osmanthus yoga

Today, a blurb about my feels about yoga. I have so many! Next week, my thoughts on the different teachers I got to take classes from over the weekend, including Sadie Nardini, Seane Corn, Deborah Burkman, David Swenson and Jason Crandell.

I spent the weekend (Thurs-Monday) at the Yoga Journal Live! San Francisco event, volunteering and taking classes from a handful of well known (I guess) teachers. One of my biggest take-aways from the conference was that hearing all the other teachers talk about what they thought yoga was really helped me figure out what <i>I</i> thought yoga was.

To me, yoga is about awareness, acceptance and stability. The physical practice uses the breath to help guide focus the mind in times of (muscular) effort. Off the mat, yoga practice continues in the form of mindfulness in all situations. Maybe, for example, being aware of ones faults, accepting them, and working toward minimizing consequential harm to oneself and others. Otherwise recognizing that we do not have complete control over the situations that we find ourselves in, and letting the associated negative thoughts come and go. Via the physical practice, yoga teaches us to let go of bias and see situations clearly even through emotional turmoil, like the disappointment of a perceived failure.

I feel grateful that even before I started yoga, I had a grounded personality and was generally able to stay relatively calm in times of distress. But I do think that as I've gotten older, and maybe with the help of yoga, I'm even more level headed than before and able to "take it as it comes." I've been able to see and set my priorities more easily and therefore been able to maximize my experiences more fully.

i've been traveling for work a lot for the last month, hence the lack of posts. sorry! but here's something i shot while at my super crappy hotel gym last week...

crow pose is (bakasana) is one of the first milestone poses for a beginner yogi. i love arm balances because they make me feel strong and really accomplished about my practice. don't let them intimidate you, they're easier than you expect, and once you get the hang of them they're a fun addition to a flow.

crow pose (bakasana)

if you're new to crow, warm up with a few sun salutations (surya namaskara) of your choice.

start in garland pose (malasana) to stretch your shoulders and upper back. (not shown in the above gif, sorry!)

plant your hands down in front of your face and press down into the ground, activating your arms and shoulders.

bring your knees as high up on your triceps as possible and lean forward, balancing on your toes while bending at the elbows (like in chaturanga).

keep your gaze forward (important!) while lifting one toe/foot and finding stability. it takes more leaning forward than you think to find balance; as you can see, my face is just a few inches from the ground. which means if you do face plant, there's barely any distance to go! ;)

lift the other foot and continue leaning forward, finding the balance of your knees on your triceps. another option is to keep your knees on the outsides of your triceps and squeeze them inwards - i prefer balancing instead of squeezing... these days.

round your back as much as possible and pull your feet towards you butt as much as possible.

it's important to pay attention to details in your warrior 1 and 2 (virabhadrasana i and ii) poses. in both poses, your front foot faces forward while your back foot is on the ground at an angle. to really feel the stretch in your legs, press equally into the ground on the outside edges of your feet and straighten your back leg. lowest "priority" in these poses is to get your front thigh parallel to the ground. if you can't hold either pose for 5 breaths, keep the pitch of your feet closer together and your thigh at an angle.

warrior 1 (virabhadrasana i)

feet hips width apart for balance

hips are square to the front of your mat, tucked to keep your lower back flat

overcompensate the opposite twist in your hips - when your left leg is forward like in this photo, adjust hips counterclockwise to align. feel the stretch in the front of your right leg. 

prioritize keeping your shoulders down more than straightening your arms. those of you with tight shoulders may make more of a Y with your arms.

look at how tiny my boobies are :(

warrior 2 (virabhadrasana ii)

feet in a line to open your hips, which are kept parallel to your mat

hips tucked to keep your lower back flat

a vinyasa flow starts and ends in a downward facing dog, and is often done between sequences as a “palate cleanser” of sorts. sometimes yoga instructors will jump the gun and call the sequence a “chaturanga,” which is the name of one of the poses in the normal sequence. for beginners, the chaturanga pose is sometimes not accessible, and so there is a slightly different version of the vinyasa.

first, the standard:

start in downward facing dog (ardha mukha svanasana)

(inhale) shift forward into high plank

(exhale) lower with a flat back into chaturanga - keep elbows in and pointing directly backwards, making sure not to lower your shoulders past your elbows (it’s bad for you!)

(inhale) flip onto the tops of your feet and pull your chest forward, engaging your thighs and backbending in upward facing dog (urdhva mukha svanasana)

(exhale) keeping arms engaged, lift from the hips and return to downward facing dog

chaturanga pose requires significant tricep strength that many beginners don’t have. it took me about a year of yoga practice to be able to do real vinyasa sequences through an entire yoga class!

if chaturangas are not yet accessible to you, follow the below vinyasa sequence:

start in downward facing dog (ardha mukha svanasana)

(inhale) shift forward into high plank

(exhale) lower with a flat back all the way to the ground, letting your chest touch the ground before your legs. the more slowly and with control you can lower to the ground, the more quickly you’ll build tricep muscles and be able to hold chaturanga pose.

after you’re all the way on the ground, use your back muscles only to lift your chest, finding cobra pose (bhujangasana) on the inhale. for the first few vinyasa sequences, do not use your hands to push your chest up! your back is fragile and needs to be warmed up before it can be stretched.

even after you’ve warmed up, you do not need to straighten your arms to benefit from cobra pose. pressing with your hands shifts the backbend into the middle and upper back, rather than your lower back which is often where we are strained the most (and needs the most work).

when finished with cobra, exhale-release all the way down to your mat. then using your core, (inhale) push directly up into plank pose, then (exhale) return to downward dog.

there are a bunch of variations of crescent pose, but here are some tips on the standard expression:

stance width can be as wide as needed to balance. typically with your feet hips-width apart.

keep your front knee over your ankle to avoid unnecessary strain on your joints.

hips should be square to the front of your mat.

lift your back heel - either lifting or pushing through the heel. this will either flex or stretch your back calf.

straighten your back leg as much as possible, lifting the knee and engaging your back thigh.

engage your core and tuck your pelvis slightly

not going to lie - down dog (adho mukha svanasana) is probably my least-favorite pose right now. it's so simple yet takes so much effort and strain to work towards a perfect asana. downward facing dog is the starting pose for almost ever sequence, a vital part of a vinyasa flow, but don't be fooled; it is not an easy pose!

my heels are nearly touching the ground, but not quite there yet. i've been focusing a lot on turning the "eyes" (creases) of my elbows forwards to strengthen my shoulders for inversions, but it tires me out and by the end of practice i'm back to an inactive down dog :( it's hard work!

beginner: start in high plank (push-up position) to get your hands and feet in the right position. don't move them! lift your hips and push away with your hands. feet hips width (or more) apart. fingers spread, pointer or middle finger pointing forwards.

intermediate: work towards making a triangle with your body - drop your shoulders and reach your arms to eliminate the "kink" at your shoulders. this is especially hard for guys who do a lot of lifting without stretching. straighten your legs, reaching your heels towards the ground to feel the stretch in your hamstrings.

this is my new space to explore and share my yoga practice/learning. i'm super excited to start posting! and posing!

about me: i'm a very technical person that enjoys the challenges, constraints and freedoms of an asana practice. if i weren't an engineer, i'd love to study the human musculoskeletal system because of how beneficial that knowledge would be. i like to run and also do a bit of weight training... and like anybody else my motivation to exercise comes from wanting to be strong and eat donuts every day.