Take the five-minute Malasana challenge

I’m a big fan of Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project blog, and her book, The Happiness Project. She writes beautifully and does a lot of interesting research.

(My latest find, thanks to Gretchen,  was a link to Paul Bloom’s article First Person Plural in the November 2008 Atlantic Monthly, a fascinating look at our multiple selves.)

Among her Secrets of Adulthood, there are two that particularly relate to Five-Minute Yoga:

“What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE,” and

“By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.”

In that spirit, I’d like to throw out a Five-Minute Yoga challenge.

After all, no matter how busy you might be, there are five minutes somewhere in your day that you can devote to doing just one pose or preparation. And depending on the pose, it can have huge benefits.

Malasana from the Yoga Journal

Lately I’ve been realizing how many poses benefit from regular practice of  garland pose (Malasana). It’s a gateway: practice it often enough and poses as disparate as Marichyasana I and Eka Hasta Bhujasana will become much more manageable, even if the only time you practice them is in class.

So here’s the challenge. Spend five minutes a day, every day this week, practicing some variation of Malasana, and see how you feel at the end of it.

You might choose to work with squatting, with your back supported by a wall and your heels on a foam block. Or hold on to the kitchen sink or counter and come into squat. If you’re working more deeply with the pose, try stretching your arms forward onto a wood brick, and, when you’ve reached your maximum, rest your head on the brick.

Whatever variation gives you a reasonable amount of sensation, without causing pain – other than yes, that burning sensation in the front shins – is the perfect place to be.

I’ll be teaching variations of Malasana in class all this week, so if you have any questions or difficulties, there will be plenty of opportunities to work out a solution. If you’d like to start now, but are worried about compressing your knees, spend your five minutes in happy baby pose until we find you a good Malasana variation.

Five minutes is a long time to hold Malasana, particularly at the beginning. Instead, set a  timer for one minute, hold the pose until the timer goes off, then stand up, release whatever needs releasing for a minute, and return to the pose. If a minute is too long to hold, try 30 seconds, or go  to an easier variation.

It doesn’t really matter if you don’t make all seven days. Three and above is a definite win, five and above is a triumph. Of course, if you have time, you can practice other poses. But if five minutes a day is all you have, experiment with spending it in Malasana.

Below I’ve posted a great way to work with Malasana using a strap on the rope wall – something you can easily duplicate at home with a door that closes toward you.

I hope you’ll join me in making this Malasana week. Let me know it goes.

If this was your kind of post, then check out the Five-Minute Yoga Challenge category to see 40 more.