you can start to exercise that most basic discipline of yoga: constant inquiry into the body and its balance.
And in between, you can practice bringing your mind back, time and time again, to the alignment, and the inquiry.
You need a timer: without it, checking the time becomes a major distraction.
Plan to spend five to 10 minutes in the pose if you have an established practice, less if you’re just starting out. Even one timed minute can be illuminating.

Stand at the centre of your mat. Press your big toe mounds and little toe mounds into the floor.
Firm your kneecaps and lift your front thigh muscles. Move your front thighs toward your back thighs until you bring your weight into your heels. Continue to press your toe mounds down.
Now drop your buttocks toward the floor. Compact your thighs by pulling the heads of your thighbones deeper into your hip sockets.
Turn your palms forward and lift your hands about two feet away from your thighs. Draw your arms back, then turn your palms toward your thighs, and let your hands come back to your sides, thumbs just behind the centre thigh. You’ll feel your side ribcage lifting.
Draw your fingertips toward the floor to move your shoulder blades down your back. Press the bottom edge of your shoulder blades into your rib cage and lift your chest.
Look out at eye level, and relax your gaze.
If you want to stretch your arms up, place your hands in namaste, or in reverse namaste, then do it, but don’t move your feet. Keep your awareness focused on your body in Tadasana.
Notice when your balance shifts to one side or another, when you find your front thighs moving forward, when your pubic bone drops, or you lose awareness in your hips or your upper chest. Especially notice when your mind wanders. Continue to check your alignment and adjust.
When the timer goes off, come into forward bend (Uttanasana), step back into downward facing dog, stay for several breaths and then fold into pose of the child.

Benefits: Holding Tadasana lets you practice steadiness and concentration in a pose that is not challenging. By spending time in the pose you will learn the subtle balance required to just stand still. And because Tadasana is the basis of all other poses, time spent in Tadasana helps you achieve alignment in more challenging poses.

Sequence: Take five minutes for this practice whenever you have the time. You can practice Tadasana in the supermarket checkout line, at the bus stop, at a party, or at any other time you can pay attention to the way you are standing.
In a longer practice, try holding Tadasana for several minutes before beginning the standing poses, and again, at the end. Notice how the feeling of the pose has changed.

Sanskrit Corner: Say tah-DAH-sanna. Tada means a mountain. Asana means pose.